Wykagyl Hobby - just outside of New Rochelle, NY heading toward Tuckahoe. 
Worked there in 1951-1953. Always sorted the incoming Firebaby kits (aka ARF's ;-) and noted which engine was included. I bought the ones with the WASP engines. 

Westchester Hobbies, White Plains,NY - customer there from 1953 - 1955. then learned about hot rods and full scale airplanes.

Anybody remember these Hobby Shops??? Maybe Bob Zambelli??,  Walter Umland??

Roger Vizioli

This will only mean something to those familiar with the Victoria, Australia model scene,'cos that's where I am.  Late sixties, early seventies I'd be a regular visitor to George Amiet's toy shop in Warragul.  Got my first Aeroflyte balsa rubber powered kit there.  Not sure what model it was, but there was a whole series of 12" span models that I tried to collect all of.  Then on our annual pre-Christmas trip to 'the big smoke" (Chadstone shopping centre) I'd have saved up enough to get another kit from Tim the Toyman.  That was my favourite place at Chadstone apart from the Hot Nut bar on the ground floor just as you entered Myers.  Couldn't resist those hot Cashews
When I got a little older and could travel by train to Melbourne myself I'd head straight to the Model Dockyard or Hearn's Hobbies. (Hearn's Hobbies is still there).
I could only drool and imagine having the stuff I saw in those places.  (Still gotta learn to insert pictures.)
After that I discovered The Hobby Hangar in Caulfield which was a lower-key operation and a little more affordable for a poor farm boy.
Once I got into Control line at about 12 years old I frequented Tas Gray's shop in Drouin, about 15 minutes drive from home.  Got my first brand new engine there, an Enya .15.  Also got my beloved Jelly .177 air rifle.  It was an odd shop.  Tas was a locksmith, but also sold sporting goods, guns and model stuff.  He used to mix fuel for customers where you could get your old fuel can refilled.  No-one ever asked what was in it, but it seemed to work ok.
Sadly, every shop I used as a kid is gone apart from Hearn's Hobbies, but they no longer carry anything for builders.  No balsa, no nitro, no building supplies.  Just RTFs, drones and plastic scale kits.
Ah, the memories

I just discovered this thread and it got me going a bit!  My first hobby shop was the Dog House in Livingston , N.J.  Although it was primarily a pet store he had nicely stocked airplane section. It had everything needed to get a 10 year old dreaming of owning a real airplane and drooling on the glass display counters! This place and the library were within easy walking distance. I would go to the library and read all of the M.A.N. magazines and then stop into DH to make sure the plane I wanted was in stock. Of course I wanted the McCoy .60 but decided to ask for the Stuntmaster and OK .074. That got me started on the road to being a flying modeler. Success did not come easily but after trashing a couple of planes I got the hang of it.
  Some time later I discovered Rich's Hobbytown. That place really set the hook! Not only did he have 3 circles, there was a tether car track and a tethered boat pond where guys would run their home made hydroplanes with home made engines in them! Total sensory overload. There was also a hot dog shack right next door! The best part though were the people I met there. I got to witness the possibilities of the models from folks who really knew what they were doing. John D'Ottavio and Larry Scarinzi inspired many of us and still do!  Got more but......      TS

Ah, it was Hoffman Hobby Shop in Iowa Falls, Iowa. The year was 1965. Sensory overload for sure what with the Cox engine displays and the slot car track. Traded some of my paper route money for a few the goodies on hand.

On a related topic, it seems to me that it was about this time that brighter and more radiant colors began to appear in advertising and in commercial production. Hoffman's product lines really showed that trend. It wasn't too much longer when fluorescent colors started to appear, and designers of model paints, planes and cars were among the early adapters. All this seemed so amazing to me.

Dave Mo...

STANDARD HOBBIES - Lodi and Stockton, California. The owner was a control line and r/c flier. He opened in 1970 and retired about 2000. I first went in when I was just a baby and would often stare at the kits after kits after kits. There was a stack of 1/2a kits, a stack of profile kits, then a couple built ups kits, like the SIG CHIPMUNK and the GIESEKE NOBLER. The rest of the kits were r/c, but that was okay too.

The ceiling was filled with enough models to spend a week staring at. I'd even get the discard catalogs and pretend I was flying all the planes.  That even became my first job, working at STANDARD HOBBIES till my twenties when Lanny retired and sold it all. Did I mention he was my dad?

During college I ventured into SHELDON HOBBIES in San Jose. My roommate showed up with a box of .049s from his grandpa and we grabbed a little kit at Sheldon's when it was still a true model shop (it's mostly cars and weird stuff now but still has some good hardware). That was my first time grabbing a handle since I was 5 and my first time having no trouble at all flying.

Now I enjoy R/C COUNTRY in Sacramento. R/C Country is a true hobby shop and yes it's still there. His control line section is adequate, but his rows of hardware are fantastic. Great employees who all fly (r/c) and know how to build.

J&M, in San Carlos that Don Chandler mentioned: We went there weekly in '79-'82, recall finding my Japanese kit F8F Bearcat there...
Anyone remember Dr. Ralph Brooke that flew R/C early on, around Chicago area? Dr. Brooke imported many scale C/L Japanese kits cut by Japanese civilians right after WWII, marketed them thru AHC and the brothers' hobby building in NYC. Heavy, but 'scalelike', I first saw a DC 3 with 60" W.S., older gent flew it on 60 ft. lines, two O.K. .29s.

When married to ex wife #2, we moved around a lot. When we'd hit a new town, I'd scan the phone book for ALL the hobby shops. There was one in Oakland, on E.14th., or Telegraph...two older brothers ran it, they were C/L contest fliers, names escape me. But in '68, they had a stock of OLD stuff...Treasure!

Former partner Bonneville Butch used to shop at Reginald Denny's shop in Hollywood. Butch built/flew C/L since '46. Also in L.A., Tony and Addie (his Mom) Naccarado's hobby shop.
Tony's Mom would build balsa planes right in the front floor space of their shop, would converse...wonderful folks! I bought a Sterling Mr. Mulligan kit from them when I was down in Culver City for BMW school.

This has been a GREAT thread, very reassuring that I'm not the ONLY balsa addict! Stay well.

Quote from: Roger Vizioli on March 18, 2019, 03:26:40 PM
Wykagyl Hobby - just outside of New Rochelle, NY heading toward Tuckahoe. 
Worked there in 1951-1953. Always sorted the incoming Firebaby kits (aka ARF's ;-) and noted which engine was included. I bought the ones with the WASP engines. 

Westchester Hobbies, White Plains,NY - customer there from 1953 - 1955. then learned about hot rods and full scale airplanes.

Anybody remember these Hobby Shops??? Maybe Bob Zambelli??,  Walter Umland??

Roger Vizioli

Brown's Hobby Shop, The Bronx!

Bob Z.

Quote from: Garf on February 09, 2012, 02:07:02 PM
There were quite a few hobby shops in the early days. For me it was the Hobby Center, a medium sized shop that had most of what was needed. AND THEN there was the grand daddy of them all, Orange Blossom Hobbies. It was the largest hobby shop in this section of the country with a wholesale operation in the back. It had airplane, car, boat, and railroad departments. The owner died, then his son ran the business into the ground. It is now a drug store.

Who was the owner?

Hobby Haven, Visalia,Ca had a small slot car track also. Had tons of Cox planes hanging on the ceiling. We lived in a very small town Three Rivers,Ca and my Mom would go once a month to Visalia,Ca to shop. She would drop me off at the hobby shop with a bunch of quarters to run my slot cars. Got my first "big" kit a Goldberg Shoestring there. I was given a McCoy 35 red head and flew that plane with the McCoy. Later on in the late 70s it was the best of the best T&A Hobby Shop in North Hollwood,Ca ? Tony And Addie Nacarato, stuff everywhere, and seems they were always building something in the shop. Tons of planes hanging from the ceiling. Later I would drive from Kingsburg,Ca to T&A once in while to get stuff. Fortunate now Medford,Oregon has a hobby shop. Al's' bicycle and hobby. Half Bicycles and half hobby. The local R/C club actually has lots of people that build kits and scratch build so lots of stuff in the local hobby shop. Hardware, fuel, lots of Balsa wood, etc, Brodak ,Sig dope, Props, good people. Also Eugene,Or Toys and Hobbies has lots of stuff.Eugene toy and Hobbies used to bring a U Haul truck to the Northwest Regionals contest and sell C/L Stuff on site.

1964 at Keesler AFB, Biloxi, MS, was a 4th grader. Remembered the Scientific kits, many of them on the shelves to include other manufacturers. The services squadron sold them below retail basically at cost plus. My 1st CL kit build about a year later was Scientific (Musciano) stand way off scale 18" wingspan built up fuselage and silkspan covered wing Grumman F6F Hellcat. My dad supplied me with a Cox .020 Pee Wee. Also built many rubber powered Comet kits, learned stick and tissue from that. Largest was 32" span Sparky. For a 12 YO, that model was huge.

Marshall's Hobby Shop Austin Tx.  Castor oil and dope fragrance in the air.  Mike Krizan

Orange Blossom Hobby shop in Miami....there was a lot of control line flyers in Miami then in the 50's

Hobby Fair on the northwest side of Indy. Cut grass to earn money to buy airplanes and engines. Then Westside hobbies as Hobby Fair closed

Some time around '67 '68 i went into a hobby Shop in Clearwater Fl......i was 10 years old and i saw things that just opened up a whole new world of FUN for me, and i've never really looked back! My basement is now the model workshop i always dreamed of.......and im  RETIRED!

Geneva and Elinor's Hobby Shop, Los Banos, California--a small farming community in the middle of the Central Valley--1964.  These ladies sold and serviced Schwinn bikes, and stocked a very complete inventory of free flight and control line models and accessories.  But they were much, much more than mere merchants--
When you walked through the door, Geneva would most likely be pulling on a wrench on someone's bent Sting Ray, and Elinor was around back in "The Model Room."  "The Model room" . . . where the ladies had set up level tables covered in cork board where they would help their young customers, patiently and step- by- step, through the building process, from unwrapping the box through mounting the engine, tank and wheels.

Then on Sunday morning, they'd--both of them, driving their '61 Buick the called "Black Beauty," meet the new pilot at the wide open high school field and test fly the new airplane, then teach the cadet to earn his--or her-- wings--sometimes without even the almost obligatory, "what the heck am I doing?" crash.  Geneva, who stood about 4'11," would crank up the redhead McCoy .19 on the front of their all-forest green Ringmaster, get it into the air, and call the trainee out to hold hi--my--hand on the red plastic "hot rock" control handle until trainee had the feel.  Elinor would take pictures on her old Brownie, and I still have pictures of me after my first landing.

But more than the building and flying, the learning to love the smell of castor oil and to tolerate the sharp smell of fresh butyrate--here's what really set these two lovely girls apart:  They taught a bunch of us youngsters about responsible credit.  They'd sell you a model, an engine, finishing and flying products and gear, and they'd allow you the use of their model room, and all their experience and expertise--all at $2.00 down, and $2.00 a week.  You had to make payments by every Friday, and if you missed a week, you couldn't build until you caught up--no interest, no penalties.  But the finished model stayed in the shop until you paid up.

These girls had serious cajones.  They settled in a small, conservative farming community in the 1950's--lived together, drove Harleys in their spare time, and made no excuses for their, let's say "unconventional" lifestyle.

Roll forward to 1980--My brother and I enlisted my wife to launch our Voodo and Spectrum, respectively, out at the high school.  Elinor was not in town that weekend.  Geneva heard the unmuffled Fox .36 x, and came out to watch the (pretty amateur) combat--really more like rat racing . . .

Geneva was pretty impressed with the consistency of the run with the pen bladder setup on my Voodoo.  she lamented her inability to handle the dizziness she expeienced as she'd aged, but speculated that with the way the Voodoo behaved with that engine, why would she need to circle?  So I replaced the 60' lines with my never-before-used 70' "Perfect" .018 seven strands.  My brother cranked up the Voodoo, I got it in the air, and Geneva jogged out, took the handle, and spent the next three minutes on loops, eights, and outside loops.  she only went around three, maybe four times.  When I rolled up the lines, there was only one twist.  Geneva always kept track of her loops vs. outside loops.

These ladies sdeserve a plaque.

Al Whitehurst

Quote from: Shorts,David on March 26, 2020, 08:54:53 AM
STANDARD HOBBIES - Lodi and Stockton, California. The owner was a control line and r/c flier. He opened in 1970 and retired about 2000. I first went in when I was just a baby and would often stare at the kits after kits after kits. There was a stack of 1/2a kits, a stack of profile kits, then a couple built ups kits, like the SIG CHIPMUNK and the GIESEKE NOBLER. The rest of the kits were r/c, but that was okay too.

The ceiling was filled with enough models to spend a week staring at. I'd even get the discard catalogs and pretend I was flying all the planes.  That even became my first job, working at STANDARD HOBBIES till my twenties when Lanny retired and sold it all. Did I mention he was my dad?

During college I ventured into SHELDON HOBBIES in San Jose. My roommate showed up with a box of .049s from his grandpa and we grabbed a little kit at Sheldon's when it was still a true model shop (it's mostly cars and weird stuff now but still has some good hardware). That was my first time grabbing a handle since I was 5 and my first time having no trouble at all flying.

Now I enjoy R/C COUNTRY in Sacramento. R/C Country is a true hobby shop and yes it's still there. His control line section is adequate, but his rows of hardware are fantastic. Great employees who all fly (r/c) and know how to build.

Sheldon's got a LOT of my paycheck in the 90's! It's too bad they couldn't sell OS engines.
How about P.E.C hobbies in (Mountain View?) or San Antonino Hobbies "up the street" in San Antonino?

In the 1970's the hobby shop on base, at Naval Air Station Memphis, "NAS Memphis" in Millington TN always dad a great selection of control line models and engines. Same with balsa and hardware for scratch building.  Great prices AND no sales tax. And right outside was the flying circle. Just don't try flying with 70 foot lines.  A certain tree got a bit too large for that.  But there was a nice, 6 foot diameter concrete pad in the center. 

For me, the start was Thompson's Sporting Goods and Hobbies, on North Seventh St in my hometown, Vineland, NJ.
I started going there in the early 50s and got to know the owner, Mrs Thompson, quite well.
A section of the store was dedicated to model aircraft and she had an incredible display of model kits, mostly Sterling (Vineland was around 30 miles south of Philadelphia) and PDQ (in the neighboring town of Millville). She even had some speed kits - Hell Razors and Speedwagons.
One time she made me a special offer: Since glow was "in" and spark was "out", she showed me a shoebox FULL of spark coils and Champion spark plugs, telling me I could have them FOR FREE. No, I didn't take them. Young and stupid, I guess. I was around eight years old.
We moved to the Buffalo area in 1954 and I never saw the hobby shop again   .  I'm sure it's long gone.
But then we found Burd's Hobby shop on Delaware ave, in Tonawanda, NY. But, that's a story for another time.

Bob Z.

Moro-Craft in Edmonton, Alberta.
1/24&HO slot car tracks and all kinds of model airplane supplies but not much that was really modern for the day. (Early '70s)
R&M Hobbies which had awesome quality balsa and locally brewed fuel. They always had a really good selection of modern engines, kits and hardware.
Another really good shop was Northern Hobbies but I never went there very often since it was quite a ways across the city for me to get to.
Later another good hobby shop called Sunflight Hobbies opened. It too was pretty good.
Of course most of the owners and staff in all these shops were model builders themselves.

All are long gone and we now have Great Hobbies and Wholesale Hobbies both of which have helpful staff but not much for controlline. They both are generous with gift card donations for our annual contest.