Sad state of affairs.....

Our local Wallyworld cut model hobby stuff from their inventory a couple of years ago; no kits, no glue, no paints; not even snaptite kits. A nearby Kroger chain market carried a limited stock of things; a little glue, and little paint, and a couple of car kits, but that's it. I have not been in there lately to see if any of that is still carried.

I was at Michaels yesterday and was pleased to see models.  Mostly car kits, but some really good ones.  Most kits are $29.99.  Pretty anemic paint selection but at lease they had some - little testors bottles mostly.

The days of model kits being readily available from retailers is over.  Gone are the days when you could ride your bike to the local drug store and buy a model kit, paint and glue.

Heck, I remember buying a Hasegawa 1/72 Mig-17PF from Zane's Market, which was a bona fide grocery store.  I got a Revell B-17 Memphis Belle from Thrifty's Drug Store, where my dad got my sister's asthma meds.  Liberty House, which is now Macy's, had Revell's old 1/72 Dambuster Lancaster.  They also sold pet rocks - remember those?  Kinda like NFTs for the analog 1970s.  But at least you got a real rock for your money.

In Hawaii (well Oahu) we are lucky to still have a couple of hobby stores that cater to pretty much everyone - scale models, mecha models, wargaming, and RC.

But the times they have a changed, as all the shopping malls here have no models.  Pearl Ridge (Phase 1) is the lone exception.

Really,of no disappointment to me,I have no need of seeing or buying models at Walmart  

I mean no offense to the OP,degrading your choices.

I shop Walmart,but not for models.

I don't go looking for models at Walmart either.

Building models is our thing.  It doesn't have to be everybody else's. 

The Walmart near me just started carrying models a few months ago.

Mostly the Coca-Cola kits, but a few other recent releases. The problem is, they ordered 20 of each of the "Cola" kits an 2 or three each of the other kits.

They now have 20  of the 41 Plymouth "Coke" kits, 20  of the 60s Ranchero "Coke"  kits , 10  "Coke" GMC Tractor kits, 10 "Coke" semi trailer kits ect...

They don't know how to market them, and they just figure they will order more "New" kits when these are gone.

I suspect that they will eventually decide to put the un-sold kits on clearance, and not order any more.

Our Walmart had a few of those "Coke" kits a while back and a few AMT kits with nothing else. They lasted a couple of months and when they disappeared no more showed up. Asked a couple of workers if they would be getting any more and got the  mouth hanging open look. One called "someone" on his radio and after asking the question gave me the same dumb look and said "He said no".

I check every once in a while but haven't seen any kits or supplies. Oh, they do have tons of LEGO kits.

Stay Safe.

Jim 

Hobby Lobby has a selection of model kits- Revell, Atlantis, a few Hasagawa, and occasionally a few Tamiyas.

Better yet they still hae Testors and Vallaho paints.  Also some sheet and strip styrene, some K & S brass.  They have a few tools, but these tend to be a bit pricey.

missileman2000

Hobby Lobby has a selection of model kits- Revell, Atlantis, a few Hasagawa, and occasionally a few Tamiyas.

Better yet they still hae Testors and Vallaho paints.  Also some sheet and strip styrene, some K & S brass.  They have a few tools, but these tend to be a bit pricey.

 

 

I don't get to the US and Hobby Lobby often but all the times I have been there the kit selection was very limited and each store had the identical stock. Mostly cars and just a handful of old tank and aircraft kits. Testers paints are done so I do wonder if they will move to another brand or just drop them completely. 

We have Michaels here but there kit section has shrank to nothing over the last few years. They have no paints and just a couple of tools so are pretty much a write off these days.

The nice thing about both Hobby Lobby and Michaels though is they pretty much always have an online coupon for 40% or even more off so if you do find something you like it is a very good deal. 

Walmart here never carried model kits so it isn't a loss to me. They do have them in their online shopping but they are often priced way high.  

Tojo72

I mean no offense to the OP,degrading your choices.

I shop Walmart,but not for models.

 

Hey Tojo - no offense at all  

Like i said , we were ther for detergent.  I was just asking them to see if they had anything.

But my jist was, 3 out of the 4 clerks did not know the meaning of the word "model".  i.e., more evidence of an electroic world i guess.......  Too bad for them IMO.

Mrchntmarine

 

 

Tojo72

I mean no offense to the OP,degrading your choices.

I shop Walmart,but not for models.

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Tojo - no offense at all  

 

Like i said , we were ther for detergent.  I was just asking them to see if they had anything.

 

But my jist was, 3 out of the 4 clerks did not know the meaning of the word "model".  i.e., more evidence of an electroic world i guess.......  Too bad for them IMO.

 

Model building has been a "closet"hobby for a long time now. The electronic world really hasn't hurt it. In fact places such as this forum may be all that are keeping it alive at all!

No doubt though that Walmart is not familer with models of any type!

Tcoat

Model building has been a "closet"hobby for a long time now. The electronic world really hasn't hurt it. In fact places such as this forum may be all that are keeping it alive at all!

Yup.  Its not like it has ever been massively popular or well-known.  If it weren't for the electronic world and the internet, I wouldn't have access to nearly as much variety of the stuff I use in modelling.  I don't mind at all that other people don't know about it.  I'm sure there are lots of things that other people do for a hobby that I know nothing about.

Well,just to put it into perspective about what some of these clerks know and don't know,some years ago a friend of ours was at K-Mart buying a game of horseshoes,when the clerk went to ring up the box,wide-eyed she exclaimed,"oh wow horseshoes!!!,your buying shoes for your horse,how cool that you own a horse." My friend said that she just stood there with her jaw hanging open not knowing what to say before walking away.

So maybe it's not so strange that they don't know about models.

Eaglecash867

 

 

Tcoat

Model building has been a "closet"hobby for a long time now. The electronic world really hasn't hurt it. In fact places such as this forum may be all that are keeping it alive at all!

 

 

Yup.  Its not like it has ever been massively popular or well-known.  If it weren't for the electronic world and the internet, I wouldn't have access to nearly as much variety of the stuff I use in modelling.  I don't mind at all that other people don't know about it.  I'm sure there are lots of things that other people do for a hobby that I know nothing about.

 

Well it was a mainstream hobby once upon a time. I remember going to K-Mart in the mid sixties and staring at a long aisle of Revell, Monogram, Lindberg and Aurora model kits for an hour before deciding what one I was going to spend my $2 on. 

You can't expect store workers to know anything about model kits.  Or anything for that matter.

Heck, I went to 2 hardware stores asking if they sold concrete splash blocks and no one even knew what I was talking about.  It seems that they don't sell them anymore.  Like model kits at Walmart.

Hey Neal

Glad to see you're alive, still kicking, and building models!  Not only are the local retailers out of models, it's hard just finding a dedicated hobby shop anymore. Here in Ohio, we still have Wings Wheels & Waves that manufacures MSW Paints, but they're moving to North Carolina. Hope Weller's is still in business. I don't see them advertising in FSM anymore. I always enjoyed driving to the northside - they had a great selection of books and other research materials.

Yeah, I'm still building but really slow. Usually work on 2-3 models at a time, them finish them all at once which averages to 3-4 models a year. Been feeling nostalgic lately and built the Atlantis/Revell "S" Scale repop of the B36, P6 Marlin, B720 Mainliner, and Blue Angels F11F glue bombs I built as a kid.  Hopefully, they came out better this time - heck, I spent a lot more time on them!

Currently working on the Revell USS Currituck seaplane tender updated to Vietnam configuration [Yeah, I also built that as a kid]. Most challenging part is scratchbuilding the P5 Marlin seaplanes to go with the ship. Since this is one of Revell's infamous flat-bottomed "carpet scooter" ships, I'm planning to do this as a waterline diorama.

Anyway, take care and say "hi" to Jay, Brad, Lance, Pete, Glenn and the other IPMS Hawaii guys if you see them.

Marshall

Walmart may be monolithic, but not quite so monolithic that if one store stocks models, it means all of them will stock them.  But as others have said, even if you have a local Walmart stocking model kits, the selection probably isn't much to satisfy someone who has been building for a while.

Having said that, though, I'll add that the kits you might find, might be the kind of kit to give to a kid you know, to help encourage him to take up the hobby.  That's probably how many of us got started. I didn't spring from my mother's womb and seek out the nearest hobby shop. Rather, when I was 5, my dad gave me a very basic kit and a tube of Duco Household Cement.  From there, it was my parents and the other adults who did the same, gave me kits as presents, and as I got older, and earned money for chores, etc, I started buying my own.  I went from going along on the trip to department store with Mom & Dad, and buying something myself, to riding my bike to a local store (Penn Valley Hobbies, Lansdale, PA-about 8 miles on my bike).

So I wouldn't turn my nose up at Walmart, as far as models go, but approach it from that angle.

the Baron

Walmart may be monolithic, but not quite so monolithic that if one store stocks models, it means all of them will stock them.  But as others have said, even if you have a local Walmart stocking model kits, the selection probably isn't much to satisfy someone who has been building for a while.

Having said that, though, I'll add that the kits you might find, might be the kind of kit to give to a kid you know, to help encourage him to take up the hobby.  That's probably how many of us got started. I didn't spring from my mother's womb and seek out the nearest hobby shop. Rather, when I was 5, my dad gave me a very basic kit and a tube of Duco Household Cement.  From there, it was my parents and the other adults who did the same, gave me kits as presents, and as I got older, and earned money for chores, etc, I started buying my own.  I went from going along on the trip to department store with Mom & Dad, and buying something myself, to riding my bike to a local store (Penn Valley Hobbies, Lansdale, PA-about 8 miles on my bike).

So I wouldn't turn my nose up at Walmart, as far as models go, but approach it from that angle.

 

EXACTLY!

It is unfortunate that the hobby is now primarily adult oriented but that is how it has evolved from us kids of 50+years ago. 

Part of the problem is prices though. If you take a 1966 $1 model kit and count the value today it would be around $9.50. That $1 kit in it's day would have been state of the art (even if not by today's standard) and great value. Today even the most basic snap kits start at about $20 and the more advanced kits can push $100 or more without even getting into the big stuff. Not that you can't get inexpensive kits but many of them are just going to frustrate a young builder. 

I guess my point is that the price has far exceed the inflation rate so it is now much more costly a hobby to even start in as a child and gets far, far worse as you try to advance. That and of course there are many more distractions now then back them. As a kid my options were watch the two tv channels we got, go outside and play with a stick or build inexpensive models. Well, until I learned that girls didn't really have cooties but that is a different story.

I'm glad I have enough models in my stash to keep me happy until I go to the great workbench in the sky.

I'll still splurge $10 at MosquitoCon for 12 raffle tickets. Been pretty lucky over the years. One time I hit with 6 of the 12 tickets. Got 3 kits, 1 figure and 2 books.

Stay Safe.

Jim 

My local Hobby Lobby, has some models of airplanes, cars and some ships, these model are usually the ones that cost less that $50.00 and the selection is limited, they also carry some Testor and Tamiya paints in addition to a limited variety of modeling tools. For Example, they have a couple of Iwata air brushes, and compressors and other air brush related supplies.

If the Internet was not available, I would not be able to select and buy any interesting models to build. It is also hard to find a hobby store that carries any models, most of the Hobby stores in my area (Miami, Florida) carry only R/C type merchandise, there is only 2 store in the Miami area that I know off that carries any selection of models.

Joe

My Walmart has a cardboard display case with all sorts of AMT model kits, very over priced, like Star Trek, Star Wars B-Wing, some older car kits and some pop culture kits. They were like $24.95 and above.

Kids don't save their pennies from their earnings and allowances anymore to buy what they want,they just tell their parents that they want that X-Box or that I-Phone or those sneakers and they simply buy it for them.Kids don't mow lawns or shovel snow for their own houses much less going to strangers houses to do so.So if a kid really wanted a $100 model he'd get it if he asked.

As far as interests,forget the war stuff,many stores are too woke to put that stuff on shelves anymore,and many progressive parents won't expose their kids to that, a Nazi tank,or a plane that killed thousands of civilians,heavens no !!

They do enjoy sci-fi,Marvel Action Heroes,Gundam, and cars,but why spend time building when you can buy them whole as figures and toys and not waste time trying to build.

Modeling is a hard hobby to pick up from scratch these days as compared to when we started.Its really up to us to get our kids,grandkids, nephews and nieces involved the way we have been.

Yes the hobby is really booming for us as far as kits,selections tools aftermarket it's never been better.But for those on the outside looking in,it's tough to get interested and started for many of the reasons we have mentioned.

Probably my longest post ever

  Congrats Tojo LOL. welcome to the ramblers club LOL.

armornut

  Congrats Tojo LOL. welcome to the ramblers club LOL.

 

I have not even begun to ramble! Just wait.

We would make a fine scene, all of us sitting on a porch, sipping lemonade, with our pants hiked up to our chests, revealing black dress socks and flip-flops, all the while swapping stories about old hobby shops long gone.  And complaining that them dang kids these days, they got no respect...  

I'll volunteer for the job of yelling "Get off my lawn!"  

   DANG Neal Google maps is pretty detailed.... how ekse would you know I was wearing dress socks on my porch? LOL.

    Rocking chairs or Adarondacs? 

Well, we'll all get there eventually!    But the thing is, I don't own any golf pants.

Me either....yet