If you frequent local board game stores (and you do, of course you do, you're here aren't you?) you'll know it's pretty par for the course to find oversized, nerdy decor among play tables and shelves full of the best board games. Fiberglass fantasy statues, one-half-scale X-wings hanging dangerously from ceilings, that sort of thing. What's not so common is looking up from your marathon Twilight Imperium game and seeing a legit Thing From Hollywood, like what actors have touched and everything!
Not so, however, at Games and Stuff, in Glen Burnie, Maryland, which - after pipping multiple other bidders for it at auction - has just unveiled its latest prize store ornament: the actual Dark Crystal prop from Netflix's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
"I'd rather not say what I actually paid for it," manager and owner Paul Alexander Butler tells Wargamer. He wasn't the high bidder or even the second highest, he explains, but still ended up with the crystal, apparently because higher bids had fallen through. Given the listed sale price at Julien's auctions was $64,000 against an estimate of $20-30k, though, we can be pretty sure it was a serious investment on his part. At any rate, quite a chunk of change for a big ol' fantasy doodad.
But Butler, who took over managing the store in 2010 and became owner in 2017, is crystal clear about the TV prop's value to his business (and it's not distributing life energy across all of Thra). "One of the driving ideals behind the store design was that I really wanted it to have a kind of immersive ambiance," he tells Wargamer, "complete with showstopping centerpieces that really contribute to a sense of wonder for customers".
Games and Stuff, he says, also boasts a life size Sauron statue from the Lord of the Rings movies, and "full-sized functioning replicas of the door knockers from Labyrinth". It's no surprise Jim Henson creations feature heavily in Butler's panoply of pop culture showpieces - he's a superfan.
"The Dark Crystal in particular holds a special place in my heart," Butler explains. "I saw it during the original theatrical release in 1982, and it has absolutely informed my creative life over the years."
"My home has several Dark Crystal art pieces," he adds, "and I've got a rather sizable Dark Crystal tattoo on one leg. It's in my DNA at this point."
At a time when physical retail stores in general have been in decline for nearly two decades, Local Game Stores (LGS) like Games and Stuff are notably bucking that trend, and a surging tabletop gaming market since 2020 has seen new LGSs sprout like delightful mushrooms in small towns across the US and beyond.
But that doesn't mean these small businesses have it easy; quite the opposite. They're still on razor thin profit margins with rents, staff, and taxes to pay, and squeezed by online megastores. For Butler, surrounding his customers with impressive, nerdy fiberglass friends is part of the solution.
"With the rise of e-commerce," he tells Wargamer, "bricks-and-mortar retail needs not only an excellent selection and customer service, but also needs to create a real experience for shoppers.
"We've built a space that feels like the place where magic happens, and that's not something you can get from buying your games from the internet." Your mileage may vary on that - not everyone has a brilliant LGS on their doorstep - but at the very least, that's a very non-Skeksis take, in our books.
If you happen to be in spitting distance of Glen Burnie, Maryland, maybe go give the Dark Crystal a look. Just don't touch it, or bad things will happen. In the meantime, come hop into our free Wargamer Discord community and tell us the weirdest, coolest thing in your LGS - everyone's got one.