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The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum
Jun. 13th, 2024 06:41 amLast Sunday we drove from my sister's house to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to visit the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. That was the main item on our agenda, though when we arrived around 11:15am it was closed. We temporized by skipping ahead to everything else on our list: seeing Gary Gygax's home and searching for the Gary Gygax Memorial Bench and Memorial Brick. Oh, and along the way we acted like characters in a horror movie— or would that be foolish adventurers in a D&D adventure— ignoring the peril of a monster swarm around us.
After all that we came back to the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. We kind of had to, as our car was parked there. 🤣 Fortunately the museum was open by then.
The museum inhabits a building, a converted old house, that was the first headquarters of TSR after Gary Gygax moved it out of his house, a few blocks aways. We dropped a ten-spot to cover the $2 admission for the 5 of us and went in.
One of the things we would've done at the museum if we'd been able to visit at the start of the day would've been to buy dice... to bless them by rolling on Gary Gygax's memorial brick!
The museum even has these gumball machines converted to dispense diceright inside the door, apparently to aid diceless travelers in their new quest! Though as my brother-in-law quipped, "For $1 they're not going to be good dice." 🤣
The museum has a lot of D&D memorabilia from back in the day, most of it dating to (in my estimate) the late 1970s and early 1980s. Though a few thngs, like copies of the Chainmail rules book, are older.
This is a "brown box" printing of the Dungeons & Dragons rules, likely printed in 1978. The dice next to are ostensibly the set that came in the box. I'm a bit skeptical about that detail as those dice look a bit too high quality for what was commonly shipped back then. It's before my time as a D&D player, though, so I can't say with certainty. But I know my boxed set from 1982/1983 came with shitty dice. 🤣
These Basic D&D boxed sets are from around the time I entered the world of D&D. The one on the right is likely the one my cousins owned when they introduced me to D&D in 1982. When I bought my own copy months later it was a "red box" similar to those in the middle— though not in Japanese or German like the two examples here.
The thing that made me ache the most with nostalgia was this mailer envelope from the Dungeon Hobby Shop (above). The art is amusing... but it's what came inside that made me the most melancholy for having missed it decades ago. This manila envelope with collectable art on it was used to send a catalog from the Dungeon Hobby Shop.
Here's the flip side of that envelope:
The flip side shows the dragon from the previous scene now under a Charm spell cast by the adventurers.
The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum we visited is named in honor of this gaming store from decades ago. The museum also has a copy of the catalog that would've come in this, circa 1980. The manager took it out of a glass display case and gently flipped through the many pages to show us. It was beautiful and also painful.
It wasn't seeing the 1980 vintage prices that hurt. The fact that rule books cost, like, $4.95 back then, I'm at peace with. What made me ache was having missed the opportunity to shop such a huge selection. When I was getting into D&D in the early 1980s game books were hard to find in my area. There were none for sale at any store in my suburban town. I know, because my dad in a moment of real empathy, drove me around to, like, a dozen different stores looking for them. We struck out until we went to a hobby store closer in to the big city. And even there was just one shelf of D&D. Oh, what I could have bought with my money saved from delivering a newspaper route starting at age 10!
Sometimes a walk down Memory Lane is not all fond memories. It's not necessarily memories of things that were bad.... It's sadness at being reminded there were amazing things you missed out on.
But hey, enough melancholy.
As I mentioned above, the museum is in the building where TSR's HQ moved to after it moved out of Gary Gygax's living room. I mean, TSR would've been a garage-shop operation at first... except that Gygax didn't have a garage. And since this building is familiar to old-time TSR employees, those who come to visit sign one of the doors in the place. I only recognized one of the names/signatures on the door, that of Larry Elmore. He drew the drag in the upper right of the main panel.
I'll end on a high note. Behold!
Lots of people who worked at TSR back in the day were artistic. One crafted this 3D beholder. I'm not sure this is something I ever would've bought— not that this one-of was ever for sale. Where would I put it? But I would've bought a huge canvas map like the one on the wall behind the shelves. Alas that's also a one-of, hand crafted by one of the TSR employees years ago for her game.
After all that we came back to the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. We kind of had to, as our car was parked there. 🤣 Fortunately the museum was open by then.
The museum inhabits a building, a converted old house, that was the first headquarters of TSR after Gary Gygax moved it out of his house, a few blocks aways. We dropped a ten-spot to cover the $2 admission for the 5 of us and went in.
One of the things we would've done at the museum if we'd been able to visit at the start of the day would've been to buy dice... to bless them by rolling on Gary Gygax's memorial brick!
The museum even has these gumball machines converted to dispense diceright inside the door, apparently to aid diceless travelers in their new quest! Though as my brother-in-law quipped, "For $1 they're not going to be good dice." 🤣
The museum has a lot of D&D memorabilia from back in the day, most of it dating to (in my estimate) the late 1970s and early 1980s. Though a few thngs, like copies of the Chainmail rules book, are older.
This is a "brown box" printing of the Dungeons & Dragons rules, likely printed in 1978. The dice next to are ostensibly the set that came in the box. I'm a bit skeptical about that detail as those dice look a bit too high quality for what was commonly shipped back then. It's before my time as a D&D player, though, so I can't say with certainty. But I know my boxed set from 1982/1983 came with shitty dice. 🤣
These Basic D&D boxed sets are from around the time I entered the world of D&D. The one on the right is likely the one my cousins owned when they introduced me to D&D in 1982. When I bought my own copy months later it was a "red box" similar to those in the middle— though not in Japanese or German like the two examples here.
The thing that made me ache the most with nostalgia was this mailer envelope from the Dungeon Hobby Shop (above). The art is amusing... but it's what came inside that made me the most melancholy for having missed it decades ago. This manila envelope with collectable art on it was used to send a catalog from the Dungeon Hobby Shop.
Here's the flip side of that envelope:
The flip side shows the dragon from the previous scene now under a Charm spell cast by the adventurers.
The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum we visited is named in honor of this gaming store from decades ago. The museum also has a copy of the catalog that would've come in this, circa 1980. The manager took it out of a glass display case and gently flipped through the many pages to show us. It was beautiful and also painful.
It wasn't seeing the 1980 vintage prices that hurt. The fact that rule books cost, like, $4.95 back then, I'm at peace with. What made me ache was having missed the opportunity to shop such a huge selection. When I was getting into D&D in the early 1980s game books were hard to find in my area. There were none for sale at any store in my suburban town. I know, because my dad in a moment of real empathy, drove me around to, like, a dozen different stores looking for them. We struck out until we went to a hobby store closer in to the big city. And even there was just one shelf of D&D. Oh, what I could have bought with my money saved from delivering a newspaper route starting at age 10!
Sometimes a walk down Memory Lane is not all fond memories. It's not necessarily memories of things that were bad.... It's sadness at being reminded there were amazing things you missed out on.
But hey, enough melancholy.
As I mentioned above, the museum is in the building where TSR's HQ moved to after it moved out of Gary Gygax's living room. I mean, TSR would've been a garage-shop operation at first... except that Gygax didn't have a garage. And since this building is familiar to old-time TSR employees, those who come to visit sign one of the doors in the place. I only recognized one of the names/signatures on the door, that of Larry Elmore. He drew the drag in the upper right of the main panel.
I'll end on a high note. Behold!
Lots of people who worked at TSR back in the day were artistic. One crafted this 3D beholder. I'm not sure this is something I ever would've bought— not that this one-of was ever for sale. Where would I put it? But I would've bought a huge canvas map like the one on the wall behind the shelves. Alas that's also a one-of, hand crafted by one of the TSR employees years ago for her game.
