Episode 7 Robyn Lowy/Mindtaker Miniatures

Kevin and I talk with Robyn Lowy. She owns and operates Mindtaker Miniatures in Vancouver, WA

You can check them out at https://www.mindtaker.org/

Use promo code tanksandmindtaker5 for 5% off an entire purchase

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Tanks and Tomahawks, a war gaming podcast for the Pacific Northwest. Welcome back to another episode of the Tanks and Tomahawks podcast. Kevin and I recently had a chance to sit down with Robin Lowy. She is the owner and operator of Mind Taker Miniatures, which is in Vancouver, Washington. And if you listen to the end of the podcast, there'll be a promo code for a discount on a purchase at Mind Taker, either in person, online, or at Infolod.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Hey, thanks for having me on. It's going to be a good time. Excited to talk about historical gaming and Mind Taker a little bit. Or a lot.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

And so I really more than anything, I want to let you talk about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Oh well, yeah. We only got to the Vancouver area ourselves in about I want to say 2008. Or 2007, 2008, we moved across the river to uh Washington from Portland. Um and probably back as far as we moved back to Vancouver, we were in the community and we were focused, we were doing more war gaming and uh taking part in Ordophanaticus and our local communities and not really having enough money to actually afford our luxurious hobbies as they are. And so um we found ourselves trading a little bit with the local community and just kind of really enjoying the trading. And then people just kind of started asking us, oh hey, I have this thing, can you trade it for me? And we hadn't actually thought about trading other people's things until we were asked. And so we started doing it, and that became a lot of fun, and then finding like good lots on the internet became its own fun game as well. And at some point, I guess it got out of hand because here we are now. Um, we went uh we decided to brand as an actual business in 2017 as Mind Taker Miniatures. And then in 2020, we got our first brick and mortar, which was more of a processing center for all of the online orders. Um, and that was in Camas, Washington. And then just in 22, we moved over to the space uh that we're at now in Vancouver. And so yeah, we're in year four there and outgrowing it rapidly, but we continue to find ways to get even more amazing stuff into that building. So that's the short version.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

So, Robin, what are kind of the unique challenges of um of running a uh a store that specializes in kind of out-of-print uh stuff? Is that is it rewarding in lots of ways and challenging in lots of other ways?

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Oh, it's ultimately challenging and ultimately rewarding as the entire retail landscape is pre-built and built on a distribution system or in the world of cards where there's strong online backing of um everything that exists through TCG Player and other engines, that doesn't really exist for RPGs, for board games, and especially not for miniatures. Uh, so all of that side of the world, we had to create ourselves in all of our processes from how to identify miniatures, how to um comp them, how to appraise them appropriately, how to list them for sale, how to be able to move the volumes that we do took years of uh just kind of building our own uh platforms to make this work.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

So, how did you uh come up with this idea? I mean, I think I think there was a few other um hobby stores that kind of cater to this, but it's it's a very unique um hobby store concept for you guys and reading just kind of like on your on your website and what you talk about. Um how did this all evolve um from an from kind of an online process?

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Well, there was a moment in time where um so uh me and Evan, my husband, owned together, and he had he worked remotely and had a fair amount of liberty with um what he could how he could multitask his time at work. And um then right around 2020, he changed jobs to a full-time, and we had to make a choice either we can pit new full force into this thing, or we have to stop because we're at a place where we can't handle the load that we're getting right now, and so we chose to go full in. I took over and started, um devoted my full-time energy to it, and yeah, we just wildly expanded in the last six years basically. Um yeah, so it took building a website first, and which interestingly, I'm a very visual thinker, so the website kind of became the blueprint for the store that we would create at some point. And just looking at the different categories we list and how that looks in a store, how to take used items and repackage them to make them understandable to a human that has no experience with this in our in a live setting, um, which is actually a lot of fun because we get to introduce so many people to um the history of all of the games that we play. I rambled off there for a while.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

You're good. You're great. Um if you were going to kind of um kind of categorize uh kind of categorize your um merchandise by uh by genre and divide it up between say role-playing and board gaming and uh miniature games, uh how would uh how uh proportionally how would that uh work out?

SPEAKER_03 7:29

I would say we're probably sitting about 60% miniature-based games and RPG and board game can um they tend to fluctuate and sometimes we're RPG heavy and sometimes we're board game heavy. That kind of flips back and forth, but the miniature volume always maintains the lion's share.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

And of the miniatures, any idea about how much is historical?

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Oh gosh. Um, well, yes, I have many spreadsheets for this, but not in front of me. Um uh I would say probably about of our miniature base, a good 20% or maybe even leaning towards a fair amount more, or between um all of the lines that we have. Yeah, probably about 20% of the actual miniature volume.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Gotcha. So, what's the most amazing thing that you've gotten into the shop?

SPEAKER_03 8:43

Oh gosh, so many amazing things have traveled through the store.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Well, one of my the eye of the beholder too, but what's the most amazing thing that you've seen?

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Well, um, fun story. One of my favorite things in the store, which is kept on display, but is my item. I actually got at the Bring and Buy at Ampelod last year. Um, last year. Um, which but it is my favorite thing, and I talk to customers about this all the time, and mainly I make them very sad because it is not for sale. Um, but it is the original Dungeons and Dragons set. And of course, my brain's like, no, you can't know the publication gear names or anything right now, because I can see the whole box, the 1979 second printing. Um gosh.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

The original that's the original three book box. Yeah. Original three book box in weirdly and buy.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Oh my gosh. Yep. I so spend more time there, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

You should. So anybody that has not been to the store, I can speak um from a ton of experience, as Robert well knows. You guys have a giant table of bits.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Oh, yes, everybody's favorite.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

The first time I ever went there, the first thing I thought was the Lego store. Like, because you go to these Lego bit stores and they have these just giant tables of bits. And there is something therapeutic about getting there and just and I've done it with my sons of just going through the giant, and I mean giant pile of just bits and finding things and go, I didn't know I needed that, and filling up a cup. Where how did you guys come up with that concept?

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Oh, the digging for bits, it's a combination of so many things. Um, yes, Legos, we are a Lego family, we are Lego people, so bricks and minifigs, and anywhere where they had like pick a piece was always a fun thing to do. There's also um it's the adult sensory bin. It is really, it is therapeutical to sit and focus and find that one piece that you're looking for and be able to like erase the rest of the world and all the chaos for a minute just to find the one chaos icon you were looking for. And um, so just a combination of all these theories for a long time. Um, we would bend uh the only time we would be public-facing was when we were out vending at conventions at OFCC, which was Ordo Fanaticus's annual event. We would um we started bringing a bits tub one year, not quite as big as it is now, but and noticing the phenomenon of people just hanging out and enjoying their time at the bits bin. And I love that. And we're bits hoarders ourselves, so we're like everybody loves to look through bits. This is the best. Why shouldn't we have it? Big scale, a full table. If it could be a swimming pool in the store of bits, I would do that. But we do plan on bringing a much bigger bits array up with us north in a month, two months now, too.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Yeah, a couple months away.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, we're not that far away. Well, it's it's awesome, and I can only speak for myself, but uh it is, like I said, very therapeutic and awesome to just sit there and go through the giant tub of it. It's kind of like a ball pit to me of uh of awesome, awesome miniature gamingness.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

So it is lots of fun. And in fact, um we're seeing a lot of games now coming out that are employing more kit bashing mechanics within the game. Um, one that we've been hosting recently uh called Cyber Savage, which is a locally developed Portland uh game, does involve um kit bashing during it and hosting it twice where you're actually like building on the fly. And it's so much fun to watch that environment of like people gently surfing bits and then the chaotic, I must build all the things energy. So it goes in both directions. It's just a lot of fun to be around. It's all the energy we love about the hobby. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

So what uh what what interests did you and uh gaming interests that you and Evan have before you decide to leap into the um into into you know kind of doing what you do?

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Um I always like to say I was born nerdy. Um I think I played my first D D game in when I was like, oh wait, I must make it fully nerdy. I played my first game of D D at Band Camp. And uh so yeah, and so I kind of came up um through RPGs. I actually didn't ever see a miniature or know they existed or understand any part of that world until I moved to New Hampshire and visited a game store that had um Battlefleet Gothic on display, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, these tiny metal ships all meticulously painted, and I it was magic. And then a friend randomly asked me to paint a mini, just like, here, you want to paint this? I was like, I'll try. And I painted little did I know, like what they handed me to paint was a metal keeper of secrets, and it's like amazing. And who hands that to some a rando and goes paint this? Um, but um, and I painted it. I fell in love with painting, and um actually I had met Evan through that same group of friends. Uh Gorka Morka was heavily being played at the time, and so yeah, we I got introduced to the Warhammer World, and from there and just loving painting, I became obsessed with miniatures.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Do you guys do like painting nights or painting days?

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Oh, yeah. Every Wednesday is hobby night at the store. Uh, we have we set everything out for painting. We have a full hobby bar as we like to call it of paints, flocks, every tool, everything you need. Just bring your creative energy and we have the rest. Um, in fact, this afternoon, I I ran out on, well, didn't run out on, had to leave a little bit early, but we had a local middle schools RPG club um in for an after school event to paint miniatures and learn about painting and stuff. So it is uh we like to uh we run hobby classes, we've had Dan Osborne teaching classes. We'd love to get a few more teachers in. So yeah, the hobby side is really, really dear to us.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

That is very so. I'd be interested in how you did your outreach to that whole process and those individuals.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

Um for school outreach, I I think we started just with um my own children's schools, and um we started offering uh family game night as a fundraiser for schools where we just bring in a bunch of games and stuff. We provide support and a little bit of help with games, and um just let people play together as a family, introduce them to some new things. And those events were great. People enjoyed their time at those events, and you know, word kind of spread through the schools, and we got in touch with more groups. We have teachers that are always coming into the store that I like to engage with and say, hey, what else can we do here? Um yeah, we we love to develop uh the next generation of gamers and yeah, a lot of different directions there, but it all comes together in one big happy let's hobby together family.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Well, that's I that's something I think is just really different than when I started gaming. I mean, gaming I started gaming back in the 70s, and uh gaming was kind of a uh it was hard to break into. And um the local game stores were were were great with individuals who are kind of nerdy, uh, but not so great at um at reaching out to families and making the hobby more accessible. And I think that's um that's that's really great today that that's happening. And um when I walk into a local game store and I see families playing, whether it's settlers or something else, um, it's uh it it always amazes me. So I'm thrilled that you guys are having success with that.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Oh yeah, it's very important to us and being inclusive and making anybody who walks into a game store for the first time feel absolutely welcome and part of the community.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

So um do you have any big event uh big events planned for the shop coming up soon?

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Oh gosh, we uh we have a rolling event roster weekly. I think um I I tend to lose sight a little bit after like we have a big weekend. I'm like, yay, we're oh we're done, and I forget everything that's gonna happen, and then the next weekend hits. Um right now I am actually in my I need to get rolling on Empilod stage and figure out what we're bringing up there and what wonders we have to share, and what game I'm signing up for. Very much a lot of very busy right now.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Do you have a particular uh gaming interest uh these days that you like to uh take part in yourself?

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Um I still am I love the hobby side. I'm I'm I'm actually using uh the event to jump back into um just something I haven't done before. I'm gonna look for the game that looks the most unfamiliar to me and just go for a challenge and go, what is this about? I want to understand everything, and let's start with the thing that I don't understand the most.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Do you have a uh when you're looking for at a game, is there's uh is there a subject matter or um a game engine or um or something that you're looking at to generate your interest or um just to learn something new.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

Uh learn something new. If there's I love anything that involves whimsies, something magical. It doesn't have to be fantasy, but something whimsical. Um I love a new mechanic I haven't encountered before. Um it's the other side of me as a store owner. I'm always uh strategizing, always looking for the next thing. It's very similar to playing a game, owning a game store. Gotcha. Um and but yeah, yeah, I need to read through all the events. I'm very curious about um the protest game. I've been following that because well, A, on the hobby side, it looks phenomenal. It's being beautifully made, and it's also like wildly interesting, the content. So I'm just interested in what that looks like and how it plays, and that's uh I kind of want to watch, and I'm excited to be there so I can watch it.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Well, it it is running like for three three different periods, so there are lots of opportunities.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

I might get a chance. Yep, have to see how that lines up.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

It looks really interesting. Uh, we our last interview was with Sam, and um and it it was pretty interesting to hear him tell about it. So it was it's definitely cool.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Definitely cool. So when you talk about uh gaming and things that are whimsical, have you looked at uh there's there's a lot of games out there, but one when when you said that, it made me think of one game system, Moonstone. Have you looked at that? Or do you know about that game?

SPEAKER_03 22:18

Uh I know it's come through the store, it's got some beautiful miniatures. Yeah, that's about where I am. Um, I know there's a lot of people getting excited about burrows and badgers right now.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Um and we need more minis for that. Um and I'll trying to think what has um oh, there was it's a silly little skirmish board game that I I've bought but haven't played yet. It's called The War for Chicken Island. Great chicken miniatures, and it just looks very absurd, and I can't wait to paint those chickens and play them.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy how so many there's so many games like that out there. And I remember back uh in the day, we played a lot of confrontation, and I love I love that game. The miniatures were incredible, and I think uh Conquest is a game that's similar in aesthetic and uh miniature design, but uh you know when I look at all the different stuff, Moonstone and all these different games, it's just kind of crazy how the whole fantasy genre is involved in different ways and offshoots and different things. There's um what's the uh halfling chicken jousting game? Oh, hair flip jousting or incredible, yeah. That's the game, yeah. It's yeah that game would have never existed 20 years ago because you know who would have designed that and the models and all those things, but uh for you just seeing all the things that come through from just a huge um just time frame genre, are are there things that you just like at you're like, I I had no idea that existed, or that's very cool, or you know, just how did that ever get there?

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Oh god, all day long. Um in fact, uh we use Slack heavily at work to communicate between all the teams. We have 10 staff there. It's actually a lot of people behind the scenes to identify miniatures, to photo miniatures, to um get them displayed out on the floor. And and we're all miniature nerds. And so there's always in this process, there's always a vein of conversation going on. Like, oh my god, have you guys ever seen this? Look at this crazy thing. It's non, it's it's it's the most fun part of our days. We get to play with these things all day long, and you always see something new and fun and different. And there's still I still have a very small list of things I haven't seen that I want to, but it's always being beaten out by the things I never knew existed that are in front of me right now.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Well, not now that you said it, what are those? What's that list?

SPEAKER_03 25:24

Oh, they are mostly GW um items, mainly because there's some of those like crazy things like I have not seen in person a Tau Manta. I just want to see a a table-sized miniature come out on the table that has additional plate-sized miniatures inside it. Um I did, we did get to um briefly have in the store a full-blown toddler-size embrator Titan. Um, and that was amazing. But I also haven't seen a metal thunderhawk ever. I'm just curious about how that thing was built. Um there, oh, and there's a line of Black Tree Designs, Doctor Who minis that I am willing to pay top dollar for. Call me. Um, but I have been waiting, waiting to see any of those for years. I don't think it's gonna happen, but I'm still hoping.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Well, that's incredible because you guys have run a lot of Black Tree Designs products through your store. I've seen them on the wall, whole walls.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

And that makes me even angrier that I haven't seen them. How could they not be in that massive volume we dealt with? Or still are dealing with. Well, there's a lot of really fun stuff in Black Tree designs. That is a line more people should know about.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

So how do you find I I mean, you guys you get um whole lines of stuff that when I'm in the store and I'll see it, and I'm like, I think I was there one time and you had like D D. It was the it was kind of like the miniatures game back in the day, and you had like the whole line. I'm like, how did you find that? Or where did it be?

SPEAKER_03 27:25

Oh, the chain mail.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, chain mail. Where where do you find all this stuff?

SPEAKER_03 27:31

Well, oddly, the chain mail and the um black tree designs all came from the same place, which is uh was an estate lot we dealt with, which was the in an entire game store that was called uh the gamers or gamers history bookstore in Colorado, and they were a huge historical shop, just massive. Like I have never seen that much historical, that much painted, organized catalogs, like waiting to be packaged in one place. I believe they might have been distributing for Black Tree on some level. Um, but and that store we what became a um base a shipping container that lived in my driveway for a month and in my garage for half a year, and it was massive, but such amazing finds in there because this the owner had been a serious collector, and there was just like kind of one of everything was retained throughout time. It was just fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Well, so I'm gonna bring up a topic that might seem a little uncomfortable, but um uh you know, I'm I'm now 70 years old, and I'm looking ahead to at some point not being able to keep all of my stuff. Are you somebody I could bring it to? Absolutely. And be sold like an estate.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Uh yes, we um we deal with a lot of estate laws. It is um it's kind of our honor to be able to uh give these miniatures and these collections that people gave so much of their love and energy to, a proper, like you know, appraisal, getting them into new loving homes, treating them with care and respect, and being a source that isn't just going to liquidate everything or just not even know what you're encountering. So we definitely want to be a resource for people in the community who are looking for these sorts of services because it is a need impending it in time.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

It it really is. There's a joke among our friends about who's gonna be the last person standing holding everybody else's stuff, yeah. Um, and I've and you know, and I say that jokingly, but I've had two close friends who passed away in the last several years, and um knowing what to do with their their stuff was really hard.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

So it is. It is, and um, but yeah, we and we take great care with these lots, and we understand for um the families involved, it is there's a lot of levels of emotion and other stuff attached, so we are happy to just take all that on and do the fantastic service that we do and sort it all out and deal with it and turn it over to the rest of the world again.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yes, yes, yes. Some of us don't even remember what we have in our garage, so it's like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

And also get the value for your items, that's important too.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Yeah, and I've tried to get ahead ahead of the curve, and Robin knows this. I've been bringing stuff there for a while now. And uh, if there's a game system or something that you just you know you're not gonna ever do anything with, and I don't know, Robin, you could speak to this. Is there anything you won't take, but books, games, miniatures? Um you don't really want um or that you don't deal in?

SPEAKER_03 31:33

We don't deal in card games. There's so many uh better, more talented resources for card games than us. Um we don't deal in um toys so much, um, you know, like Hot Wheels or like action figures is not really our wheelhouse. Um let's see, toys, cards. Um we don't take uh for this uh crowd, we don't take um scale models that have been built. Um only unassembled, because we all know like if a piece is gone, that's that's not something we can find in the Bitspin. Um and um we take mostly all books, all games, we prefer them counted, but we will deal with it if it is not. Um and our well we do we like we have we find creative uh solutions for a lot of things that may not have value. Um if things don't have monetary value, there's definitely like free and fall combs we can give to stuff. That's not to say just empty your garage at me, but if unsure rules definitely are we have different communities we can get things off to, but for the most part, we do take all games, RPGs, books, miniatures. Well, okay, not um dollhouse miniatures. That's an important one to differentiate. Or um actually, because this is just becoming um coming around again, the um like tin soldiers, like there was a lot of British lines with like six inch tall tin, they're gorgeous models, and see a lot of people painted them and have fun, but that is not our area of expertise.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

Yep, gotcha. So I have a quick question. So you you uh when you decided the name of the store, you said minute uh mind taker miniatures. Did you not say Mind Taker Games because of just all of the video game phone calls you knew would you you were gonna get?

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Well, when we uh first started and first um built the business, we just did miniatures. That was it. We didn't uh we expanded into all the other things when we uh were still home-based. We couldn't even dream of holding board game collections or things like that. Um yeah, and so my it it is weird now being mind taker miniatures, and we do so much more than that, but yeah, that's that's what we paid to have copyrighted, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

So yeah, I just ask because I've been in a lot of game stores where they pick up the phone and they're like, Yeah, we don't do video games. Because it just games in the name, and I always wondered if that was like part of the thought process.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

So no, mostly, but we do get a lot of dollhouse calls that happens. Yes. Actually, I keep thinking about getting into the dollhouse business based on how many calls I get for it.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Yeah, I think you guys would have to probably take over the Taekwondo place next door. I think that's what's next to you, right? There's a yeah, take over some space next to that to do all that.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Dragonstar, Kung Fu, their sweethearts. We are definitely eyeballing them and going, hey, you done with your lease yet? Can we have that?

SPEAKER_00 35:35

So are you're actively looking to expand?

SPEAKER_03 35:38

We are. We definitely need more space. Um, we're in the uh last year of our um lease term, we'll we'll still be there, but you know, it's an opportunity to look at other spaces at this point. So if something magical comes up that's over 5,000 square feet, again, call me. Um then we might move. But yeah, so I guess we're just I mean, we're not gonna win a fight against the Kung Fu Studio. We're gamers, that's not happening. Um, we we could beat them at a board game. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

So so Robin, in in addition to Offload, what other do you do other events as well?

SPEAKER_03 36:24

Oh yeah, we do um some of the big ones that we've been for are CritCon, which is the Cascadia Regional Independent Tabletop uh group, which has been a really big growing event, a lot of fun stuff happening there.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

And is it located?

SPEAKER_03 36:47

That happens in Portland and uh in Octo actually this year, I believe it is October 24th through 26th. I might be wrong, but I believe the website is currently up.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Yeah, it is through the 25th. Yep. Yeah, yeah. It's a great uh event.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

Yeah, we've been having a lot of fun there. Definitely. It's uh we take everything we learned at Envelope, we bring it to CritCom, we take everything we learned at CritCon, we bring it back. It's a whole cycle between the two.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Is there a uh is there a a um a dream convention, a gr a dream gathering you'd like to go and take mind taker to?

SPEAKER_03 37:36

Oh, it keeps changing. Um you know, uh probably like five years ago or for the last bunch of years, I probably would have been very much like LBO. I want to go to LBO, I want to but but also now that I've actually seen more conventions and stuff, I'm I'm actually kind of wildly interested in all the different formats that exist and learning more about them. Um, I really want to get to gamma one of these days. I keep meaning to, and it's just so far away and such a bad time of year. Um, and that'd be fun to go.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Yeah, I'd love to go to that someday. Yeah, how um just from an event standpoint, there's a lot of events that I think are kind of fringe events for gaming, even even miniature war gaming like PAX and the Comic-Cons. We just had an Emerald City Comic-Con up here though over the last weekend, and we have a uh member here who does uh some gaming there. Um what does that look like for you? And I'm not even sure what the equation for you to go to uh uh an event like that would be.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

See, um it is very, and this is the dynamic I struggle with when trying to choose events, and because of course everybody's like, oh, are you gonna be at Game Storm? Are you gonna be at this event, that event all the time, and is figuring out the how does Mind Taker fit into this landscape? And do we, or do I just want to go and have fun and then? Um we do like to kind of go to events, feel the vibe out, see what is this event looking for, and does it make sense for us to go as a vendor? There's definitely places where we feel like our services are more important to the market that's there. And so just being able to like wander around, talk to people, hand out cards, explain about our um trade and resale side of the world more than our selling side of the world. Or um, especially with our local communities, we love to support them with product and you know the amazing prices we offer bits and things that are not easy to transport long range, but also may not speak to a board game audience per se. Um, so yeah, everything's very catered, and when we find a good fit with an event, we do tend to lock in and like you know, you're our bestie now, and kind of stick to a couple core events a year.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

So um so so as we kind of wrap up our interview, um, we do actually have listeners from lots of different places who might like to come and find you. Um, could you just kind of give us the um the briefest description of how uh we would if if somebody was coming to uh Mind Taker, how they would how they would locate your shop? Or what's the best way to uh to work with you?

SPEAKER_03 41:08

Oh, um always online at mind taker.org is we are very attentive to communications. We will answer at stupid hours of the day. I don't know why we are trained like that. My husband's a morning person, I'm a night person. We just cover the entire span of the world. Um, otherwise, you can come into our store in uh East Vancouver, I believe that's referred to on Firth. No, it's not on yes, First Street, 17030 Southeast First Street, uh Suite 106, Line Taker Miniatures. Um, we are right off of uh 164th on uh if you take the 164th exit if you're on 14. Utherwise, I'm really bad at directions and you shouldn't ask me.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Um well, one thing that we always ask all of our guests is um if there was a uh uh something you were reading or a game that you were playing or um uh something that you are listening to right now, um uh what would you recommend to um uh to our listeners?

SPEAKER_03 42:29

Um I'm a little obsessed with the history of gaming right now. And one of my favorite books I've read recently on the history of gaming, and this is uh for the DD crowd, is Slaying the Dragon, uh, which talks about the um the years um from basically from Gary Gygax's basement up through Wizards of the Coast. And it does speak more to the the business side of that, which I'm wildly interested in, is how these gaming entities functioned as businesses, because that's the weird land I live in. So I'm very interested in how all these gamers translate business practices. But yeah, I would definitely check out Slaying the Dragon, gives a lot of interesting context on how DD came to be.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Well, I finished my envelope project, um, which is based on the sinking of the Prince of Wales and um and the repulse in 1941. Um, and I'm thrilled because it kind of uh obsessed me for about three months. And um it involved building plastic models, which is just not my long suit. Um, but it's more than anything, it kind of gave me a chance to. um do the kind of project that Dave Schuler and I used to do together back and uh not that long ago. Um and um I was able to write my own rules and I'm excited to give them a try. There are events coming up this weekend. Um Drumbeat South will be held in Shahalas um and I'll be running a play test of my game uh on that day so I'm very excited about it.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Yeah and the miniatures look great. I know you're not you're you're you don't think they do but they look awesome. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 44:35

Thank you. They they look okay from a distance just don't bring in any IPMS guys no rivet counter Steve Miniatures are not supposed to be looked at well they're actually kind of they're just kind of terrain pieces that people are going to go bomb. They're not going to move they're just kind of there terrain is my favorite faction.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Yes yes me too well Robin thank you so much for being on with us it was just a pleasure that was a lot of fun great chat thanks everybody for listening today and uh Robin was very kind to uh give us a promo code for five percent off an entire purchase at MindTaker like I said uh either online or in person or at Inflad and uh the promo code is tanks and mind taker5 and I'll also have it in the show notes. So thanks again for listening and we'll talk to you again soon thank you for listening to the Tanahawks podcast if you'd like to reach out to us you can find us at tanks.tomahawks at gmail.com or join us over on Facebook at the Tanks and Tomahawks Facebook groups