The Great American Hobby Shop

[Jim Bow]

Haven't seen one in years. Local hobby shops were dream fodder in my youth. Typically there were a bunch of old farts drinking coffee in the back room who could answer any question on any subject. I must have spent a fortune on Revell, Monogram, and Lindbergh plastic kits.

I must be getting old. Is 76 old?

[CWSmith]

There was a hobby shop near here that had a great assortment of models.

It was called "Eric Foch's". That's all I'll say.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

We had one in Ipswich as late as ten years ago when I had a seventeen year old and a ten year old. Loads of stock and loads of help and advice. It was huge and always busy.

Then it wasn’t there. I suppose it was the Internet what done it in.

[John Smith]

World is changing. I moved in 2005. Prior to moving I was a member of the South Orange Seaport Society. We sailed electric/steam/wind powered R/C models in the South Orange duck pond. We held weekly meetings in the town building.

At that time, I had been buying my stuff from Tower Hobbies, and they had a good selection. Now there's little in the way of radio control model boats.

We were not getting new members as old ones moved, as I did, or simply died from age.

https://southorangeseaportsociety.org/ if anyone's interested

[LeeG]

76 is older. Could be old. I don’t know yet.

[Tom Montgomery]

.
My favorite, Wings Hobby Shop, in Lakewood, Oho closed its doors in 2014.

The hobby shop here in Norwalk, Ohio - Rob's Hobbies - closed this April.

Changing recreational interests and internet sales are sounding the death knell for brick and mortar hobby shops.

[Robert Meyer]

Every time I look at the long scar on my left hand I remember the model wood and paper airplanes I would build 60 years ago. A P51 Mustang caused the scar. I learned to respect tools after stopping the blood.

[Hugh MacD]

You learned faster than I did In Portland, there is still one general "hobby shop" with Revell, AMT and the other usual suspects along with some wood kits but most now specialize in RC or trains.

[Rich Jones]

I still remember the hobby shops when I was a kid. Fun times.

[Reynard38]

Worked in one in high school. It’s gone now. Still seen a few around on layovers. Great one in Rapid City, another in Appleton WI.

[Breakaway]

My preliminary learning about engines came from building control line planes and powering them with Cox .049 cc engines


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[willin woodworks]

With a whole wall of Guillows(?) balsa and tissue plane kits and the big old rack of X-acto tools..

[CWSmith]

I should mention that there used to be a model shop on Rt-1 in York Maine about 10 years ago.

It is now a vaping shop. Signs of the times.

[john welsford]

Haven't seen one in years. Local hobby shops were dream fodder in my youth. Typically there were a bunch of old farts drinking coffee in the back room who could answer any question on any subject. I must have spent a fortune on Revell, Monogram, and Lindbergh plastic kits.

I must be getting old. Is 76 old?

"Old" is always ten years older than you are.

John Welsford, who's not old yet.

[john welsford]

My preliminary learning about engines came from building control line planes and powering them with Cox .049 cc engines


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I flew control line stunt and combat, usually with 2.5cc diesels.
I still have scars on my knuckles from starting those little beasts.

John Welsford

[Peerie Maa]

There is still a small hobby shop hanging on in Barrow.
I bought the paint and plastic coals for the Traction Engine from them.
DSC03874.jpg

[AndyG]

It does disturb me.

I grew up gluing up Airfix kits. And learning some history. Playing with Meccano. And learning a pile of engineering. Making 'stuff' out of Lego's generic blocks. Learning creativity. And learning a pile of stuff, materials science, etc., in the background, almost by osmosis. Today, heading for sixty, I build model boats, and notice that this is definitely, oh so definitely, 'not a thing' done by the young.

At the very best, the young buy 'RTR', stuff that needs two minutes with some superglue - if that - and another three to charge the LiPos. Or they build the 'kit' the Lego was designed as, and never go off-piste. The IKEA ideal. But how could you?, I think.

Us builders are now like those who farm.

Come the 'End Of Days' (whatever form that will take), I'm increasingly sure the the majority in the 1st World will expire due to utter incompetence. Totally divorced from nature. "I never knew I couldn't plant food just then."

An example: I love cooking. I love that hour in the kitchen per day, after work, with the right tools and ingredients. I buy stuff, chop it up, cook it, and make things I want to eat. But I work in retail. I see ready-meals fly past my tills all day, maybe 95% of the time. These people do not eat how I do. Do I call the purchasers out that they haven't read what's actually in the ready meals, and does not need to be, or that they could make three times as much, more healthily, for less? Of course not.

Humans want to be lazy,. Every living thing does.

...But it comes at a price.

Final example - and I may well have mentioned this before - the two, standout lessons I learned in school, and remember vividly to this day are:

My Physics teacher, ditching a lesson on 'electricity', and getting us to wire a mains plug correctly.
My Maths teacher, ditching his lesson on 'interest', explaining exactly how a mortgage worked.

And Bob, my old mate in my early twenties, who explained how to change brake discs and pads without going to a mechanic. Took fifteen minutes and saved me hundreds, so it did.

Andy

[StevenBauer]

We’ve still got a great hobby store about 20 minutes away in Falmouth. Ray and Robins. Not quite the Pet and Hobby on Valley Road in Montclair that I spent all my allowance and babysitting money at.

http://www.mainehobbies.com/


7FC202DA-492A-4129-BA42-BB360B1CEF4F.jpg

[hawkeye54]

I must be getting old. Is 76 old?

Only if you are a 'kid' of 75 , like me ! !


Rick

[willmarsh3]

I think some of the young are building custom drones these days.

[JayInOz]

Was an excellent little hobby shop in the next town over. Delightfully eccentric fat little Maltese feller owned it for years. Last night I was online looking for glass cats eyes in a particular size for something I'm working on. Found some in America- just over four dollars- plus about twenty five dollars postage. I'll come up with a plan B. JayInOz

[JayInOz]

I think some of the young are building custom drones these days.

And some not so young. Local feller has been building them in all sorts of weird configurations for years. Just for something different he recently built a jet engine- about six inches long and sounds like a jet engine!

[CWSmith]

We’ve still got a great hobby store about 20 minutes away in Falmouth. Ray and Robins. Not quite the Pet and Hobby on Valley Road in Montclair that I spent all my allowance and babysitting money at.

http://www.mainehobbies.com/

That's just an hour away. I think you just gave me a Saturday drive with a destination! Thank you.

[Breakaway]

I flew control line stunt and combat, usually with 2.5cc diesels.
I still have scars on my knuckles from starting those little beasts.

John Welsford

I know those knuckles!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[JayInOz]

And speaking of drones- listen to this little sucker https://youtu.be/87JJ7WkRpLc JayInOz

[Peerie Maa]

It does disturb me.

I grew up gluing up Airfix kits. And learning some history. Playing with Meccano. And learning a pile of engineering. Making 'stuff' out of Lego's generic blocks. Learning creativity. And learning a pile of stuff, materials science, etc., in the background, almost by osmosis. Today, heading for sixty, I build model boats, and notice that this is definitely, oh so definitely, 'not a thing' done by the young.

At the very best, the young buy 'RTR', stuff that needs two minutes with some superglue - if that - and another three to charge the LiPos. Or they build the 'kit' the Lego was designed as, and never go off-piste. The IKEA ideal. But how could you?, I think.

Us builders are now like those who farm.


Andy

Airfix, owned by Hornby are still going strong.
https://yesterday.uktv.co.uk/shows/h...a-model-world/

[MushCreek]

When I first moved to SC, I was excited because there was a store called 'Hobby Lobby'. I had all kinds of fantasies going on until I went there to discover it is NOT a hobby store. It's a CRAFT store. They had a few plastic models stuck in a corner, but that was it. In my youth, the hobby shops had big slot car tracks, all sorts of models, both plastic and balsa, Estes rockets, and plenty of mind-numbing glues and paints.

[Figment]

The hobby shop of my youth managed to hold on until about 2010, and I think the bicycle end of the business was all that kept them afloat past 2000.

The hobby shop in the next-town-over is still going strong, but only because they went all-in on remote control cars and planes in the late 80s, and now drones.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Two hobby shops in Rockford that I know of. I buy Testers paint (+ other brands) and brushes at both for my carved birds. One is a chain store with lots of stuff from drones, to RC helicopters, to fixed wing rc aircraft and molded plastic models on different scales, like horses and military soldiers. The other is mostly Revel model kits and paints for elec trains and military solder models. The basic store is only 10 blocks away.

[willmarsh3]

When I first moved to SC, I was excited because there was a store called 'Hobby Lobby'. I had all kinds of fantasies going on until I went there to discover it is NOT a hobby store. It's a CRAFT store. They had a few plastic models stuck in a corner, but that was it. In my youth, the hobby shops had big slot car tracks, all sorts of models, both plastic and balsa, Estes rockets, and plenty of mind-numbing glues and paints.

We have those here. I went in one about 3 years ago in search of brass tubes for a solar project. I found a few but none of the right sizes for my needs. Just to be fair I went through the entire store to see what they had. It's a large store full of craft stuff as stated. It's more suitable for scrap books, picture framing, home decor and school projects. But very little of it fit my needs.