Hobby Lobby? Any good in general?

They're okay.  Their selection of kits has been dramatically reduced over the years, and there is little variety.  Still not a bad place to go when you use their 40% off coupons and they do carry the classic Revelogram kits (B-25,B-17, B-24, P-61 and PV-2).  They have a minimal selection of armor kits (Old Tamiya and Academy), some ships and some cars.  If you're looking for the latest/greatest kits from Tamiya, or Haseagawa you're going to be SOL at Hobby Lobby.  As for Supplies, they carry the generic Testors brushes, some Squadron sanding sticks, the occasional roll of Tamiya tape, some MM and Vallejo paints.  

All said, I still go there when I need something they carry, but I've been unimpressed overall.

Ditto on what Disco Stu said. The one in our area is about 70% R/C, 20% toys, and 10% kits and supplies. Don't go there unless they have something I need "now". Would be OK for beginners, I guess. Ditto on "unimpressed".

Jim 

I dig 'em! They're building one only 10 minutes away so I won't have to cross state lines to get there. While the selections have been pared down, the clearance aisle has some great deals at times, and there's the resin casting stuff, assorted tools, aluminum tubing, some great brushes in the art dept, adhesives, etc, so even if I don't buy many models there, I get a lot of my supplies/tools from them.

Glenn

it's not a local hobby store. as said models and pure modeling supplies are in one aisle. however for other things i tend to use such as pastels, artist acrylics, brushes, fake flower stems, wood placques etc they are less expensive than a pure art store. and the 40% coupon is great. if i see nothing i really want will pick up a pack of tamiya masking film.

Think outside the box and it's a great place for supplies. Aside from that, with the 40% off coupon you can get a kit or two at a great price. I picked up the new Revell Ventura for a tad over $20 when all the LHS want at least $10 more. Now for that Academy 1/35 MH-60 (AH-60 DAP)...

How to sneak it in past momma...???

Several years ago, Hobby Lobby was a great place to score new Dragon or Trumpeter armor kits at a deep discount with their 40% coupon. Within the past 5-7 years, their armor selection has diminished greatly with the two stores in Louisville carrying the same set of kits: just a Tamiya M60A1 RISE/Passive w/ERA, Tamiya old M36 Jackson, Academy M1A1, Tamiya M41 Walker Bulldog, and a few other accessories.

The do carry a decent selection of car kits, mainly Revell, AMT/Ertl and MPC.

The 40% coupon does take a good chunk out of items like compressors and airbrushes.

Hi Fam,

It really depends on what you're looking for and what your interests are.  For me, it's a great place.  I primarily build aircraft with the Revellogram brand being my all time favorite.  So with that in mind, Hobby Lobby is the place I love to go for that.  As other have said, if you go there with their 40% off coupon in hand, you'll be in really good shape.

Perhaps I'm lucky in that my local Hobby Lobby is stocked fairly well with aircraft, cars, helos and even ships.  It seems to me that a lot of people bad mouth HL if they can't find a rare boxing of some subject that was produced by an Eastern European cottage manufacturer in great supply on their shelves.  That's not the kind of place Hobby Lobby is.  It's like reading car reviews where some magazine gives a sports car bad reviews because it doesn't have much trunk space.  If you want trunk space, get an SUV!  If you want some obscure kit, don't go to Hobby Lobby.  But if you still like building for the fun of it, then Hobby Lobby is a great place to go.

My local Hobby Lobby is also stocked quite nicely with both enamel and acrylic paints.  They have more brushes than you can shake a stick at.  They have pastels and oils and about a dozen different types of airbrushes available as well as the spare parts for them.  I've purchased pastel chalks from them and countless modeling tools as well.

It seems like every Hobby Lobby is a bit different than the next.  Some are better stocked while others might not be as fortunate.  All I can say is stop into it once it's up and running and judge for yourself.

Eric

It's the closest hobby store to me, about 20 minutes away. I used to frequent my Hobbytown USA until they closed up. That was a 45 minute drive, for me.

My Hobby Lobby carries a good variety of Model Master Enamels & Acrylics. It has a decent choice of car kits, some older Tamiya & Monogram kits and a few Academy kits. They also have some other supplies. Not great but good if in a pinch.

You can always go online, to their website and print out their 40% off coupon too. That helps.

http://hobbylobby.com/weekly/weekly.cfm

My hobby lobby you doesn't have hardly anything for air brush supplies.  An iwata neo is the only brush they offer, and their compressors are ridiculous in price to where even when you pay with the 40 percent off coupon, you're still paying more than you could pay elsewhere on line. Their revell collection is decent with the vintage selection, but not much in the way of newer stuff. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect to find Hasegawa rare kits there,  UT I do think they could do a better job probing the community to find out what's popular at the moment and stocking that. That's just common business sense. Or at least rotate your stock every six months and provide something new. In the past year the only new kit I've seen them stock is the amt f-15D, I think  I'll pass. I did manage to pick up the revell A-6E past year for 19 bucks while on clearance before they quit carrying that. While they do carry paints, their selection is less than desired to me., and be prepared to sort through the. Ins for five minutes to find what you're looking for. Apparently the color slots are only suggestion to their stocking crew. On a very good note, their supplies for other aspects of modeling are great. Oil paints, milliput,  rushes, pencils.  At least you score a big Homerun there. The modeling stuff is more than sufficient for a newcomer, but leaves a lot to he desired for seasond vets.

A couple of thoughts from a forum newbie, me.....

Just returned to the hobby, and here's what I've found about my local Hobby Lobby;

The kit selection is sadly better than any hobby shop's I've found withing about 50 miles or more. You situation may vary. They stock a lot of model car kits, more than aircraft, Armour, ships.

They stock some staples than neither of my shops carry. Tamiya putty, glue micro-brushes,  the basic replacement parts for my Iwata airbrush. They seem to have inherited the Testor/Model Master rack in my area, and have a better selection of both enamels and acrylics than anywhere around here. They are only source of Vallejo colors around me, too. Short selection, but better than nothing. You'd have to scope out a store to see what they might have that you use, or would like to try.

I'd say, as mentioned above, go scout it out. No harm in seeing what is avail.

BTW, re the coupons mentioned above, just Google "Hobby Lobby" coupon, you'll get a page with the current 40% coupon, valid for one item, one day. I was never a coupon clipper until a few months ago when I started frequenting my local Hobby Lobby.

Still, of course I prefer to support my local hobby shop whenever possible.

Hope this is somehow helpful.

PS, had to laugh at scapilot's comment about their randomly organized paint racks. True in my case too. :)

Greg

PS, had to laugh at scapilot's comment about their randomly organized paint racks. True in my case too. :)

Try visiting a Michaels Craft store

I prefer Hobby Lobby to Michaels.  After moving, the Hobby Lobby was about an hour further away.  Just found out that there building a new Hobby Lobby less than 10 minutes away in St. Pete. :)

...and both have 40% off coupons that I print off when ever I go.

Yeah, hobby lobby has it's place for modelers. Lots of stuff in various other depts there that can be used for models too. And PLENTY of artists oils and acrylics for those that model with them.

Nowadays for me HL is best for supplies. Its not just the model isle supplies either.

Back when they had a 50% off coupon they had a much better selection of models. This was during the Polar Lights days.

Clearance items were also much more frequently and heavily discounted. I would say around 60-75% if you were lucky enough to be there. I remember getting the Revell 1/72 GATO for $40. They had two of them for a long time and one day I went in and it had the yellow sticker on it.

Diorama supplies were also drastically reduced. $3-$4 for the large Woodland Scenics 32 oz shaker cannisters. Lots of HO scale buildings and figures too.

I agree that their clearance aisle (a general aisle in the corner of the store) is a great place to score a deal if you get lucky. Before the Tamiya 1/48 scale HMMWV was available separately, I saw the F-117 fighter with HMMWV in the clearance aisle for about 70% off the retail price. I bought the kit, took the HMMWV out and eBayed the fighter without the HMMWV. I ended up getting more for the fighter than I paid for the complete kit.

Hobby Lobby is 10 times better than Michaels any day. Michaels has an anemic selection of models and only small Testors paint bottles for a paint selection along with the craft paints. Hobby Lobby carries a limited MM paint selection and a few Vallejo colors which come in handy in a pinch. They used to have a decent model selection but they keep cutting back on armor and aircraft subjects. I wish they would carry Dragon kits to go along with their 40% discount coupons.  

Rob Gronovius

I agree that their clearance aisle (a general aisle in the corner of the store) is a great place to score a deal if you get lucky. 

I agree.

I bought the Tamiya Char B1 bis for $20 on clearance.

These days, though, clearance prices on most kits work out usually at 40 % off .

Not always, but more often than not. Still worth checking as sometimes kits are marked lower than 40 % off.

At one time clearance items were on isle end caps but lately kits have been mixed in with all other clearance items along a rear wall of the store.

Every once in a while, a clearance tag will have a red line through the price. This means (at least in my closest store), that the price is half off that clearance price. I have noticed that many clearance marked kits are at a 40% off discount. That's not much of a discount when you could get the kit for the same price by using the coupon.

I have to drive 40 miles or more to get to a dedicated hobby store, so Hobby Lobby is the only practical source for model supplies. Sometimes they get some great stuff in at great prices. I found a 1/48 scale Tamiya F-16 for $34.99 in the clearance section. Another trick is to check all the prices on the kits, I found a Tamiya1/48 scale P-51D "Tuskegee airmen" mismarked $19.99 and I had a 40% coupon, you do the math!  and before I discovered Hobby lobby, I had never even seen Tamiya putty before. If I want something specific I go to Squadron or Sprue Brothers online. For what they are Hobby Lobby is hard to beat.

No need for HL here.I have a well stocked LHS about a mile and a half away. Another is about 15 miles away. Both offer discounts and support the club through contest sponsorship. Both use Stevens Hobby as a distributor, which means i can go to the Stevens site and see what's available, then bring the stock number to the shop. Typically, I can have the item in my hands at club discount in a couple days. About 30 miles away, another shop has the full Vallejo Model Color line. The closes store also has access to the Badger and Paasche parts I might need and again, can special order parts with quick turnaround and no shipping.

I will only buy brushes at a true art store like D-i-c-k Blick. Michaels and AC Moore leave their brushes easily accessible to the unwashed masses who replace brushes willy nilly in the displays, The staff are careless about how they package them at the checkout.

As to the comment about paint racks, two things are in play. First are the people who have to look at a paint bottle up close to see the color and then can't figure out where the bottle came from (All those descriptive words and reference numbers are too challenging for them, I guess) and second is staffing that doesn't give a rat's hindquarters about anything but their paycheck and whose typical reply to any inquiry is, "Uh, what we got is out there, dude."

There are other reason's I won't shop there, but that would go too far off topic. Suffice it to say, I just don't need them.

Rob Gronovius

Every once in a while, a clearance tag will have a red line through the price. This means (at least in my closest store), that the price is half off that clearance price. I have noticed that many clearance marked kits are at a 40% off discount. That's not much of a discount when you could get the kit for the same price by using the coupon.

Yes, their clearance used to have a lot deeper discount, but the ones there now are only 40%.

Oh the glory days of Hobby Lobby.  Anyone remember the half off model kits deal?  I build 1/48 primarily WW2 aircraft so back when they stocked Tamiya kits, and armed with their 40% coupons, I made it a point to clean them out of the Tamiya P-47 kits.  Heck, a quarter of my stash is from Hobby Lobby.  I guess its no longer economically feasible to give away $45.00-$50.00 kits.  Interestingly, you still see an ocassional Tamiya kit there.  The last time I was there they had the Tamiya Mosquito and Tuskegee P-51 D.    

Joe    

ah....the glory days....I remember Accurate Miniature, Hasegawa & Dragon kits being in stock...and I too lived for the 50% sales.....oh well, all good things must pass.

on the upside, my local HL is now stocking Vallejo paints....not a great color selection, but it's a start.

Yes, most of my Accurate Miniatures Mustang kits came from Hobby Lobby at reduced prices.

And I, for one, find it hard to understand how Hobby Lobby can keep it's doors open when they offer 40 pct off coupons every week.

I use the coupons for everything I buy in that store.

Can their profit margin on plastic models or airbrushes actually be more than 40 percent?

Sprue-ce Goose

And I, for one, find it hard to understand how Hobby Lobby can keep it's doors open when they offer 40 pct off coupons every week.

I use the coupons for everything I buy in that store.

Can their profit margin on plastic models or airbrushes actually be more than 40 percent?

I use Hobby Lobby a lot, especially since they have a 40% off coupon every week (available from their website).  The ones here in St. Louis have a fairly good selection of plastic cars, ships and armor; as well as some paints and adhesives.