Hobby Shop Dio

Ah, Memory Lane!  Used to be some great places like this around, stocked to the gills with good stuff.

Thanks for posting it.

I also did a hobby shop diorama a few years ago.  I included the store front.  This is to depict how I remember shops in the mid-50s, so there are fewer plastic models, more balsa flying models, tether cars, etc.

There are a couple of pictures of it on the first page of my modeling hobby page;

http://www.usfamily.net/web/stauffer/models.htm

looks good Don

Holy cow!  The dio on the cover of that magazine looks nearly spot on for the hobby shop I used to go to as a kid.  It's been a good 30 years since I've been there (and they've since closed shop) but I can still remember the sights and sensations as if it were yesterday.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Eric

WOW !

Nice diorama ! 

And look at all those Monogram kit boxes.

Hans von Hammer has got to see that .

Reminds me of the 'real' model shop I would shop at in the '70s thru mid '80s. Creative Crafts and Hobbies in a little suite at Maywood Mart in Jackson, Ms. It was jam-packed and almost cluttered. Even tho it was a 50 or so mile drive, one of my parents would take me before I could drive and afterwards, I'd make the journey alone, several times a year. Seems like around Christmas, when school let out for summer and before school started in the fall. If I was lucky, somewhere in between. I still made the trip after high school and I started working. I loved that place! Plastic kits, RC stuff, board war games, paints, decals, books and some other regular craft stuff, like flower things and knitting stuff IIRC. Dusty, plastic models hanging from the ceiling, I know one was the Monogram B-52, armor and car models in the window and on shelves behind the counter, stacks of catalogs behind the counter. I remember once he  special -ordered me a model and when it came in, someone else from my town was in there and tho they didn't know me or my family, he sent the kit by those strangers, along with a bill and said to just mail him a check. I think the old guy who owned and ran it retired and closed in the early '80s and his son opened up a new, improved, bigger store down the street. It reminds me of a Hobby Lobby or Hobby Town today. I don't think he lasted 5 years or so. Man, those were the days!

One hobby shop in my area was a drug store; lots of 1/72 AIRFIX, Air-Lines, Revell aircraft.

Another local shop carried a lot of AURORA kits, Profile Publications,  and had a slot car track for racing 1/32 slot cars.

Nice thing about the mid to late 1960s was the fact that almost every drug store and department store sold plastic models.

Bought a 1960s era  1/72 AIRFIX Fw-190D kit from a department store......still have the assembled and painted model.

There seemed to be so many !! In NJ I had ***'s Hobbyland in Cranford,Dana's in Bloomfield,One in Jersey City,one in Guttenberg,Ridgefield,Maplewood,Avenel,most are gone now,so many memories.

Ditto on the late '50s and '60s. My brother and I would walk to the two great Mom & Pop stores in our area. They seemed to have everything you needed and lots of stuff that you wanted as soon as you saw it. Owners knew everything about the hobby and gave you any help you needed. When you finished a model, you brought it in and they placed it on a display shelf for a while until they needed more room for others. Once in a while they would hold contests and have customers vote for the winner. Prize was a kit of your choice up to a certain dollar amount. Those days are almost totally gone. 

Jim 

Heck I remember getting my models at Sears during the '80s!

Eric

     "More recently," I recall seeing some decent looking Star Trek kits for sale at Big Lots.  I haven't seen any model's of late though.

Once was a time that just about every big-city strip mall had one of these mom-n-pop style stores...at least the Washington D.C. suburban area was like that until the late 80's/early 90's.

Wicked fine dio to boot.

Dre

Once was a time that just about every big-city strip mall had one of these mom-n-pop style stores...at least the Washington D.C. suburban area was like that until the late 80's/early 90's.

Wicked fine dio to boot.

Remember when Squadron had a second shop a couple miles north of DC,maybe silver springs

My best find at an odd store was when my local K-mart bought a bunch of Pocher model car kits as part of a package from a salvage deal.  They were selling the kits for fifteen bucks- the Alfa Romeo I bought listed at well over a hundred bucks at the time (it was around 1980).

Tojo72

Dre

Once was a time that just about every big-city strip mall had one of these mom-n-pop style stores...at least the Washington D.C. suburban area was like that until the late 80's/early 90's.

Wicked fine dio to boot.

 Remember when Squadron had a second shop a couple miles north of DC,maybe silver springs

I used to enjoy visiting ( and buying from ) the Chicago/ Elmhurst, Illinois Squadron Shop.