Old Hobby Shop Photos

[peteski]

23 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

The car on the left looks like either a Renault or Peugeot - wow!  Those were fairly rare in U.S.

[rel14]

LOL     looking close,   I see the same models today,, called new releases. round 2 .    it would be nice to see $1.49 again,   now there $30 plus.   The one I use to go to, had the 1/24 scale slot car track in it,,,    Man them were the days.......

[ChrisBcritter]

6 hours ago, peteski said:

The car on the left looks like either a Renault or Peugeot - wow!  Those were fairly rare in U.S.

Renault Dauphine - and IIRC, they were for a brief time the second most popular import in the U.S. after the VW, but they had a dismal survival rate. 

And naturally, the Hubley kit of the Renault goes for fairly big bucks today. (Still need a rear bumper for mine.)

Edited June 11, 2018 by ChrisBcritter

[Spex84]

Canada imported lots of Renaults, too. There's a derelict example in the forest across the valley from me. I was pretty surprised to find it, until I learned how many small Euro cars were sold here in the 50s and 60s. 

Love these old hobby shop photos. I really wish I had a local hobby shop to hang around at. 

[PeeBee]

This was one of my old favorites.  Five floors on 5th Avenue.

[Paul Hettick]

On 6/10/2018 at 1:12 AM, ChrisBcritter said:

A few images I've picked up on the net.

 

 

Wow, a trip down memory lane for me, I grew up in Downey. Also Earls hobby shop on Bellflower Blvd, and Robbies Hobbies hold some fond memories. Robbies had lots of display cases with built models in them. around 1970, Earls put out a bunch of 1961- 1962 AMT annuals that were hiding in the back room. Paid 1.49 each! There were hobby shops everywhere! My Grandma worked at Robinson's in downtown L.A., a high end department store, and even they had models in their toy dept.

[SfanGoch]

7 hours ago, Spex84 said:

I really wish I had a local hobby shop to hang around at. 

I dunno about all this "hanging out at the hobby shop" stuff people keep mentioning. NOBODY just hung out in the hobby shop without buying  anything when I was a kid. If you loitered around for more than twenty minutes, you'd get chased out because you looked like a shoplifter.

[StevenGuthmiller]

2 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

I dunno about all this "hanging out at the hobby shop" stuff people keep mentioning. NOBODY just hung out in the hobby shop without buying  anything when I was a kid. If you loitered around for more than twenty minutes, you'd get chased out because you looked like a shoplifter.

I did some hanging out at Moon's Hobby Shop in Rochester Minnesota years ago.

I got to know the guys that worked there & many times we would just sit and talk cars & models.

I will confess that I rarely left without a small souvenir of my visit. 

 

Steve

[Daddyfink]

[Daddyfink]

 

[ChrisBcritter]

A bit clearer (it came from the 1964 Verdugo Hills High School yearbook):

[thatz4u]

now they are 5 Grandmas   ^^^^^^

[peteski]

On 6/12/2018 at 8:14 AM, thatz4u said:

now they are 5 Grandmas   ^^^^^^

Not only that (one can become a grandma in their 30s), bu they are now approaching the dawn sunset of their life.

Edited June 14, 2018 by peteski

[Watertown]

On 6/7/2018 at 7:08 PM, High octane said:

This hobby shop was huge at 'bout 12,000 square feet. I had model kits, train department, R/c department, artist supplies, air brushes and Black Gold paints, toys, slot car racing department, and a "large" magazine department with all kinds of magazines. I always enjoyed going to this shop when I was in the area, but the owner wanted to retire and closed up

Whenever I would fly back to Wisconsin, this was a "must visit" destination. So sad to hear that it's gone.

 

[High octane]

Yes Mike, the closing was bad news for many of us. I'm thankful that Model Empire in West Allis is still in business, of course it is a bit of a "hike" for me and I don't get there that often. I also liked the Hooters restaurant in Greenfield, but that closed as well.

[thatz4u]

10 hours ago, peteski said:

Not only that (one can become a grandma in their 30s), bu they are now approaching the dawn of their life.

don't you mean the sunset of life?

[High octane]

1 hour ago, thatz4u said:

don't you mean the sunset of life?

No, I believe that usually when one approaches the sunset of their life they are considerably older than in their 30's.

[unclescott58]

On 6/11/2018 at 7:54 PM, Daddyfink said:

 

Wow! I've never seen a commercial for AMT models before. A little sad to see it was done during the Ertl era. In the modeling dark ages of the 1980's. Thankfully, Ertl at least kept AMT and MPC alive during that time. 

[lordairgtar]

On 6/11/2018 at 5:04 PM, SfanGoch said:

I dunno about all this "hanging out at the hobby shop" stuff people keep mentioning. NOBODY just hung out in the hobby shop without buying  anything when I was a kid. If you loitered around for more than twenty minutes, you'd get chased out because you looked like a shoplifter.

Different in Milwaukee than in Brooklyn I guess. We never got shooed away. They knew we would be back on allowance day.

 

[SfanGoch]

Yeah, they are different. In Milwaukee, kids might hear, "Get off my lawn!" Around here it's, Get off the stoop, you punks!", followed by a big pot of water dumped from a third floor window.  

[peteski]

13 hours ago, thatz4u said:

don't you mean the sunset of life?

I did - not sure what my brain was doing at that time.

I meant sunset.  If those ladies were around 18 years-old in the early '60s, the are in their late 70s today.

[Phirewriter]

9 hours ago, lordairgtar said:

Different in Milwaukee than in Brooklyn I guess. We never got shooed away. They knew we would be back on allowance

Clearly you've never dealt with Dennis from Happy Hobby on 78th and Burleigh. Was told to leave if I was just looking and not buying anything. That was only a few years ago. 

Edited June 14, 2018 by Phirewriter

[peteski]

5 minutes ago, Phirewriter said:

Clearly you've never dealt with Dennis from Happy Hobby on 78th and Burleigh. Was told to leave if I was just looking and not buying anything. That was only a few years ago. 

And that was at "Happy Hobby"?  Wow! Talking about misnamed business. . .

[Daddyfink]

 

[Twokidsnosleep]

Cool thread. 

Brings back memories of a  blue eyed blonde kid hanging out in the hobby shop in the ‘70’s while my mom was in the sewing store up the street. Wide eyed at all the boxes and stuff.

I cannot for the life of me remember the name nor find a picture of the store, but I don’t remember ever getting  kicked out for just looking. It has been closed many years now.

Will have to get a pic of my current LHS before it closes.