Hobby Shops

Still a few around

Been fooling with 1/25 again after about a 40-year hiatus.
Nearest hobby shop to me is about 50 miles away, and walking in there was like revisiting my childhood a bit.
Run & staffed by enthusiastic young guys, like in their 20s or so; I'd have expected staff at least twice that age.

That industry is kinda odd, like stuff you see online that's no longer available and resin parts makers that don't answer their phones.
FWIW there's a model-making site called Mopars In Scale, with some really cool builds & amazing work.

I play around with RC cars. Tons of stuff available online but we still have a couple shops around and I try to support them when possible.

Still a couple close to me, surprisingly with prices in line with what you would pay on the internet less the shipping.
There was a slot car track not too far away but it's closed now (virus did it in, I'm sure). My earliest memory of a hobby shop is from back in about '65. My middle brother and I would pass a hobby shop on the way home from school. We would go in for a few minutes and watch the HS guys racing, usually on the drag strip. I remember there was a transparent green Willys or Ford (I was only 10. I didn't know much about cars YET. ) that never lost a race.


Tim

Wife and I stopped in a Hobby Lobby this afternoon. I was surprised how many Mopar models were on the shelves. They even had a late 70s Dodge long bed pickup model. I know the prices are probably about correct, inflation adjusted over the years, but I just can't get past the $30 for a 1/25 scale plastic model. I guess I'm just not into it that much anymore.

Or maybe the problem is I'm still in the garage building the real thing yet. I'd rather spend the money on real parts. The Truck in the garage is a 49 Dodge pickup on a Dakota 4x4 chassis.

I do have a few not even started models, and a few unfinished models in the basement. Gene

Same here, but there aren't any hobby stores within about an hour from me. I buy from some of the online hobby shops though. Kinda makes up for it.

I just can't get past the $30 for a 1/25 scale plastic model. I guess I'm just not into it that much anymore.

This.

I guess I'm stuck in the late '70's early '80's when it comes to pricing on kits. When I was a kid in the '70's, Conn had (still has) the 5 cent deposit on bottles. My friend and I would collect and cash in bottles for a few weeks, then go and buy a few kits. At the time, K-mart would have sales where some kits were marked down to .99 (or less!). I remember buying a Volare Roadrunner kit during one of these sales, and the body wasn't fully molded. Part of the drivers door and most of the drivers fender was not there. It was obviously a manufacturing defect. Ended up using it for parts.

I think I gave up models when pricing reached the $10 range.

I just spent $1000 to get back into the steam engine hobby. $500 on a Wilesco D21, and various items like workshop attachment, dynamo and light, butane tank and burner etc. hobbies can be expensive!!!

Here in central IL in the mid 1960's we had Bowman's in LaSalle, Hobby Models at Sheridan Village in Peoria, and also Bergners. Bowmans and Hobby Models had HO trains, model kits, Cox planes. Bergners basement level had sporting goods, hunting, firearms, and plastic model kits. I was about 10 years old and these places were THE BEST. Could have lived there permanent. No $ but visiting was enjoyable.

Y'all do know Hobby Lobby has a 40% off coupon? This would make a $30 model $18 and not all their models are $30. I finally bit the bullet and paid $50 for a '65 Valiant resin body so I can build a replica of my first car. All I lack is painting it (I even bought the correct color from scalefinishes for it) but since we moved last December all my modelling stuff is still packed away. 1 kit came from HL ('71 Duster) for the 340 and bought a '69 Barracuda from the hobby store I mentioned for the chassis. I don't spend hours and hours working on models but it is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours when it's too cold or rainy to get out.


Tim

I used to be into slot cars and HO trains when I was a kid. There was one hobby shop here that seemed more like a club house for the guy who ran it then an actual store but it was always fun to browse. Even our Toys R Us had a good hobby section and that's where most of my train stuff came from. A few years ago I got back into a bit with slot car stuff, mainly because I was looking for a couple more cars and some controllers to make an old set I had usable again. Most of the hobby shops around here deal more with RC cars and the army type stuff. One place has a decent selection of car models. And one toy store has a huge selection of slot cars. This came from there as well as the two newer Chargers behind it.

There is a HobbyTown USA near my house. I have an old Grasshopper RC car from the early 80s and I went up there and asked a question about it. I also bought a few things from them as well. It seemed like I was bothering them more than anything. Some dude with a 40 year old RC car was not what they wanted to deal with. I am going to purchase my 7 year old a new RC truck here shortly and I will give them a chance and if I get the same treatment I will use the store as an amazon showroom lol.

Growing up I raced RC cars(early 90s) and we had several hobby shops in town to choose from. There is still just as many places to race them around here but only 1 or 2 shops.

That's such a cool picture without even clicking on play! I'm tempted to rant like an old man, about how kids aren't interested in anything that takes thinking and working with their hands. But it's true. Numb minded, iphone generation. What a shame. Of course, I should mention not all, there are still some that have been brought up to realize there's a whole big world of interesting things to explore other than farecbook, twitter, and IG.

If it wasn't for a hobby store on the NW side of Chicago I would never have gotten into Mopars. That along with some patient 20-30 year olds willing to share their know-how with a local teenager.

In 1987 (age 13) I was able to get a job working at the local hobby shop to support my RC car habit. The hobby store's owner had a 69 GTX race car (still has it today) His two brother's, who had auto businesses next door, and their extended friends all owned and raced Mopar muscle cars. I caught the Mopar bug working on their cars behind the hobby store after hours. Within 3 years I had bought my 71 Challenger using the money I had been earning at the hobby store. Those same guys took me under their wing and helped me in restoring my Challenger. The body work and paint on my Challenger was done in the garage behind the hobby store. Several pictures of my car being repainted have the RC car track in it. One of their extended friends is moparts member Mopar Mitch. He taught me the proper techniques for installing engine gaskets when we put my motor back together in 1991. I wound up working at the hobby store through high school and part way through college.

Yep, I have a soft spot for old school hobby stores. Not too many of them around it seems.

^ cool story

The old style hobby shops had various sizes of plastic and brass gears.
Hobby Lobby does not carry any.

Is there a good online source for small gears?

It's not just you. When I was a teen in the early 2000's, I could get AMT kits at Wal-Mart for $5 ($4.94 to be exact). Now Round 2 is re-releasing the same kits at 5-6x that price. It was a treat to get a Revell kit for me as they were $15 at the time. I stopped buying for the most part when the $5 kits disappeared. I still have a supply of stuff that I never built, and occasionally I'll pick up something at a swap meet if the price is right (I'm quite fond of the JoHan '71 Sox 'Cuda kits). I usually build one kit a year or so.

you guys make me feel kinda', er, well, old.
i remember when i thought AMT, Revelle, Monogram, and JoHan were nuts when they raised the price of their kits to $1.29 from $0.99 !

many moons ago , my grandma would pay me a penny for anything found in the driveway that could go into a tire ( they lived on a farm ) you would be surprised at how may nails and junk would wash up after a rain .. take me all weekend , I stayed there a lot as a kid ,, earn about 3 bucks and we would go to K-mart and I'd score a couple kits with it .. maybe have enough for on hot wheel too


They had the best sub sandwiches too

I just happened to stop by this one, while traveling. it's a blast right out the the old days. They have a TON of hobby stuff.


Sayre Hobby Shop.Sayre, Penn