Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

The best Hobby Town I ever saw was in Boise Idaho. Was there for scale masters qualifier and needed a prop. When I walked into that shop my eyes bugged out. Lots of planes hanging from the ceiling (all for sale), big area for parts, and the right parts stocked. This was years ago mind you, about 2005, but its what I remembered from my childhood. I buy glow fuel from our local Hobby Towns with the occasional motor mount, control horn or small gizmo. They dont have any thing else I need. I keep a list of supplies and make an occasional order online to stock up.
Edwin

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Sounds like it just depends on where you are located weather or not you have a HT store that is worth walking into. The one in Vegas is useless with brain dead stupid people working there and nothing in stock for model planes. Hobby People is better but not by a lot. I now phone the one shop in town that used to be great but has gone down hill under the new ownership and ask if they have what I need in stock, if not then I just mail order. Saves gas and time and I get what I need. Other then fuel when on sale I have little reason to use the three local hobby shops. Not worth fighting the traffic for.

Wagon1

Ours is pretty good. I'm lucky becasue we have 3 LHSs in town. One is pretty much just plastic models but we also have a home grown LHS and Hobbytown. I go to both and find Hobbytown has a good selection of tools, wood and hardware. They do cater mostly to ARF electric folks, but they have to carry what sells. That roll of magenta monokote will sit for years.

dmbaerry

Any one ever been to the one in Greensboro NC? Thats the closest to me and its about a 1/2 hour drive so I was hoping someones been in that one before I make the drive.

da Rock

Stay on 85 South a few more minutes beyond Greensboro. Get off at exit 111 and go north on Main Street into Archdale. KC Hobbies is just a minute off the interstate, and is about the best LHS in the state. One group of guys I fly with around Mocksville makes a weekly trip down there every Wednesday. I just got back in fact.

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

The one in gboro is trains an leckys rtf..What da rock said..you want KC hobbies in Archdale its about 40 minutes down 85 ..I think the 2nd high point exit, take a right an its a 1/2 mile on the right...Rog

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

Yep, KC Rocks! They also do a good job of supporting the local club events. Kirby deserves our support.

bchapman

There's one in Tulsa, but it's pretty bad in some respects. The store is well stocked, and seems to cater to everybody, trains, plastic kits, cars, model rockets, science stuff and the like. I'd even go as far as to say that the RC section is not too bad either, just sort of low on building supplies. That being said however, unless you like foamies, electrics and arf's you're pretty much screwed. That is all they push. If you even ask about a kit, they'll try and talk you out of it.

A couple of years ago I bought a PT-40 kit for my son at Christmas. I'm an old kit builder and I wanted to build one together with him. When I told the guy at the counter that I wanted to buy that kit up on the shelf behind the counter, he said, 'now you know that's just a box of sticks." "You don't want to build that thing, were going to stop even selling kits anymore." "What you need is this ARF, or something to that effect" It was some foamie park flyer. I had to practically talk him into selling me the PT-40. Unbelievable. It was like he wanted me to feel bad that I was buying my son that piece of crap for Christmas.

The other thing that the original poster mentioned was that they don't stock much of anything. For example, you go in there and want more than one 2.5" wheel, sorry you're out of luck, they'll have to "order it for you." It's really frustrating when you get in there and all they have is one of each item.

Another funny thing that happened was when I went in there to buy a charger for my receiver batteries. I wanted one of those Great Plains Triton Jr. chargers. I called and they said they had it in stock. It's the one without the AC adapter. I just wanted to use it at the field and I had a power supply for the house already. They wanted to sell me this big unit that had all these harnesses for charging LiPos and all that electric stuff and I told him that I didn't fly electrics and I only charge JR receiver batteries. Same thing as the kit, he goes into this big spiel about how everything is going electric and to stop wasting my money on nitro and all that crap.

If I didn't have to buy fuel there (if they even keep selling it) I wouldn't eve go in there. The thing is my son really likes going to get stuff for the PT-40, so I do it just so he has some memories, like I do of going to the hobby shop with my dad.

Just my two cents worth

Brian

dant-RCU

My Feedback: (3)

Brian:

I would think with the profit he is getting for the fuel he will keep selling it especially with all the car guys that shop there. I do miss Tom's hobby shop a lot however and used his fuel for years. I was moving from glow to gas when he closed so I don't miss the glow fuel.

HT DOES have Xoar props in the 18-20-22 inch sizes and I was surprised at that and the prices on them are OK. I buy my CA and epoxy there and some kicker. Now and then an
odd piece of balsa or carbon fiber tube/rod but that is about all.

Owner does support local club events however and that is a good thing.

I still miss Tom's shop and I even miss Tom!

Dan

bchapman

Dan,

I never knew the owner's name over there at Model Works, which I assume you are referring to, but I remember that store before I moved away. When I got back, Wings and Things (my favorite place) was gone and Model Works was about closed up. I remember going in to Model Works toward the end and asking for some Nitrate dope for a project I was finishing up, but the guy there said that Sig made him order a case of it or something like that and it didn't sell well enough for him to do it. I thought that made sense, but made me realize that the kit building days were on the way out.

Thanks for reminding me about Hobby Town's support of the local clubs. They do support the local clubs and that can't be left out. They did provide quite a few raffle prizes at the last HeatWave and Warbird events at the Glue Dobbers field.

When you are the owner, it really matters who you have working for you. I would like HT a lot better if I hadn't had those two bad experiences. I still have to go in to buy fuel and I always end up buying more, so I guess that is my way of saying thank you for his support of our local club. Even if some of the people working there aren't the nicest.

I see you're from the Turf Flyers. I'll try and stop out there sometime and check it out. When I moved back I went out there once before I joined a club, but nobody was there and it was a really long drive from my house in Tulsa. It looked like a really nice field.

Brian

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Brian, if there is a Hobby People in the area they have a lot of sales, like all the time. Although HP isn't a lot better then our local HT it is better and there is always fuel on sale. Here I pay about $15.00 a gallon for Power Master fuel or Wild Cat. Pretty good price and they even stock balsa wood, something our H Town doesn't. My local HT hires off the street and they get some real stupid folks working there. Once in a while they hire a good looking girl that knows nothing but is nice to watch when she is looking for items.

bchapman

GrayBeard, no Hobby People around here so I'm out of luck. I've never seen a good looking girl at my Hobby Town either, but you may be on to something, it might actually boost sales a bit. I know I'd probably stop in more often! Maybe some obscure Y-harness or something like that on the bottom shelf behind the counter...

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Hobby People is strickly a west coast franchise and the two in Las Vegas are the only two not in California.

The pretty cover girls on the old RCM magazines sure made that one popular untill the cover girl thing became politically incorrect.

John

tlojak38

My Feedback: (15)

Yeah, I agree on the pretty girl thing. When I was in ht, it was a guy who didnt even know how to spell ultracote. At least with a pretty girl id try to have her find something for me to buy!;-)

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

And then RC Report picked it up and even did it better. Those are the only two magazines I miss and it has nothing to do with the girls.

bchapman

I forgot about RC Report, that was a good magazine, that really had honest reviews and a lot of builder content. I think it's still around in an online version only. They had some pretty nice girls on the cover in that one too.

Do you remember the smiley faces you had to find throughout the magazine?

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

RCR did go on line but in the end ARFs and ARF reviews took it over too. As Gordon Banks stated, they couldn't do reviews on kits that no longer existed and new kits weren't being produced. Back in the day RCM was a main source for reading about new designs and you could buy the plans if you liked the build article. Model Airplane news did the same thing. Now you pay a lot of money just to read advertisements and look at the new ARFs. I haven't subscribed to any magazine sense RCR folded. I did subscribe to MAN but they messed up the billing on my subscription so I fired them.

propbuster

My Feedback: (1)

My flying buddies and I call them Hobby Clowns. I called three different stores and none of them had all the replacement parts that I was looking for. Took them two weeks to get a prop for one of my friends planes,,,,,,

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

The Hobby Town motto should tell you everyhing you need to know, "Toys for all ages". No mention of hobbies.

Aquila1954

My Feedback: (1)

There are 2 in town, but the one closest to me really stinks. The guy behind the counter doesn't seem to interested in helping you or gives me the impression that I am bothering him. I tried asking a couple questions and he couldn't give me any answers on the questions. I sure miss the hobby shops of the 70's and early 80's.

acdii

There are two in my area(within 35 miles that is). One has a car track and they cater to the car wimps*. They do stock RC planes but all electrics, no glow motors, just electrics, but then again, there really aren't any flying fields near this one anymore. They do have a decent selection of building things, and tools, and are somewhat knowledgeable, but they can only order from Tower, so I stopped going there, I can order from Tower myself and get it quicker. The other one in Rockford is closer, and they do stock kits, REAL kits, not just ARF. They have a huge selection of ARF too, but mostly electric, or some small glow. They have some large glow/gas ones too. Best part is they stock SIG, (whats funny is I can get SIG glue from Hobby Lobby too) I got my LT-40 kit and Piper Cub kit from the Rockford one. They have a lot of airplanes hanging from the ceiling, but when I inquired if they were for sale, only those with a tag were, and there were about 3, none of which I was interested in. The downside is they cater to the gun crowd(airsoft I think), so when in there, you hear a lot of popping noise from guns being tested fixed or whatever. Some of the people who do that tend to be overly loud talkers, and one was bragging on and on about shooting raccoons with his. You could hear this guy clear across the store, he was that loud. Most of the stuff behind the counter though is ground pounder stuff, though they do stock some boats, but not much other than a couple engines, for planes. Their prices on some things are great, picked up a 10 pack of servos for $50, which worked out perfect for throttles and flaps where precision wasn't a priority. OTOH some of their stuff is way over priced, like extensions, or switches, or batteries. As for as counter people, some dont have a clue what you are looking for in the plane stuff cause they are wimpy car dudes*, while others know exactly what you want.


*Anyone can drive a RC car, when something goes wrong, you stop, try that with a plane, Aint gonna happen, something goes wrong, you usually crash!

chip_MG

My Feedback: (14)

Like all things of a corp nature, you have people getting into the hobby business because they see an opportunity to make money, not because they have any interest in the hobby.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Acdii, before our good LHS sold the owner was on the phone almost everyday with SIG. When I had to phone SIG with a question about some really old paint I had just bought she said it sounded like I bought it from Denny at NICE, well yes I did, found it tucked away in a dark corner. She said she has been dealing with Denny for decades. Now I can't even buy Sigment or anything else from SIG there?? Seems the new owner did something to tick them off?? No one is talking. The local Hobby Town still has some Sig items so I still have to go there for the glues.
As far as anyone in there knowing anything it hasn't changed at all, still hiring off the street and they only hire the brain dead. Maybe I could get a part time job there, I could be King in a day or two. Just a thought!!
Gene

acdii

You get what you pay for. Pay low you get low brains.

I'm in between jobs now, and I have too much experience for some, and not enough for others, and the pay grade I am at they are very very scrutinous(heh made that up) at who they hire. My problem is, jack of all trades, master of none.