Support your LHS they say...

[Kowalski86 4274]

Is it me, or is the whole LHS experience lackluster these days?

I can buy many different brands of train, slot car, or model accessories. But when it comes to RC I'm stuck with just one or (if I'm really lucky) two brands for parts.

I've learned just how important variety is when you really want to try out a hobby, yet I feel like LHS's just haven't kept up.

This would be like if every car dealership catered to Ford and only sold Ford parts, or (for you kids) every videogame store focused on Xbox games.

Where is the variety?

Note: I can only speak for America, other countries may have more variety.

[Steel bearings 7]

Well… I haven’t got any hobby stores close by at all. There used to be around 5 close to me, but they all closed down some time ago. I can’t say if it’s like this in the rest of Europe but here in Sweden there’s been a dwindle in rc overall I think. It’s probably not as fashionable as video games or other electronic equipment anymore.
 

I think most rc companies realized that they can get a wider range of customers to buy their products by selling them online rather than in a hobby store. Kind of like shopping malls close down because websites offer cheaper products or/and are more efficient for the companies that own them.

I don’t like it either, because I have to wait for weeks for some simple parts to arrive that I could have bought from say, a hobby store near me. 
But at the end of the day, companies always want to earn more money and they take such routes to do so.

Although when you mention it, I’m actually not quite sure why other hobbies like trains or Warhammer still have shops open. I guess they might close down soon as well. Or perhaps it’s in fashion again?

[Saito2 7654]

I wish I could comment with any authority, but I really haven't been in a hobby shop for quite some time. There was a Hobbytown about 45 minutes away that I'd swing into sometimes and it was very different from the shops I visited BITD. It was large, well lit and stuffed full of Traxxas and Axial on the RC end and not much else.

In the old days I remember 2 kinds of hobby shops. The old-old school ones that had everything it seemed from RC to plastic models. Model trains seemed to be at the core but they really had a ton of variety.

The second shop type, especially in the 80's had some modelling supplies and plastic kits but was obviously heavily RC based. Tons of parts, lexan bodys (Parma, Bolink, McAllister, etc.). Lots of Tamiya and Kyosho and always a couple RC10s on the wall but even some odd stuff like a Marui, MRP, Nichimo or even a Royal Ripper. They were always stuffed floor to ceiling and digging into them was like going on a treasure hunt.

Both types seem dead now as that business model doesn't work anymore I guess. I always supported my LHS over Tower (the big bad guy to LHSs back then) as they always ordered what I needed or helped me out when I was a hapless kid. When one of them got bought out, the new owner "forgot" to order things for me a couple times (despite writing it down and taking my number) so I stopped buying anything from them other than Tamiya paint. Long out of business now. Of course, he also thought Tamiya was crap which didn't endear him to me either, lol.

I think you'd have to be insanely dedicated to hobbies nowadays to even attempt a shop similar to that and even then probably fail. Hobby shops seem to be very money-driven now which I guess makes sense in this far more competitive marketplace.

[markbt73 5850]

That's the thing I miss most about Minnesota, actually, two amazing independent hobby shops: Hub Hobby Center, and RC Car Kings. I spent a LOT of time and money in both of them during the 10 years I lived in Minneapolis/St Paul. They both still exist, but I don't know how they're doing. Well, I hope.

Most Hobbytown locations are pretty much an insult, unless you're a Traxxas fanboy. And the last time I visited one, in Wilsonville, Oregon, I asked if they had any RC models available as kits at all, and the woman behind the counter looked at me like I had three heads. Apparently "hobby" just means opening boxes and cutting zip-ties these days.

I have heard there is one decent shop nearby where I live now, in Delaware, that doesn't stock much but will order pretty much anything. I have yet to check them out.

[F-150 635]

I'm miss going to the hobby shop.  To see the cars/planes in person on the shelf with RC airplanes hanging from the ceiling, a hirobo shuttle sitting on the counter ...it was what stamped my love for RC for life.

We have no rc shops around here or anywhere that I have heard of.  One guy tried to start one, but lasted only for a few months. Hard to do in the internet age.  I for sure would totally support a local hobby shop if we had one. I'd go order everything from them, make friends and just enjoy looking around the shop.

 

[Kowalski86 4274]

1 hour ago, markbt73 said:

Most Hobbytown locations are pretty much an insult, unless you're a Traxxas fanboy. And the last time I visited one, in Wilsonville, Oregon, I asked if they had any RC models available as kits at all, and the woman behind the counter looked at me like I had three heads.

I've had that same experience when I've asked a few LHS's about brushed motors, on-road tires, and Kimbrough spur gears.

Brushed motors? I get it, it's "old school", but plenty of crawler guys still use them. No I don't want a typical RTR 12t/15t can.

On-Road Tires? Sure, which flavor of Traxxas 4Tec tires do you want?

Spur Gears? Well I can get a Traxxas Slash A-arm in tons of colors and materials, yet I can't get a simple spur gear that isn't metal or cheesy Traxxas/Arrma stuff?

 

[Kowalski86 4274]

4 hours ago, Saito2 said:

In the old days I remember 2 kinds of hobby shops. The old-old school ones that had everything it seemed from RC to plastic models. Model trains seemed to be at the core but they really had a ton of variety.

This was my main LHS, tons of models, trains, and a few RCs. I remember various buggies and HPI monster trucks in the cases, and everything was a kit.

I don't have a problem with RTRs being more popular these days, but it'd be nice to get parts for say... a Team Associated or a Losi. Both of them sell "bashers" too.

[alvinlwh 7227]

While I do have a local, it is really more of a toy store with some model kits. Even then, it has more static kits than RC.

What I consider to be "my local" is one of the oldest and biggest in the country. 

https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/our-story/

When I first moved to UK, it was Edinburgh. At that time, I can only visit their store and window shop as I was in uni and moving around. They have a massive range of products ranging from farm toys to static to RC to trains to airgun, with all brands. Their staff are extremely knowledgeable in their respective departments. 

When I moved away from Edinburgh after uni, my local was Manchester Hobby Shop and Model Zone (a chain, now closed). At that time, I was doing static and trains. 

When I started on RC, I was staying in Stevenage and my local was Time Tunnel Models, a store with it's own sub forum here. 

Amazingly, I moved back to Scotland in 2009 and they also moved to Scotland the very next year. 

https://www.timetunnelmodels.com/live/catalog/mtsp.php?paID=1&osCsid=bdg3vdq3niom902ou1l6pcdsi7

With the closing of Fusion, they are now the cheapest around, and on the plus side, they do free shipping to me while most others will charge. Further more, they also will do spray paint while most others flat refused to post to my location. 

Finally, the nearest "true" model shop nearest to where I am currently is actually more of a gun and fishing shop. The models it has are mainly trains and static and the RCs are RTRs. 

Whenever I go near any of them, I will make it a point to visit them and buy something, anything. Just to have the pleasure of shopping in a physical shop that I experienced 2 decades ago. 

[RustyHunter 80]

17 hours ago, markbt73 said:

That's the thing I miss most about Minnesota, actually, two amazing independent hobby shops: Hub Hobby Center, and RC Car Kings. I spent a LOT of time and money in both of them during the 10 years I lived in Minneapolis/St Paul. They both still exist, but I don't know how they're doing. Well, I hope.

I'm in the Twin Cities metro right now, and they both seem to be doing well. Hub Hobby Center has two locations that both cover the wider hobby market. They've also got a good selection of Tamiya and Kyosho kits which I had never seen in a LHS before moving here. RC Car Kings seems to be doing well too, and I always love going there because there's good odds of finding some cool rare parts. Last time I scored a carbon fiber shock tower for my Rustler and a ton of RC10T4 parts for my dad. The hardest part is picking which store to support!

 

Any other cool places in the Twin Cities metro I should check out? Did you ever go to Molzer Mowry Racing?

[ADRay1000 524]

4 minutes ago, RustyHunter said:

I'm in the Twin Cities metro right now, and they both seem to be doing well. Hub Hobby Center has two locations that both cover the wider hobby market. They've also got a good selection of Tamiya and Kyosho kits which I had never seen in a LHS before moving here. RC Car Kings seems to be doing well too, and I always love going there because there's good odds of finding some cool rare parts. Last time I scored a carbon fiber shock tower for my Rustler and a ton of RC10T4 parts for my dad. The hardest part is picking which store to support!

 

Any other cool places in the Twin Cities metro I should check out? Did you ever go to Molzer Mowry Racing?

nice to know - I should check them out next time I’m visiting the in-laws. 

[MadAnt 299]

On 11/2/2024 at 1:47 PM, Saito2 said:

always supported my LHS over Tower (the big bad guy to LHSs back then) as they always ordered what I needed or helped me out when I was a hapless kid

Tower Hobbies was the store for and owned by Hobbico which did business with the dealers through Great Planes. Hobbico also owned a lot of the RC and model companies and stocked the other guys as well. When many hobby stores order their stock they get it direct from Great Planes. 

On 11/2/2024 at 3:54 PM, markbt73 said:

Most Hobbytown locations are pretty much an insult, unless you're a Traxxas fanboy. And the last time I visited one, in Wilsonville, Oregon, I asked if they had any RC models available as kits at all, and the woman behind the counter looked at me like I had three heads. Apparently "hobby" just means opening boxes and cutting zip-ties these days.

Not all Hobbytown locations are the same, they are a franchise. The one of the biggest RC related mistakes for Hobbytown owners was taking the advice from home office (Hobbytown's rep department). There are a few Hobbytown locations that put in the effort to sell kits and race cars, have a racing community and host races, but those are just a few. In my opinion, opening a Hobbytown location is pointless when the incentive does not seem that great and you have to pay a royalty.

There are a few Hobby Stores near me, the one I go to is 35 minutes away and has a race track, they have been in business since the late 80's.

 

Edited November 3 by MadAnt
My memory has confused a few details.

[moffman 6024]

I must admit I’m the luckiest and I do support my local hobby shop because it is literally 5 minutes walk (slow walking if I take my ageing dog) in fact it takes longer to get in the car and drive to it rather than walking and they sell everything rc all manufacturers and it’s fully stocked I don’t need to look anywhere else!

[Rijkvv 66]

As a LHS you have limited space. It's reasonable then that you sell the stuff that's popular. That means Traxxas and entry level Tamiya for me. The shop can order other stuff from those brands as well (as well as some other brands, but I'm not into RTR and some of the brands mentioned at the site don't exist anymore I think). I can see why they chose this way: both kits and RTR covered. If a parent who is not really into the hobby wants to buy something for his kid, it's hard to convince them to buy anything more expensive that say a TT02 or M05. The more serious hobbyist can always order whatever TRF kit they want, but they don't need to see the kit in flesh like somebody new to the hobby does. More brands or range within a brand covered won't immediately result in more sales.

Now I'm glad I have a few LHS to begin with (though according to some of you, apparently as a Dutchman everything is local to me 😄 ) and I'm into the "support your local shops" camp myself, but I also shop online. Often more choice, quick delivery and cheaper. Understandable that a physical shop can't offer the same prices, but as long as I have to pay my own monthly bills my sympathy/spending has its limitations.

[NUFCRc 173]

My nearest hobby store is around 10 miles away, it has a fantastic choice of tamiya paints, tools and airfix models, but their stock of Tamiya kits are pretty poor and they are rather expensive. I buy my paint here but most of the parts I order are from a Chinese seller on ebay, or from TTP, modelsport, wheelspin models etc.

[Wooders28 4913]

Like all small businesses , they're competing with the Internet giants, so just can't have huge amount of capital tied up in stock.

I believe it also costs to 'buy in' to be a recognised retail outlet for brands, (heard a rumour is around the £20,000 mark for Tamiya?) 

As a club, we talk to our LHS and they try and stock parts for our cars, as there's a good chance they won't be on the shelf for long.

Speak to the owner, tell them what you're looking at buying, and see what they can do for you, the more everyone buys the more they'll have in stock, I'm thinking Kev Talbot's LHS is going to have stock 🙄🤣 (although, he's moved to his tax haven now..)

[Saito2 7654]

5 hours ago, MadAnt said:

Tower Hobbies was the store for and owned by Great Planes. Great Planes also owned some of the RC and model companies and stocked the other guys as well. When many hobby stores order their stock they get it direct from Great Planes who was also one of the biggest dealer vendors. 

It was always my understanding that Tower and Great Planes were 2 separate entities that merged under the Hobbico banner sometime in the mid 80's. Hobbico and later Horizon were often suppliers to smaller LHSs too. BITD mail order giants (Tower probably being one of the biggest) had the power to undercut small LHSs. At least that was complaints I remember around one particular LHS way back when.

[svenb 4240]

4 hours ago, NUFCRc said:

My nearest hobby store is around 10 miles away, it has a fantastic choice of tamiya paints, tools and airfix models, but their stock of Tamiya kits are pretty poor and they are rather expensive. I buy my paint here but most of the parts I order are from a Chinese seller on ebay, or from TTP, modelsport, wheelspin models etc.

Same here

They don't stock hop ups or body sets and only the latest kits. Previous owner had more spares, would do part exchange and second hand cars. 

Access Models in Newark on Trent Nottinghamshire. Friendly helpful staff and decent pricing 

[Nick-W 1857]

My local (ish, about 20 miles away) hobby shop is SC Models which is pretty good all things considered. I tend to use them, both in person and online, for kits, bodies, electronics and paint etc. Spares and hop-ups are almost always easier and cheaper to import, which is a shame. 
Back when I was in school I did my two weeks work experience in the local model shop in Spalding, Lincolnshire. It was pretty good fun. I built an TA01 Cossie and a Blackfoot for display. 

[MadAnt 299]

41 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

It was always my understanding that Tower and Great Planes were 2 separate entities that merged under the Hobbico banner sometime in the mid 80's. Hobbico and later Horizon were often suppliers to smaller LHSs too. BITD mail order giants (Tower probably being one of the biggest) had the power to undercut small LHSs. At least that was complaints I remember around one particular LHS way back when.

Yes, I had it a bit mixed up. Hobbico owned Great planes and Tower which were just distributors. Pretty much the same people, but dealers/hobby stores ordered from Great Planes and Tower Hobbies was direct to consumer. So really all business from Tower or Great Planes was business with Hobbico.

When I worked at a hobby store in the past, we made our orders from the Great Planes dealer site, which was a bit clunky to use sometimes if you did not have item numbers. Hobbico just kept growing and eventually sometime after I quit the job at they declared bankruptcy and everything was sold to Horizon.

[No Slack 532]

There used to be two LHS' in cycling distance of 10 minutes. One gave up a few years ago but the other one is still going strong. This shop has electronics, static kits and RC (cars and boats). The owner has much knowledge and is very helpful and has always good tips and solutions. And he is a Tamiya fan. I guess I am lucky.

[NUFCRc 173]

18 hours ago, svenb said:

Same here

They don't stock hop ups or body sets and only the latest kits. Previous owner had more spares, would do part exchange and second hand cars. 

Access Models in Newark on Trent Nottinghamshire. Friendly helpful staff and decent pricing 

I wish the staff at mine were as helpful and friendly, the prices for some kits were ridiculous.. a 2016 re re blackfoot with esc was going to cost £190. I ordered one from Jadlam, complete with esc for £163.

[ABigChungus 87]

I went to Wonderland Models during a trip to Edinburgh earlier this year. My first time inside a model store since I first got into Tamiya in 2022. Plenty to look at and see, plenty of Tamiya behind the counter so I could pick and choose what souvenir I wanted to bring home with me. The man behind the counter thought I was just window shopping until I told him I had about twenty Tamiya's at home, and he said he could remember selling models like the BigWig when they were brand new in the 80s. He even tried to talk me out of buying the Original HotShot in favour of the HotShot 2!!!

[magnumb 147]

There is a really good hobby store outside of Chicago. Leisure Hours....great selection and love to go there to see everything in person.

There are several vehicles i would have never bought if i had not visited.... like a Expert Built Lunchbox and Blackfoot!!  And Carisma Subaru Brat!! 

[Juggular 5088]

On 11/3/2024 at 9:42 AM, Rijkvv said:

It's reasonable then that you sell the stuff that's popular.

That's it.  For them to survive, they have to stock up on the common denominator.  Something a 10 year old and a 75 year old would like equally.  

Local hobby shop was great when I was younger. When there was no internet, you didn't even know what else was available.  LHS was the world!  But now that everybody has thousands of world's shops on their hands, everybody gets to know what variety looks like. 

Kids would want cheap $25 helicopter toys in great variety.  Old Tamiya fans want more Tamiya stuff.  The basher crowd would want more Traxxas, etc.  So the shops just carry few $25 helicopters that even Tamiya fans might like.  They carry Lunchbox even kids might buy. 

Another problem is that while the shops have to broadly cover everybody's interest only to a shallow degree, each customer may come in with specialized knowledge; We may know more about Tamiya than the clerks.  The conclusion:  internet is evil and ignorance was bliss. (I'm kidding of course.)

 

[markbt73 5850]

On 11/4/2024 at 3:12 PM, magnumb said:

There is a really good hobby store outside of Chicago. Leisure Hours....great selection and love to go there to see everything in person.

There are several vehicles i would have never bought if i had not visited.... like a Expert Built Lunchbox and Blackfoot!!  And Carisma Subaru Brat!! 

Yep, I know Leisure Hours too. (I've lived all over the place.) Bought an M-02 Alfa GTA from them once upon a time, and I think a TL-01 of some flavor as well.