Years ago, when I first started doing model kits, I used to buy kits and paint in department stores like: Kmart, Kaybee Toy and Hobby, JM Fields and the like. Now you can’t find them there anymore except stores like Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, an occassional drug store (Kinney Drugs comes to mind) or your local small time hobby store. What made these stores stop selling model kits and paints? Whatever happened to those good old days?
I think the general customer base has become too small for it to be profitable for those stores to sell kits any more. Kids today for the most part are not interested in the hobby. They’d rather spend their time with computers, iPhones, etc. It’s just us older guys who started long ago who still keep active in the hobby. Too bad, the kids are missing out on a lot of fun.
I agree. Nowadays kids DON’T know how to have fun anymore. When was the last time any kid climbed a tree, build a tree house, heck how about fall out of a tree? Better yet, wipe out on a bicycle when no cars is involved, catch ploywogs/tadpoles, caterpillars, bust open a caterpillar’s nest. My dad wasn’t too happy about that the next morning. LOL! Those were the days…
I can remember buying Testors/Italeri kits from JC Penney at the mall. Once upon a time, Walmart, Toys R Us, Kmart, etc. had fairly comprehensive model aisles. I’ve noticed Walmart regained a small section and Kmart has just a sprinkling as well.
Kids today know how to have fun. Believe me, I have six kids between the ages of 27 and 8 and all of them knew how to have fun as kids. I spent last weekend at a Cub Scout camp trip. Even though it was miserable and rainy on Saturday night, the kids had a great time when we were heading home on Sunday.
One of the dads even caught a snapping turtle and dragged it back to the camp for all the boys to see before returning it to the lake.
Good old days indeed. I remember seeing Tamiya’s 1/25 Tiger I in the Sears Christmas catalog sometime in the late '70s, so I did what Santa would have wanted and ordered it. I think it was $16.00 including shipping, for what seemed like about ten pounds of plastic.
What I’ve also noticed over the last decade is that the internet has killed off alot of the mom and pop shops that we used to see as kids. This has also impacted sales at department stores who,for the most part, dont cary them any longer. True, the internet is nice but it was sure nice to go window shop and put your hands on the real thing. The only thing we have here in Corpus IS a HL and Micheals. They usually carry the generic model selection which is mostly car models.
Another thing is the hobby isn’t as popular as Cadet Chuck mentioned. There are a few people here at work who really enjoy the idea of building / replicating something in small scale but most likely wont do it. It’s rare to see somebody else (at least here in this town) who really gets into scale plastic model building so its really cool to be able to get on a forum with you guys and be able to talk about this stuff and share ideas and experiences.
Yeah , Sigh! the good old days. I remember Child World and Toys R Us had dedicated isles for models some 8 to 12 ft. high and 25 to 40 odd ft. long. Those same isles although smaller are still packed with hobby building kits albeit LEGO building kits. Kids are still building , just using a another form of plastic from what we are used to . For good measure I recently went to the same Toys R Us now smaller and leaner { not the same toy store I remember, but that is for another possible discussion). I was unable to find the model isle or even one model. I asked the young sales clerk who proceeded to look at me like I had two heads. He then got the manager, also a young looking youth who proceeded to give me the same odd look. I actually had to describe what a model kit was to both of them , no kidding . Still looking perplexed as he lead me around the store I thought I observed a light bulb go off over his head as I heard him say “Got it” . Now I had done my best on my own to find the model isle with out success so at best I assumed I missed a very small limited selection hidden in the corner of the store. Boy was I wrong . He took me to two isles 6ft. high and 25 ft. odd long packed from the floor up with kits, Yeah, LEGO kits. [:D]
When I was a kid and crazy about models, I could find them at the Grocery store while mom shopped, at the hardware store, at the local five and dime, on a rack at the gas station, the drug store and when my town got a K-mart there was one long isle of kits! Those were such great days. We will never see that again.
Amen to that . Lets hope were not the last of our kind.
I remember when I was a kid we were going to see my grandparents about an hour away we stopped into this place called Moses 5 & 10 store. I walked to the back corner of the store and was looking for the bathroom actually. I was big into WWII aviation and there they sat…a whole wall of 1/48 scale Monogram aircraft kits (and you folks who are old enough to remember the kits of the 80’s know). I mean they must have had every WWII plane imaginable on those shelves! I all but got down on my knees and begged my dad for enough money to buy my first aircraft model which was the old Monogram Dauntless dive bomber. I built it and it looked like crap but man did I have fun doing it. I think I used green apple green for the interior and some gray enamel thinned with gasoline! Yep…gasoline! (my dad was a mechanic too you know!). I didn’t even paint the topside which was molded in blue or the prop, which was molded in black. I just thought it was the coolest thing to have a model plane that I built on display. Soon after came a slew of Monogram kits…Stuka, 109, 190, P-39, P-51, F5F, F4F. A6M2, Me262, TBF, SB2C, Hell I can’t remember all of them but I had em. Those were the days lemme tell ya!
Last week my water heater croaked. I was in the basement watching the guys install the replacement, one of the kids (OK Maybe the guy was in his early 20s, but he sure looked fresh out of school) caught a look at my workbench and the shelves of kits, books and paints and looked astonished. He asked me what all this was and I told him it was my addicition: Plastic Models, and everything necessary to build them. He had no idea such a thing existed. He’d heard the term “Model airplanes” before but thought that only meant the RC kind.
I used to get my kits at Spouts ritze and Thriftway. Both grocery stores.
kids today don’t even know what Tinkertoys are !!!
Or Erector sets !!!
Or Lincoln Logs !!!
Damn kids and there rockem- sockem robots !!!
Heh - My 9 year old still has Lincoln logs, and Tinketoys. I’m looking to get him an erector set either for his b-day or Christmas. Yeah he had fun with those.
To mustang1989 - I remember those kits
Back in the day all the five and dime stores (todays Dollar type stores) carried model kits. TG&Y, Kress, Kersage, Ben Franklins, etc.
Mon and Pop convenience stores too.
Kmart probably had the biggest selection. Walmart pretty much didn’t exist at that time.
However, I don’t recall the big 3 (Sears, Penneys, Wards) carrying models. I’m talking pre 70’s here.
The JC Penneys store in my area sold model kits during the 1970s, Sears used to have a toy department but I don’t recall seeing plastic models.
I got my first Star Wars models, X-wing, Vader’s TIE, R2D2 & C3PO at JC Penney’s in Claremont, NH back in the 1970s. The nearest Sears store in that town (the one in my home town was just a catalog pickup & order store front) sold models. I bought a Revell lights & sounds police helicopter OH-6 Cayuse in 1/32 scale. Still got that thing.
There was a Monkey Wards in that town as well, but I don’t recall them selling models. The Woolworth was probably the best model selling store in town. I also remember the local grocery store had the alien monster from the original Alien movie that sat on the shelf in the toy aisle for years before it finally vanished. It was their only model. It was similar to the Western Auto store. They had a Civil War Intrepid balloon model kit for years sitting among duck decoys and other sundry items.
I used to lament why they never got anything “good” or more model kits. Why was it just one model?
Your comment about Star Wars reminded me that the Sears in my area sold Lucas Film licensed Don Post Star Wars masks.
I still have my Darth Vader version sitting next to a WWII German Helmet. Would have looked even better sitting next to a WWI German helmet, but I sold that one before Star Wars was released.[:(]
JC Penny’s didn’t come to my area until the early 80’s when Sangertown Mall first built. I used to go the mall a lot because it literally next door to my house then. Again, I used to work part-time at JCP then full-time and back then they did not have a toy dept. Sears at Sangertown Mall had toys which is usually at Christmastime. When Sears was at NH Shopping Canter back in the 70’s I don’t recall seeing a toys dept. when I was a kid. Montgomery Wards I don’t even remember them even having a toy department. Although JM Fields and Bradlees did.
You go BlackSheep!! Most Dept stores might not carry models anymore but that doesn’t mean you cant keep your kids interested in such things. Look where we are right now … on the web! Thousands of resources for everything from the old days.
Believe it or not our local Walmart actually has a small model section. Awesome, I thought … until some a**hole decided to redecorate the whole display with the spray paint. They’ve left it that way for months.
Now, I always wanted to blame the internet and kids infatuation for all things electronic for the downfall of the modeling hobby. “Stick a USB port on those models. That’ll get those kids interested” I used to say. Nah, that’s not it at all. An owner of a small, Mom n Pop type hobby shop in Rochester MN opened my eyes to the situation recently. You want to blame someone for models disappearing from store shelves, you need to look no further than Nascar. A few years back, it dawned on Nascar and their team owners that the model makers were profiting from making models of their cars, emblazoned with all these colorful brand logos, without them getting their cut. Whaaaaat? We can’t have that!! Where’s the money? (Never mind that this gave them tons of free advertising. Dumbs**ts) The brand holders all agreed and next thing you know the cost of a model triples in a few months. Nobody could afford to keep them on their shelves.
The story goes on that Walmart tried to step in and save the day, getting nearly exclusive rights to most model brands. They didn’t sell any better at Walmart at triple the price either sooooo…
Interesting stuff. But hey, let’s all do our part to keep the hobby alive. Go to model shows. Drag your grand kids into your shop and show em what you’re doing. Maybe get involved with some youth organizations and ask if they’d like you to do a presentation on the hobby … Just don’t let it die!
Oh, I should add, I dont have much of a need for the dept stores carrying model stuff. Of all places, our local ACE Hardware has a very substantial modeling section. Hundreds of models and everything you need from paints to decals to tools, along with RC and railroad stuff, so I’m all set. So if you’re ever near Winona MN, go to Ace Hardware, ask for Frank. If you don’t know what your looking for, Frank WILL tell you what to get. [*-)] Seriously, he will.
Mustang,
It isn’t just the Internet that is “killing off” the local/neighborhood mom and pop stores. It’s the big box stores, like Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco, etc. that are doing an excellent job at “killing off” the neighborhood mom and pop stores.
Of course, it goes without saying that the Internet isn’t helping any, but it isn’t the only factor in the death of the local/neighborhood mom and pop stores.
I really miss the days when one had a variety of stores within a short distance from home. And not just having a variety of stores within a short distance of home, but actually getting to know and develop a relationship with said stores.
Those were the days.