Our Story
Back in 2005, we started as fans of live-action role-playing (LARP) games. Our shop was born primarily to provide gear for fellow LARPers. We offered foam weapons from a friend's workshop, leather accessories, and costumes custom-made by a local seamstress, while crafting many items ourselves.
We soon expanded our range to include other areas related to our interests. Beyond hand-painted clothing (back in 2005, fantasy and sci-fi merchandise wasn't nearly as common as it is today, so we made our own stylish gear), we started selling board and card games (our first game item was the excellent card game Rodinný podnik, for which we published our own modified rules—a friend brought the first batch by train from Prague…) and began reaching out to Czech fantasy and sci-fi publishers to add books to our catalog.
If someone had told me back then that fantasy would one day dominate pop culture, I wouldn't have believed them. For us, everything fantasy-related was a very intimate affair with a sense of conspiracy. After all, we started when invitations to LARPs hung in the window of the only specialized bookstore in Ostrava (since few people had internet access) and when we devoured The Witcher, The Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones from worn-out, hard-to-find books that we borrowed from each other.
Nevertheless, we were persistent and slowly grew.
2005 → Grandfather's Suitcase
Our wild beginnings with a simple e-shop and a warehouse that fit into an old suitcase belonging to my grandfather.
2007 → The Closet Behind the Kitchen
Moving into a small closet behind the kitchen in a one-room apartment. We packed orders on the living room floor and carried them to the post office in backpacks.
2008 → Do you have a basement? Can I see it?
It didn't take long for our stock to outgrow the tiny apartment. The next stop was a basement in a block of flats. It was quite a shock for some customers back then when they came to pick up their orders :) Finally, courier services started picking up our packages.
2009 → Mytago Arrives
In 2009, we released the first title under our new publishing brand, Mytago, focused on tabletop RPGs and gamebooks. The launch of Příběhy impéria (Tales of the Empire), book #1, took place in an Ostrava café with everyone in stylish costumes…
2009 → Garage Startup
After a year or so, an opportunity arose to rent space in a nearby apartment building—a larger garage. So, we officially became a garage company.
The garage era of Fantasyobchod was very dynamic. We were growing rapidly, by tens of percent annually. I did everything from IT and customer support to shipping. But I already had steady collaborators, and their numbers were growing. Whenever a friend stopped by for gear and I found out they had nothing to do while studying, I roped them in. :)
When we moved into the new space, I sat there alone in several empty rooms with a few filled shelves. A few years later, when we left, goods were everywhere; sometimes you couldn't even walk through the hallway. We launched our own production, started publishing localized board games, and traveled to various fantasy events with our stall…
2014 → Off to the Grocery Store
The next stop after the garage was, naturally, a former neighborhood grocery store. In February 2014, we spent a few days shuttling back and forth with cars and a trailer to move the entire shop… It was another huge step forward: a large entrance room, a workshop, an IT office, and plenty of space.
2014 → We Have a New Website
On August 29, 2014, we launched the beta version of our new e-shop. While the old one ran on Zencart, the new one was built on Opencart.
2017 → Taking Over Another Building
At the beginning of March, we expanded our operations into a second building adjacent to our "grocery store." The existing space was simply too tight… The new building housed the complete warehouse and offices, while the first one kept the pickup point, workshop, and part of the stock.
2019 → Heading to Myslivna
In October 2019, we moved to new premises in Ostrava Poruba—we were growing and needed even more space. The move was wild, but overall a huge step forward. 1,000 square meters, the ability to design the entire space from A to Z, and having offices, production, and the warehouse under one roof, with a shop and gaming room added later.
2020 → Opening the Shop
In the autumn of 2020, we opened our dream shop, smelling of wood.
2021 → Goodbye Fantasyobchod, hello imago!
In September 2021, we rebranded Fantasyobchod to imago.
2025 → imago Gaming Room
We are building a gaming space from a part of the warehouse adjacent to our shop—a room designed for meeting up, playing RPGs, board games, and wargaming, usable for workshops, demos, autograph sessions, and other pastimes.
2025 → New Freya Website
In October 2025, we are launching our new website, which we call Freya 🙂
- In the LARP and wooden weapons section, we established cooperation with foreign manufacturers and started importing truly interesting pieces of armor, weapons, and other peculiar gear to the Czech Republic. We gradually started our own production, which is still doing well today. Since 2017, we have even been making costumes in our own workshop at the shop.
- The book department grew so much that we currently work with all Czech fantasy publishers. We branched out into comics and role-playing games—from the original Dračí doupě (Dragon's Lair), for which we regularly drove to Martin Kučera's apartment warehouse in Ostrava, we soon expanded our offer to all popular gaming systems from around the world. Every now and then, I remember how we used to copy typewritten AD&D rules. Well, times change. As for books, we even launched our own publishing house Mytago and started publishing role-playing games and gamebooks—like the famous Lone Wolf or the Fighting Fantasy series.
- Regarding fantasy clothing—the assortment grew from two t-shirts with a hand-painted dragon to hundreds of designs. And because film merchandising has grown to unimaginable proportions thanks to the success of fantasy and sci-fi films, series, and games, we started working with dozens of leading fan gift manufacturers. We still get excited about every new piece like little kids—what we would have given to have a replica of the One Ring in our offer ten years ago…
- In board games, we climbed to become one of the leading retailers in the Czech Republic—we cover the complete offer of not only Czech but also global board game publishers. We follow the news, pick out specialties, and every now and then we find a little time to play…
- We have become a leading retailer for wargaming and related modeling. In our gaming room, we regularly host games of Warhammer, Conquest, Battletech, and other war games.
- We transferred our passion for LARP costumes to the cosplay section and offer a wide range of materials for your own creations.
- To top it all off, we returned to our old hobby—tea culture. For many years, we have been offering quality loose-leaf teas in our shop, and it seems that this strange combination of fantasy and tea is not just our private affair, but is common among other fantasy fans as well. After all, tea is a great drink for a good book or a board game with friends, and it warms you up by the evening fire at a LARP…
What is the point of this long story? We wanted to show that our profession didn't grow out of a desire for quick money; we didn't just jump on a trendy fantasy and sci-fi wave. We wanted to get interesting things that we liked for people with a similar passion for fantasy. It just got a little out of hand…
What's next? We are still growing. Our shop family is getting bigger, and we have had to move the warehouse several times (we currently occupy more than 1,200 square meters). Despite this, we still want to maintain the approach that has characterized our shop from the beginning. We keep the spirit of a family business, we are informal, and we do our work because we enjoy it. We offer things that other shops don't, because it doesn't pay off for them—but we enjoy it, and we like all sorts of rarities ourselves.
All this is thanks to you. Thank you for being with us all these long years!