Hobby and collectible shops are the surprise in this category. The Golden Village malls, Aberdeen Centre and Parker Place especially, carry Japanese figures, gachapon machines, model kits, trading cards and blind-box lines with a following that reaches well beyond Richmond.
For the under-tens the map is more conventional: mall stores at Richmond Centre and Lansdowne, big-box aisles at Ironwood, and independents in the neighbourhood plazas stocking puzzles, board games and educational toys. Steveston's gift shops keep a small, well-chosen selection aimed squarely at grandparents. Board-game and card-game stores that run in-store tournaments are listed here too, with hours, since event nights are the whole point.
Long-running Richmond hobby shop near the airport, now in a larger unit on Russ Baker Way. Plastic model kits, miniatures and paints, board games, trading cards and comics, with tables for in-store gaming. A destination shop rather than a browse-by.
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Independent toy shop in the Hepworth Block in Steveston Village. Curated rather than crammed: wooden toys, Lego, Playmobil, puzzles, board games, kites and craft kits. The reliable answer to a last-minute birthday present in the south of Richmond.
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From the blog
Guides and roundups written for Richmond, with the businesses linked inline.
Nothing on Alexandra Road is a hidden gem. It is just in a strip mall with bad signage and no patio, which is why visitors never find it. Here is how I actually use Richmond's plazas and food courts, which specialists are worth the drive, and when not to bother.
The West Dyke Trail is about five and a half kilometres of flat gravel between Terra Nova Rural Park and Garry Point, and I ride it most mornings. Here is what is actually at the north end, which way to walk so the wind is on your side, and why winter is the better season for it.
I live four blocks off Moncton Street, so this is the Steveston I actually use: where to park before the Bayview lots fill, how to buy fish straight off the boats at the wharf, the honest answer to the Pajo's versus Dave's question, and why the history here is not decoration.
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