How Pony Is Your Local Hobby Shop ?

[SteelRat 46]

regardless, imagine how you'd be treated if ever tried going to a GM dealer to buy spareparts for your Ford

Fair enough, but if you go into a Ford dealer wanting parts for your Ford, you don't expect to be treated like a GM driver.

If someone new comes into your shop, you treat them like a prospective new customer, not like a prospective idiot.

[Sayer 742]

For those of you defending the attitudes of some of the LHS staff using examples of people who come to you with ridiculous problems or unrealistically high expectations, every service industry have people like that, but just because you get the odd individual who's an idiot, doesn't mean you should assume everyone is going to be one.

This.

(Having worked in both a FedexKinkos and as Tech support)

"Ma'am you poured water into your laptop. That's why it isn't working"

[VagabondStarJXF 350]

My local isn't that local to me, it can take about an hour to get to if traffic is slightly heavy and that's with me taking every short cut I can to get to it. The place is really old school, dark and a bit packed inside, the guys who run it are brothers, or so I'm told, and the place was founded by thier late father years and years ago who used to build and race RC planes. They have two sections to their shop, one for flying stuff and the other for everything else (cars, tanks, static kits, etc.). I've not had much need to talk to the flying side and the guy who deals with the 'everything else' bit seems a bit moody whenever I go in. He isn't really chatty or immediately friendly, doesn't seem to want to talk much I guess, but if you start asking him questions he definitely seems like he knows what he's talking about, especially if it's anything beyond the mundane "I can't get this to work" or "I want to go fast" rubbish. Bad point is that, even though they stock Tamiya stuff, he doesn't seem to be particularly keen on them. Maybe because their father used to build and race his own stuff rather than buy kits... but I'd just be guessing on that one.

Good store though. Well stocked in my opinion.

[sosidge 624]

Just about every hobby shop I have ever been in (95%) has been 'manned' by blokes with personality disorders of varying types and intensities.

Ahhh, the bachelors of hobbies...

Just before Christmas I went into one of my locals. The bloke behind the counter was obviously quite angry about a certain supplier or customer and was whingeing about them to his co-worker. At the top of his voice. Complete with multiple F and C words. With half-a-dozen customers in the shop.

Sometimes you wonder how they can stay in business.

[Snakehands 124]

Ahhh, the bachelors of hobbies...

Yep, that's the type:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwEVzOegqzw

[sosidge 624]

Yep, that's the type:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwEVzOegqzw

Now there is a blast from the past!

[beetlebanger1 6]

now has anyone got 2 pinions they would like to sell me along with a teu101bk esc . please . dont wana use the bay . would prefer to keep it in the "family " ......

cheers guys

[TamiyaDan 8]

.

[bensonboo 0]

Perhaps the moral should be that every (ex) hobby shop owner is different and some are helpful and some come across as ignorant arrogant fools.

[Sayer 742]

Perhaps the moral should be that every (ex) hobby shop owner is different and some are helpful and some come across as ignorant arrogant fools.

I'll go with: "There is just as great a chance of idiocy on either side of the counter"

[TamiyaDan 8]

.

[BeetleLover 4]

Really enjoyed reading Tamiya Dan's experiences as a store owner and the run down of the change in stores in the early 90's certainly fits with my local store growing up. My local store was in Hastings, New Zealand (50,000 people), I forget the name of it but we all called it Leicesters after the guy running it. He was very good and knew his stuff. It was quite a large store and car wise it must have been about 70% Tamiya, the rest Kyosho and Mardave and smaller brands... At anyone time there would have been maybe 10 different Tamiya models up on the top shelf running around behind the counter and glorious parts trees to many many models all over the show. The store must have been there for maybe 3 or 4 years maybe from say '88 - '92 a period I would have said was really golden for me at least. Shortly after he moved to a very small narrow store, perhaps in a better location but from there on in, few boxed kits graced the walls and occassionally the parts tree you were after might be there. I remember what the cars up there were at the time... Bullhead, Madcap and Bush Devil. I think this store might have lasted till I finished high school sometime around '94 perhaps.

Another store that was around at the time and my memory is loosing it but I think it might have been called again after the owner Peter Nuttals. I remember seeing the Avante in there maybe months before it closed down. I was fortunate to get my first real RC car a Tamiya Falcon when this store had a closing down sale which would make that late '88. Perhaps they had noticed a decline in business then, I can't tell what it was like previously as I was relatively young at 11 and so it could have been likely that real golden period for sales might have been between 84 - 88.

As an adult in the last few years, I generally don't get into conversations with model store owners and like others here I'm generally only in the market for paints/brushes and consumables. It would be fair to say a good number of people here have become experts in their respective fields/interests in what has become quite a diverse arena now. What we are "into" is quite likely to be a relatively niche interest. I "get" that a good majority of modern day store owners have difficulty providing for my specific, vintage and perhaps un-lucrative requirements. Times have changed, and more often than not (often due to knowledge learnt online) we know more about what we need than the people selling them, hence my reason for not getting into a conversation, from experience I'll end up knowing more about it, I'll establish I cannot be helped and I'll come across as a Male Rooster so I'll button it, buy my paint and get back home to this online resource of people in a wider range of interests who understand and know exactly what I need and the knowledge I seek.

thanks Tamiya Dan for sending me off on a nostalgia trip of my "locals"

James

[mike_o 35]

Tamiya Dan,

Thanks for sharing - I smiled and laughed!

Just about every hobby shop I have ever been in (95%) has been 'manned' by blokes with personality disorders of varying types and intensities....

Snakehands,

I couldn't help laughing, because the only dealer in my area in the 80's and 90's was indeed a diagnosed bipolar (which I only realized many years later). And ha was really a handful to us 17year old kids trying to learn about the hobby

[redzone 212]

Tamiya Dan - post of the year mate

i'm lucky enough to have an awesome LHS (toyworld kawana) - dont let the name fool you, they have an extensive range of RC and two very knowledgable guys behind the counter lots of Tamiya Losi AE Kyosho Traxxas etc etc & parts to suit.

plus they've been around for about 25 years in the same location, and i've halved the size of their boxes full of older tamiya parts!

[Taman 3]

This turned in to an interesting read Some good stories from both side of the counter

Willchang - I ended up going with Li-Po so much easier - I dont think Greg does Li-Po's(?)

[sosidge 624]

used to have a guy from scotland come into the shop about every 1-2 days and he would eat up Traxxas T-MAXX aftermarket parts like a drug addict.

he could not speak English and would garble at you in Gaelic or Celtic if you asked him more then once what the heck he was saying he would pitch a fit. so we used to make him point at what he wanted since nobody could understand him. it was hard to keep him happy since he seemed to have a temper about any and everything but he kept coming back until i closed the store.

I think he may have been speaking English. That garbling is the "accent"!

Next time I have trouble understanding a Glaswegian I may ask him to point instead, although I might get a Glasgow kiss in return

Nice stories. Remind me a little of the struggles a local shop owner had when a certain blue rally car was popular...

"I need a part for my RC car"

"What kind of car is it?"

"An Impreza"

"Yes, but who makes it?"

"Subaru"

[TenzoR 62]

Sorry to be the party pooper but my LHS has been awesome. They brought R/C on road racing back into the city with the Tamiya Championship Series. They supported existing off road racing series by donating gifts for draws and sponsoring their big races. Currently they are in the process of setting up a permanent track to host both on road and off road. They have a great selection of parts that racers want since themselves are racers of both on and off road. They talk to you and provide as much as help as possible. They go out of their way to make sure you can attend the next race session.

Now pricing is a sensitive matter, but compare to oversea, I doubt any stores in North America comes even close. With that said, I don't mind supporting them because they are doing so much for the R/C community. I am frugal, I try buying my stuff used but for spare parts or wear and tear parts, Instead of opening my browser, I call my LHS and see if they can have the parts I need (and they generally do).

[TA-Mark 195]

@TamiyaDan: I'm certainly not going to question your knowledge of the RC10, but what size was that Scorcher pinion again? A scorcher uses a 0.6 module pinion. It is only a US company that calls the size both metric and SAE at the same time, just to confuse everyone I'm sure. 0.6 module is approx 42dp, which of course does not exist.

@The OP, beetlebanger1: To walk into an Austalian hobby shop and expect to buy a decent quality 0.6module 20T pinion was a bad move on your part. They simply will not have one! If they are patient enough to be able to deal with ToyTraders (Australias Tamiya importer and distributor), they would only have Tamiya's butter soft aluminium AV pinions in stock, which you wouldn't fit to a runner model anyway. AV pinions are useful, but not for anything RC related as I've mentioned in other treads.

There is only one way to get quality steel 0.6 module pinions in Australia and that is to mailorder them from either the UK (RW Racing) or from the US (Robinson Racing) as these are the only 2 companies that make them.

I do know that OZ-RC in Brisbane now stock the Robinson Racing steel pinions now that the Tamiya runners have bugged him alot about getting quality pinions in stock. This is probably still mailorder for you too. Just so you know, OZ-RC's shelf price for one pinion is more than buying four pinions including the postage from the US.

[WillyChang 1814]

Willchang - I ended up going with Li-Po so much easier - I dont think Greg does Li-Po's(?)

Greg hasn't matched any NiMH for a few yrs now... at wild guess today he'd move more LiPO than all other oz LHS combined.

Sounds like he looks after his customers on any packs that have issues & he's in touch with the latest developments

so only gets in stuff that's worth buying eg best budget packs to fit a M03 or freshest cells of the 60C generation etc etc

[JayZ2000 0]

If its not a Slash Truck, my LHS probably does not have it. Before they moved to a smaller store it housed a decent carpet track, that even ran a Mini series. and still my parts needs were unmet.