Nov. 9, 2018

Hobby miniatures company Games Workshop is opening a Warhammer store in Sioux Falls.

The store will be at Plaza 41 at 41st Street and Kiwanis Avenue.

“We’re a company that shows people how to build, paint and play with fantasy tabletop miniatures,” marketing coordinator James Bell said.

The major brands are Warhammer Age of Sigmar, a fantasy setting, and Warhammer 40,000, described as “a grim, dark, futuristic universe.”

Warhammer stores are unique venues, Bell said.

“The whole idea is to build and paint (the miniatures) yourself,” he said. “If you’re just curious about the hobby, we go through and show you how to build, paint, play the game and all the elements of the hobby completely free as much as you want.”

Games Workshop is a British company with more than 500 locations worldwide. This will be the first store in South Dakota.

“We put one in Fargo, and it’s thriving,” Bell said. “We think everybody knows somebody who has painted some Warhammer models. It’s people who have huge imagination that like science fiction and fantasy, to people who enjoy building miniatures and models. It’s a wide range of people.”

Social media has cultivated Warhammer communities where information is shared about new releases, Bell added.

“Our customer base is fanatical,” he said. “Warhammer 40,000 has been around since 1987, and there’s so much lore and background that’s been building up over the decades that customers are just attached.”

An opening date hasn’t been set for the Sioux Falls store, but it could be before the end of the year.