Where we shop , And why

Thankfully, here in Boca Raton I still have a couple of Mom-and-Pops to choose from, including a Depot Hobby just up the freeway in Lantana with a very extensive selection of Model Trains and plastic modeling parts (also, almost the only store in the area to have an extensive selection of Tamiya... everything.)

As I got back into the hobby these last few years, I was saddened to see that most references to "hobby" in a store description really meant "RC" not "Scale Miniatures." Like you, I've had good luck with Amazon for the most part (thank you, Prime, for getting stuff into my impatient hands) except for almost anything that I order from Japan (Gunze products come to mind, they almost always "fall of the truck" before they arrive. Dunno why) so for those, and Ebay for Gunze products and harder-to-find items.

I hope Depot Hobby stays in business, they are probably the only shop for many miles that I can stroll into with a ridiculously high likelihood of finding what I want, supply-wise, but the owners are aging and I don't see an heir apparent. I'll have to hope for the best, I suppose.

Not much LHS in my area except one that always has the same old stuff. rarely anything new. So I will shop online for my kits such as Squadron, Sprue Brothers, Hobbylinc, eBay (sometimes), and other online shops.

I do know Performance Hobbies in Webster, NY has a fantastic little shop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go there this year due to the fact they were closed on Sunday. I was in the area for a family BBQ there. 

Here in north central Montana, we have no other choice but to embrace shopping online. The LHS I have been shopping at for the last forty years is closing at the end of the month, the Hobbytown USA stores have been shut down all over the state, and what few hobby shops are left under the Big Sky are 200+ miles from me in any given direction. The local Wal-Marts have taken models and supplies completely out of their inventory, K-Mart has shut down, and both Hobby Lobby and Michael's keep a bare minimum of items for model builders on their shelves. So, all major hobby purchases are done online anymore.

Going to miss the LHS...

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

Not much LHS in my area except one that always has the same old stuff. rarely anything new. So I will shop online for my kits such as Squadron, Sprue Brothers, Hobbylinc, eBay (sometimes), and other online shops.

I do know Performance Hobbies in Webster, NY has a fantastic little shop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go there this year due to the fact they were closed on Sunday. I was in the area for a family BBQ there. 

 

You know it's funny.  I live in Los Angeles, and there are maybe a handful of local hobby shops, which kinda surprised me in such a large city.  It looks like online is it.

I'm in kinda the same position as KnightTemplar, NE Washington State has very little to offer. Spokane has an art supply store that has airbrushes, paints,( not necessarily for models but enamel is enamel), and the few model kits, usually nothing new. We have a sporting goods store that is called White Elephant, he has been in business for probably 50+ yrs and used to have a HUGE selection of kits and supplies. Now he just sells sporting equipment. As with everywhere else that has a HobbyTown we have one too. The owner will order anything Corporate will allow him, MSRP + his mark up and up to 8wks for delivery,( on line shopping is marginally cheaper and WAY faster), then there is my favorite place I don't go to often enough, B&B Hobbie, they cater to RC planes and boats but always ALWAYS seem to have something different. Good prices too.

I live in Bethlehem, PA.  Where I buy things depends on a couple of things.

Generally, if it is a supply item I need, such as paint, I will buy it from a local hobby shop, unless no shop carries what I need or can't get it soon enough.  For example, among the paints I use are Tamiya's rattle-can aircraft colors.  No bricks-and-mortar store around here carries them or can order them, so I order them direct from Tamiya USA.

If it is a kit I want, I buy it almost exclusively online.  The local shops just don't carry what I want, and in many cases, they can't even order some of the kits I want.  I buy new kits from retailers like Freetime Hobbies, Sprue Brothers, Squadron, etc, or from the manufacturers, in the case of figures.  I buy second-hand kits via eBay and through contacts I've developed on forums and Facebook.  I also buy kits at shows.

As far as lamenting the demise of the LHS is concerned, while I sympathize with individuals who may have lost a business to competition, I'd like to point out that that is business.  You must adapt or go under.  Also, the demise of the LHS as less to do with the rise of the Internet than it has to do with the fact that it was a relatively unique phenomenon in our history, emerging in the Thirties in the form of makers who sold the supplies of the day--wooden kits for carving, supplies for making rubber-band-powered airplanes, and later, they sold plastic kits as plastic replaced wood and paper for the vast majority of kits.  Mom and Pop may have run those shops, but for a lot of them, their kids didn't want the business when Mom and Pop retired or passed away.  Or they couldn't find buyers to take them on.  This was going on long before the Internet revolutionized ordering things from a catalog (we called it "mail order", back in the day).  And before the rise of the Internet, there were larger vendors who pushed smaller ones out of their markets.  We had Allied Hobbies here in SE PA and New Jersey; it was a chain with stores in malls throughout the area.  It might even have reached beyond the mid-Atlantic area.  Triple-A Hobbies is another larger vendor (also located here in the mid-Atlantic), as is Squadron.  In any case, those LHS we remember so fondly probably had razor-thin margins to begin with, and today, it's probably even more expensive, generally, to run a small shop and turn a profit.  But for us modelers, we have better access and availability, generally speaking, to quality kits and tools and supplies, than at any time since scale modeling became a popular hobby in the Fifties.

KnightTemplar5150

Here in north central Montana, we have no other choice but to embrace shopping online. The LHS I have been shopping at for the last forty years is closing at the end of the month, the Hobbytown USA stores have been shut down all over the state, and what few hobby shops are left under the Big Sky are 200+ miles from me in any given direction. The local Wal-Marts have taken models and supplies completely out of their inventory, K-Mart has shut down, and both Hobby Lobby and Michael's keep a bare minimum of items for model builders on their shelves. So, all major hobby purchases are done online anymore.

Going to miss the LHS...

 

Hobbyland was my home away from home for many years.  As the Tribune article implies, I pratically lived there in the summer.  When they were located in Holiday Village, I couldn't wait to go with my parents for their Friday evening grocery shopping at Buttrey's so I could bug out and run down to Hobbyland.  Then Pat bought Irenes and moved into that store, then the present Great Falls Sporting Goods store where Pat also aquired all the stuffed animals.  Going back to Great Falls is not going to be the same.  It was a grand 50 years and was happy the old store survived as long as it did.  

Now, to indulge in a little nostalgia about local shops, I know three examples of shops around here that are still going strong, even in the face of the online access I talked about above.

One is Trains and Lanes, outside Nazareth, PA.  It is an older store, in a big pole barn, and it handles a diverse selection of hobbies, from RC aircraft to model railroading, to scale modeling, and slot car racing.  The store features an indoor slot car track, an outdoor go-kart track, and even an indoor batting cage.  It's the only place around that has Humbrol paints in stock, as well as anime kits in resin or vinyl, alongside contemporary armor or car kits.  If you ever get to the Lehigh Valley, it's worth visiting the store.  You can browse for hours.  They don't have a website; they maintain a Facebook page, instead (very wise--avoid the cost of hosting and maintaing a website).

Another store local to the Lehigh Valley is Tony's Hobby Shop in Coplay, PA, about 7 miles above Allentown.  Tony ran the shop from 1948 until he passed away a year ago or so.  His son Gerry took it over and kept it going.  He carries a small selection of kits, and model railroad kits and supplies, but it's a much better selection than the craft stores carry, and he has good suppliers, so he can order a lot of things that he doesn't otherwise carry in the shop.

And the third example is Penn Valley Hobbies, in Lansdale, PA.  Penn Valley was my main hobby shop up through high school.  I grew up in Harleysville, about 7 or 8 miles away, and I used to ride my bike over there on Saturdays, and browse the kits.  PVH made the adjustment to the emerging online market, with a website and an eBay store.  They gradually reduced their store hours at the same time, from 6 days a week to Saturdays, and now, they have no hours at the store.  It serves solely as their warehouse for their online business.  Unfortunately, they may fall prey to the problem I mentioned in my prevoius post, and that is, when the owners eventually pass on, if their kids don't want the business or no buyer can be found, it may eventually have to close.  But they've made it this far.

KnightTemplar5150

Here in north central Montana, we have no other choice but to embrace shopping online. The LHS I have been shopping at for the last forty years is closing at the end of the month, the Hobbytown USA stores have been shut down all over the state, and what few hobby shops are left under the Big Sky are 200+ miles from me in any given direction. The local Wal-Marts have taken models and supplies completely out of their inventory, K-Mart has shut down, and both Hobby Lobby and Michael's keep a bare minimum of items for model builders on their shelves. So, all major hobby purchases are done online anymore.

Going to miss the LHS...

 

scottrc

 

Hobbyland was my home away from home for many years.  As the Tribune article implies, I pratically lived there in the summer.  

 

That's awesome that you were shopping with Pat back when the store was still in the mall! I can remember ping-ponging between Hobbyland and the toy store across the hall on the weekends when my folks would make the drive into town from Belt. After the shop moved to Central, I managed to make it in every Saturday. Even after leaving for college, the military, and jobs out of state, I could call them on the phone to place orders and I could tell Steve just which shelf to find what I was asking about. Weird to think about, but I've let Pat call me "Timmy" since the fourth grade, around four decades ago. Never bothered correcting her in all those years...

kenjitak

The next time any of you are in the Denver area, checkout the Colpar/Hobbytown stores. They are among the best in the country. I used to travel quite a bit for work and tried to go to local hobby shops around the country whenever I could and found great shops, however, most of them have folded. Colpar's two locations have the best selection I've seen and great prices. They host a wide range of activities and support local contests and shows. It's hard to ask for more. Ken

 

Like you I found shops on business trips, one reson being they had rolling stock in the local now fallen flag liveries.

KnightTemplar5150

 

 

scottrc

 

Hobbyland was my home away from home for many years.  As the Tribune article implies, I pratically lived there in the summer.  

 

 

 

 

That's awesome that you were shopping with Pat back when the store was still in the mall! I can remember ping-ponging between Hobbyland and the toy store across the hall on the weekends when my folks would make the drive into town from Belt. After the shop moved to Central, I managed to make it in every Saturday. Even after leaving for college, the military, and jobs out of state, I could call them on the phone to place orders and I could tell Steve just which shelf to find what I was asking about. Weird to think about, but I've let Pat call me "Timmy" since the fourth grade, around four decades ago. Never bothered correcting her in all those years...

 

I know, she always called me by my brother's name.  I also remember "Toyworld" being across from Hobbyland in the mall, then it moved up towards the end of the mall across from the Fox theatre, then I think to 5th street where it did not survive for long.  It was much smaller, not much for models, but had an awesome display of Matchbox cars.

Steve, Conrad, Debra, Glenn, Bob, Pat all became family to us back in the 70's and 80's.   

End of an era.

GMorrison

 

 

kenjitak

The next time any of you are in the Denver area, checkout the Colpar/Hobbytown stores. They are among the best in the country. I used to travel quite a bit for work and tried to go to local hobby shops around the country whenever I could and found great shops, however, most of them have folded. Colpar's two locations have the best selection I've seen and great prices. They host a wide range of activities and support local contests and shows. It's hard to ask for more. Ken

 

 

 

 

When I was a model railroader I depended on LHS much more than now.

 

Like you I found shops on business trips, one reson being they had rolling stock in the local now fallen flag liveries.

 

Every time we went on a trip to a new town, the first thing I would do was grab a phone book and start getting the scoop of all the hobbyshops in town, then map out my list of where I wanted to go.  That is getting harder to do now, even with Google and GPS.  Not many stores left.  

I'd love to have a local store to shop at but Hobbytown closed a few years ago and all I have is a train store that also has kits but never any new ones and a decent selection of paints and supplies. I go there in the hope I'll spot something new but it doesn't happen. Almost everything is now online.

laskdjn

 

 

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

Not much LHS in my area except one that always has the same old stuff. rarely anything new. So I will shop online for my kits such as Squadron, Sprue Brothers, Hobbylinc, eBay (sometimes), and other online shops.

I do know Performance Hobbies in Webster, NY has a fantastic little shop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go there this year due to the fact they were closed on Sunday. I was in the area for a family BBQ there. 

 

 

 

 

 

You know it's funny.  I live in Los Angeles, and there are maybe a handful of local hobby shops, which kinda surprised me in such a large city.  It looks like online is it.

 

L.A. is a pretty big place. But at least where I live south of the Orange Curtain we have two superb hobby shops, plus a couple other good ones not too far from L.A. Then i know of a couple in the Harbor area, and another  out Ontario way, plus another up in the valley. It's not like it was 20 or more years ago, where they were literally everywhere. But we're still better off than many areas. And we still have the periodic kit collector shows and swap meets every few onthe for other sources. 

stikpusher

L.A. is a pretty big place. But at least where I live south of the Orange Curtain we have two superb hobby shops, plus a couple other good ones not too far from L.A. Then i know of a couple in the Harbor area, and another  out Ontario way, plus another up in the valley. It's not like it was 20 or more years ago, where they were literally everywhere. But we're still better off than many areas. And we still have the periodic kit collector shows and swap meets every few onthe for other sources. 

Stik - 

Is the hobby shop still open in Orange, CA. just off Orange Ave.? If I recall it is at the foot of Anaheim Hills. I apologize, for the life of me I can't remember the name of that shop. It was a pretty good size HS. Also, there was a nice one off Euclid Ave. & Cherry Ave. in Fullerton, CA.

stikpusher

L.A. is a pretty big place. But at least where I live south of the Orange Curtain we have two superb hobby shops, plus a couple other good ones not too far from L.A. Then i know of a couple in the Harbor area, and another  out Ontario way, plus another up in the valley. It's not like it was 20 or more years ago, where they were literally everywhere. But we're still better off than many areas. And we still have the periodic kit collector shows and swap meets every few onthe for other sources. 

 

Share the wealth.  I only know of Burbank house of hobbies, Brookhurst, Apelan, Pegasus, and Evett's.  Only Burbank and Brookhurst carry Vallejo paint.

There are no hobby shop in the town I live in. I can travel 50 miles to a larger city that only has two. Their choices are very limited. I use The Squadron Shop, and oddly enough, Amazon. They have a fairly broad selection including Friuelmodel tracks if you build armor kits. Most of the time you can find popular kits on Amazon for a competetive price. The friulmodel tracks are another story however. They tend to run $60 and over plus a shipping cost.

Hey Wood, check out Scalehobbyist.com, they have a large selection of kits, usually get new releases in a timely fashion. Shipping isn't bad and I have NEVER had a problem with getting the product I ordered. My issue was with the Post Office in Illinois my stuff would pass through, always seemed to sit ther for a week. Again NOT Scalehobbyist fault.

I've been shopping at Colpars here in the Denver metro area for about 40 years.  Most of my collection comes from them.  I sometimes think that I am just a store room for them.  As mentioned before, Colpar is a great hobby store.  They have every thing!  They have much more than most hobby shops I have seen, so I like the instant gratification one can get.  They do have two stores in the city that can transfered from store to store.  Sometimes they have things that I don't find on line.

armornut

Hey Wood, check out Scalehobbyist.com, they have a large selection of kits, usually get new releases in a timely fashion. Shipping isn't bad and I have NEVER had a problem with getting the product I ordered. My issue was with the Post Office in Illinois my stuff would pass through, always seemed to sit ther for a week. Again NOT Scalehobbyist fault.

 

laskdjn

 

 

stikpusher

L.A. is a pretty big place. But at least where I live south of the Orange Curtain we have two superb hobby shops, plus a couple other good ones not too far from L.A. Then i know of a couple in the Harbor area, and another  out Ontario way, plus another up in the valley. It's not like it was 20 or more years ago, where they were literally everywhere. But we're still better off than many areas. And we still have the periodic kit collector shows and swap meets every few onthe for other sources. 

 

 

 

 

 

Share the wealth.  I only know of Burbank house of hobbies, Brookhurst, Apelan, Pegasus, and Evett's.  Only Burbank and Brookhurst carry Vallejo paint.

 

Yes, Brookhurst Hobbies and Military Hobbies in Orange are my two prime shops. They have most everything I ever want or need. Brookhurst also carries the new Mission Models paints in case you want to try those. So far I find them far better than Vallejo. 

There is also Prestige Hobbies in Anaheim at Hobby City. In the Harbor area there is JD Hobbies in San Pedro, who is more of an old kit specialist, and Pacific Hobbies in Harbor City, but that is more an R/C shop that also carries models. Another shop like that, but a bit better, is Robs RC Hobbies in Westminster (within walking distance for me!) I see you know of Pegasus.

Apelan and Evetts I have not heard of.

There are the kit collectors shows about every 6 months or so in Buena Park, (used to be at a union hall, but they just changed venues) and the Brewer Brothers Swap Meet at Old World in Huntington Beach about every four months or so. IPMS OC will be having Orangecon in Fullerton at then end of next month, with a good vendor room.

What area of LA are you in? Like I said, a big city. 

I run over to Hill Country Hobbies when I need of some supplies.  Gary gives all military veterans additional 10% discount on their purchase.  Nice little shop but a pain to get to as I live in th north central area of San Antonio and Dibbles's is even harder to get too.

Unless the little shops adjust to today's e-commerce they will be a thing of the past.  The one thing you never see anymore like I did as a kid was advertisment  on the TV of the lastest model or an ad in the paper. Maybe they are on the kids show on cable but I never seen any while watching Saturday cartoons with my son.  I never thought of getting back into the hobby until seeing a FSM magazine at the gocery store.

Ebay because of selection and price.

Regarding LA/Southern California shops:

Pegasus Hobbies in Montclair is one of the biggest (maybe the biggest?) hobby shops in SoCal. They have an excellent selection of models and supplies. In addition to the standard Revell/Tamiya type of stuff, they also carry fairly large selections of Eduard, Airfix, lots of obscure eastern European brands. I do most of my shopping there.

Tony's Hobbies in Baldwin Park is also good. Not as big as Pegasus, but still good. 

Marcus McBean

 

Unless the little shops adjust to today's e-commerce they will be a thing of the past.  The one thing you never see anymore like I did as a kid was advertisment  on the TV of the lastest model or an ad in the paper. Maybe they are on the kids show on cable but I never seen any while watching Saturday cartoons with my son.  I never thought of getting back into the hobby until seeing a FSM magazine at the gocery store.

 

I don't know. The two main shops near me are heavily involved with local IPMS & AMPS chapters. They also  sell online. Brookhurst did shipping to me at an APO address while I was overseas. Support our troops is a very hollow phrase in my experience and reality. The only online shop that did that was Squadron. For that support, both shops have my loyalty as a customer until they go out of business or I die. Newspapers are dying faster that local hobby shops, and tv ads are for snack and toilet breaks if you're watching broadcast TV. Internet and word of mouth seems to be the key to survival for local shops. They have regular customers who moved out of state who still make periodic visits to get their hobby shop fix.

Ebay. Better selection and price then any online store including Spruebrothers. I happened to pass what i thought was a closed Hobbytown to happily find out iit was very much still open. I will get all my paints and glues there.