City-by-City -- Hobby Shops

In the Bronx we have Bruckner Hobbies Bruckner Hobbies Home
In Mount Vernon, NY there is The Hobby Store The Hobby Store
we have two in Buffalo I will share my favorite first Fields Hobby
Finally not as good service as Fields but bigger and has trainsNiagara Hobby & Craft Mart
This a cool thread btw
Bruckner sucks they never have any of the basic stuff like paint and their model kits are so over priced and the guy that runs the place acts like your bothering him when you ask for help.:thumbsdown
 
Bruckner sucks they never have any of the basic stuff like paint and their model kits are so over priced and the guy that runs the place acts like your bothering him when you ask for help.:thumbsdown
I don't know they were pretty helpful to me when I was getting started in r/c, this was some time ago when they were at the old location. Things could change though. Where do you get your stuff from Ray?
 
I second that, but I'm biased.
I travel plenty and feel its valuable...but perhaps that isn't the norm for everyone else -- hence not "universally" interesting to the masses?
IDUNNO.
 
Whenever I visit anywhere the three things I scope out are: Hobby Shop, Comic Shop, and music store.

Denver, Colorado:

Caboose Hobbies--amazing for Train hobbyists but they also have a lot of great supply options you don't see too often and if you're looking for those oddball train colors to paint your Fett helmet or Studio Scale kit this is THE place.
Colpar Hobbies--all around GREAT model shop. I do a lot of WWI Aero and this is one of the few places that stocks more than the old Revell Fokker Triplane. Great for reference materials and after-market detail supplies.


Colorado Springs:

Compleat Games & Hobbies (they buy and sell vintage kits)
HobbyTown -- we have two and they are usually very well stocked with supplies and reference materials. I don't often buy kits there these days but I used to be a fixture there.
Hobby Lobby -- yeah, not the greatest but the ones here have a decent selection and occasionally have interesting close-out deals. They frequently have 40% Off sales as well and I've scored a few bargains that way.
 
Madison, WI

Madison Hobby Stop [link]

These guys cater primarily to the train crowd, but have a very good selection of plastic kits and hobby supplies. Every time I go in there, they seem to have the hottest new items from various manufacturers.

The Last Square [link]

This is a family owned game / hobby store. Their primary focus is on gaming, Warhammer, FoW, Star Wars,, but do have a quirky selection of sci fi and higher end plastic kits: lots of Eduard, and rare Hasegawa kits.

Hobby Horse [link]

This is the other train store in town. Lots of trains, lots of RC, and a small, but nice, selection of kits.
 
Lynnwood, WA

Galaxy Hobby. [link]

Hands down, the best hobby store that I have ever been to. They have a wall that is about 100 feet long and 7 feet tall stocked floor to ceiling with kits from almost every manufacturer. They also have entire sections of Fine Molds kits, sci fi fantasy kits, ships, and armor, along with RC. I dropped about $600 in there when I was in Seattle for a conference, and I cannot wait to go back there some day.
 
Trains & Lanes Hobbies (3825 Northwood Avenue, Easton, PA 18045 not far from the Nazareth Highway rt 248 exit of rt 33). Huge warehouse like store, tons of stuff. A bit unorganized as far as stuff on the shelves, but there are tons of models from old and out of production stuff to new releases. Trains & Lanes Hobbies - Nazareth, PA Patch

Herb's Hobbies and Crafts (200 W. State St. Doylestown, PA 18901) Predominately a train store, but a very decent selection of modelling supplies, styrene displays and paints. A fair amount of current model kits, only a handlful of sci-fi though, more focus on cars, armour and airplanes as far as model kits. Herb's Hobbies & Crafts
 
I've revised the opening thread a bit.

-Trying to EMPHASIZE the focus of this thread: no Hobby Lobby, no Hobbytown USA, no RC, no trains, --- focus on scale model kits and tools to to make them.
-also have added each person's post number to more easily track each contributor's thoughts on their store.

Really appreciate all who have chipped in so far.
 
I don't know they were pretty helpful to me when I was getting started in r/c, this was some time ago when they were at the old location. Things could change though. Where do you get your stuff from Ray?
See that's the thing they basically cater to the R.C. crowd thats why I don't consider them an all around hobby shop. I basically order my stuff online or on Ebay, it takes me 2 buses and a train to get to them just to find they never have what I need.
 
Best place in Tucson,AZ. for kits is:

The Hobby Place at Ace Hardware on 22nd street.

Nice selection of kits and will special order anything.
Prices are reasonable and the staff is very helpful.

A close 2nd would be Hobbytown on Speedway.
 
In St. Petersburg, Florida: Ralph's Hobbies, 5208 66th St N Ste D

Ralph is an old-school hobby guy. He sells mostly injection-molded styrene kits & supplies for building same. He tries to keep a wide variety of kits available, and buys collections of old kits when he can. (A while back, he had not only a set of the old MPC R2-D2 and C-3PO kits for sale, but a Six Million Dollar Man kit from the 70s.) Whether you're looking for a newly released kit or an older kit that's out of production, pay Ralph a visit if you're in the area.
 
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I should have been clear in my first post:
only recommend hobby shops that you think others would genuinely find a good/great place to shop. I'm hoping nobody denotes any hobby lobbies or hobbytowns in their community.

Wait, hold on. What is so wrong with Hobbytowns?
Yes, they carry more than just models. Yes, depending on the size of the store the width and breadth of model choices can be shallow. You do realize though that this is determined by the amount of customers that purchase models in their stores right? Same thing goes with EVERYTHING else in the store.... paints, glues, tools, etc.
This is on top of having a very large network of distributors and vendors that the stores can special order items from for something they might not carry on-hand but can readily get for you.
Talk with the staff if you're having difficulties finding something.... they're actually wanting to get your repeat business so unless the franchisee is off their rocker they'll try to help you as best they can.

Disclaimer: Yes I have history with Hobbytown. I was one of their Corporate Training Managers for 10 years. I was also the manager of one of their corporate stores as well as handled all of the restock and special orders for the multiple corporate stores.
How each store is run is up to the franchisee, but if they're not handling what the customers need then issues can always be taken up the chain... and the corporate office is VERY active in each of the stores, ESPECIALLY if there are issues.
 
Wait, hold on. What is so wrong with Hobbytowns?
Yes, they carry more than just models. Yes, depending on the size of the store the width and breadth of model choices can be shallow. You do realize though that this is determined by the amount of customers that purchase models in their stores right? Same thing goes with EVERYTHING else in the store.... paints, glues, tools, etc.
This is on top of having a very large network of distributors and vendors that the stores can special order items from for something they might not carry on-hand but can readily get for you.
Talk with the staff if you're having difficulties finding something.... they're actually wanting to get your repeat business so unless the franchisee is off their rocker they'll try to help you as best they can.

Disclaimer: Yes I have history with Hobbytown. I was one of their Corporate Training Managers for 10 years. I was also the manager of one of their corporate stores as well as handled all of the restock and special orders for the multiple corporate stores.
How each store is run is up to the franchisee, but if they're not handling what the customers need then issues can always be taken up the chain... and the corporate office is VERY active in each of the stores, ESPECIALLY if there are issues.

Nothing is "wrong" with Hobbytown USA. Its my default store for supplies like glue and paint. I've had great interaction with the local store employees...always very helpful.

Reread the my initial post. This thread is to provide information for the traveler in a new city -- to give them a heads up on the nearby stores, if they are worth visiting and what they might expect. Some of these stores are holes in the walls but well worth the effort of finding them. As I noted, if you google "hobby store" & "insertcity", your likely first hit will be hobbytown or lobby. We already know these stores.

In addition, a deeper interest (at least for me) is to find rare/hard-to-find kits. Stuff that's been OOP for a while. You WON'T find these at the two giants.
 
Nothing is "wrong" with Hobbytown USA. Its my default store for supplies like glue and paint. I've had great interaction with the local store employees...always very helpful.

Reread the my initial post. This thread is to provide information for the traveler in a new city -- to give them a heads up on the nearby stores, if they are worth visiting and what they might expect. Some of these stores are holes in the walls but well worth the effort of finding them. As I noted, if you google "hobby store" & "insertcity", your likely first hit will be hobbytown or lobby. We already know these stores.

In addition, a deeper interest (at least for me) is to find rare/hard-to-find kits. Stuff that's been OOP for a while. You WON'T find these at the two giants.

Ah ok, I must have misread, no harm no foul, hehe! carry on, sorry for the diversion!
 

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