Absolutely. And anyway, I started it. Albeit inadvertently. [:S]
Baron, thanks for sharing your local situation.
Fermis, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern to the surviving and not-so-much stores I guess. And I’ve not forgotten about the Model Cave. Just haven’t had a reason to head up your way. Yet. Thanks for sharing what’s going on in your neck of the woods.
RCBoater, though your closest HTUSA might not quite be what you’d like, it sounds like you are lucking indeed to have two great LHS’s near by.
Sheep, well at least you have a couple stores within reasonalble driving distance. Every now and again I get the bug to take a road trip just to visit a hobby shop. Sounds like we have something in common, I tend not to follow through. I do hope you make a road trip and visit one if it sounds like fun to you. And why the heck do I keep forgetting you are in upstate NY? For some reason I keep having you in Chicago. Senility sucks.
Ted, I’m pretty happy this thread helped somebody. That’s a pretty cool discovery! Thanks for posting that. [Y]
LOL! Syracuse I rarely have a reason to go out there unless the family has the mood to spend a day of shopping. Webster, NY is where my sis in law lives.
I’m sure Albany probably has a few but I absolutely hate driving in New York’s capital.
A long, long time ago my sis used to live in Endicott and we were there a few times when I was a kid. Later, I bought some machines in Elmira and went there a few times in the 80’s mostly.
Just felt like sharing some memories of your home state. I don’t know if either of these places are anywhere near you.
Never thought to look at the Orlando area stores, and didn’t know there was one in Sanford. Sounds like some HobbyTowns are mostly RC, as mine right down the street is. My close one is a Mini-Me HobbyTown, and when I stopped in to check it out a couple years back, I was surprised that the franchise was even allowed. Not that it isn’t a nice little store, it is, but it is way off-standard from the others I’ve seen.
Thanks for adding what is going on in Central FL, Ernie.
Since it came up, I’ll tell you not to waste your time traveling to Syracuse - the store I referred to as a toilet was Walt’s Hobby Town. It’s a shadow of the place it was 20 years ago, and the kit selection available there is not much better than Hobby Lobby or Michael’s now. You’re better off buying what you want online and not wasting the trip, because they don’t have it anyway.
You are welcome Greg. It will say that 98% of my hobby shopping is done thru the internet. The only other store here is Colonial Photo and Hobby off Colonial Dr and Mills. They have a great paint selection but model kits are quite sparse.
I do find it a bit ironic that Hobby Town has like 0 model kits on the shelves yet they sponsor the annual Modelpalooza show here in Orlando. I don’t get it.
One is near me in Tucson, AZ, well near being thirty odd miles. They used to carry an okay selection of plastic models. But were horribly overpriced such as the old Tamiya 1/48 Zero for $30US versus what it usually costs less the $15US. The only good thing they really had going was a large selection of paint including the big bottles of Tamiya acrylic at not a bad price.
Recently in the past four or so months the model selection has slowly disappeared till what was left was put on clearance. The store is now fully focused on R/C and nothing else. So that ends my visits to HobbyTown for the foreseeable future.
I think that’s the main thing I have liked about most of the Hobbytown’s I’ve visited, the paint and tool and gadget selection. Glad you have a good one in Cincinnati, and thanks for contributing to the thread.
There os one a few miles from my house in Schaumburg, IL. I have not been here in a few months. Last time I was there they were almost out of paint. There seem to have moved on to R/C stuff.
That is exactly what happened locally, too - if your ‘Hobby’ is R/C, great. Almost everything else though has been, or is being phased out. May be time for a rebranding to ‘R/C Town’.
Nope, but we are blessed here in “River City” to have a fantastic LHS with a great selection of kits and supplies. Plus the owner will order most anything and charge about the same as online (I’d rather support her than save a couple of bucks).
Sadly the LHS is going to be a thing of the past. There is a HobbyTown about 2 hours from my home in Lexington, KY. I’ll buy paints and things of that nature but no kits. They are priced way too high.
Johnny, MJames…the focus on RC does seem to be a trend. Probably disturbing to us, not so much to the RC fans though.
Reasoned, I think a good LHS is a real blessing, and the independant (non-franchise) ones have a special charm indeed. Glad you have one. I hear the Hobbytown over in Folsom closed. That was the first Hobbytown I ever visited, it had almost anything a sprue-snipper could want. I was sad to hear it closed. Sorry if I already mentioned this in this thread…
Thanks for chiming in, Drifter. I hope you are wrong about the future of the LHS, but I think you are not.
The one on Southport Road south of Indy isn’t bad. Lots of paint and tools. Some models but not like in years past. I go there from time to time. Actually was there yesterday.
Even the outstanding local hobby shop in Louisville has a good RC selection as well as a track set up in the parking lot of the plaza they are located in. I’ve got a couple of RC models, the Tamiya HMMWV and M4 (105) HVSS as well as the full RC option Tiger tank I won in an online drawing nearly 20 years ago.
I’m not into RC modeling, but I can see that’s where there’s a lot of money in it for hobby shops. My local shop had a flying RC set up on a computer where you could try to virtually fly an RC plane. That is a great idea; you don’t crash your actual plane.
We had one in Roanoke Virginia until the owner retired and shut it down about twenty years ago. He claimed it was doing quite well until then.
Currently we have two major hobby shops. One that deals in mostly railroading supplies (Roanoke is a historic rail hub) but also sells a decent supply of kits, mostly auto. He also gives our local IPMS Club a lot of support including our yearly show. And a second that deals in mostly, yes, R/C with a small sideline in other stuff.
I shop at the former about once a month usually dropping about thirty bucks or more on paint etc. The latter I’m in much more irregulary.