Hobby Lobby cutting models back again

I only recently learned of the "Touch 'N Flow" a few months ago from reading this forum.  Bought one on line and I love it- one of the best tools I have, no more gluey messes!  Wish I had known about it years ago.  And yes, I saw them at HL a few days ago, which surprised me.

I'll have to hit mine sometime next week. I think my local HL just shoved the autos over to make room for pinewood derby and other stuff. But i certainly wouldn't mind if they consolidated their poor kit inventory to make room for more supplies (which can no doubt be used in other hobbies, but still).

One thing...last year around this time, my HL redid the aisle and replaced the MM racks with a single consolidated one filled 95% with Acryl. For my purposes, this means they basically just bricked over the paint section. Any improvement on that front?

Hold the phone...I just got back from HL and noticed a new kit....a 1/72 Trumpeter F-100 and it was $29.  That is the price range they need to go after, IMHO.  That is the first new aircraft kit I have seen in quite some time.  Maybe there is hope after all for HL.

Another poster mentioned this and I noticed the same thing.

As the model inventory has gone down the model supplies section(with the exception of paints) has gone up and is better than I every remember it being.

They now carry a very good selection of Flexifile (Alpha Abrasives?) products. These are the Touch n flow people. They are priced about the same as hobby shops but you can use the frequent 40% coupon.

I live about 30 mi north of Denver, and have heard great things about Colpar, but have never been there.  Unfortunately, I am an older geezer and not comfortable making the drive.  Hopefully, I may find someone of like interests to go with me-  Sounds like a neat place!

HL is pretty worthless here these days.  We have a small Hobby Town  here, that I buy from whenever I can, but their stock is rather limited.  I do want to support the local  stores whenever possible.

tankboy51

Well, for me anymore, HobbyLobby is a non starter.  A few years ago I was able to get some decent kits on their clearance rack or with the 40% coupon.  But the past few years there has been nothing, at least stuff I don't already have a couple of.  I don't really need anymore old Monogram SBDs  Too bad, as they have a store close to me.  I have a HobbyTown nearby as well.  A somewhat decent collection of kits, but a bit on the overpriced scale.  (Our IPMS chapter meets in their backroom so we all buy something there on occasion. Nice staff.)   However my main point of contact is good Ole Colpar.  I really don't need anything else.  One of the best Hobby shops around.  On top of that, this weekend is a sidewalk sale and they had a lot of kits going for half off.  Way cool.  They get plenty of the newest kits in all the time.  Very dangerous place to go too, for the wallet that is.  So HobbyLobby not stocking kits anymore, or very few, just removes one temptation for me. 

So it goes.

Doug

Doug, I can relate and agree with you.  I moved away from Colorado Springs about a year ago to the east coast.  Colpar was my favorite place to go....they are first class and a model for any LHS.  I have kits in my stash from past sidewalk sales and clearances.  I got my 1/32 Trump F-105 there for $70...sigh, I really miss going there.

Hutch

Well, for me anymore, HobbyLobby is a non starter.  A few years ago I was able to get some decent kits on their clearance rack or with the 40% coupon.  But the past few years there has been nothing, at least stuff I don't already have a couple of.  I don't really need anymore old Monogram SBDs  Too bad, as they have a store close to me.  I have a HobbyTown nearby as well.  A somewhat decent collection of kits, but a bit on the overpriced scale.  (Our IPMS chapter meets in their backroom so we all buy something there on occasion. Nice staff.)   However my main point of contact is good Ole Colpar.  I really don't need anything else.  One of the best Hobby shops around.  On top of that, this weekend is a sidewalk sale and they had a lot of kits going for half off.  Way cool.  They get plenty of the newest kits in all the time.  Very dangerous place to go too, for the wallet that is.  So HobbyLobby not stocking kits anymore, or very few, just removes one temptation for me. 

So it goes.

Doug

iraqiwildman

 

hutchdh:

 

Well, I have given up on HL.  It was fun while it lasted.  Internet is where it is at (matter of time before the politicians ruin that too, but that is another subject); for instance, Squadron is running a 25% off everything sale...that is added to kits that are already reduced...I got a few kits at a steal....

 

 

 

Squadron is about overpriced as Hobby Lobby is, even with the 25% off.

Depends....if I one has their sight on a particular kit, one can patiently wait.  Unfortunately, I have no patience.  But yes, only time I buy from Squadron is when it is just right, as their prices are generally high.  My hunting grounds are a number of sights I monitor...I am always looking for that one shot/one kill deal !!!!

  I am sad to see the model section go.  I was one of those "tag along" husbands and I usually left with something for my hobby.  I know this won't happen to HL, but our LHS used to be at a mall, and I was always asking my wife if she wanted to go there.  Rent went too high and the LHS moved.  The LHS is still going strong and the mall died.  The power of plastic, or at least I can think that was the reason for the mall's demise.

hutchdh

Well, I have given up on HL.  It was fun while it lasted.  Internet is where it is at (matter of time before the politicians ruin that too, but that is another subject); for instance, Squadron is running a 25% off everything sale...that is added to kits that are already reduced...I got a few kits at a steal....

 

Squadron is about overpriced as Hobby Lobby is, even with the 25% off.

Took advantage of the clearance to pick up a Tamiya F-16 (Arkansas Air Guard decals, yeah!), and a couple of the Testors quick build kits for the boys. That little Testor Spitfire is really cool for a snap kit. I wish I could get some more of that paint they put in there.

Glenn

Well, I have given up on HL.  It was fun while it lasted.  Internet is where it is at (matter of time before the politicians ruin that too, but that is another subject); for instance, Squadron is running a 25% off everything sale...that is added to kits that are already reduced...I got a few kits at a steal....

Cadet Chuck

By the way, you can always print out a 40% coupon from their web site.  But they are dated, and only good for the weeks they are accepting coupons.  And they can't be used on "sale" mechandise, which they are constantly changing.  It's a stupid game but I have used it to my advantage.  I got 40% off (saved $132) on an air compressor yesterday.  It was "on sale" for 30% off so by the rules that's all I was entitled to, but I looked for a rookie cashier, as someone suggested earlier, and sure enough, she took the 40% coupon.  Hah!

Sounds like a real steal.

When I went to HL yesterday, I found they had made a second reduction in hobby kits.  Practically nothing left but cars and a few Revell planes and ships.  I guess that's what the kids are buying.

By the way, you can always print out a 40% coupon from their web site.  But they are dated, and only good for the weeks they are accepting coupons.  And they can't be used on "sale" mechandise, which they are constantly changing.  It's a stupid game but I have used it to my advantage.  I got 40% off (saved $132) on an air compressor yesterday.  It was "on sale" for 30% off so by the rules that's all I was entitled to, but I looked for a rookie cashier, as someone suggested earlier, and sure enough, she took the 40% coupon.  Hah!

tankerbuilder

..Let,s face it most of us in two to ten years (GOD WILLING) will be buying most everything from HOBBYTOWN or on line. So Much for neighborhood stores ! SAD BUT INEVITIBLE !!!          oldcarguy

Actually, most of us probably already buy the majority of our kits online, whether retail or via online auctions, at shows, or at an existing chain store, like HobbyTown, as you noted, or at some other specialty hobby store, even an old-school LHS (they didn't all disappear).

HobbyLobby seems to have entered our market here (Southeastern PA) only recently, in the past two years, and they have to try to take customers away from HobbyTown, which is pretty well established as a source for model kits, and to compete with Michael's and AC Moore, which seem to have increased their efforts in that same time, to catch the scale modeler market.  I'm not surprised that HL is scaling back, if they're losing the battle with the rest of the competition.  I'm curious to see how our local AC Moore (Airport Rd, Allentown) does, too; they expanded their model kit/model railroad section just before Christmas 2009, but that was the last time I stopped in there.

Best regards,

Brad

I believe that the coupon code is all that's needed at H/L's registers for the phone coupon to work.. H/L is old school in that they don't scan.

I've been doing the phone-coupon scanning at Michaels for almost 3 months now. They have it posted at the entrance. Yeah, some ladies have looked a bit amazed when the cashier is scanning my phone. I'm glad to know that HL is doing the same. I haven't printed coupons for a while now.

jdice1980

Well if the store advertises and openly encourages it that's a completely different thing. My mind just jumped to people standing in lines on their phone surfing for some coupon to show the cashier.

Ha - I could actually see that happening, as a customer sees someone ahead of them in line doing the same thing.

jdice1980

 

arnie:

 

If you have a smart phone, pull up the 40% off coupon, show it at check-out and they will honer it. I've done this numerous times with no issues.

 

 

That's suprising.  I worked managment in a retail enviroment for the Holidays last year and people were amazed that we wouldn't accept that. Frankly, attempting that is a bit female hygine product-y.

I've seen Michael's advertise the same thing up here. Saves you printing the thing, or looking for a flyer with a coupon...

If you have a smart phone, pull up the 40% off coupon, show it at check-out and they will honer it. I've done this numerous times with no issues.

Haven't built any Dragon aircraft (got two 110s in the stash...but I just don't have the thing for German aircraft the way many do), but from what I've seen of the Orange Box armor, it's not bad.

Basically you get an older kit dressed up with some newer touches, sometimes with a figure set thrown in. For example, I've got the Orange Box Firefly Vc, got it for something like $25, and it comes with a newer-mold .50 cal and a set of British paratroopers.

Some of the others update with DS or magic tracks, etc. 

Think is, though, it's hard to "de-complicate" Dragon kits. A lot of Eduard's weekend kits are repops of old Gavia kits (that La-7 included). The only weekend I've built of theirs so far has been the Yak-3. Decent little kit, but one thing I hate was the decal sheet. Awful. Thick, yellowish, uncooperative. Makes me wish Eduard would sell their sweet Cartograf decals as standalones like they do everything else, instead of forcing you into the ProfiPack if you want them.

jdice1980

Haha...ok. I was wondering what the orange box was.

I'm not into armor that much but I can tell you that the Orange Box at least in aircraft left me a bitter taste. He- 162A-2 Salamander to be exact and their 1/48 Me262A-1/U4 Bomber Interceptor is currently painted and decaled but the front canopy simply wont match the fuselage. I would rather have Dragon keep the darn PE frets and give me better fit. Both kits were a lemon, compared to the Tamiya Salamander.

I have in my stash the Eduard La-7 weekend edition and that's a beautiful kit for $18. A *true* weekend edition. The 1/48 Me262A-1/U4 Bomber Interceptor from Dragon is unfinished taken the well deserved space of a finished model. These are static models, but I think I'm gonna make the Me 262 fly, trust me

I just stopped by our HL yesterday after work..... what a dismal mess.  About half the plastic was on the clearance table (though almost bought the Tamiya Mossie but have a nice Revellogram already) at any rate it would appear that plastic is not their gig.  I guess it's ordering from the LHS or The Bay.  I did see this beauty at the LHS:

I didn't have the heart to ask how much it was.

jdice1980

I completely agree with Hans that Dragon should go the Eduard route and offer their kits in “weekend format.”  

Orange Box...

Hans - I'll have to double-check when I go back by, but I'm pretty sure the Tamiyastang was priced at $25. Maybe, maybe $29. 

I have a feeling we could argue all day about manufacturers and the prices they charge. I definitely feel there are some that are justified in charging a premium because they go WAY beyond a PE fret and a metal barrel. The Tamiya Spits and Mustang are expensive, but they actually go a long way toward earning that price. The Storch...pricey...but the engineering on that thing is very ambitious. Pretty much anything WIngnut makes is worth it, IMO, especially when you have good-but-not-great Roden charging more for similar subjects.

On the armor side, I actually think Dragon and it's subbrands offer pretty solid value over some other makes (Tamiya armor continues to be kind of silly for the newer kits). And you can pretty reliably snag all but the absolute newest kits for around $30. But I've also found armor is typically the more expensive of the subject areas.

But that wasn't my point at all. 

My point was that Hobby Lobby chose poorly when picking the kinds of kits it should stock. The $80 Tamiya Swordfish is case-in-point. A relatively obscure (in the sense that most people who walk into a HL couldn't identify a Spitfire, much less a Swordfish) aircraft, a very high price tag. The $70 Mossie is the same story. They'd have done better, I think, with a solid stock of low- and mid-price kits of well-known, popular subjects. Heck, my HL has ONLY JUST started carrying 1/48 Mustang kits.

A solid range of kits priced from $15-$40 would have done them far more good, in my opinion, and moved kits and kept the stock fresh. 

Instead I just waited until that Swordfish never sold, got chucked down to $30, then snagged it.

I keep threatening to cut back on my model inventory as well, but it never seems to happen. Why should you believe HL either???

In spite of HL downgrading......at least one local Hobby Town is marking down some kits 50 to 75 pct off.....picked up a Quad 50 & trailer for under $6.00.....and am now missing the Monogram half track kit of my youth.....

I noticed that they've started stocking Tamiya's 1/48 P-51. And at a relatively reasonable price. Imagine that.

Your "reasonable" and mine are about 20.00 apart...  Imagine that... 

Ok, I'll focus on H/L too.. I don't go to Michael's (too far) and don't know of a HT anywhere within reasonable driving distance... The one that WAS here moved out after they got stupid and opened a store in the SAME strip-mall that H/L was located in.. They lasted only about four years...

When 1/48scale  single-seat/single-engine fighters go above 25.00 MSRP, they are officially out of my price-range for a model, Doogs...  I will NOT pay that price...  Even though they've marked the Tamiya A6M5 Zeke down 40%, I ain't touching it, becasue at 32.00, it's the same price I paid for a 1/32 scale Revell Zeke not three weeks ago... 

When Revell-Monogram can keep issuing a 1/48 B-25 for 18.00-20.00, a P-61 for 16.00-18.00, and a B-17G for 32.00 and Tamiya goes in at about 70.00 for a comparable aircraft-type, there's a definate problem...

I don't CARE about "quality" that much... I've been building those "low-end" kits since the 60s and they fall right into my groove...  If I have to use a little putty, or a little sandpaper and elbow grease, so be it... I don't need a "blue-print accurate" model, I wanna have fun, and the fun is the stuff I add to make a kit MINE... But that's another thread and subject altogther...

H/L could keep ME happy simply by stocking the Revell catalog, and let the other LHS's stock the high-end stuff...  But, I ain't the HMFIC...  I've spoken to the store managers, and the tame one I dealt with in the past (before the current clown that runs it came in) was very interested in my feed-back, since I was in the store pratically every day, buying diorama stuff and other supplies...  Even offered me diplay-space for dioramas I'd built (using 100% H/L products, that is)...  But that ended with this MBA-dumbazz that's taken over... However, I digress..

My point about Dragon, Tamiya, and the "et al", was that they've gone to the extremes in their kits, adding a few bells & whistles to their kits in order to justify the prices of kits that are, in reality, not "all that and bag of chips"... A few P/E parts and a seamless metal gun-barrel just don't get it... I can make the detail-parts if I need 'em, and I can sand a plastic gun-barrel seam without leaving a flat-spot...

For those that can't, well, that's what the after-market thingies rack is for...  And if they insist there's a market for it (obviously is), they could damn-well do what Eduard does and offer a cheaper kit of the same thing WITHOUT the added junk... I'm tired of not being able to build new stuff becuase it's so damned expensive, and I'm tired of having to pay for stuff I don't NEED or WANT...

If the poulation of modelers want those parts, then let 'em PAY for them, leave me and those like me out of it... 

So yeah, the manufactureres are to blame, but moreover, so are the "average" modelers foolish enough to get sucked in with trinkets and beads...WE're supposed to be the ones controling the damn model-market, yet we're not... 

And there's no way we're gonna ever get the younger ones, the ones who have to buy kits with their allowances or depend on Mom & Pop to pay for a kit, to spring for a 56.00 Zero or an 80.00 M1A2... My grandson is nine, and by the time I was his age, I'd been building "glue-together" kits for three years...  He's had three "snaps" and he's on a Monogram P-38 that I gave him, simply because he wants the "real models" but his Mom ain't buying a damn thing at a LHS... And I don't blame her...  Hell, she's cheaper than I am, if you can dig THAT...

Ah well.. At least there's still Ebay.. Doesn't change that fact that if I ran H/L, things would be different...

They have to make room for more Christmas stuff. It is out already in my HL. If they get rid of plastic kits they can keep it out all year.