Beaties Model Shop

[Live Steam Mad 17]

@Hopperboy - I loved reading that. Great stuff.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[T. Smith 0]

Superb van!

I didn't know that Beatties had a Tamiya hotline until I found this card in my Madcap box.

The 081 phone code would put the date between May 1990 and April 1995.

The Southgate branch was my local one and was the Beatties/Riko mail order centre. I used to go there quite a bit, buying all sorts of add ons for my Madcap. I also did 3 weeks work experience at that store during the early 90's. I was about 16 or 17, I think, which would make it either 1990 or 1991.

The Southgate branch was actually very small (the only other one I'd been to was in Holborn which seemed huge, comparatively).

10 paces from the front door at Southgate branch, and you were standing at the counter at the back of the shop where all the Tamiya boxes were stacked. Heaven. I can still see the Lunchboxes, Astutes, 959's, and Acoms radios. Working the shop floor were 3 other guys, Lee, Neil and Sam. Or was it Andy? Neil was the manager and later moved on to Modelzone, Holborn, where the old Beatties used to be.

The mail order room out back was even smaller than the shop. It was like a shed, but it had every Tamiya spare part available at that time. Each item had it's own pigeon hole. Every screw bag, every plastic sprue, every hop up option and body part was somewhere on the wall. It was brilliant.

The mail order room was run by three women - Aunty Jean, Pam (I think) and a blonde one who reminded me of Rose from Golden Girls. She weren't stupid, she just looked the same. Anyway, Jean and Rose were on the phones and Pam spent all day on her feet making parcels of the orders passed to her from Jean and Rose. A postman came round each day to collect everything, sometimes stopping for a chat (flirt) and a cuppa.

Those 3 weeks flew by, and I wished I didn't have to go back to school when it was finished. I wanted to leave school and work at Beatties. Still, it was great fun while it lasted.

[simondo 0]

Beatties in Queensgate Peterborough for me, but to be honest i preferred Orton models in the Hereward centre, they had all the spares in baskets, so you could just reach up, get a basket down and rummage through it to find the parts you wanted, and could offer up parts off other cars to see if they would fit. really liked the place, went in there a few years back and it was a shadow of it`s former self.

[chris350z 0]

i have loads of beaties recites from the peterbough and london one.

[Old Falcon Lad 0]

Beatties Watford for me, not far from Clements departmental store which also went years back. Scene of my Falcon purchase and lots of staring at Boomerangs, Hotshots and other expensive kits. And of course the lovely yellow and black bags. The shop seemed so big and HIGH, but then again maybe I was shorter...

Paul

[chris350z 0]

i still have one of them

[Berenger 0]

I worked in Beatties from the age of 16 until I was 18.

For someone who loves modelling of all sorts and RC in particular it was a fabulous place to work. We used to offer a build service for people who wanted to get into RC but couldn't or didn't want to build the kits themselves. It was amazing how often we'd get the job of completing or building a model that an enthusiast had owned before they died, and the family wanted it completed for display. It's a tremendously gratifying thing to do.

The staff discount (50%) was amazing as well, and let me expand my collection considerably. I remember standing there early in the morning or after closing, just sifting through kit boxes, smelling tyres (come on, well all love it) and generally day dreaming about pay day when i'd be able to pick up the next kit.

We used to have shelves packed with broken up kits that we used for spare parts. We'd phone the distributor (at that time Richard Konstam [RiKo]) and get permission to break a kit open to give or sell a customer some parts. When the store closed I got most of what was left.

Sadly Beatties sold off most of their stores just before I left.

I think the internet-aware hobbyist killed off the shop in the end after it was taken over. Even though it was bought over and continued to sell RC they priced themselves right out the market. I always remember a kit only Xsara WRC being priced at £125 at their closing down sale, it was £160 pre-sale. At the time they could be picked up NIB from Ebay sellers for half the sale price. One thing Beatties always did (in my opinion) was price their things fairly.

[tamiyoman 2]

I remember beatties in Manchester (My local), big black and yellow signage, it was tucked in a side street just off the main street near arndale centre from what i remember. Always used to go there for my parts until a shop opened a little more locally to mt house (literally 4 miles away, rather than the 13 to manchester!).

I remember going into beatties to buy a NIB Mud Blaster, only to be told by someone at the door that i could get it cheaper if i went to ASL models in oldham, so off i went and got it £15 cheaper!!. LOL, I think back to that day and wonder if it was ASL models staff "Poaching business" as they had just opened. I used to go there quite regularly as it was very close to where i worked (about 5 mins walk), they were quite good, but i remember them pushing Schumacher stuff a little too hard saying to me this is the best , dont get that Tamiya "Toy" LMAO.

[bonkett 0]

it was beatties in cardiff for me. being only 12 years old naturally i did'nt have any money but i remember walking straight to the back of the shop to the tamiya area, i would drool over all of the cars and watch the videos for hours and if my mum was feeling generous she would buy me a tamiya guide book. good memories. i remember when they were shutting down i bought a ta03f mitsubishi evo lancer for £65 about half price at the time, ive still got it although a bit battered now. I,ve got the ezrun to thank for that.

[torino 0]

My first Tamiya car was from Beaties in Chelmsford. An FF01 Mondeo when i was 10...ish

I used to love Beaties, wasn't that long ago they shut down.....was it???

I think Model Zone is the closest thing to Beaties now!

[Deaco 0]

I Remember the Beatties store in Leicester, the shire's shopping centre, that to had wall to wall airfix and R/C stuff I felt like a kid in a sweet shop, then that closed and ten made way for Dominoes toy store not a bad shop, not sure if they can get hold of vintage Lunchbox accesories. I also remember visting the beatties store I think it was some where near Hampton Court Palace, but not sure that to was a large store.

[sgt.barnes 0]

Blackpool Beaties in the Hounds Hill for me... Got my first RC - Sand Rover from there in 1983... built for me by my dad (I was only 9 at the time!) think he had more fun building it than I had running it into the walls! bought many a front bumper for it from Beaties

loved standing at the back of the shop watching the videos! And also bought my 2nd RC - Clod Buster from the same place! Happy Days!

Me too Hounds hill was the place that Tamiya was burned into my lust. I was probably the guy stood next to you dribbling on the carpet ! Do you remember that Saturday they shut the road outside the shop running the models around. I remember quite a crowd (1984/1985 ish)

This is some of my hounds hill memories from then (first paragraph) Blackpool memories Blackfoot

I remember on a Saturday walking from Revoe on my own with my meger pocket money to buy a sheet of balsa to make a chuckie from or 1 length of flexi oo gauge to add to my layout. The Tamiya was the best bit in the shop but it was a Christmas purchase only.

[rbmjmw 0]

I used to go to the Leeds branch in the late 90's early 00's. Always nice to have a look round at the RC models and the plastic kits. I was shocked and gutted when I saw them closing down. Picked up a few models right at the end to keep me going including a Baja Champ for £35, Two Wild Willy 2's for £35 each and a Wild Dagger for £65. It is a shame.

[Pulley 1]

wow this brings back memories, i was shopping in swindon when beatties where having there closing down sale! i walked in and walked out with a NIB stadium blitzer for £50. never forget that, there were tons of tamiya NIB's all going for stupid money, im sorta glad i didnt have my credit card on me at the time i would have probably maxxed it out must be like 10 years ago now

i also used to spend hours in beatties in romford as a boy, i could never afford the stuff in there it was only ever a dream back then as my parents couldnt afford it, which is why io dont feel guilty when blowing £400 on rc in one day now im older

Man so meny memories of the Swindon beaties store, watchin the videos an looking at all the hanging tamiya built up models, then I will allways remember so clearly the morning my da walked with me a few days before my birthday down to beaties and got me my first kit, a monsterbeetle, then eventually my dad (had) to get another for himself so he could race with me, afterthat every Penny my paper round and Saturday job went towards buying more kits, everytime I walk pastthe old beaties store I do get emotional remembering the good times I spent there, I'm new to the tamiyaclub and I found this post first and am so glad as it brought back so meny awesome memories, heh I'm now in the process of spending all my hard earned monies on kits I used to have and the ones I could never afford but badly wanted, beaties I miss you and those cool beaties bags

[essexjohn 0]

Colchester beaties was my local, I used to love looking round it on a Saturday afternoon with my family. I see a beaties bag on Ebay the other week, brought back fond memories!!

[Hibernaculum 933]

Being in Australia, we didn't have Beatties (as Hunterzero mentioned), but our various independent hobby shops around the place were much the same. I've often blabbed about them in the past on these forums, and it's been nice to hear all the UK based memories you guys have been sharing.

For some reason, the combination of growing up in that time (let's say late 1970s - early 90s) and the excitement brought about by RC toys during that time, has left us all with really powerful memories and a sense of nostalgia capable of making us spend huge sums of money trying to recapture/preserve that feeling.

For me, it was Tandy and D i c k Smith electronics stores, just as much as hobby shops. Walk into a Tandy around Christmas time in the 1980s and you would have seen around 15 different RC toys manufactured by Nikko etc, many of them really nice scale models. The king of the lot was the Golden Arrow of course (1987 - 1991), which was actually AU$329 when first released here (!!)

I stood a much better chance of getting something from Tandy at Christmas, as the prices ranged from $50 for a little "Aero Buggy" or the "Turbo Fox" buggy, right up to the aforementioned Golden Arrow 1/10th buggy. This is why in some ways, I actually have more childhood memories of visiting Tandy than of hobby shops. It was also nice to walk into Tandy because all the cars were RTR and on display. And you could test drive them in the store! Whereas most hobby shops here tended not to have that many built display models.

In terms of hobby shops though, the ones I knew best were Penrith Toy & Hobby, Berg's Hobbies in Parramatta, and Yennora Hobbies. On the rare occasion we went to those shops in the 80s, I'd see the Tamiya kits on a shelf behind the counter and I don't think my young mind could even imagine building something so complex Let alone my parents paying the $hundreds needed to get kit/radio/battery etc. It wasn't until I was about 12/13 that I began tinkering with Tamiyas as well as Tandy cars, by first getting a couple of used models and rebuilding those. Getting a 1987 Tamiya catalogue was also a pivotal moment, after some early years of only drooling over the Tandy catalogues (all of which I still have).

Regardless of the shop, the feeling was the same. The 1980s, RC cars, Christmas time.... If I had a time machine, that era is the first place I'd go....

[BennySRB 0]

My locals were Kingston and sometimes Croydon. First car I bought from Beaties was my Grasshopper 2, bought my Lunch Box there as well. Great memories.

[Gruntfuggly 562]

Cracking thread Gromet...

Brighton Beaties is my memory - again, loads of Tamiya upstairs. Loads of stuff I could never afford...

I'm amazed how every seems to remember a different Beaties - I'd love to see a map of where they all were - they must have had a fair few shops back in the 80s.

[ducatikid 44]

Hi, i remember Beatties too! I saw the Subaru Brat in my mum's catalogue and i travelled to Newcastle on the train with my dad. I remember walking in and watching the videos on the telly and seeing all the models on the walls. I picked the Brat and came out with the deal and blue Beatties bag for i think £116. I still have my Brat (in my showroom) although i have had to restore it with re re parts, unfortunately i lost my dad to cancer a few years ago but have really good memories of that day!

[Sammo 479]

Kingston (Surrey) for me. They had a train set that went around a track suspended from the roof. Very cool. Lots of SRB's on the shelves and all sorts of bits to spend hours looking at.

Much missed.

Kingston, Surrey, for me also. I didn't go there all that often because it was a rather long 2 bus journey for me. We had a short lived RC club at my school and almost everyone had gotten their Hornets and Boomerangs from there, along with one of the blue Beatties bags each. Strange that only 2 people had something other than a Hornet or Boomerang back then. One guy had a Hotshot and I had a Striker. It was a nice store, even after one of my old friends started working there!

Kingston was my local branch aswell. Although I was too young to fully appreciate it I do remember the suspended train set though, and the Tamiya videos playing on the TV behind the upstairs counter.

Its been replaced by a Modelzone now which is nowhere near as exciting!

[Scouser 83]

Liverpool, St Johns precinct was the one for me. Every Saturday me and two mates would go in and just stare at the wall behind the counter, waiting for someone to ask to see one of the cars. I never did get one but was happy enough to get the end of year catalogues and model magazine!! It was always the Hornet then the Hotshot and then the Wild One and I would change favourites weekly!! I was absolutely gutted when they went, it was a huge part of my childhood and a much loved ritual.

First post by the way, hello all!!

[Live Steam Mad 17]

Is there definitely only one model shop left in Liverpool City centre now? I saw a few years back that Stan Catchpole's Model World went from 88 Bold Street and then appeared round the back of Bold Street at 13 Seel Street, I have visited both shops, but then they seemed to dissappear forever and so did their website, and 88 Bold Street became Voodoo hairdresser and 13 Seel street seems to have been demolished...

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Scouser 83]

Sadly Liverpool is a void now. The nearest places of any note are Formby Models or Steve Webb Models in Frodsham. There is a Model Zone in St Johns Precinct but it aint no Beatties that's for sure!!

[VagabondStarJXF 350]

Its been replaced by a Modelzone now which is nowhere near as exciting!

Ain't that the truth!

First post by the way, hello all!!

Howdy Scouser! Welcome to the TC.

[Toykid 596]

My first Beaties was in Milton Keynes. This is where I fell in love with Tamiya RC and the Hilux and Wild Willy, as others have said I spent many a saturday watching the video in the shop window and it was a ritual to walk up the stairs to the second floor to see all the really expensive model kits. As a kid of 9 there was no way my parents would spring for either of those kits but I did eventually get a grasshopper.

My second Beaties was in Newbury. By this time I was racing my grasshopper at a local club in Theale. Tried a number of times to get a part time job there but it never happened. I remember having to take my grasshopper in because my steering servo wasn't working properly and the guy behind the counter knew exactly what was wrong, took it apart there and then, replaced the gears and only charged me for the parts. To a kid of 12 I was in awe and haven't had service like that since.

for me my relationship with Beaties ended as I got serious about racing. By this time I had owned a grasshopper, Wild One and Thrundershot (all from Beaties). As soon as I got my first proper racer a 2nd hand Cat XLS the love affair with Beaties can to an end

I do think fondly of all the super cool spare parts they had marked down in the later years that are worth a small fortune these days.

Them were the days

James.