If you’ve ever wanted to own a little piece of real estate in southern France, Little Plastic Fellas will be able to help you do that from your kitchen table.
Not literally, of course, but in an enchanting make-believe board game world players can immerse themselves in from the forthcoming Shepparton store.
The game is Carcassonne.
Like other popular titles with Little Plastic Fellas’ established online customer base, such as Catan, Ticket to Ride and Exploding Kittens, Carcassonne will be one of the more uncommon modern games available at its brand-new bricks-and-mortar store in the Star Bowl Arcade.
Little Plastic Fellas — a name inspired by, you guessed it, miniature game character figurines — will open soon in the former Bowl Corset Salon space its four local owners and their gaming community are energetically renovating.
Two avid board-gaming couples, Quinton and Michelle Sung and Nyree Curnow and Dave Barlow, will be at the helm.
“We’ve always wanted a physical retail store, somewhere for people to come and see us and talk to us with any questions they have about games,” Mr Sung said.
“We love board games and tabletop games.”
The shop has been in their sight since Mr Barlow started the online business in his garage years ago.
“We will see how it goes, but we have a dream of eventually having a cafe with games for customers to play at their tables,” Mr Sung said.
Sooner than that, owners hope to run event nights outside their regular daytime opening hours, which will be five days a week.
Mr Sung, who has a personal collection of 190 board games at home, said the shop would stock around 400 different board games initially before hopefully expanding to a 600- to 700-game offering.
“We won’t be stocking the common games that you find in department stores though,” Mr Sung said.
“When people come in, they will be surprised how much we have.”
He said there would be games to suit everyone, from older and younger people, for more competitive gamers to those who like co-operative games, and games that take 10 to 15 minutes to play through to games that might take two to three hours to play.
Eventually, some items stocked will depend on customer demand for things like painting games and trading card games, but Mr Sung said board games would always be the core of the shop’s collection.
The foursome of owners are well-positioned to ensure their board-gaming customers are never bored, helping them decide on the right ones for them.
Seasoned in running event days and nights regularly at the Peppermill Inn and running Shepp-a-con (an annual board gaming convention) with the Goulburn Valley Gamers Guild, a group whose membership is rapidly growing, they know their stuff.
If the ultra-Aussie-sounding name doesn’t grab your attention, the store’s eye-catching pink galah mascot most certainly will.
Look for it in the bowling arcade on Fryers St early in October and get ready to play.