Hobbytown USA in Monroe NC

[mikemodeler]

Anybody know what happened to this store? I drove by there last night and they were closed, empty shelves. I was in there a couple of months ago and it appeared that there was a new owner who was trying to revamp the store. While his prices were not competitive, he did have a nice selection of paint that was helpful to have.

[Dragline]

IMO HobbyTown is out of touch pricewise. My local one sells above MSRP. I don't buy kits there but I do purchase paint and supplies. The staff here is just OK with minimum fanfare and no really outgoing personalities.

If the prices came into line I'd purchase kits there as well.

[unclescott58]

We lost one here a couple of months ago too. Like Bob above, because of their prices I never bought kits from them. Mainly went in there for paint.

Scott

[niteowl7710]

I recently saw a HTUSA with an AMT Vantom with a $43.99!!! price tag attached. When you're marking your kits almost 100% over the nearly 100% mark up... well you aren't gonna stay on business very long.

[deuces wild]

That's highway robbery...

[Madd Trucker]

the Hobby Townhere is also way high ontier kits I deal with a local hobby shop in Roanoke . Va

[Tom Geiger]

I was in my local Hobbytown (West Chester, PA) yesterday. You can see that their focus is on RC since the young guys working there had three repair projects going on across the front counters. I drove all the way there to get some Tamiya paint. They only recently got some, and most folks won't know since they have it hidden in a Pactra RC Colors rack. I just happened to notice the Tamiya caps sticking up on one of my trips there. I need a can or two of the "Pastel Grey" color I am painting my Trabant postal van. I used nearly a whole can just painting interior trim and such, not much paint in those little Japanese cans! Anyway, of the dozen or so colors they had, of course they didn't have the pastel grey I need. So I asked the guy who seemed to be the head numpty if he could get the color for me. He wasn't friendly nor did he appear interested in helping me. I handed him a card that I had the stock number etc on, and he banged on his keyboard for a few seconds before telling me that their source didn't have that color... I cannot imagine a wholesaler not having the entire line. So I left, darn pesky customer that I am, and he went back to playing with the RC plane thingie.

[Dragline]

The local HT here in Baltimore is much the same. RC as far as the eyes could see and the models are tucked in the back. Good news to me was the guy at the counter said they'd be having an Armor sale. I cannot imagine a sale since the Dragon and Tamiya kits were 100% over retail already. What's the sale going to do, bring them into line with "normal" cost? Some sale it'll be.

[martinfan5]

not much paint in those little Japanese cans!

You know that a 100ml can of Tamiya spray paint is 3.3814 oz ?, same amount as in a can of Testors/Model Master spray paint.

[Tom Geiger]

I dunno Johnathan, for some reason the Tamiya cans don't seem to last as long. Last three times I used them for a project, I wound up buying two cans to finish a model.

[johnbuzzed]

I haven't been to that Hobbytown since last summer so I have no idea of what's going on. Yeah, the prices for kits were high, but they did have a lot of paint and other building accessories. Oh, well.