Here is some nostalgia

[geneweigel]

I mentioned that my dad was obsessed with war miniatures in the 40's and 50's long before I started D&D. I randomly found a picture of the place that he used to "live" at.. "Polk's Hobby Department Store". :

brooklynwargaming.com/tag/polks-hobbies/

I just looked it up and it says they closed in 1980.

The way he used to say it was "pullkz".

In 1977, they had the Star Wars miniatures by Archive in the window but they were sold out. The same ones that appeared in DRAGON #9 (SEP 1977).

Did I ever play D&D with my Dad? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm lucky to be alive at this point...

[Scott]

My go to spot was AB Charles & Sons. It recently closed after 68 years. It's where I spent all my paper route money on D&D stuff, models, slot cars, etc. They never had bags; they used brown wrapping paper and made a package out of everything. Games Unlimited was also a good one. That's where I bought my Greyhawk Minifigs, but they recently closed too.

[geneweigel]

I've had such a bad time with the Compleat Strategist that I never refer to it fondly. Its too successful in that it sells everything that comes in and the clientele are all crushed together by the Manhatttan real estate. In 2002 at Gencon, I saw their then "counter lord", usually some hanger on who hangs around the store for a decade who gets the venerated position of the register. The babble that comes out of the mouths of the hangers on is enough to send you straight home to order something online (or a catalog back in the day.)

The bigger Forbidden Planet used to be the ideal mecca for everything but in the late 80's they moved to a tiny store that never recovered its universal appeal and just stuck to what it knew best (comics).

[geneweigel]

Wow. I found a website that has the photo of the original 1981 store with the Bernie Wrightson art on the sign (the top two photos):

alphabettenthletter.blogspot.com/2012/07/street-scene-forbidden-planet.html

I just heard they moved a third time recently and are right next store to the Strand bookstore. I remember coming out of the FP and seeing the Strand right across the street but back in the early 80's the Strand had a grunge coolness of back copies back then but it lost it by the 90's and it seemed like "any bookstore" just crowded.

[GRWelsh]

The first hobby store I remember ever going to, and where my Mom bought me my first D&D box (Moldvay 1981), was the HOBBY CORNER in Shoppers Plaza, Allison Park, PA. In previous years I there were other things I got there were: MEGO action figures (Batman, Green Arrow, Captain America, Human Torch and the Thing), modeling clay, Fisher Price Adventure People, Matchbox Cars and Micronauts.

When people talk about a 'religious experience' that may be the closest analogy for me. That and the comic book rack in the OPEN PANTRY in Gibsonia, PA! The first time I went in there I stood transfixed in front of the comic book rack until I was pulled out of there. I was allowed to choose one comic book, and I chose MARVEL TEAM-UP #33: SPIDER-MAN AND NIGHTHAWK (May 1975 issue).

[geneweigel]

I think THE coolest childhood memory for me is when my godmother overnight was buying me gifts galore, after priorly getting empty holidays and birthdays year after year, we were on the road to go to a hotel with an indoor swimming pool in December for a week and we stopped off at a SEVEN ELEVEN which didn't even exist in the city in the 1970's and she said that I could get one book or novel to read. They had a LORD OF THE RINGS FOTONOVEL of the Ralph Bakshi movie. Man... that was the dopiest! And I mean that in a good way shit like that didn't exist and doesn't exist anymore. I can't believe that its gone, I had it for so long, I just wish it would just fall out of a box one day but I've been looking for it in my stuff since the 1990's.

Heh, I just ordered a copy...

THE DARK LORD NEEDS HIS FUEL!