Little Shop of Magic

According to their website, Little Shop of Magic, although new to us, has been established in Las Vegas since 1994. With an extensive array of awards to its name and a store filled to the brim with board gaming goodness, I can certainly believe it. We were thrilled to stumble upon it during a rare trip to Chinatown! It immediately caught our eye while we were browsing Google Maps for something completely unrelated.

Spotted: Slimer!

A game store? A game store! Turn the car around, let's go!

We browsed for some time, purchased SETI, and then returned a few weeks later with the kiddos. The second visit always offers a more authentic impression of a new place, so here's what I have to report.

As we walked in, we were greeted by a colorful selection of stuffies, much to my kids' delight, of course. Much to MY delight, to the immediate right they have a themed end cap, and today's theme was cookbooks! It featured an official Candy Land Cookbook along with food-themed stuffies like stuffed Bobas and S'mores.

A wide array of games and choices fills the entire board game section. The wall is completely covered, top to bottom, and the shelves display a wide assortment from every genre. I very much appreciate the selection of kids' games and smaller card games. From Wednesday Yahtzee to Super Mario Uno to World's Smallest Blokus, they have so many fun, little, novelty things sprinkled in amongst the usual big board games.

A large portion of the shop is dedicated to hobby supplies and Dungeons and Dragons. It's an endless supply of paints, figures, and scenery. I'm not a hobbyist or a D&D player, but walking through it made me want to be!

Discover unexpected surprises around every corner like "grab bag" mystery boxes, used games, Creature of the Black Lagoon, unique figures and trinkets, dice in every color, and of course, Slimer! The current highlight of the shop, for Jason, is the Cthulu display. Not just the game, they have the statue! We also found a giant Chulu stuffy if you'd rather snuggle than display.

We were there for a good hour! My 3-year-old mostly played with the display train table. So, you could say they have a built-in babysitter. We didn't purchase any board games this time, but we did buy my 9-year-old a set of 8 wooden challenge puzzles that have kept him entertained and quiet for several days now; great purchase.