Castle Perilous Games and Books Walkthrough

Never been to the store and want to see what it looks like.  Here's your opportunity.

Cryer from the Castle for 5/27

Brandon discussing this week's events and new releases.

D&D Pins

 

Sirius Dice has acquired a license for the 1980s D&D cartoon and is producing a line of pins featuring the characters from the show. The one we received featured Hank the Ranger but I assume they will make pins featuring the entire cast.

Games Workshop New Releases

 For June 14th 

AGE OF SIGMAR: GENERAL'S HANDBOOK (ENG)

AOS: SAND AND BONE GAMING PACK (ENG)

SPEARHEAD: CITIES OF SIGMAR FUSIL-PLATOON

SPEARHEAD: OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS MORTISAN ELITE

SPEARHEAD: OGOR MAWTRIBES SCRAPGLUTT

SPEARHEAD: SERAPHON SUNBLOODED PROWLERS

Free Comic Book Day Results

 

Free Comic Book Day took place May 3rd. Though traffic was steady here all day, we had no lines waiting to get into the store as we have see in past years, with only two people waiting at the door when we opened. The drizzle and threatened thunderstorms may have accounted for that as well as the drastic drop in costumed customers.  Though the Marvel and DC books were popular as always, I was rather surprised to see the popularity of the Black Mirror book from Twisted Comics as it was the first book of which we ran out. Our figures showed sales up about 20% from 2024 but down the same amount from 2023, with about half the people coming into the store just scooping up the freebies.

Cryer from the Castle 5/20

Krypto's Golden Biscuit Contest

 Available June 18th

Two lucky comic book fans will win the opportunity to attend the World Premiere of director James Gunn's Superman, taking place in Los Angeles, by discovering "Krypto’s Golden Biscuit" hidden inside the front cover of DC’s facsimile edition reprint of the 1955 comic book Adventure Comics #210 , which will land in local comic book shops starting on June 18! 

Written by Otto Binder and drawn by Curt Swan (including art by Ramona Fradon and George Papp), this iconic comic book features Krypto’s first appearance in comics in the story "The Superdog from Krypton," where a young Clark Kent rediscovers Superboy’s best friend in this heartwarming reunion spanning years of time and light-years of space.

New Games Workshop Releases

 For June 7th 

SPACE WOLVES ARMY SET

CHAPTER APPROVED MISSION PACK (ENG)

 

WARHAMMER 40000: CRUSADE: ARMAGEDDON ENG

CHAPTER APPROVED: OBJECTIVES SET 2025-26

De Minimus Exemption

 

Since the “de minimus” exemption expired on May 2, a look at their websites show online fast fashion retailers Temu and Shein are approaching the addition duties different. Temu has apparently moved a lot of product to stateside warehouses and shows these “local” items, that avoid the tariff, first when a customer searches on the side. Shein, meanwhile, apparently has little to no US presence and has chosen to include the tariffs in its displayed costs, not breaking them out for consumers as Amazon had considered doing.

Tariffs

 Starting to see some effects from tariffs, especially in supplies. Arriving restocks of Ultra Pro Standard 2.5” x3.5” Soft Sleeves, commonly referred to as “penny sleeves”, will now cost $1.22 per pack, quite a jump from the previous price of 54 to 57 cents a pack, a price increase of about 125%, certainly rendering the penny sleeve designation as moot.  Now the question is:  raise the price on supplies to a figure whereby the store makes its standard margin, or add the tariff amount to the current retail price and treat it as a tax?

Cryer from the Castle May 13

Brandon with this week's events at the store

GW Releases for May 31

 Here are the GW releases for May 31. Let us know by 3 p.m. on the 13 if you want any:

BATTALION: WOOD ELF REALMS

ARCANE JOURNAL: WOOD ELF REALMS

WOOD ELF REALMS: GLADE GUARD

WOOD ELF REALMS: GLADE RIDERS

WOOD ELF REALMS: ETERNAL GUARD

WOOD ELF REALMS ARALOTH LORD OF TALSYN

HIGH ELF REALMS: SILVER HELMS

HIGH ELF REALMS: HIGH ELF LOREMASTER

THOUSAND SONS: WARPFLAME THRALLBAND

CODEX: THOUSAND SONS (HB) (ENGLISH)

DATASHEET CARDS: THOUSAND SONS (ENGLISH)

COMBAT PATROL: THOUSAND SONS

Tariffs Having More Impact

 

Although claims have been made that container ships have stopped unloading at ports on the West Coast, including one widely shared photo stating ships have stopped unloading at the Port of Seattle, such claims are, shall we say, overblown to say the least. For the first quarter, the number of ships unloading at the Port are actually slightly up in numbers from 2024 for the first quarter, although in some cases, the amount of freight unloaded can run up to 30% less than expected. Of course, given the two to four weeks it takes for a freighter to cross the Pacific from China, those ships arriving now may have left pre-tariff and we may see a significant drop in shipments arriving if more companies take their cue from The Op and Cephalofair Games and send shipments back to their point of origin (See “The OP May Send Fifteen Containers of Games Back to China”). If tariffs do not get reverted soon, the holiday season, which accounts for some 40% of retail sales and accounts for the majority of profits for the toy and game industry will see a significant drop in sales and lots of empty spaces on the shelf.

Cryer from the Castle 5/6/2025

Cryer from the castle for this week.

soulblight Gravelords on Pre-order

 The new Soulblight Gravelords are on pre-order now.  We need pre-orders for the Battle tome, Age of Sigmar Soulblight Gravelords Prince Vhordrai

Age of Sigmar Soulblight Gravelords Blades of the Hollow King

Age of Sigmar Soulblight Gravelords Cursed Speulchre

Deathrattle Skeletons

Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed

etc. by 3 p.m. this Tuesday May 6th 

Economics Lesson from Ferris Bueller

 I never thought I would see the day when people started looking to Ferris Bueller for lessons on economics but these are the times that we are in. People are using this as a quick explanation of what tariffs are and how the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act helped deepen the Great Depression. We have historical record of what overtly high tariffs did last time and yet the administration has decided, as of this writing, to keep going ahead with them. I want to emphasize “as of this writing” because no-one is quite sure where the administration plans to go with tariffs in the immediate future. Case in point, Portal Games. This email discusses some of the actions the company plans to take in response to American tariffs and notably, advises American customers who want to back their upcoming release Race for Berlin to put in a $1 placeholder pledge until the company determines if the administration will change its mind about how much tariffs should be: