POCATELLO — Upon entering Mystic Realms Fantasy Store, guests are greeted by the crimson gaze of a large and looming red dragon which perches in a corner surrounded by an arsenal of medieval weaponry and armor.

Affixed to portions of the walls are replicas of iconic fantasy weapons in popular culture — Gandalf’s staff from “Lord of the Rings,” the Master Sword from “The Legend of Zelda,” Longclaw from “Game of Thrones,” along with a myriad of other quintessential medieval collectibles.

A roman centurion helmet sits atop a shelf surrounded by a line of coifs, sallets, bascinets and other helms from bygone eras or reproduced from the pages of beloved fantasy literature.

All around the storefront are rows of longswords and katanas, scimitars and maces, double-sided axes, glaives and even heavy, replica flintlock pistols. In one section are a host of drinking horns, mugs and tankards, which will eventually be filled with an adventurer’s favorite grog or ale. Bracers sit on one shelf inlaid with Norse iconography.

This fantastical armory, filled with equipment to satiate any hero or villain, will soon open its doors to the Gate City area and provide local residents with a one-stop-shop for all their renaissance fair and medieval cosplay needs.

The Mystic Realms Fantasy Store, located at 1800 Garrett Way Suite 18, is a continuation of the efforts of owners Michael Collins and Deneb Edwards and the Gate City renaissance fair that shares its namesake.

The store is a combination of Collins’ Black Wolf Blades, Edwards’ 3D printing business and an amalgam of other fantasy store trappings that include medieval garments, leather goods and other cosplay materials.

“I’ve been selling swords since the late ‘90s,” Collins said. “I’ve been doing it for a very long time and these last few years that’s just grown astronomically. The fairs have become more mainstream, not just ours that we run here in Pocatello, but all the fairs that I attend to sell swords at and things like that have just been growing and growing, which has been great.”

Collins continued, “Geek and nerd culture is becoming way more mainstream than it used to be. Everybody’s getting into ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ and all that kind of stuff. For me, for my business, specifically, (shows like) ‘Forged in Fire’ have been a huge — a lot of people have been introduced to Damascus steel and actual forging of knives.”

Regarding the collective decision to start a store, Collins was at a point where he couldn’t run his business out of his house anymore. A large amount of his stock was wrapped up in trailers. And without a website to sell his goods, he would occasionally miss opportunities for potential buyers when visiting renaissance and fantasy fairs across the Intermountain West.

“Mike and I met through ren fairs and we’ve become pretty good friends over the years,” Edwards said. “When he said he needed more space for his stuff, we started talking storage of some sort. We talked about storage units at first, but it wasn’t really a viable idea, because of the amount of space we needed. I have previously had a store here in Pocatello and took some of the pros and cons of that and collaborated and figured out what we needed to do so that we could make something happen.”

Now, Collins and Edwards have a space where they can not only store a large variety of their goods but also a permanent brick-and-mortar where they can sell more specific, rare items and be accessible to the fantasy and cosplay communities.

“It’s been exciting for me, because it has opened the doors for me to start getting all these things that I usually pass up on with a lot of my suppliers,” Collins said. “When I do fairs, I’m the sword guy, I’m the blade guy and that’s it. Here, I can (sell) drinking horns. We’ve got clothing, we’ve got jewelry, we’ve got all those things that I haven’t been able to get before (like) armor and helmets.”

One of the other upsides for Collins is the ability to have high quality swords and items that would normally be risky to bring to an outside fair, which generally takes a lot of setup and may include a lot of customers touching, examining and dirtying the blades.

“I’m excited to have some of the more higher end swords,” Collins said. “I’ve got swords on my wall now that are upwards of $950 which I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking to an outdoor fair. It’s just going to get dusty and rusty from moisture and fingerprints and things like that. As an avid sword collector myself, that part has been fun.”

Mystic Realms Fantasy Store has a multitude of fantasy goods from $60 entry-level stainless-steel swords, higher end replicas of weapons or gear from popular anime, television shows and movies in the $100 range to high quality hand forged swords that are rare or one-a-kind.

The items sold at the store are also designed for a variety of functional uses as well, including the blunted weapons that are used in Buhurt, an armored combat sport where fighters adorn plate mail and beat each other with historical weapons from a range of medieval periods.

While many of these weapons of war will be a draw for many customers, there are aspects like Edwards 3D printing business that will add additional layers of customizability and creativity.

“I ran Dibs 3D printing and it was basically a 3D printing store,” Edwards said. “I had custom 3D printing services for people and then I also sold 3D printing supplies. It was a tough market, and it was fluctuating a little bit, so I had to close my store down last year. I do it all online now, but we’ll be bringing that into the store here at the Mystic realms fantasy store. We’ll have a couple of big sized printers, resin and PLR filaments, so that we can make helmets, or we can create figures. We can do a wide range of stuff.”

With a digital file that works like a blueprint, customers can 3D print almost anything they can conceive. Whether it’s a 2-inch-tall detailed minifigure used in games like Dungeons & Dragons, accessories for a cosplay or an entire costume printed out piece by piece, the options are only limited by money and imagination.

Edwards’ wife, who helps create and design costumes for places like the local Palace Playhouse, also does custom clothing work for the store in addition to the basic cosplay garments.

“She’s also talking about doing some steampunk dresses and some different costumes for different genres of cosplay,” Edwards said. “Those are things that we might have available here in the future. There’s a lot of variety in costumes, but what we’re going to try and keep on hand is the simple tunics, simple cloaks, stuff like that, so that you can come in, grab something and get going.”

Regal princesses, brave knights and fiendish sorcerers won’t have to wait long to delve into this enchanting new business when it debuts for its grand opening this Friday and Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. and running until 7 p.m. both days.

During the grand opening, a dagger sized replica of Frodo’s sword Sting from “The Lord of the Rings” will be given away with every purchase over $150 and attendees can also enter into a few free drawings for gear like Geralt’s sword from “The Witcher.” Free 3D printed coins will be given out while supplies last.

“We’re blown away at how popular it has become,” Edwards said. “Mystic Realms Fantasy Fair has grown. It was huge the first year and it grew the second year. We’re just blown away at how much of a need there is in the community for stuff like this.”

For more information you can visit the Mystic Realms Fantasy Store on its Facebook page, tinyurl.com/bdcrmdnb or by contacting 208-244-2585.