Hobby Shops

the very AIR in these places was rarefied.....a place where dreams were suggested and nourished....we unconsciously assumed a certain reverence upon entering......walking up and down the 2 or 3 isles,overloading our cerebral cortexie(?).....always careful not to reveal to the professorial adults in charge,that we packed maybe 17¢ among the three of us (If Tim was being truthful)......

THANK YOU JOHN !!!!

In my boyish mind these shops were Heaven On Earth.  I recall being in England in 94 & 95 and visiting some really wonderful model shops; I noticed the same feeling...lol.  This clip brought back fond memories.

Oh, I still remember the shops I bought my Dinkys and Corgis and later my Tamiya kits....

These shops are long gone...

First .027 gauge trains [1 4'x8' lay out], second plastic WWll & Korean War ships & planes,  third plastic 3in1 cars Jo Hann, & AMT [60+ of them], forth HO trains [2 4'x8' lay out].  From age 20 to 56 no models at all just 1:1 cars & motorcycles. 56 to date 1:18 Diecast and lately resin American cars, and the past 4 years 1:43 & 1:64.  ALL BECAUSE OF HOBBY STORES in the 50's. and now days mail delivery.  

Don't have any of the model or train layout or even pictures from the 50's because in them days pictures were expensive and time consuming; go to the store buy the film, go home and take the pics, go back to a store and have the film developed, wait a couple of days and back to the store to pick up the prints [in those days the film was sent out to be developed, didn't have developers in the stores yet.]. Now you just point & shoot with your phone and instantly view the pic. No more 10 mile x 3 trips to the store for pics that may not have been any good.

My local hobby shop in the '60's was Hobby Lane.  It was close by, a quick trip on my bike.  Once I had saved two bucks from my allowance I'd be over there buying the latest AMT, Revell,  JoHann, or Monogram 1:25 scale kit.  I still have a few of them today. 

Posted by: @pete-rovero

My local hobby shop in the '60's was Hobby Lane.  It was close by, a quick trip on my bike.  Once I had saved two bucks from my allowance I'd be over there buying the latest AMT, Revell,  JoHann, or Monogram 1:25 scale kit.  I still have a few of them today. 

I think it's so cool that you managed to actually save them and not wreck them.  It's also really great that we can still buy so many of the AMT kits from back then...still manufactured today.

In my home town, Miami Florida, the big one was Orange Blossom Hobbies.  I started building plastic kits when I was thirteen.  In a couple of years I even attempted some custom work on my already built models.  My biggest model was the excellent Revell S.S. United States.  Lots of time with glue and paint probably fried a few brain cells but it was a good time.

When I was a youngster the local hobby shop was Ted's Engine House. He mainly had trains and all the accessories and also sold the plastic model kits. The store no longer exists, I think the owner passed away in the 1990s and any surviving relatives must have shut it down and sold off any remaining stock and the property. I don't have any hand built models that survived childhood, I wasn't really that good at model making anyway.

I haven't really searched to see if any stores like this even exist in New Jersey, the only other place I've seen the plastic kit models are at the local AC Moore or Michaels, but the overpowering smell of all scented candles is hard to take for more than a few minutes when I take my wife there.

I've built a couple diecast kits (Maisto and Bburago) and added my own custom touches to them and was pretty happy with the outcome. I also have a Hawk diecast model kit in the shed still in the sealed box, I think it's a 49 Mercury, since retirement is coming up in less then a year maybe I'll give that a try, and then try my hand at modifying a budget model to take it to the next level, but patience hasn't been one of my best virtues when working with small pieces and parts.

I don't remember the hobby store names (more than one), but I sure remember hovering around and lusting after customer built models that were displayed in a glass showcase.  The models were changed every so often so there was always something new to look at. 

Not to mention the drool worth planes that were hung from the ceiling.