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TOY SOLDIERS
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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by G4MER on Thu Mar 26th at 2:08am 2009

Greetings Snarkers,

I was asked to start a new thread for this.. so here it is. The wife and I started a Game Store, or a Hobby Shop depending on who you talk too. We will sell Miniature Games like WARMACHINE, GAMES WORKSHOP, and others, we will also will carry all the tools needed to paint, model and base these miniatures for game play, or collecting and display. We will carry MAGIC the GATHERING as well as other card games. We will also carry some role playing stuff. We will special order video & console games, but not have them in store, due to the mark up and profit margins on those type of games.. too big of an investment for very little return.











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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by larchy on Thu Mar 26th at 8:14am 2009

Aww hey that's totally awesome m8, absolute best of luck and hope it goes really well!

I used to love running my shops back when I had them... I know it can be mega tough at times but just hang in there, it's hugely rewarding if it's what you want to do.

The days of having the time to paint up my huge army of 40K Tyranids have sadly gone tho smiley



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by Le Chief on Fri Mar 27th at 5:29am 2009

Looks like a fun place to be smiley. I hope you sell food there, I don't think I would enjoy my Pepsi as much without something to eat with it!

I assume that is you in the photo? :dodgy:


Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by G4MER on Fri Mar 27th at 6:04am 2009

Nah Aaron, thats my Wife man. Yeah she is a bit rough around the edges but she is a good women. BWAHAHAHAHA.. Yeah Silly thats me.

I am getting my game order in tomorrow.. so the store wont look so empty. I'll get some pictures of the new stuff in place.

I really love my sign.. I designed it. It cost me a good hunk of change.. but I think it was worth it now.

As for food, we have snacks.. like candy bars, cookies, chips, and crackers all the good junk. There is a Chinese place 2 doors away from my store.. and they serve coke, so I do Pepsi, besides isn't Pepsi the choice of the new generation?

Thanks Larchy, I hope it does well too. Yeah I look forward to having some time to put together a store army or two... and hanging with buds and playing some games.



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by Le Chief on Fri Mar 27th at 11:28am 2009

Quoting Muhnay
besides isn't Pepsi the choice of the new generation?


I don't know, I'm more of a coke person myself I think, either is fine really.

As for the sign, I think its funky! I think its got a "80s futuristic style" (how folks in the 80's would have thought 2020 would be like).

Anyway, to be honest, I not certain on how these figurines can be used to play games. Is it like Dungeons and Dragons the board game? All I know is they have something like this in my local shopping centre where all the cool kids hang :P, every time I walk by it (and I have only walked by it probably a total of 6 times) I always wonder what on Earth there doing!


Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by Riven on Fri Mar 27th at 12:06pm 2009

Man, I totally would love to visit your store. Next time I'm in Texas, I'll look it up!

*I'll take Coke over Pepsi ANY day. -but that's just me smiley

The store looks pretty damn awesome if you ask me! BTW, it looks as though you have your gameface on in that pic. Definitely not someone who just opened a business! lol, hope that's not the look you give when someone goes to purchase something at the counter smiley

If anything, I would place a rug or two under the tables and chairs, would make it more relaxing and homely (read: a place you'd want to spend hours in playing card and board games) -I guess, going for a 'lounge' kind-of look. Maybe also some semi-transparent super graphics to go on the window wall out front might help to let people feel less observable when playing or shopping. It'll also add space for more advertising.

-Totally awesome that you decided to do this! -I must ask though: how did you come around to deciding you wanted to do this? -And was it difficult?

Great work on the sign! And I hope I can visit the place someday!


Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by G4MER on Fri Mar 27th at 5:18pm 2009

Well Coke is bringing a Cooler too. So I will offer both. =) now everyone is happy! for you hard core drinkers there is also a liquar store 4 doors down the other way... but since I dont have a lic.. you cant drink in the store, unless we are closed. Would love to have had the PUB game room like they have over in the UK. Ok maybe not, owned a bar once, drunks get old after 3 days.

As for rugs.. HA! I have a couple I got from LOWES, huge rugs.. I had that idea already. They are guess what color.. RED! yes thats right! HA HA!

Well the wife and I have always talked about this.. we tried once before but the location was aweful, we tried a internet cafe, and I swore I would never open another business in El Paso. Well we were talking about moving again, this time to Seattle or Galveston, had not figured which way to go.. when we kinda stumbled into this situation, and decided to stay.. we started planning and researching and said lets give it a go. I know thats kinda kryptic, sorry.. but anyways.. we had a family meeting, and my uncle said he would give us the start up money since banks seem to not be lending at the moment.. He gave us the money and 2 days later died the day after he gave my wife a Quick books program and said, I really want you guys to succeed, this should help. The next morning he was screaming help in his raspy voice, we jumped up and called 911.. they took him to the hospital and he died that night. It has been hard. We just had his funeral on Tuesday. I have a clock of his that was in his office, it is to honor the man and his help, for without him this would of not been possiable.

Has it been hard/difficult.. yes and no. Money can get spent fast, considering the sign cost me 3k alone.. I had to order about 3k worth of product ( had 7k already ), the build out was another 2k, rent and insurance another 1.5k and thats just the stuff off the top of my head. And trust me we were frugal... looks for deals at every chance, and haggled with the sign company to get that price down. So if you consider it, one golden rule... LOCATION! We have a fantastic location. 60 thousand cars cars pass our store daily. The average yearly income is between 56k - 70k where we are, that is good for El Paso, TX.

Oh my windows.. will have a cool graphic, and the logos for the games I will have.. like MAGIC THE GATHERING logo, and WARHAMMER logo, and WARMACHINE logo and so on.. all along the bottom of the glass. On each end will be two TOY SOLDIER LOGOS, ( oh you have not seen that yet have you. ) standing guard.

Oh its 11:30 I have to go... will finish this post later, today my shipment comes in and I have to be there!



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by Gwil on Wed Apr 1st at 6:40pm 2009

That's really cool M$, I used to be big into 40k when I was in my teens - collected Space Wolves and had some Necromunda, too. Even managed to make a few conversions, always wanted to be a diorama creator but I haven't the patience or the hard work that those guys have. Sad about your Uncle but as you say opening the store and making a success is the best way to honour a good person.

Oh BTW. Pepsi all the way!



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by larchy on Wed Apr 1st at 8:31pm 2009

Necromunda! Had some awesome games with that - did they kill it off? D:

We had a pretty awesome Blood Bowl league going too. Supposed to be a BloodBowl game coming out this year, by the people who made the non-official but pretty good Chaos League a while back.



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by G4MER on Thu Apr 2nd at 4:06am 2009

Today was my first day open for business. Not too bad, we are having a soft opening building up to the grand opening in May. Lots of people stopped by to see what we are.. I had only 2 sales today.. but not bad considering.

Necromunda was killed off.. but you know GW.. if they think they can make money off it, they will bring it back.. I heard they are bringing a space hulk like game back soon.. and they have some new expansions for 40K that allow you to make your own units... kinda like how ya did in Battle-Tech. So we shall see..

Blood Bowl is awesome.. I am going to start a league to go with the US football season. Even have a Super Bowl and all that.. should be fun. There is a PC BloodBowl coming out soon. Oh but there is a cool rip off of it also.. Rampage I think its called. I dunno.. anyways.. good day, and a blast of an April Fools Day.



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 Re: TOY SOLDIERS
Posted by G4MER on Sun May 3rd at 10:06pm 2009

Hey Gents and Ladies.. I have a web page in the process of going up. I tried it with a template thing they had.. hated it. Would not allow me to be creative. So I am in the process of making something.. So what you see now is a place holder, the forums, gallery and so forth will remain. And I am working on a store app now. If you want to take a look head on over to:

http://www.toysoldierseptx.com





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