23 - Schultz Brothers Dimestore (Rust Monster!)

770 West Main Street, Lake Geneva, WI 53147

Schultz Brothers Co. once occupied this storefront. This dime store was a favorite haunt of Gary Gygax with his son Ernie or protégé Rob Kuntz. In the early days of Chainmail, there were no fantasy miniature figures to use in their sand table battles. So, while Ernie was trying to get the owner's pet Mynah birds to start singing and talking to each other, Gary was combing the aisles looking for plastic monsters or other "horrors" he could use as fantastic enemies on the battlefield. Here he found Marx, Ft. Apache indians, which he converted to ogres or trolls, Marx dinosaurs which were modified into dragons, Marx megafauna, such as the megatherium, he transformed into a terrible balrog from Tolkien lore, and finally, a bag of "Prehistoric Animals" made in Hong Kong, that included the inspiration for various iconic D&D monsters such as the land shark (bulette), umber hulk, owlbear, and rust monster. All were brought to life as a result of Gary's cryptozoological safari and imagination!