Hobby Shop memories - Life in America 

A real slap in the face that the internet is so skilled at showing us how good we had it before that very technology brought an end to so many of those good things.

When I was a 10 year-old kid in 1960 in Columbus, Ohio, I would ride my Huffy a few miles to Hobbyland. I know it was a few miles because my Cadet bicycle speedometer told me so. Hobbyland had neat-o gas engine airplanes and various WWI and WWII airplane models hanging from the ceiling. They had the airplane's guns tipped with bits of cotton to mimic smoke and make the guns look like they were firing away. Really keen, huh? I remember I bought a Sopwith Camel kit, took it home and assembled it, and then a few days later we blew it up with firecrackers. Hobbyland is still in the same strip mall but in a different location.

So innocent, we trusted everyone and none of us came to any harm. 1950s! A wonderful childhood full of priceless memories of time , place, smells and kind voices.

Sadly, days of going to and hanging out at the hobby shop are long gone. Can remembering hanging out and checking out all the latest things.

I have been going to the same hobby shop for 56 years now. Four generations of the same family have owned it the entire time. They are hanging in there through this current mess and I expect they will continue on. Please support the local shops, we need them as much as they need us !

I'm glad I grew up in an era with hobby shops.... good times.

We've lost something in America, we really have and most don't miss it, they never had it! "The beauty of simplicity"..Duane Henry Hofer Lyon

A simpler childhood without Apple, Microsoft, Amazon or Facebook. My only account back then was a passbook savings account.

My name is Jose Carlos, I am from Brazil. I love these videos from the past, I sincerely think that we were happy in the past, with simple things.

I have been a Hobby shop "Hobby est " since I was 6 years old . I once owned and operated a Hobby Shop in the 60's and early 70's Those Days were the Fondest of memories and the most Joyous of times I can remember . So sad that todays Young Boys and Girls will never experience that era . I learned skills and developed friendships that I still have today . It was a Different Time , Different Era for sure ... So glad I was able to Experience those Days : )

Thank you for the unobtrusive, elegant background music

That’s where I spent my money I made from delivering newspapers and mowing lawns 😁

This one really spoke to me. My favorite thing to do as a child in the ‘70’s and Early ‘80’s was to go to the hobby shop with my dad and pick out new HO scale train cars that we would then go home and build. Weekends were for lawn and home maintenance, so we usually worked on models in the evenings when he got home from work and after dinner. The train cars were mostly wood with plastic bottoms and required a lot of meticulous work to finish correctly. He taught me everything about model building and the life lessons that went along with it: pride, organization, doing your best even if you are the only one that notices, safety (Xacto Knives are no different than scalpels), and many other important things a father should teach a son, like how my mother was my true best friend (and his). I realize I was very lucky to have a father and mother so loving and attentive. But I feel that the bonding and teaching opportunities of even good parents today are circumvented by noses buried in phones. Technology is the ultimate double edged sword... preventing us from enjoying things of the past, but allowing us to reminisce and share our experiences with those we’ve never met.

The passing of some things and the unique era and feel associated with them makes me wanna cry... and this is one of them. Can't help feel that boys today are not the better for it.

I still love going to hobby shops to this very day.

I served in an Army hospital during Vietnam, our Post Exchange (PX) was stacked with models. Modeling broke the boredom and it helped with the rehabilitation. A lot of guys would build their dream car as a model until they got back to the world to buy the real thing. The library would display the best works of art.

Who remembers the glass display cases with the sprocket and chain system where you press a button and watch the shelves come to you?!

When I was a kid in the 60's my father, brother and I would build plastic models together. I loved building models and remembering my mother complaining that the glue would give her a headache. Ah the good ole days when Testors glue would rot your brain.

I remember train sets were big at Christmas. My dad used to have his run around the tree. He said it had been his father's from the 1930's.

No surprise there are so many nostalgic comments, even though this compilation just went up. I can see myself in half the pictures--not literally of course, but I spent so much time at plastic model counters, electric train counters, and slot car displays. Even the coins and stamp displays. Just depended what mood I was in that week. Time marches on and you can't stop change, but so many good things have slipped away-along with the small businesses that sold them.

I look at where we have come from these days . Sad! I'd rather be BACK in these days. Much happier times.

Thanks for 8 minutes and 4 seconds of my life 50 plus years ago!

When we were young l, we thought about the future and all it would bring. Now we long for the past.

Considering I'm 72 this brings memories. Kids of this era learned responsibility. I grew up on a farm, at 16, 17, 18 I drove a school bus, going to school. I did try to teach my kids responsibility. They were often upset with me but today they see what I was getting at because they are far ahead of their friends their age. We have lost something and that something hasn't made us better.

Wow this video hits hard for me because my father was big into model airplanes/RC Planes and belonged to many clubs. We visited many many hobby shops back in the day and I wish we could visit one more. R.I.P. Dad

75 now , ohhhh soooo many GREAT MEMORIES....AMT my favorites Thank you..🌴👍😀🌴

I wonder how having these hobbies spurred careers that lasted a lifetime. For an 11th grade science project (1972) , I built a 747 plastic hobby airplane and displayed it along with my assessment of the future of the 747 in world's aviation. Boeing sent me a 3-foot long cardboard cutaway schematic of the plane and I put that on my tri-board. I got a 'B' on the assignment (should have gotten an 'A' for all the work I put into it!) I was fascinated by airplanes and glued together more than a dozen models - and who couldn't forget about the headache-inducing glue! Didn't care - spent hours absorbed in complete happiness and imagination. That and endless days at the airport just watching real airplanes (before security). Fast forward to today - I'm retired from the airline industry as is my husband (he was an 1950s train collector - still has them) and one of our children is now an airline pilot, another a private/commercial pilot. Miss those days of hobby stores. All the cell phones, smart phones - whatever - will never replace the pastime of building your favorite hobby store product from scratch. I wish I could build a time machine and go back to those simpler days........I definitely miss the America of my youth.

This takes me back to a special point in time that I will never forget. A brief memory that will last forever. Thank you.

Those were the days !! Many a day spent in hobby shops.

God bless the people who owned and operated these shops when I was a kid. It was so much a part of my childhood.

I’m 50 and have rediscovered building models, especially during this “pandemic”. I get my models from Hobby Lobby, eBay, Amazon, Round2 Models and a couple of other places. Just not the same as running to a hobby shop, though.

I remember winning trophies with my model cars.

Estes Rockets, balsa airplanes, plastic car and airplane models. Memories of the old days.

This brings back loads of memories- made tons of models as a kid. Ah yes, Testor glue and paint sets

I was a kid in the 60's. Use to build mostly cars, planes and NASA models. My parents bought me the Invisible V8 engine for Christmas with ran on batteries once you put it together. My dad thought it was a little bit too advance for me. I put it together in one day and it worked. Surprise the hell out of my dad.

Recollection Road, thank you for the great memories. My late father was career Army so we moved a lot, and everywhere we lived (except Taiwan) in the 1950s and early '60s there was a hobby shop. I started building models of all kinds in 1955 when I was six years old and am 72 now, still building models with no intention of stopping until age catches up with me. We're all still kids at heart.

Kids don't have the patience, manual dexterity or even imagination to build a model plane or ship today. They are inexorably glued to their joystick playing soul-sapping and time-wasting video games as much as they can get away with. This mania carries on into adulthood. My brothers and I built the entire U.S. Navy, begged my old man for the Japanese battleship, The Yamamato just so we could have an enemy ship to destroy. We built jet fighters and models of the DC-10 after taking a Summer vacation to California on one. United's Friendship Service. We got a rock hound kit from the hobby store and had to do a specific gravity test to help identify the included minerals, a Chemistry set to conduct path-breaking experiments in the basement chem lab and a dissecting microscope to examine the animals in formaldehyde that came with it. It also had various prepared slides of plant, animal and microbiological tissues and cells. Fun Stuff...

In Tampa, FL in the '50s + '60s, we were shopping at CHAN'S HOBBY + TOY STORE on Henderson Blvd. I got 90% of my plastic airplane and car kits there; they also sold filler putty, model cutting saws, and spray paints for customizing the cars. I got some of my HO-scale boxcars, track, and switches there. (I got a new one for each Scout patch I earned.) And Chan's was where I got all my Hardy Boys books. Man, what a treasure trove of a store!

This brings back a lot of memories! I loved going to the hobby shop when I was a kid. Would look forward to building WW II planes and adding cars to the Lionel train set. Sadly, good hobby shops are a thing of the past. Still able to find excellent quality model kits and reference books, paints, etc. online. However, it definitely does not replace the experience of going to the hobby store.

Loved this video as I built models when I was kid. I got into slot car racing in 1965 and would rent time by the half hour to race my latest creation.

I have two Hubley Model "A" Fords at mom's house. I know one looks like crap, I really would like to take it apart and redo it. Dad showed me how to build plastic kits then balsa/paper airplane kits. He would say "Here buddy, this is how you follow the plans. Take your time, I know you can do it" Funny thing, he was right! At 60 years old I remember that part of Hobby Shops.

My last memory of Hobby City was in Stanton California and I’d go with my older brother, this was in 1970-71, they had a slot car track inside the store, coin collecting interested my brother, and we both loved collecting stamps. They had everything from balsa wood planes.....

Brings back memories of my local Hobby shop - Modelaire Hobby’s run by Harold... wow after all these years still remember that..

Thank you for your page, sir. I’m 51 years old, and nearly all of your posts bring back great memories. I can’t thank you enough for some of the memories you’ve brought back!

When I saw this video, I was almost more looking forward to reading the comments. Some of my favorite childhood memories are building various model cars, or even rebuilding old ones.

The plastic kit industry is very much alive. The standard of what is available is truly amazing. State of the art for sure.

I remember these stores so well. The greatest place to go on earth for me! I built hundreds and hundreds of models back in the 60's through present day. These stores were like paradise for me.

We use ta build model air planes and hang'em from the ceiling in our bed room... Man' that was so cool

Ours was Smith Brothers Hobby Center back in the early 70's in Northridge CA. And it's still there today! Looks exactly the same! I love to visit and reminisce.

As a child of the 60's, I spent a lot of time in Hobby Shops. It was more exciting than anything else in my life. I'll never forget the delight in seeing the rows of model airplane kits, model rocket kits and a multitude of other wonders to a 10 year old.

When my friends and I were kids, this is what it was all about!...and riding bikes!

That was a lot of fun I enjoyed the figured models the wolf man Frankenstein the Wolf man creature from the Black lagoon gill man thanks for the memories.

I feel so blessed to live close to one of these old school hobby shops still. People come from a long way off to shop there.

Miss the old days of going to our local Hobby shop and looking at all the awesome stuff they had

I’m 46, but I grew up building model cars by the hour. Going to the hobby shop was a special treat. My Mom waited patiently while I took forever making a selection. These videos bring back many fond memories when life was so much simpler and easier.

DOBBS. On Broadway In Bayonne NJ back In the 60's, even had a slot car track!

In the late 50's I would buy Revell car kits. Paint them, customize them,even enter them in contests sponsored by the Hobby Shop in downtown San Jose, CA. I remember once I won 2nd place. It was a 1957 Mercury convertible. I painted it Black w/pink trim. It was so much fun. No video games. Just being creative ! As a teenager and adult, I became a car enthusiast. Started a collection of showroom brochures from 1957 on. I still have them !

everytime i passed the hobby store i was always late for school. in a another world when at that bay window!

and lets not forget, most of these items wern't even made in china...so another american worker producing these parts could even make a living. weird time we live today were everything goes down the drain...

We had it so great back then. I miss those days.

Nankin Hardware & Hobby in Westland MI. Its still there. I spent a lot of my lawn cutting and snow shoveling money there. A model car was 99 cents in the 60's. The same model today is 29 dollars. Thanks for the great videos.

I too recall the days of hobby shops - Never put a model together myself, but was impressed with the models friends would make. Making models was such a great learning experience -- Reading the directions, assembling the pieces in the right order, the patience needed to follow through until it was completed --- Couldn't rush any part of the model. I also recall hobby shops sold all sorts of wonderful leather working tools and kits, too. Times change and some things improve, others, not so much. But it's the simple things I miss the most: Walking down the 'main street' to stop in the Ben Franklin or hobby shop, getting a nickle scoop of ice from Thrifty Drugs -- Even when I was older I remember how happy I'd be when I could get an icy cold bottle of Orange Crush and a dill pickle from the big glass jar on the counter. That was for me back then, the perfect summer snack.

For those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s , these videos are are a voyage through a better time. Yes.. of course.. there were negative aspects but that is true of any era. Kids still had the luxury..the joy of being kids. No P.C. nonsense... no school indoctrination sessions on gender identity no mandatory safety gear when we rode our bikes.. we would fight with our friends and then make up. We had a far greater degree of freedom and independence back then. How sad... how tragic that so many of my generation... I'm 69 years OLD.. not 69 years young.. became a lot of petty , self appointed guardians and controllers of everyone else's lives. Every once in a while I see kids engaged in "dangerous, unacceptable " behavior... no... nothing criminal... just being kids. Such " rebellious conduct" provides a slight spark of hope for the future. Lets hope it is contagious.

Boy do i miss going to hobby shops, i built model cars, and I'm 58 and still build them and slot cars

I guess I was very lucky to have worked with Jim Hilliker at Hobbyland in Bloomington, Illinois in the 1990s. We used to call it the 'Hobby Bar' ourselves because of the Saturday Morning Crew that came in... they'd buy soda and check out the magazines and replenish their supplies while the 'insults' flew and we cried from laughing so hard at each other. It was an entirely different experience from when I was a kid... my mom might take me to Lagrange Hobbies maybe once a year and I remember being overwhelmed by all the things they had that we just "can't afford"... but somehow, come Christmas and my birthday, I usually ended up with enough model airplanes and ships to keep me busy for months. I still tinker with model trains and a little bit of Radio Control... I miss my family... and I miss Jim and all the Guys at Hobbyland. We didn't just sell hobbies... We tried to help make memories, too.

Ours was a tiny store crammed with all kinds of wonderful things to delight a young boy or man. My strongest memory of these was the smell of balsa wood from all the model airplane kits. Many of these were "stick" models covered with tissue paper and flown with a rubber band motor. I built some of these and left them uncovered and hung them from the ceiling in my bedroom. Their die-cut balsa sheets, some Testor's glue and paint dope was happiness. I could spend hours cutting, gluing and sanding my next "masterpiece." It was a fun hobby that developed various skills and patience that have been useful all my life.

Thanks for this! I loved walking past the hobby shop in the 1960s, stopping in and either buying a model kit or making a mental "must have" list.

Still have my model HO trains from the late '60 and early '70s. Have them in display cases on the wall in my home office.

I was an Aurora kid building Hollywood monster models , Batman Robin and his vehicles. All the rest of the superheroes. Those were fun times. Thanx for the memories.

I remember going to “Don Still’s Hobby Haven” in Beaumont, Tx with my Dad one Saturday in the mid to late 70’s. He picked out the Monogram P-51B “Ding Hao” in 1/48 scale. Together we sat at the kitchen table and assembled the kit. Okay, he cut the parts and painted the various pieces. I got to use Testor’s orange tube glue and he used the liquid. But, before bedtime we had assembled and decaled the kit. It’s one of my favorite memories from childhood. Best of all, I still have that little plane and it started me into a lifetime of building models as a hobby.

What a great era to be alive …. America was truly GREAT back then !

I grew up in the 70's. I spend many hours building model Battleships. I was nine or ten and these models contained hundreds of pieces to paint and assemble. I wonder if a nine or ten year old today would have the attention span and/or patience to build some of those models? I did the Titanic... It was a beast and took me three full weeks!

Thanks for the memories. As a life long model railroader I really miss there being at least one hobby shop in every town. I am lucky to still have one left about 15 miles from home. My childhood hobby shop was Vine's Hobbies on Atlantic Ave. in Lynwood, California. That was for trains, I got most of my car / plane / ship / monster models at a Sprouse-Reitz that was only 2 blocks from home. Hey ! Sprouse-Reitz could make a good subject for a future video.

Nothing made my young heart race like a quaint hobby shop with all the hobbies duly represented. Good times!

Had a Dayton's hobby shop back home. Loved that place.

I was fortunate to have an independent model shop by my house through the 80s. Got my clear V8 kit there. They also had D&D lead figures to collect and paint.

Zephyr Miniatures in Norfolk Virginia! Bought many control line model kits and glo engines from them back in the sixties and early seventies. Thank you for the wonderful memories!

I'm 63, and grew up in Midwood/Marine Park Brooklyn; after a brief period collecting Matchbox cars, I started building model cars (at first the "easy, quick, fun to build" 1/32 scale Pyro "Table Top" series of Fords and Chevys) when I was nine; I was hooked after buying and building my first such kit before "graduating" to "real" 1/25 and 1/24 scale AMT, Revell, Monogram and other model kits when I was ten. It was pure joy and I loved model building, later planes, ships and tanks as well as cars (actually I still build model cars, and I think I'm a little better at model building them now, chuckle). As to hobby shops, they were wonderful places, better than Disneyland to me at least, not only fun places to be but places of refuge and escape for me from an often very unhappy childhood. There were several hobby shops in my neighborhood alone, within walking distance, along with the discount shops ("Thrift Town"), Department Stores, Five and Dimes, and even neighborhood luncheonettes or "candy stores" which also sold models, but the hobby shops were the best, but mostly extinct now. Get all my model stuff on the web. But back then- once in a while I'd be taken into Manhattan ("the City") to the famous Polk's Hobbies near the Empire State Building- five floors of models and hobby stuff- pure heaven to me back then! Does anyone out there remember Polk's? Hobby shops were the stuff of dreams- what more can be said?

It seems like every type of store sold plastic model kits back in the day. Drug, grocery, toy, convenience and department stores. Hobby shops were/are extra special though, because when you walked in, you became totally immersed. There used to be nothing like peeling the wrapping off a kit and opening the box to behold the thing full of sparkling clean potential, waiting for paint, glue and your imagination.

We still have a fantastic hobby shop in our town it’s been there ever since I can remember I still go in and get great stuff it’s like going back in time

Shoot... I'm 74 years old just finished my 10th WW2 tank model ... it's still fun ... the glue dries faster too!

Im 71 years old and still work on models.I sure miss those days as each year goes by. Wonderful memories.

Used to go to Joe's Hobby in metro Detroit and the Shutter Shop in downtown Milford

Loved buying and building model kits of all kinds in the early 1970s, usually Aurora monster models but a few Star Trek ships too! Eventually became a special effects artist/filmmaker, still doing it today.

Building models on Saturday and watching creature double feature which was usually godzilla and kong movies. The best.

I grew up in the 70's/80's and caught the tail end of the hobby store heyday. I built several planes, ships, cars and even helicopter models. I used to love going to hobby stores, it was always a good time. Unfortunately during this time store after store would close until their was only one left by the time I got my drivers license but I would still stop by occasionally to check out what was new and since I was really into cars to grab a new model. As a younger kid I remember buying balsa wood for models, getting an H.O. scale train set, slot car set and having a lot of fun with paper kites for several years that my father had bought (about 20 or so) for 10 cents each when one of the stores closed. Great memories and I'm glad they were still around when I was a kid as nothing now even comes close.

It was a magical world that excited our creativity. I remember a hobby shop in the Northern Lights shopping center in Syracuse, NY. They had crafts and toys for boys and girls. I remember getting a paint by number kit there and a doll. There were yarn crafts and bird models as well as the traditional models for my brothers.

My father had an amazing slot car set with 50 feet of track. We used to go to a hobby shop where he would buy little electric motors for the cars. Old-school hobby shops are hard to find now. There were some into the 2000s, where I used to buy craft supplies for Sunday school. 🙂

The hobby shop where I live is still open. I use to go there with my dad. He liked building HO train model kits. I still have the metal locomotives he built.

Brought back great memories of the hobby shop in the small Long Island town I grew up in. Got models, trains and Dinky toys there as well as Model Railroader every month. When I got older, I took the Long Island Rail Road (yes, that's how you spell it) into Manhattan for Polk's on Fifth Avenue. Spent hours there, and coupled with an Automat lunch, was a perfect day. Kids today are missing so much--I feel sorry for them.

I loved the model shops. I’d go with my brothers . They had airplanes, cars, just everything you could think of. I had a few cars myself. So much fun

Great video--brought a tear to my eye with so many great memories flooding back to me.

I miss Bill's Hobby & Collector's Shop on Main St. in "uptown" Park Ridge, IL. Right across from the C&NW train station. In the 1960s it was a one aisle hobby shop, but packed with everything from model trains (even those expensive brass model trains) to plastic airplane kits to Matchbox vehicles. Not one foot of space was unused in the somewhat dark interior of this classic hobby shop now long gone. Nice to recall those days and thanks for sharing this subject!

I'm 73 now - remember the hobby shops very well - 1950s and early 1960s - great times during a much better era. I used to build a lot of scale model cars.

When I was a kid there was a hobby shop in our town, Charlotte and King St that carried everything from chemistry sets and supplies, plastic models, RC planes, boats, cars, model rockets, wooden models, HO trains and all the goodies. Great store. I really miss stores like that and the old hardware stores with wood floors, hardware, guns, fishing gear and knowledge.

Wonderful days. I had two older brothers , model building was ongoing. They let little sister, me help. We also had trains and slot cars. I miss those days.

As a kid, I loved building model tanks and armored vehicles that were made by TAMIYA☆☆.

Thank you. For about 20 years my family owned a hobby shop in Rome Ga. " The Flight Box hobby shop". The shop, like both my parents have been gone a long time. Thank you for the memories.

We had a 'Hobby Shop' in Liverpool UK my brother & I loved to visit it in 1970's happy happy days !

Not just hobby shops, I remember seeing a full aisle of model cars in Wal-Mart years ago.