Observations from my Local Hobbytown

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

I haven’t been to my local Hobbytown for some months, so I thought I’d share my experience from earlier today.

  1. They changed the layout…again. Boardgames, puzzles and airsoft guns/accessories are now in front, models have been relegated to the back corner.
  2. Games Workshop Lord of the Rings miniatures are being phased out, I didn’t see any blisters and just a handful of overpriced boxed sets occupying a portion of the bottom shelf.
  3. Model rocketry must be making a comeback, there were two aisles of the things.
  4. They had a reasonable selection of model kits, as long as I wasn’t looking for something other than a Revell car kit.
  5. They haven’t carried Kalmbach products for 2 years.
  6. If I didn’t count half of the car kits, my stash is bigger than their stock.
  7. There was a father and son, who was probably 7 or 8, there picking out a model to build with each other. They were in my way. [(-D]

I got my paints, my kit, and some static grass and got out of there with the afterburners on.

2

Heck, at least they have a reasonable selection of model kits, despite that fact their cars. That gives everyone hope.[:)]

Model rocketry making a comeback? Didn’t here about that in the news.[:D]

3

The owner has to have the mix that sells, that’s a basic principle of business. Evidently plastics isn’t a strong category for them. Books and magazines are a tough category too, if they don’t sell you have dead inventory…dead inventory ties up capital and reduces profits. No profits, no lights, no employees, no building…no hobby shop.

4

What Gerald said.

The Hobbytown in Indianapolis, OTOH, sells tons of plastics. There is a wall about 40 feet long or more, ceiling to floor, all plastics along with two whole ilses of plastics. Tons of supplies also. Full range of Tamiya and Humbrol, MM paint. They even carry Gunze 500 and 1200 plus the thinner. Great place but the stuff sells here, not like other areas. They even carry a small line up of QuickBoost a/c acc. and some etch. Two good selections of decals. I could go on.

5

I regularly stop into Internet Hobbies when I go home to my parent’s house in Pennsylvania, 2.5 hours away.

Last time I was in there, he had really cut down the Armor model, in favor of a of of train stuff and diecast. I asked him where the heck all the tanks had gone, and he told me, “Well,aside from you and some other guy from Virginia who comes up this way on business, you’re the only two steady, consistent traffic coming in for Armor models.” That was kinda shocking to hear, needless to say.

He also went on to say that so much of his business is one on the INternet that he doesn’t need to stock the models to make money from them.

6

Do you go to the one near Greenwood or the one in Castleton? I’ve never been to the one in Castleton, just the one in Greenwood. They do have a lot of cars, planes and ships but kind of lacking in 1/35 armor. If you ever get all the way down to Louisville, check out Scale Reproductions. You won’t be disappointed! Too bad Metzlers went out of business in Indy. I liked that place.

7

ogerjohn, Castleton. It’s only about ten minutes away from work.

8

Y’all need a tamed manager… My local Hobby Lobby doesn’t stock much outside what the Headshed lets them, but “my” manager can finagle around 10-20 % of her orders “outside the box” and will order kits for me if it’s in her distributor’s books… Usually that amounts to one or two kits per month, but it beats having to go internet for everything… Can’t use a 40% off coupon on the 'net…[:D]

9

From what I understand this stopped being a money maker for shops soon after the 3rd move came out. It’s life span was tied to the movies so to speak.

10

i have a brand new HUSA here and they are getting off the ground.

the dominant factor:

RC RC RC RC RC RC RC.

I go in once a month and do demos for scale model building.

Not once since I have been goign in there have I seen a plstic model sold but the RC just flies off the shelves.

Magazines are on the racks, but no one bothers to look at them. they get their RC head home to get it on the field.

11

My local hobbytown has also cut back on model kits and paints. I used to find something each time I went in. Now aircraft and armor are combined in one area and model cars are cut to less than half what they used to be. I special ordered from there a few months back, and its cheaper and faster to order online. I now shop at either GreatModels online or DragonUSA online or Squardron.

12

At least half the hobby shops in Tucson have shut down. The remaining HobbyTownUSA, satellite store shut down a while back, is about half RC stuff, with the remainder being plastic models and construction materials with some model rockets thrown in for good measure. The domination of the RC stuff makes sense though, since they have tracks on site and hold races.

13

Just off the top of my head, I can think of at least twelve hobby shops that have come and gone here in the Sarasota market in the past twenty years, so count your blessings if you still even have a LHS.

We still have one train shop that has survived and fortunately they stock paint, glue, tools, etc. But for anything else, I’m forced to shop online. If it wasn’t for Squadron and Model Expo I’d probably be out of the hobby completely.

Mark