Flights 2 Games & Hobbies

Successor to Flights of Fantasy, this Sand Creek Road shop pairs deep Magic singles and open play tables with an RC vehicle wall and a rescue cat named Richard.

Flights of Fantasy opened in 1993 and became the default Albany game store for a generation of players; Flights 2 Games & Hobbies carries that lineage forward from a unit on Sand Creek Road. The identity is genuinely split — half of the store is a Magic: The Gathering singles operation with open play tables, and the other half is remote-control vehicles from Traxxas, Redcat, Tamiya, Kyosho and Team Associated. It should not work as a combination and yet it clearly does.

The TCG side stocks Magic singles and sealed, Pokemon, and the surrounding tabletop ecosystem — D&D, Pathfinder, board games and dice. Play space is the draw. "If you need a place to play, this place will be happy to have you," one regular wrote. "Magic? Of course. D&D, they got it. Comics, RC cars, or a friendly cat named Richard? You bet ya." Richard is a rescue and functions as the shop mascot.

Staff get consistent credit for being beginner-friendly, which is not universal in Magic-heavy stores. Multiple reviewers describe arriving with no idea what they were doing and leaving with a deck and an explanation. For anyone getting into trading cards Albany-side without a group already, this is the most approachable door.

The hours are unusual and worth reading carefully before you drive over. The shop is closed all day Tuesday. It opens at 2PM Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and runs late for play — 9PM Monday and Thursday, 10PM Wednesday, and midnight on Friday. Weekends open earlier: noon to 9PM Saturday and noon to 6PM Sunday. That Friday-to-midnight window is the busiest social night of the week.

Singles are pulled from the case rather than self-serve, so budget a few minutes at the counter if you are working from a decklist. The Sand Creek Road location has a shared lot and sits a short drive from the Central Avenue cluster.