After taking several years off from the hobby I am looking to get back in. One thing I have noticed over the years is the slowly dwindling number of physical shops. I miss being able to physically look at the kits, talk to the owners, etc. My one local shopw that I would call a TRUE hobby shop closed. We have Hobby Lobby (which can work in a pinch), but the other “shop” in town is very RC related with som Tamiya paints and a small selection of models.
I have also noticed the adds in the back of FSM getting smaller and smaller over the years. Just curious how it is where you live? I am in SWFL BTW. It seems that the UK and Autralia seem to have a strong contingent of hobbyist (at least on YouTube)
We have Colpars in Denver. I have been shopping there since 1976. Now It’s joined with HobbyTown. It is real nice full hobby shop. We also have several Hobby Lobbies around. It is not like it was a few years ago when we had a lot of shops. I’m sorry I dont know of many more. I do not get around much anymore.
We have one small Hobby Town here, which is pretty worthless. Never see the owner to talk to, and the people who work there are just cashiers who know nothing about the hobby. I buy everything on line now.
Vancouver scale modellers (and RC types) have Magic Box Hobbies in the neighbourhood of Kerrisdale, about a 15 minute drive or a 45 minute bus ride from downtown Vancouver. It’s quite a large store with a very friendly staff. I usually deal with Wendy, who is apparently and exceptionally knowledgeable. The store is currently redesigning its website (http://www.magicboxhobbies.ca) so that won’t be of much use at this time.
There is one other hobby shop that I know of, in the suburb of Burnaby. Perhaps another FineScale member can comment on that one.
The best we got is fairly well stocked Hobby Town in Asheville maybe 25 min from me.Lots of paint and supplies,a nice selection of kits at competitive prices.
About 70 min away in Hickory NC is another Hobby Town which is whole other story.The owner is very model oriented and allows the local club to meet there.His shop is stocked as well as any mom and pop shop I’ve been too.
Hickory NC also has great Aviation museum featuring some former Frontline aircraft.
As of now, the only place to go is Hobby Lobby in Exton. It’s 1 hour from here. Personally, I think they have a small inventory geared towards young kids. Not much selection of kits or accessories. Use to be a good shop in Elverson a few years ago but the owner agreed with us that he made a bad choice for location. It was in an industrial park off the beaten path and hard to find. A couple of years after he opened, he couldn’t make it, and closed down. Said he was going to open elsewhere but as of yet we haven’t heard from him. There was a Hobby Town, decent inventory and very helpful in Sinking Springs (20 minutes away). They held 2 contests a year in a church across the street. The owner was retiring and no-one bought the place. So, right now, it’s Zippo. No other choice but internet.
In Northbrook Illinois there is a HobbyTown there. I’ve been there plenty of times, and it was a really good experience. Lots of kits, and Gundam kits, as well as some RC models as well.
In Orlando we have a Hobby Lobby and Colonial Photo and Hobby, which is probably the only actual hobby shop in town that I know of. There is another hobby shop outside of Sanford but I have never been there so I can’t say what it’s like.
Here in Phoenix we have two definitely good Hobby shops, Andy’s Hobby HQ & Hobby Depot, plus a couple more that I have yet to check out, and there are several Hobby Lobbies in the area. Not quite a feast, but certainly not a famine.
We have a small one in my local town, Bury St Edmunds. Does a mix of R/C, trains and plastic models. I think we still have a lot of these smaller shops in the UK and i think thats largely down to the R/C and train crowd as they are able to speak to real people and get advice and i know our LHS does repairs on R/C models as well.
We haven’t had a decent store in the Albany NY area in over a decade when Hobby Town closed. There’s a dumpy train store that likes to pretend that it’s a hobby store but it has a small selection that never changes and very little by way of supplies. Hobby Lobby mostly doesn’t cater to my wants and I rarely go there. Thankfully I get two day delivery from Scale Hobbyist because they’re not too far from here.
We have one. Moderately stocked diversely between plastic kits, trains and RC. But he caters to three or four clubs in each category so he will order in as needed ( at a discount to those members or anyone else with no discount). He has on board the local ship builders club too, a big RC club and two train clubs. The owner is a military modeler so he can be a help. They have quite a few car kits. Testors and Tamiya paints. I’m wondering if they have even thought of replacing Model Master with another line of enamels. The owner has a stock pile of cases of MM enamels in his basement at home which kind of rubs me a bit since he doesn’t mind announcing it and keeping it all for himself and can’t take the surplus with him when he passes from this world to the next. But that’s kind of history now, we just move on to other paints from other suppliers.
Paint ultimately in the end doesn’t bother me all that much, I find a way, it’s actually a hobby in itself to me and better than half my fun in models lol. Besides HL though, these guys are the only game around for a good and at least 50 mile radius with a bit of everything and connections to anything… The owner is an enamel only guy and his long term assistant a Tamiya acrylic guy. Thus the two lines of paint.
My closest hobby shops are all about a thirty minute drive. There is a model railroad shop about twenty minutes away but they do not have much general stuff. I do have a Michaels and a Hobby Lobby ten minutes away, thank goodness.
We have three in San Antonio.One specifically Train related. The other I don’t know. The third is well stocked, But the same distance as the other two to get too. 45 Miles from here.( New Braunfels)
As far as I know there is one in Austin.( Kings) and I am not sure about that. It’s been awhile siince I have been up there. 47 miles away from here( New Braunfels) For Both Cities the real Killer is Horrendous Traffic at all locations. And getting to them.
Have one 15 minutes away, primarily trains but they have a very good selection of models and supplies. There Hobbytown is 30 minutes away, but have never been to it. The one that was 5 minutes away closed several years ago.
The funny thing about Andy’s… until recently, the online store/stock was in another state. I went into the store one time looking to get something that I had seen on his website and was told of that- no in store stock of those items. I was a bit disappointed. Around the beginning of the year, they did get the online store moved here to AZ, but I don’t recall exactly where. The shop itself is fairly compact, so it’s not there…
Until a year ago, there was a shop about a mile from my house. The owner retired. I don’t consider Hobby Lobby (won’t shop there,anyway) or Michaels as hobby shops.