(Review) Lazarus Games - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Another weekend volleyball tournament for Maja, another visit to a new game store! 

After leaving at 6am on a Sunday morning for the tournament, we counted our blessings that her team's late day falter did not allow them to progress out of pool play and allowed all of us to leave!  More on that, but Maja left with her mother and, scanning nearby stores and hour of operation, I drove a half hour west to Lazarus Games in Harrisburg.

Spacious is the first word that comes to mind from the main sales floor, which also includes a few CCG tables (more an that later too...)  There is tons of room for browsing, and with the "Immense and Diverse Inventory"  that I always strive to find, it's impressive that the aisles themselves can support multiple  shoppers in them without triggering clasutrophobia.

Location:  A standalone structure with ample parking, given the throng of people there on a Sunday afternoon.  It's a short jaunt off of I-83 or the PA Turnpike, making it one of the more accessible game stores. As I'll talk about later, I don't know what was in this building previous, but it checks off all the boxes for a multi-event site.  

Cleanliness:  Zero clutter, zero trash, dust free.

Miniatures:  A massive and never-ending inventory of Games Workshop, including some out-of-print (and accordingly priced) products, as well as a rack off to the side of "used" miniatures for 40K/Fantasy-Sigmar.

Bonus points for the quantity, but what impressed me was more....Most notably the first FLGS with Firelock Games pirate stuff, both figures AND ships.

Plus a VERY healthy supply of Battletech!  

There is a small supply of generic fantasy minis (mostly Reaper and all priced $4.50 and labelled as "Misc Reaper Figure") .  I'm not the greatest fan of most of the WizKids generic and D&D minis, but given everything else, I expected a manageable assortment. 

Board Games:   There are stores with more boards games, but given the size and the footprint for them, Lazarus certainly has more than enough aisles dedicated to the.  Best yet, I was attracted to the used section.  That World of Indiana Jones box (Masterbook/West End) beckoned me hard in both condition and price, but I accidentally left my wallet in the car, so I withstood. 

RPGs: The one concept I have not need to talk about in most of my game store visits:  Multiple Aisles of RPGs!!!  Somehow I lost the aisle shot, but I was simply gladdened by a thick selection of non-D&D products.  It was like they looked at my monthly pre-solicitation posts and ordered on of everything I listed. with reasonable explanations for the books with multiple copies.  Troll Lord, Mongoose, Catalyst, all the GW properties, and even a very healthy display of Magical Kitties Save the Day! 

Accessories:  Tons of CCG accessories, plenty of dice at reasonable entry points, and just enough of the pop culture paraphernalia.   Army Painter and GW Paints, and plenty of brushes, scenery, and supplies.  

CCGS: Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, Digimon, Lorcana, and Star Wars.  I was particularly impressed by the older (this decade) Magic products on display

Events:  The store had what could be an enclosed porch right inside the entrance with appeared to host five wargaming tables full of 40k/GW... at least I though it was 40k.  The events schedule on Facebook says Battletech till 2pm.  To add to my "Cleanliness" review, there was a large sign with the store rules on them, and the first two rules were essentially "Take a Shower."  I don't know what a new Pokemon mom would interpret that as, but the mass of guys playing didn't have a hint of lavender, but they were friendly and appropriate in all ways.  

Current events included Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Lorcana, Flesh & Blood, Battletech, Grand Archive, and "RPGs".

Not only does the store have an incredible amount of space, I have the feeling an old car dealership with the salesmen's office converted in gaming rooms! Private room rentals are $5/hour and the larger "party room" is $10/hr. 

My normal readers might be in for a shock that I'm only giving Lazarus Games four and a half gnomes out of five.  

Why?  Blame my last review, a five out of five gnome one, from just last week.  Showing bias, if my daughters volleyball tournaments were swapped, I may have given Lazarus a five and been more critical of the other location.  

The true demerits which skewed my bias further:  

I was never greeted or even acknowledged in the store.  In fact the first pleasant "Hello and welcome" came from a blonde haired gentleman coming into the store as I was leaving... and technically he was still outside when he said it.  

And beyond the Indiana Jones set, there was nothing that I wanted to buy.  

So much hits my dream store scenario I developed after a decade of gaming retail waaaay back in the day.  If you're an hour or two from Harrisburg, should you visit?  Abso-frickin'lutely!    Heck if I'm travelling through I-83, it's an easy side trek for me to revisit.  

Lazarus Games is at 1707 S. Cameron St, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17104.  Hours posted online  are Monday-Wednesday 1pm-9pm,  and Thursday-Sunday 9am-9pm.

And to finish my kid's volleyball story:  An hour and a half into a two hour car ride home, Maja get a call from the coach.  The tournament organizers and all the coaches had completely misread the rules for post-pool play and her team had qualified for the quarterfinals... and maybe beyond.    "Could she come back and play?"  She immediately said no... as did most of her teammates.  Maja transitioning from AAU Basketball to AAU Volleyball has bad a lot of positives, but after ten seasons of AAU between the girls, Volleyball is woefully incompetent at multiple levels, even with more "advanced" organizations.  My only positive has been the opportunity to visit some awesome game stores I wouldn't of had the chance to otherwise.