96 December 2017
games, roleplaying games, a massive paint
selection including Games Workshop, Vallejo,
Scale Color and Army Painter, brushes, basing
materials, tools, primer sprays, and basically
everything else you need for the hobby.
he new Shepherd’s Bush megastore is one
of the biggest gaming stores in Europe which
means that we have far more space to display
a much larger product range, rent out board
games, run multiple tournaments on the same
day or just run single large events. We also have
space to have ixed display and demo tables
such as the Rogue One Scarif X-Wing demo that
we took to Salute a couple of years ago.Are the local gaming communities in Shepherd’s
Bush and Waterloo different?
Not massively, and we do have a large overlap
of players who will happily game at either store.
Waterloo is easier for players who work or
study centrally so tends to have a bit more of
a skew towards university students and young
professionals. Being a short distance from the
Imperial War Museum it does have a lot of
historical gamers popping in; being close to
the London Eye means we have a number of
tourist and overseas visitors who want a quick
game whilst they are visiting London. Last year
we had an American visitor who bought his
tournament Eldar list with him who managed to
play six games against four diferent opponents
in three days and returned home a happy man.
Shepherd’s Bush tends to be a little more
family-based, especially with the large board
games selection and lending library. he
extra space means it’s more popular with our
wheelchair customers and being in a shopping
centre we get more casual gamers or people
just popping in who have never seen a store
like us before!Could you give us a brief history of Dark Sphere?
We originally started in 2006 as
MiniaturesByPost, a webstore selling only
Games Workshop products.
In 2009 we opened a tiny store in Waterloo- and I mean tiny, we had a single six-by-
four table in the store and that was a massive
squeeze! As we grew, we played on tables out
on the pavement, putting up sheets between
pillars to protect product and people from
the elements. Curious people would poke
their head through the gaps to see what on
earth was happening. It was a great deal of
fun. Passers-by would come and interact for a
while before they had to make their trains or
various sightseeing bookings.
Having taken up all the available space
on the pavement which might have been
considered ‘ours’ we moved into a bigger unit
just further down the road. As we continued
to grow and with no room to expand on to the
pavement we hired a second unit a few doors
down to be our gaming centre.
We soon ran out of room yet again and so
about four years ago we moved it all under one
roof to our current store. As gaming continued
to expand we began our search for a venue
where we could run the size of tournaments
that we really wanted to host and in October
we opened our second shop, a west London
megastore in the shopping centre opposite
Shepherd’s Bush underground station.
What makes the two shops similar – and unique?
In both stores we’ve tried to support as many
diferent games and ofer as much gaming
space as possible. So you’ll ind shop shelves
running along the wall of the store full of the
most popular tabletop miniature systems,
collectible and living card games, boardYou stock all sorts of games. What’s been proving
particularly popular so far in 2019?
he Games Workshop releases have been
very well received, with Genestealer Cults,
Gloomspite Gitz, Carrion Empire and
Shadowspear all in high demand. In other
ranges Gloomhaven, KeyForge, Pokémon: Te a m
Up, Magic: he Gathering’s Ravnica Allegiance
and WizKids’ unpainted miniatures have also
been very popular with our customers.Have you noticed any wider trends when it comes
to what people are buying and playing recently?
We’ve noticed a steady trend towards
skirmish-style games – Kill Team, Guild Ball,
Blood Bowl, Shadespire, Ininity. hese tend
to have a signiicantly smaller model count,
usually ive to ten models, which means busy
players can still ind the time to paint their
force and since the games are typically quicker
they can it in a game or three after work even
if their job means they leave work relatively
late at night. It’s also easier to ind room for
a small case containing a handful of models
than trying to travel in the rush hour with
large cases as well as a computer bag etc.What are you expecting to be the biggest releases
of the rest of the year?
[Warhammer 40,000’s] Sisters of Battle has
been a range that players have wanted for
years and we anticipate that will be incredibly
popular. Even though we don’t know what it
is yet I imagine whatever Games Workshop
releases on Black Friday will be the most
popular thing in the remaining year; Blood
Bowl, Necromunda and Blackstone Fortress
were Black Friday releases from previous years.What are your plans for the rest of 2019?
here is still much to sort out in the new
megastore and a very large amount of scenery
to build and paint! We’re hosting a 100-player
Warhammer 40,000 tournament this autumn
and already have plans for large events for Age
of Sigmar, X-Wing and hosting a Malifaux G T.
Our new dedicated high-speed line should
be installed in the megastore by end of April,
allowing us to have great customer wi-i but
also to start streaming a number of our events- and we should be able to start ofering food
and drink around the same time.
Alexi Tingey tells about us the rise of the outlet from a
small miniatures website to a London megastore
Interview by Matt JarvisSHOP SPOTLIGHT
DARK SPHERE
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?
186 Hercules Road, SE1 7LD (Waterloo)
W12 Shopping Centre (Shepherd’s Bush)
020 7928 1373/020 8749 2916
darksphere.co.uk96 April 2019 tabletopgaming.co.uk