Your local hobby shop

[lemmyk57 1]

Could not find a topic about this so I thought I would start one.

Tell us about your local hobby shop. Think it would be neat to see what hobby shops are like in different countries and such.

What do you think of your local hobby shop?

Is it a hang out place?

What do you wish it had or did not have.

Is the staff have knowledge of what they are selling?

I love my local hobby shop, it is the only one for 250 plus miles (400 kilometers). Has everything from RC cars and planes, kites, cool science things, model trains, and plastic kits, and many other fun items. And the best thing of all is I get to work there!!!!!

If you would like to check it out there is a face book page for it, Who's Hobby House Rapid City, South Dakota USA

Will try to get some inside pics of the store soon, if you would like to see it.

Looking forward to seeing other hobby shops!!!!

[mongoose1983 3335]

Well, we don't have too many Hobby Shops here in Santiago. There was the fantastic Hobbylandia in the late 70's until 2002 I think. It was the Tamiya distributor back then. A year after I think they opened the much bigger Mirax. They used to offer Tamiya, now not anymore. You can find some XBs at Juguetería Alemana, but they're more into Tamiya static kits. Those are the two Hobby shops we have here.

Mirax:

A good and pretty big store, they have customer service, and it's the cheapest place you can find. Three of the guys that worked for Hobbylandia in the late 80's when I used to go there work here, including the guy that sold and packed my very 1st Tamiya. They don't remember me but I sure remember them as if it was yesterday! Oh, and if you happen to go there you better have patience. 15 minutes of waiting isn't something uncommon.

Juguetería Alemana.

One expensive place to spend money. They're more into static kits and everything for the modeller. Quality service.

[chevelle 997]

Okay so I moved to Melbourne Australia from New Zealand in 2001, I soon found that there was 2 main RC shops in the city, Hearns Hobbies and Hobby Place. Hearns is still going strong but don't do a lot of Tamiya and Hobby Place closed a few years back, there is another city shop which was called Hobby City but is now Metro Hobbies. Although this store does have some RC stuff they are more about the modeling side of thing's, however the Box Hill Metro Hobbies store has plenty of RC gear. There are a couple of other RC stores closer to me in the Northern Suburbs, Radical hobbies and Tullamarine toys & Hobbies. They don't do Tamiya Spares but the do carry Tamiya Paint's which is good and they both have a good selection of bodies. I would have to say that I enjoy going to the Box Hill Metro hobby store the most.

Hearns Hobbies

Hobby Place

Metro Hobbies Box Hill

Radical Hobbies

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Tullamarine toy's & hobbies

[GregM 1109]

Tamico is the shop local to me. More information and lots of pictures are found here:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=71721

Mongoose, Mirax looks awesome.

[Saito2 6686]

Those are some great pics. Thanks for sharing although, I must admit, I'm a bit jealous . At one time, in my corner of the US, I had about 10 nice hobby shops within 40 miles of my home. Now those are all closed and there is one local shop that opened up last year. The owner is mainly into trains but has some useful modelling supplies. His prices are through the roof. He had to finance the business himself as he got laughed out of the banks when he told them he intended to open a hobby shop. It's always empty because no one under 60 seems to care about trains around here. He works a 2nd job, full time, at nights and dozes in the shop during the days. It's a real uphill battle for him.

[Dojo Dave 889]

Unfortunately, this is all too for those of us that choose to make a living out of our hobby or what others consider a hobby, I have owned my own Martial arts center for 10 years having given up the 6am to 4pm job.. it's tough. I'm in the middle of an expansion to more space and was thinking of carving out a corner for made to order RC, just because it's what I think about pretty much all the time. Lol. Rc/ martial arts/ life skills/ shooting center. Woohoo.

[werewolf 72]

My local hobby shop doesn't even have a physical shop anymore, unfortunately. Though those of us who know the owner are welcome to swing by his house and fetch all the stuff we've ordered from him which always leads to nice chats. He mainly sells Kyosho (which we race) and Traxxas, but he used to run a lot of Tamiya cars back in the day.

Pretty cool that your shop is in Rapid City, Lemmy! My wife's from Rapid City and we were actually thinking of visiting there next summer (I've never ever even been to the States). So now I know at least one shop I just have to visit

[moffman 5752]

I had two hobby shop within a mile of each other both were brilliant but like all the rest they have now gone! One just specialised in tamiya everything rc's, statics, paints etc!the other was a proper rc racer's dream electric, nitro, on and off road but the owner fell ill and had to close because of the stress of owning a shop because the local council were stuffing him with massive rent increases! (Usual UK councils faceless and thick!) And his son didn't want to take it over for that reason and the tamiya specialist one closed for the same rent reason and he now has a regular job and does a small mail order from his house (I think)

[markbt73 5315]

The best local shop around here is Tammie's Hobbies, which is about a half-hour drive across town from me. (There is a Hobbytown USA much closer, but I only go there for paint or raw materials. It's an RTR dumping ground, basically.) Tammie's has decent stock, generally knowledgeable employees, but it isn't very hangout-friendly. It's jam-packed, the aisles are narrow and tall, and so the whole place feels sort of cave-like. When it's crowded, it's really hard to browse. But lucky for them, I see it crowded more often than not, on weekends anyway.

When I lived in Minneapolis/St Paul, I got spoiled by two awesome local shops: Hub Hobby Center in Maplewood, and RC Car Kings in Burnsville. Both were places you could spend hours: Hub is huge, clean, and very well-stocked, with a nice long glass counter perfect for bench-racing, and Kings is small, cluttered, and chock-full of old interesting surprises tucked away in corners. I hear they moved to a bigger location; I really hope they took the old stock and the charm with them.

[Saito2 6686]

I remember ads for Tammie's Hobbies way back in the day in RC Car Action. Glad to see they're still around. I ordered a WW2 from RC Car Kings about 15 years ago when I got back into the hobby.

[Theibault 1535]

I have a HobbyTown that I get paint and various bits from. They really don't have much in terms of what I usually get. I will have to check out Denver and see if there is a shop that carries Tamiya. No one around here does other than static models and tools. I like to think of Stella and Tower as my "local" hobby shops. Maybe one day I'll go to HK and visit Stellamodels.

[73robb 132]

There's a couple of model shops where I live but they cater solely for railway or R/c boats, nothing for cars. We used to have a beatties in town when I was a kid, and this was where I first drooled over Tamiya kits. When I used to race in the early nineties there were two branches of Radio Active models in local towns, and these catered for the proper hobby trade rather than toys as well. One branch closed years ago, the other has been taken over since. Oh, and we used to have a modelzone in town, never much R/c stuff and this also shut a couple of years back!

When I got back into the hobby I came across Time Tunnel, Modelzone and Fusion via google, and have tended to place any large orders with these rather than overseas shops (I always prefer somewhere I can call easily for advice if I need to).

[lupogtiboy 454]

The most local model shop to me now is Mick Charles Models in Ewell. They have been there for many years, have a huge stock of most models and a lot of spares, plus the guy on the counter knows his stuff, but there are a few Tamiya models he doesn't stock because he doesn't like them (Clod being one of them!) The only other places I've recently bought anything RC is Horace Fuller in Horsham, though they seem to be cutting down on their range in favour of their main business of gardening tools and mowers. Sussex Model centre in Worthing is the other, a shop with a broad spectrum of RC equipment and friendly staff too.

I really miss my childhood model shop, Reigate Toys and Models. They used to have one shop, the wife running the front of house toy shop, and the husband the model section at the back. Soon they split the shops and the model shop went across the road. He had loads of Tamiya models on the shelf, and he used to run a savings club, so you could reserve a model and pay in weekly/monthly until you had paid for it, that's how I could afford my first Tamiya. He offered a 'build it' service too, though I opted to build mine myself (the bit I enjoy the most!)

If only someone could bring back someone like Beatties on the high-street again!

[topforcein 1764]

For me I guess i,'m really lucky.

Up until the mid to late 90,s in dudley there was 3 yes 3 shops one being beauties the other being ace models where I brought my second rc "manta ray" and the third being racers choice that was as the total says more to the club racer but was good for spares.

Then I managed to find one in bridge town called past times models where I brought a fare few rc's from but again that shut in the late 90's.

Know a days I have 3 model shops by me.

My main one being Penn models that I have parted with a load of cash this year and ain't finished yet as I just orderd a bruiser

Second one is radshape these I tend to go a few times a year I don't buy kits as Penn models will always match or beat them so only

By hop up and spares and shells.

Third wheel spin models I do not use them as they have a huge attitude problem in with the know it all attitude and tbh I don't appreciate that kind of service from a rc shop they are more into the getting stock out the door attitude than the kind friendly and helpfull service.

[Andyfish2000 104]

I'm within a mile of Mick Charles Models so use them for mainly for immediate requirements or cheap stuff that I don't want to pay postage on. Other stuff comes from online. Another great model shop which I haven't been to for years is Avicraft in Bromley. Much more about flight than cars, but they used to have club night on Thursday where the shop stayed open late as one massive social fest! They were/are also great for having drawers and drawers full of old parts and equipment like an old model breakers yard.

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

Not my local hobby shops, but I still thought I'd better share. For four years (2005-2008), I was our company's resident in the UK although I officially lived and worked in Munich, Germany. So, apart from working, I visited all the car and aviation museums I could, but also went to as many hobby shops as possible. My favourites ended up being Wonderland (Edinburgh), where I even picked up a sheet of original Super Champ stickers for peanuts (in 2005!) and Gee Dee Models (Nottingham).

I wasn't any good at taking pics of the different shops, but at least just found these:

[Mrmoots 3]

Models in motion, Stevenage was a great shop.

Sadly now gone.

[acprc 1443]

I struggle to find any shop close to me that has anything other than RTR kits from non descript companies. When I got back into Tamiya many years ago I found some great shops but they have all just died away. I am struggling now with UK based internet shops (I wont name them). Recent parts orders from Tamiya through these online shops have taken months to arrive so now I just order direct myself from Japan.

[moffman 5752]

Models in motion, Stevenage was a great shop.

Sadly now gone.

Il second that I used to buy a lot of tamiya rc from Stuart and ray and other rc's they used to give me good discount it was a sad day when it closed!