Just curious about everyone's FIRST experience

[abedooley]

Mine was last night!!!! KINDA..... I haven't been in one since I was like 11 or 12 and I was there for R/C at that time in my childhood. I know alot of you guys might not remember, so tell me about the BEST shop you been in....

I spent 4 HOURS in Hobby Town last night and my poor boys were with me. They loved it as soon as we walked in, but after hour #2 they started askin me if I was ready to go home or not, I had to bribe them with FISHING!! I also said if they were good I would let them have $5 a piece to spend and they immediately went to the model cars section and started picking out the MOPARS!!! They had to settle for some HOT WHEELS!! I must have picked up about 20 different things and put about 20 things back and picked up and put back!!! Luckily they had an R/C flying game and that kept my boys busy for most of the time..... I wound up going $17 over my budget and still didn't get everything I wanted or needed... I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!! They didn't have ALL the cool stuff, but they had more than I could afford. Got some BMF, Evergreen, Humbrol paint, sanding sticks, glues, Tamiya pimer and clear red, saw blades, and some squadron green putty that melted my dash.... MUST...GO...BACK!!!

[RodBurNeR]

i can't remember the first one i was in? i do remember going to K-Mart a lot with my dad and uncle. they would buy me a kit , paint and glue and that is what got me into this hobby. i started to build in about '78? back then, K-Mart had a whole isle just for models. one side was all cars and other was military etc.... they had lots of paints and everything. i remember going to Safeway grocery to buy kits too, they carried a good assortment. heck back then, every place sold model kits. pharmacies, groceries, retails .....all carried models. Everyone i knew built models. It was not normal to go to anyone's house that didn't have at least a few built models or a hobby room they spent time in. This is from the time i can remember starting through the late 80s. After that, i found myself alone. My uncle owned a Hobby Town which i loved to visit back in the early-mid 90s, but he died and that is gone. My dad died in the late 90s, so pretty much i was totally alone and didn't go to....or know of....any hobby shops. I bought my models at Whatever store i could find them in. When my uncle died, i did find some other shops when i was living in a small town , Chadron, Nebraska. My wife and i would take road trips across Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota buying antiques and things we liked to plenish the store we ran. On those trips, i would run into a small hobby shop ,town auction, estate sale or garage sale with models and i would buy them.

After them days, in about 1995-96 i discovered the internet and well the rest is history.

I still go to Hobby Town and many other places to shop.......but most of all i buy from friends and on ebay. I like most everyone else, has to watch pennies and hobby shops seem to be more expensive than buying on internet...even with shipping. (unless the stuff is vintage of course)

To directly answer your question, the best hobby shop i was ever in was Hobby Town, Hobby Plex which is still here in Omaha......but it was best when Roger ran it. When he left, all the morals and respect left too. I used to let him know when a new kit was coming , he would order them in and save me one so i was sure to get it. He called and let me know it was in, i REALLY appreciated the customer care.

[evilone]

mine was when pegasus hobbies held their first ever model show

i was there for 7 hrs and go to meet alot of cool people and learned alot of good tips

it was my first show so that was way cool as well

and it wasnt bad when i placed 2nd in novice and got a photoshoot

all in all i hope they do another show this year

[JamesW]

Mine was about 8 years ago, Riders Hobby Shop. The only REAL hobby shop in my area. I must have spent about $400 the first time I went in there, (and about $200 a week after that) After I moved they went out of business. I had heard from one of the former employees it was because I had stopped coming in there, he said I was their biggest customer. (I think he was full of s**t, but it was a nice compliment) Since then I've been doing all my buying online.

[Guest Davkin]

I was 18, way back in 1985. Before that visit I never knew there was such things as model car magazines, contests or model car clubs. That one visit turned my whole modeling paradigm upside down.

David

[abedooley]

Until last night, anything I couldn't buy at Hobby Lobby I was ordering online and I believe that most of that is just too impersonal for me, but then again, Hobby Lobby is more impersonal than buying online. I also am one of those guys that likes to pick something up and look at it and feel it before I buy it. I was so overwhelmed by everything last night that I had a headache by the time I left. I was there until they closed. I would have stayed longer if I had more $$ and the boys weren't starving.

[CAL]

Ten years ago or so when I first walked in Colpar Hobbies in Denver.

Packed with updates, resin bits, and kits from around the world. Stuff I have never seen before or only in magazines was there on the shelves.

They still carry the most extensive collection of kits and add-ons I have ever seen. It is one of the top five hobby stores in the country.

[sdrodder]

well the first hobby place i went to was while i was in texas. I went to hobby lobby. Bought the 57 chevy truck street machine. Then moved to los angeles. There my first real hobby shop i went to was called gismoe's hobby store in burbank. Bought bout 25 dollars of stuff. Then they made me mad and left. The other one i went to then was Hobby People in pasadena. Continued going there. Then move to san diego and kept goin to hobby people and a rail road shop here. Well i alway by more stuff then i realy want but always forget somethin.

[abedooley]

Well i alway by more stuff then i realy want but always forget somethin.

EXACTLY!!!!! That one sentence pretty much sums it up!!!

[Eshaver]

Peter Lombardo , this story is you man! Well , Here I am , THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT < RICHMOND VIRGINIA !!! Well, it's gotten a little better. It was 1961 Richmond Motor company was having some sort of National contest combined with A M T. All one had to do was to come over and get a model car, no charge no nothing! Just come by, it was really easy! My dad was in a good mos one night so I asked him to take me over there which he did. Both of us marveled at some of the entries as I was maybe 8-9 then . I got a Thunderbird Convertible. I mean to tell you this thing could be built three ways! It was so neat I mean it ,I was beside myself! My Dad was also kind enough to stop at the local drug store so I could have glue and of course, his cigarettes. As long as I live, I will never forget that kit, yeah i made hash out of it, but it was something that I built with my own two hands! I was addicted to plastic cars! Well, to support my new found habit I had to find any kind of work that could be offered to a nine year old kid. I had discovered the Toy store in a shopping center near where I was living had all kinds of these A M T cars! And guess what, they were only $ 1.49 each! What a deal The instructions told you how to trade parts with other kits and by 1962 they were giving you pieces to build a motorcycle in every box! And what about those cool Trucks! Yeah , both the Chevrolet with the trailer and the Ford that the trailer was also a neat display stand! All this for $2,00 wow!!!And here we are today writing all this stuff on a computer of all things. I gotta tell ya , It's hard to beleive! Ed Shaver

[abedooley]

WOW!!! I wish it was the same today... I hear quit a few old timers say that this hobby is dying and I couldn't understand what they were talking about until I hear a story like that. THIS HOBBY REALLY IS DYING, ISN'T IT???? That makes me so sad. Either thats the case or the companies have just become so greedy that we will never see cool kits like that ever again. 20 years from now, we could be looking back saying we had it made then!!! How messed up is that????? I just hope this never ends! I dont know what other hobby I'd like to do except 1:1, and we all know how EXPENSIVE that can get! Just for a basket case 70 Challenger (my dream car) with rust everywhere can run up to and beyond $8,000!!!!!!! BTW, I will own one one day!!!!!

[samdiego]

It's all relative. I'm sure that an economist could show that the relative prices are pretty much the same, with inflation figured in. When models were $2, Corvettes were $6,000. The sixties were a great time for the model industry and the builder. I have car mags from then that have model ads inside the front cover, the inside back cover and the back cover. Often there would be model articles splashed on the cover as well. Modeling influence was everywhere, seemingly. I guess it could have just been me, but it really seemed that way.

Greenville, Ohio had the classic hobby shop, complete with a huge slot car track. This place was right in the main business district, down town.

I consider twenty years ago the dark ages of styrene. (the kids say 20 years ago like it was the stone age). Mostly AMT, I think, started to take the model buyer for granted. Man, they turned out some ######.

I've been pretty stoked by what is available right now. There are some whack things that happen now and then (Trumpeter cars) but the stuff being tooled now is a lot better than what we accepted back then

[Brian Fishburn]

Hobby Lobby/Michaels can be impersonal, for sure. Even though HL has models, don't ever count on there being an employee there who know anything about them other than how to ring them up.

Yet, just the same, HL is a valuable resource for us.Never forget that they have modeling goodies ALL OVER the store. You just have to find them and look at them as possible modeling supplies. You can buy bags of google eyes that beg to be headlight lenses for kits with chrome headlights. Want a 1:25 scale CD?- check out a cheap bag of sequins. Detail wire, detailing screen, paint- those cheap 49 cent acrylics are a HUGE part of my modeling supplies, especially the figure painting.

Not all modeling parts and supplies are clearly marked. Then again, I''m the guy who looks at the lens of a photoswitch I'm changing out at work and sees two in dash TV screens in scale. I change out a microchip and see thirty slick street rod rear view mirrors on that fried chip that's headed for the trash. And dear God, it's an extravaganza whenever I change the strings on one of my guitars!

This is what happens if you shoot lacquer without a respirator, kids.

By the way, Abe- your guys are each getting a 34 Ford snapper tomorrow. I still need to pack up the stuff for my demo, but the promised snappers are ready to go- they actually have been ever since I promised them.

Edited July 19, 2008 by Brian Fishburn

[rickr442]

There have been many, but one I remember best was Darleen's in Portland in maybe '79. I had moved to Portland from Anchorage, brought a nice wad of Pipeline Money with me, started a business which instantly tanked as the economy went sour, (thanks, Jimmy Carter!!!). My only refuge (since drugs and booze cost a LOT!) was my old kidhood hobby, model cars...

Darleen's had been a toy store for decades, sold stuffed toys by the ton, but also had lots of model cars. We got Rocky, the part-time sales clerk, to understand the concept of stocking as fast as HE could, so we could buy 'em as fast as WE could. Scale Auto Enthusiast magazine started in '79, and that opened the floodgates... lots of new modelers came in to the store and it was a standby for that group til the mid-80s.

Rocky bought the store from the elderly couple who had owned it, and eventually he tanked. Good store, done too soon.

The other that comes to mind is Elmer's Hobbies, a legendary store in Salem, Oregon. Elmer Roth was an 80-ish, retired toy wholesaler who apparently never threw anything away if it didn't sell... He turned a gas station (that he'd opened in 1932 on Market Street in Salem) into a hobby shop where he kept his old stock for sale to the collectors' market that started in the 70s. Elmer had walls lined with the finest selection of vintage kits I had ever- or since- seen. Early 60s annuals cost a whole $5, while the cool Trophy kits and fancy stuff was $10.

He had a neat invenory control system... if you wanted duplicates of a single subject, he'd tell you, 'That's the last one I have!'. Next trip, you'd be able to snag another one, but never more than two of the same thing in the same trip. Elmer became a friend over a couple of years before a stroke put him in a rest home in early 1981 (I think...) He passed in late '81 and his daughters eventually moved in to get rid of everything at higher prices to anyone who wanted it. Elmer was a great guy, well-remembered, and sorely missed.

Perhaps the best I've found in the past decade is Burbank's Housr of Hobbies, a great place run by energetic people who are also good at business. It and Pegasus is a wonderful place, but each pales in comparison to either of the two above...

Edited July 19, 2008 by rickr442

[crispy]

Well, I've read the replies here twice. I thought, why not let these guys know a little bit more about me and my start in modeling? Here it is, it may be lengthy, but I'll do my best to shorten it where I can.

It was 1979 and I lived in Brainerd, MN. My dad was diagnosed with cancer. Before life would change we had taken a trip to Mankato and stopped at Don's Hobby. This store had such an air about it. Wooden creaky floors, copper ceiling with ceiling fans flinging about, dim lighting and that smell. You guys know that smell. Some of the best and oldest hobby shops still have that smell.

This store was packed floor to ceiling with everything you could imagine. My dad was into H.O. slot cars and N scale trains. He dabbled in model kits and was a huge fan of Hubley metal kits. As a 9 year old I was in awe. Don, the owner(aptly named Don's Hobby) was the friendliest man you could ever meet. He was big into stamp collecting. I walked in and he called me over and gave me a bunch of stamps. About 4 years later I was into stamps just because of that.

Move into 1983, Dad finally succumbed to cancer but was smart enough to know when his time was coming and moved the family to Mankato so Mom could be near family. About a week after my dad's death my cousin picked me up and down to Don's Hobby he took me. There I bought my first model kit and officially started on this model journey. It was Monograms Dodge Challenger T/A kit. We built it together and it got me through my toughest time.

1992 and I'm now a father. I was a Don's Hobby "regular" now. For the next 3 years I would work for Don's Hobby on the weekend's and holiday's for, get this, FREE. Well, actually, I was able to take a model kit off the shelf after work each time. That was my payment.

2003 and I am now working at the newly located Don's Hobby which moved in 1999. Bigger location, more room and way brighter features. However, with that move it lost that Hobby Shop feeling the old store had. The ambiance was now sterile. I worked for Don's Hobby and became the assistant manager. The only thing I didn't do was payroll. Sadly, the store closed in May of 2007. It was quite a sad day for me. I was happy to have gone full circle with the store and its owners.

Like everyone else I was always called when new kits were available. Then when I was there I tried to get every new release while making sure the old standby best sellers were there. Times would get tight and I know the customers knew it too. It was a great shop and one that I will miss, but I will always have the great memories of it. Good times and bad times they were their to help me out.

Now, I have to drive over an hour to get to the nearest shop. Just recently their was an ad in the home magazine(local penny saver if you will) about missing the store and to call a number to see what we could do to get another store back into the community. Time will tell, but the old Mom and Pop stores are few and far between. I wouldn't say the hobby is dying, it's just rolling with the changes. It had it's golden years for sure, but I still think good times are ahead.

Speaking of Hobby Lobby and Michael's. I started working at Michael's as a supervisor with nods to management as soon as the position opens. So, if you are in my neck of the woods it is not impersonal at our store and I love to talk plastic whenever given the chance. I only wish the chain would rotate stock similar to Hobby Lobby. Trust me, I go to Hobby Lobby with a 40% coupon and buy a kit. Yes, I never get help. Yes, I've helped people in the kit aisle, especially at Christmas. I may work at Michael's, but I try to move the hobby when I can. If you shop at Michael's the only thing I can say is start emailing them about rotating stock. I can only do so much from the inside. The customer's at Michael's really do have a say. We just need lots of them saying it.

Chris

[thomas LB808 Labanon]

WOW, I like this thread.

I can't recall how old I was when my dad got me started in the hobby. I'd say 7/8. I can recall going to Hobby Co. at pearlridge center on oahu (HI), in the late 70's. Man i remember just grabbing anything that caught my eye. Also remember back then other stores had models too. Woolworths, holidaymart, Long's. I remember thinking $4-5 was alot for a kit. Thank god My dad was in the hobby also.

Then we moved to Kauai (HI), in 85'. And not much stores carried models here. But low and behold with in a year or so after we moved here. Hobby Co happens to open at the local mall, Kukui Grove. All though it did not last too long. We where stoked. We would spend about $200 a visit. We where so popular with all the workers there. In fact after awhile. We had dibs on anything that would come in. They actually had our number. The manager would give us a call when they had a new shipment. They would tell us what came in. We would tell them which kits we wanted. We bought a lot of the Johan,revell,monogram,amt kit's that they had in stock. And they put it on the side for us. just like that. I remember having times when they would hold it for weeks. Because our tab was so big. But we always got it taken cared of. We where very sad when they closed. I'm still in contact with two of the former workers.

Now, I do all my buying on the internet. unless i'm on Oahu,then i go to The same ol' faith full pearlridge Hobby Co. But i'm not complaining. I just got one of my co-workers back in the hobby. He comes to my house/hobby shop. And doesn't want to go home,LOL.

Edited July 19, 2008 by Thomas Labanon aka LB808

[Ken]

Actually, the first hobby shop I remember visiting was after we moved to Maryland. I don't ever remember going to a hobby shop with my dad, but I remember building kits with my dad. I believe the first one we built was a Boeing Starlifter. I flew that thing all over the house for months. Eventually, my brother 'test flew' it from the top of the stairs one day. The next kit was either an IMC or Aurora GT40. I distinctly remember the rear engine and its bundle of snakes. He bought it for me because my favorite Hot Wheels was a GT40. My kit was painted metallic green.

When we moved to Maryland, I actually got back into the hobby during college. I searched the yellow pages for hobby shops and found some. The first one I went into was either on Timmonium (spelling) Road or Route 1 off the Beltway. I don't remember the name, but I still have one of the models I bought there. A Jo-han 70s Javelin. I also placed an order for the Sox and Martin 'Cuda, but it never came in. Later I found another hobby shop a little closer to home. I went to the Bel Air hobby shop everytime I went home. I haven't been there in 3 or 4 years, so I don't know if they are still around. When I moved here to Oklahoma, I started looking for a new hobby shop. There was one down on the southside in one of the malls. When I first started going there, they catered to the model end of the business very well. Later they started to get into the NASCAR diecast and other stuff. They left us 5 or 6 years ago. The last good hobby shop I have found is up by Marc Nellis in Owasso. Tower Hobbies is the name. They are one of those shops that you walk in and could spend hours there... and I have. Tons of kits, car and military, aftermarket stuff by the ton, paint by all the big guys and some of the little, reference books by the ton. First time there, I spent about 150$, way more than I have ever spent at one time on the hobby. Now, everytime I head to Tulsa, I factor the trip around a stop at Tower.

Right now, I have a HobbyTown,6 Hobby Lobbies and 3 Micheals to chose from. They are all great places to shop, but they are not Tower Hobbies.

[steve28]

My first experience in a real hobby shop was in 1955 when I was 11 yrs old and moved to Boulder Colorado.

Airplanes hanging from the ceiling, little engines, and a flying circle a couple of blocks away.

I could not afford those flying models but could watch and dream.

Later my dreams were fulfilled, and am still building - little cars now,

and that more than makes up for my 1:1 automotive fantasies.

That shop was PURE HEAVEN for this kid from the country, and led to a life-long "affliction".

Cheers,

Steve

[slant6]

I dont know how Old I was. But my dad had a freind that worked at a hobby shop when I was little, so we spent alot of time there. I dont even remember him buying me anything. I think it was my Grandfather that bought me my first model, and helped me build it. It was a snap together space ship.

[Guest zebm1]

Hmmmm, first experience in a LHS.....well I went in looking for a model, but the lady that was working there......she had these .......errr....... in a low cut top...errrrr .......and they were so,,,,,huge..... I walked out of there forgetting what I went in the store for...... is that tha kind of 1st experience your talking about? Her name was Lilian, a redhead........man I spent a ton of money in that store.......

[Steven Zimmerman]

My first visit to a hobby shop was in 1968,when I was just out of high school . I went to Erie,Pa. to visit a friend of mine,and he took me to a hobby shop on west 38th street(it's been gone for 30 years)....it had EVERYTHING-a wall from floor to ceiling with model cars,a wall behind the counter with EVERY color and brand of model spray paint available-Pactra,AMT Testors....all there! I was into military miniatures also,and they had a whole line of 1/72nd(I think) scale armored vehicles,figures,bunkers,gun emplacements,etc.....At one time I owned over a thousand of those suckers ! Slot cars too,in every scale.....I was in that store every week for years,and spent thousands of dollars there. In those days,you could hop in the car and go to Montgomery Wards,Westons,Jamesway (like walmart),every news stand in the area,all the five & dime stores....they ALL had model cars,planes,ships........In a 50 mile radius from Titusville Pa (my home town then)there were at least a HUNDRED stores you could buy models in.......................(SIGH)............Steven Zimmerman aka the'Z'man.....

[HotRodaSaurus]

Well it would have been around 1965, DW Dwyers owned a chain of shops in the new town of Basildon Essex(UK). Their flagship store was a REAL toy/hobby shop everything was in there. Model kits, railways, slot cars,Dinky and Corgi die casts, Barbies and baby dolls, games and toys for girls and boys of all ages.

But it was the window display that was to be marveled at.

As well as at least one example of almost every toy they sold, the centre piece was a small selection of made up model cars. I didn't know what kits were as a 6 year old but what took my eye was the mighty Deusenburg kit by Monogram and a small E Type Jaguar by Airfix.

We(me and mum) went in! I wanted the Jag but when the lady in the shop said it had to be made I settled on a Corgi car of some sort.

What atracted me to these cars was the shop had employed someone to make a few cars ships and planes so you could see what they looked like, thats why I thought they came like that.

Initially it was the box art of that Deusenburg that attracted me to it, as well as seeing those fantastic Airfix boxes for aircraft painted my Roy Cross.(see my new topic)

Alas its all gone. Toys * Us is the only toy shop in town now, no one has time to build models for display in these stores. They are just toy supermarkets stocking say 12 different kits and 6 examples of each, same for Action Man(GI Joe) Barbie, and even the good old die cast cars.

John

[lordairgtar]

First experience? I remember Casanova's Gun Shop. Let me explain. In Milwaukee, Casanova's sold guns, camp equipment, boats, model railroad stuff and other hobby things. The store was a maze of hallways. You entered the gun shop and walked down the aisle, made a left turn through a small narrow door into the hobby area. This place was jam packed with trains, slot car stuff and kits of all types. I spent many a Saturday wandering the narrow aisles looking at Lionel trains and the really cool all brass locomotives in HO scale. The place was big with IMC kits and Johan. Renwal 66 Revival kits too. As time marched on, Casanova's got out of the hobby business in the middle seventies and as the neighborhood went to pot, the business abandoned the gun trade and just concentrated on boating and they moved out to Muskego where they still are in business as Casanova Marine. The old building is still in Milwaukee but is host to several small entrepreneur enterprises, the biggest, a Hmong vegetable market. How times have changed.

[James W]

I got to go to Elmer's hobby shop in Salem Oregon only ONE time. It was '83 and I could finally drive. I had asked my Dad if we could go a couple times but he said it was just full of 'junk'. So when I got my license, I went down one Saturday.

There were stacks of late 70's kits on the floor, old displays like Grain of Wheat bulbs and Pactra paints covered with dust. A cold water Coke cooler stood just inside the door. No Coke in it .

Behind the counter on the wall, the whole line-up of '61 SMP kits were on display. Other old kits as well. By this time, Elmer was gone and his family had taken over the shop. They re-priced all the kits to reflect there current values. I had 12 dollars in my pocket, enough to by 3 models at Eastwood Hobby a mile away. But I was on a mission.

I must have spent half an hour looking over the vintage kits. Finally I settled on a '61 Valiant by SMP. It was the only one I could afford. The rest were $14 or $15, some an astronomical $20!!!!

I took it home and immediatly painted and assembled it, there was no thought of saving it for some future time when it might be worth more.

It was always hit and miss,you never knew when the store would be open. Elmers closed it's doors for good some time later never to re-open. I never got another chance at any of the kits on the shelves, or the floor, or behind the counter, or in the storage room. The family was rumored to be holding on to these kits looking for a buyer. Good Saturday-Morning-Hobby-Shop-Folklore, just bring it up if your ever in Salem sometime.

There was a story written about this shop in a magazine 15 years or so ago. Dose anybody know the magazine?

[Brian Fishburn]

When I commented earlier, I forgot to mention my first hobby shop expeience. I remember the day fairly well, for it being about 35 years ago.

Possman's Paint and hobby shop, Southern Plaza, Indianapolis. I'm not 100% sure about the paint part, though. He had a nice selection of kits and trains. Dad took me there one Saturday, and told me we were each going to get a model. Of course, it was new to me, but looked really cool. I picked out an AMT 75 Mustang II. Dad got himself a Monogram 1:48 scale P-38.

I mauled through my Mustang in less than a day (and slightly less than a tube of glue- but only slightly)

Dad took longer on his P-38. I think he wanted me to see what happens if you actually try to do well. The P-38 is actually still in pretty good shape. I ought to get it from Mom and restore it.