TBL Hobbies coming soon

For those that I havent met yet my names Carl. I want to take a second to tell you a little bit more of my background and to officially let the cat out of the bag.
I moved from Alaska May 07 to open my hobby shop TBL Hobbies here in Cincinnati. Since August 202 I started organizing the gaming community by hosting events and forums for myself and other clubs in Alaska. I kept my ear to the ground and learned a LOT of what the community expected from their stores. I hated seeing the half hearted (if any) support from the local stores and started my store to show them how it should be done!

So January 2006 I started TBL Hobbies. The short story of why I moved is I wanted to get out of Alaska. I loved the place and the people but I wanted to raise my daughter in a place where I could take her on trips and share history with her not just watch it on TV or read about it in a book. I traveled a bit and after visiting Cincinnati I fell in love. I had lived in Germany for a few years and the city has that wooded feel I love.

Over the last year I've been researching areas of the city and learning what the community here in Cincinnati expects, what they DESERVE, and making plans to fulfill those needs! I'll be keeping you all in the loop as things progress. Thanks for your time, see you on the forum.
Carl Dillon
TBL Hobbies

What's the time line Carl? Brick and Mortar or strickly online?

What side of the city for a location?

Just curious.

Thanks and good luck.

My man has a business plan for success.
Passionate, adept and a deep awareness of the areas needs...

...now go and accept that Fantasy trade proposal already

John Gemrich wrote:

What's the time line Carl? Brick and Mortar or strickly online?

What side of the city for a location?

Just curious.

Thanks and good luck.

The time line: I already am processing orders and will have my website back up as soon as I am able. Till thats up people can still place orders by messaging me here or emailing me at tblhobbies@gmail.com.

I spent a long time and figured out how to build a back bone that was online as well as brick and mortar. Lets say my vision is to be as active on line as the warstore and support the community like Dakka Dakka with space to play. The long term plan is to also set up a distributorship with the ability for brick and mortar stores to immediately have products dropshipped to their customers. I guess you can say that my over all plan is to light a fire, providing one hell of an experience for the community and in the long run helping out the ma and pa ships who can stock it all but still want to give more support to their customers. With the way I've planned this out from day one all this will already be in place. Its just a mater of building stock and time. I already have distributors lined up and been ordering from them. Including directly from Corvus Belli in Spain. Was there anything I missed?


For location the top of my list is now the old World of Hobbies location. If not there I am looking at being on the east side either in milford or East Gate. After seeing that Yotta, UU&A and Sci Fi were really behind their customers I didnt want to set up shop next door if you know what I mean.

Thanks for the complement Marc!

Good luck Carl, let us know what we can do to help!

Beyond buying our minis from you I mean!

I think location is key to the whole thing because we will buy...but I dont have or want to take the time to drive 35 - 40 mins to a store, setup, play, then clean up. I know most of you guys stay around for a while but I like to play and go. I think you should if you can get a good demographic of the current/active people on the forums and who show to play. I have played in this town for 15+ years now and when playing at WOHG we had the largest showing and most committed group that I have ever been a part of. The reason I think that is the location of being on the north side of the city. Bottom line once you get past Montgomery it is a pain in the ass to get anywhere using back roads and a long route using the highway. By moving east you isolate the west-siders where I know a few people are from. Also all the ppl from clifton and surrounding schools will have a greater difficulty getting out east just due to transportation issues.

Anyway, I know you havent made a decission yet, and again I think anyone who has played there loved the location of WOHG and that is my first choice of places to be, but I have told a few others who were talking about this in the past that just one exit, east of mosteller is 42 (sharonville). Just north of there are a few vacant strip mall spots with some good size and only a block from the highway exit.

Ok that is my take on it...location is everything, because if people want to buy something, all things being equal, they will be loyal to the stores they frequented in the past because they are usually more convenient.

Gotta chime in w/ Chad on this. I'm a play and go guy. I like to show up w/ a prepared list. Throw down...relive a few moments and head out the door. With 3 kids, location becomes key for me as well. I usually can't get out of the door until 7ish. By that time driving even 30 min means that most locations are closing shop (during the week).

I played weekly at WoHG. Admittedly is was Confrontation but we had about 6 to 10 guys playing that game weekly and another group that played Warlord. Not only Cincy but folks came down from Monroe/Middletown area to play as well since it was only a 20 minute shift down the highway. Go east or west in Cincy and you don't get the pull from the outer subs between Dayton and Cincy.

I'd also look in Sharonville off 42.

The old WOHG place is a good place to set up for brick and mortar. It is a good central location and has lots of space. Besides both sides of town have 3 stores each so we wouldn't want to upset the balance by having 4 on one side and three on another. Old WHOG is practiclly in the north center of town.

I'm sure the folks at UU&A (Cheviot) and SciFi (Colerain) are fine lads to the bone. Simply put.. I'm not driving an almost 2 hour round trip to throw down. Just not happening..

Long live Basement Wars

2 Hours? From Milford? I dunno... It only takes me 25ish minutes to get to Amelia from the West Side. Hmmm... Maybe I just drive fast.

Lets be honest.

Milford to land locked Cheviot takes 50 minutes on a good day which means another lucky 50 on the way back. I was just there to witness 2 tables and folks sitting on the floor

If you say so. Like I said, it only takes me about 25 minutes to get to work every morning in Amelia from Harrison Avenue. I mean, I drive it every morning and I leave at around 5:30am and get to school around 6:00am. I know Milford is....10ish minutes farther north on 275? I just didn't think it was that far, though I guess since I'm close to the highway I don't have that non-highway time to worry about.

build it around the UC campus please

haha


but in all honesty my friend.. best of luck to you. i support as much as i can.

Carl I am glad to see you have finally started getting things out there. We I am also chiming in to say WoHG. Its just so centralized that everyone can agree its one of the best places. Work hard and fast to get lol. Good Luck Carl.

Scav wrote:

build it around the UC campus please

haha


but in all honesty my friend.. best of luck to you. i support as much as i can.

Don't get me started on Clifton Comics. If those guys had a brain (I know them, and they don't) they would support more gaming there.

We're all pulling for you Carl.

Thanks so much guys! Things have already picked up speed due to your support!!!