Remember when?

[Porscheman]

Remember when, you were a kid and your parents took you to your 1st hobby shop and you couldn't believe all these car kits that you never knew exsisted. I bought all my models before that day at SS Kresge in suburban Chicago back 1961. Darn I'm old. LOL

Al

Edited November 22, 2012 by Porscheman

[Simpleman]

I remember those days well Al , kits could be found in most any drug store or even the corner grocery store. Many of my kits were bought from a variety of places in Dayton Ohio where I grew up in the 50ies and 60ies. I remember one hobby shop on 3rd Ave in Dayton that would build a new kit up unpainted and display it in the window. I would stop in there on those summer days and just look and talk to the owner , never had the money to buy all the one's I wanted LOL.

[Fabrux]

Maybe I'm not old enough but there never were any local hobby shops when I was a kid (there still aren't any in my city). Any of my models came from Walmart back when it was Wal-Mart, maybe some at Zellers, and Toys R Us as well. When I got a little older I started shopping online and purchased a lot of models from eBay. In university I discovered the hobby shops where I was going to school and started adding to my collection, partly due to the owner of one of the shops being in a club that I joined. It wasn't until about 2 years ago when I moved in with my now-wife that my collection really took off: I went from around 100 kits to 400+ kits...!

[southpier]

the Hobby Shop was definitely the mecca for a 10 year old's aspirations

[slusher]

l was about 7 when l got my first on at a candy/hobby shop in chicago on levett street. l could not buy glue but my dad would buy it.....

[High octane]

l was about 7 when l got my first on at a candy/hobby shop in chicago on levett street. l could not buy glue but my dad would buy it.....

l was about 7 when l got my first on at a candy/hobby shop in Chicago on levett street. l could not buy glue but my dad would buy it.....

I used to live at Evergreen & Levitt Streets back in the 50's & early 60's and there was a candy/cigar store on the corner of Levitt & Division Streets that sold models there also.

[The70judgeman]

Casey and some others from the area may or may not remember this place, but it was always a special trip to Brookfield Square Mall and eventually making it to Hobby Horse. It wasn't the biggest store, but it was the best store in the mall as far as I was concerned. Finished models diplayed in the middle of the store behind glass, all the different kinds of kits...cars, planes, military...a little bit of each. It was the only hobby store I knew about when I was a kid. My parents could have left me in there while they shopped throughout the mall and I'd be there when they were done if they wanted to.

[moparfarmer]

Got my first kit at a hardware store on North Main in Winnipeg. In the early 60s my friend Doug Cole and I would take a bus downtown and walk Portage avenue. We'd go to Kresge/Woolworths/Eatons/Bay/St John Hobbies and Gooches(which is still in business).There was another but can't remember the name. We'd see what they had then would go back and buy. When I passed to grade six my parents gave me $20.00 which I remember I bought a 63 Corvette and a 61 Dodge and lots of paints. Just had enuf for bus fare home. Painted the Vet with Pactra N'amel and was done in two days...Those sure were the days. I cut grass for the neighbors and shovelled snow for money. I didn't get an allowance as only my dad worked and we were far from rich....

[rel14]

Remember the hobby shops with the slot car track, and tons of models, Back then i thought .75cent was highway robbery.

remember Dad rasing Kane cause gas went up to 26 cents,, Coke and a candy bar,,and get change back from a 25cents..

4 old wheels, and a couple 2x4, and ya had a hot rod,, if your friend would push ya,,,, My first real Job at the gas station,

and got a dollar per hour,,Man was i rich,,LOL

[RodneyBad]

Nope. Bought models on my own at Payless and later after driving.. Found LHS..

Only one in family that does models. They all think they are toys and we'll grow out of it.

Proved them wrong.. Mua ha ha ha ha...

[1972coronet]

I can't remember where I got my first kit , but I *can* tell you that it was a snap-together : the Monogram 1970-1972 Duster Funny Car . Probably around '74 , when I was 4 years old .

I most-likely got it at the supermarket (either Market Basket or Alpha Beta) on a Saturday .

First glue-together was a hand-me-down from someone . Pretty certain it was called "Dapper Dan" , and I seem to recall it being a 20's or 30's Ford custom , 24th scale . This was around '75 or '76 .

Most of the kits I got were from Alpha Beta ( @ $3.25 ... expensive for the time ) , Sears , Hinshaw's (local high-end department store) , Market Basket , or WoolCo ( west coast Woolworth's) .

I never even knew about hobby-specific stores until the 80's !!

I almost fell-over when I learned of Hobby City in Anaheim ( Beach Blvd @ Ball Rd ) in 1985 , and was in heaven when I went there in late '85 .

I can't believe how much these kits are going for now , the new releases : almost $30 out the door !!

I remember when $30 would've bought two kits and a buttload of supplies !!!

I almost dies when I saw my first $9.00 kit , and had to be revived when I saw them going for $12.00 !!

" I was so much older then , I'm younger than that now ... "

[Skip]

There wasn't a local hobby shop until long after I had begun building models. I bought the very first kit at the 88 cent store where everything in the store was 88 cents or less! I couldn't believe that they were selling models that cost $1.49 elsewhere for only 88 cents!!! Now why can't the dollar store take the hint.

[Mercman]

I got my first kit a Kresge's. We had a drug store on the corner, 3 blocks down was Hobbyland, then another drug store, Kresge's, Woolworth's, then onto The Toy Chest. I purchased my first X-Acto knife there for 29 cents. Mostly I bought at Kresge's. I got to know the lady in the toy dept. fairly well.

Cash back then came from lawn work, and snow shovelling. If I had $2.00 it was gone in a flash.

On a side bar when The Toy Chest closed they had Revell Double Gragster kits just in side the front door. They were stacked floor to cieling and over 40 feet long, the entire wall. Here's the killer they were $0.50 each. Yep only half a buck. Oh to have foresight back then..... :(

[Guest]

I got my first model back in 1968. Bought it at a grocery store in Forest Lake, MN. Saved up my .25 a week allowance for it. It cost me $1.25. It was a long 5 weeks! Felt like 5 years. The model was the original issue of AMT's classic Star Trek USS Enterprise kit.

[Daf57]

No hobby shops in the little town I grew up in - the one drug store had plenty of kits, glue and the little bottles of Testors and Pactra paints tho and the guy that ran it would order new kits regularly. I think he, or his kids, built, too. The hardware store had the little cans of Testors spray (even the Candy colors!), as well as the big regular spray paint cans. Sometimes we would go into the big city (LA) and I'd get kits and supplies at different 5 & Dimes but I never saw a hobby shop until well into my adult life. Even then the first hobby shop, it was a Hobby Town I think ..., was mostly railroad and RC planes. I quit modeling for years and years and when I came back we had the internet! Yeah!

[1930fordpickup]

Being one of eleven kids ,my parents would not take us inside a hobby store . They were smarter than that ! LOL

[58 Impala]

My dad started my brother and I building models, they were 1/16 Aurora kits for display in our room. Then we moved on to all the Tom Daniels kits. I used to go to Rexall drugstore, they always had a good model selection. $1.50-$2.50 for a model and 10 cents for Testors paint and glue. If I had $5 in my pocket I could buy a bunch of stuff that would keep me busy building for hours.

[dragcarz]

My cousin Jack, lived across the street,and built model cars. he lined them up on his window sill and I was in awe looking at them. When I was 8 years old,we moved to another neighborhood. We only had one car and Dad had it with him at work,so we had to walk the twelve or so blocks to the local strip mall [10 stores] they had a S.S. Kresge there with a low lunch counter and best of all a wall full of models, Testors and Pactra paints and glue. My first kit was an AMT 64 Grand Prix,$1.49. I was hooked, I shoveled snow, mowed lawns and raked leaves. I priced my labor by the cost of kits. For $2.00, I could buy a kit for a $1.49, some glue or paint, or a Pepsi and a Suzie Q for $2.00, Those days are gone now. Looks like the Quzie Q may be gone too. Yes I am OLD

[Danno]

My model jones got started at the Rexall Drug Store on Main Street in Hoisington. Later, my first (and best for many years) real hobby shop was Ben's Hobby Den in Wichita. Much later, it was Colpar Hobbies in Aurora and Compleat Games and Hobbies in Colorado Springs. These days, not much ... just chain stores. But there's ALWAYS been Caboose Hobbies in Denver!!

PS: I was saddened to discover on my most recent trip to the Mile High City that Mizell's in Wheatridge had shut down.

[Jantrix]

For me it was the 1980's and The House of Hobbies on Main Street in New Port Richey, Florida. For a kid with the limitations of a 20" bike it was the only show in town, aside from my local Eckert Drug store which also carried a few kits. HoH was a great place, short on organization but long on selection, assuming you could navigate the place without getting buried. They carried everything we needed. I hear it is still open in a different location but I never get into that area of town.

[mikemodeler]

I remember many trips with Mom to various stores and there always being models available, unlike today. I think we all took to model building because we were exposed to them wherever we went- department stores, drug stores, grocery stores, hardware stores- and then I found hobby shops!

While I wish there were more outlets for them today, I do appreciate what we have. I think with all the stuff we have- resin, photo etch, internet, etc- we are better off than when I started 40 years ago.

[Agent G]

Woolworths in the then big St Louis suburb of Jennings Missouri. That store had TWO floors and the entire half of the lower floor was toys and gasp models!

Planes flew from the ceiling, tanks crawled up the shelves looking out over the entire area. Cars drag raced in a display behind the check out counter. Every visit I felt I had died and gone to heaven.

THEN they added a sporting goods section nearby with, OH MY GOODNESS, handguns prominently displayed in glass cases right there where every one could see them! Rifles and shotguns nearby as well.

Be still my beating heart.

G

[RANDY L]

when growing in Sarasota Fl we had h&h hobbies, loved going there in the 70's and 80's.Bradenton fl had Bayshore Hobbies

in Bayshore Plaza. spent plenty of my allowance at both places.

thanks Randy Ludi

[Art Anderson]

Growing up in West Lafayette IN, in the 1950's, I had all manner of choices: Cridercraft Hobbies at the bottom of State Street Hill (5 blocks from home), Stroebel's Variety store in "The Village" (our little business district just to the east of the Purdue University Campus--but the real prize came when I discovered Bell Auto Supply in downtown Lafayette (just across the Wabash River of song and legend)! That was THE mother lode of model car kits for me, all the way through HS. Of course, nearly every supermarket and drug store carried at least some model kits--had my parents not restricted my available spending money I'd have spent all of it on model car kits back in the day.

Art

[FASTBACK340]

Ironically, growing up I was limited to Morris Toy Store, a small, under-stocked store a block away from me in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, NY. They had little in stock and I never got to order from Auto World due to not having the cash.

Fast forward to the late 70's when I rediscovered model cars. Now I had transportation & cash so I went hunting for hobby shops. First I found Big Daddy Livingstons ( long gone now...) on Northern Blvd. in Bayside, NY that was a time warp. Old, run down, and dirty. But the inventory! On my first visit I dropped almost my entire paycheck buying all the old kits I wanted as a child. Every Saturday morning I would get there and fill my trunk. I remember buying IMC Little Red Wagons for $5 a piece. I bought all 5 left on the shelves. I found a box with Revell parts packs and bought all 15 pieces for face value: 69 cents.... 99 cents..... then he brought more out from the basement! I must have bought 200 kits within the first 2 months knowing of this shop. Never paying collector prices for 15-20 yr old kits. Then lightning struck twice.

Then I discovered Dave's Hobbies in Freeport on Long Island , NY. This is where I would find Revell double kits for $20 or vintage kits for $10 back in the. 80's when new kits were only $3-4. Dave's is still there run by the same eccentric gentleman that enjoys pulling something old & rare and putting it on the shelves so you can "find" it. It's always a treasure hunt, and if you add in the excitement of rummaging through an old hobby shop in disarray it's heaven.

Unfortunately, Dave's is right near the coast. I know the store owner has property in the area with a large stash of vintage kits and cars, besides his personal life. I hope is well after Sandy. It would be a crying shame on many levels to hear otherwise....

Thanks for the memory nudge.