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  #1  
Old 08-08-2023, 06:10 AM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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Default Disappointing Hobby Lobby trip, part deux

I had planned to launch on Saturday at B6-4 Field, but it got progressively windier as the afternoon rolled on, so I hung out in the pool with Hot Blondie instead. I had spent the morning loading a container of victims with motors and cat vomit, but I had started to bottom out on my motor selection. Out of B6-4 and A8-3 motors. Is that even legal? Yesterday my grass cutting plans were cruelly scotched by several rounds of heavy rain, darn, so I headed to Hobby Lobby after work. Huge disappointment. Their kit selection has been lousy for a long time, so I expected that, but the motor selection yesterday was useless for small field flying. The only small field motors they had were B4-4s. They had some mini motors, but I was low on my 18mm stock. Unusual for me to leave empty handed, but paint selection was feh as well. We have another one locally in Florence, but the idea of fighting that traffic after work is not something I'm willing to entertain at the moment. HL seems to be getting sloppy. I guess I'll have to start making my motor purchases from eRockets and picking them up before our launches.
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Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Gee'Hod, Shrike, SST Shuttle

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Ready to fly: Estes - Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Snake Jumper
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Old 08-08-2023, 11:17 AM
SolarYellow SolarYellow is offline
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My last visit, they had quite a few items in the paint aisle on 75%-off clearance and I stocked up unplanned.
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Old 08-08-2023, 12:11 PM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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I checked the clearance section. Lots of glitter stuff, but nothing I could remotely see being useful as a rocketry component.
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http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Gee'Hod, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Snake Jumper
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Old 08-08-2023, 02:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by A Fish Named Wallyum
I checked the clearance section. Lots of glitter stuff, but nothing I could remotely see being useful as a rocketry component.

Dump a wad of glitter in a piece of sheet wadding and see if it will shimmer at ejection. Be sure to fly it in a unicorn themed rocket. Maybe launch it to ABBA's Dancing Queen.
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Old 08-08-2023, 03:52 PM
Andy63 Andy63 is offline
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The rocketry selection in the Bristol, CT store has tanked as well. My wife is a crafter and has noticed a shift in other crafts as well. Seems like their business model is changing but to what seems unclear. Not what they used to be, that is for certain.
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Old 08-08-2023, 05:01 PM
Bob Austin Bob Austin is offline
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I can remember when Hobby Lobby was nothing but hobbies - not crafts.Check out this ad from the July 1983 issue of Model Aviation magazine
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Old 08-08-2023, 08:08 PM
SolarYellow SolarYellow is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Austin
I can remember when Hobby Lobby was nothing but hobbies - not crafts.Check out this ad from the July 1983 issue of Model Aviation magazine


I believe that was a completely different Hobby Lobby. Used to see those ads when I lived in the sticks, then go to those stores when I moved out of the sticks. At some point, they had to change their name to Hobby People. Once I moved east and learned about the crafty stores, I assumed that the actual hobby shop chain was forced to change its name by some legal action or threat by the crafty store chain. But AFAIK, they always have been totally different.

Sadly, I'm pretty sure Hobby People went away several years ago.
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Old 08-09-2023, 12:05 AM
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Sort of. Jim Martin’s Hobby Lobby International, in Brentwood Tennessee (an ad for which is in Bob Austin’s post), was always separate/different from the chain that bears this name now.

It did not become “Hobby People”. That was another company altogether, based in California.

However, when Jim Martin sold it and retired, it did become “Hobby Express” and Hobby Lobby (the chain) acquired the name formally from Hobby Lobby Inernational in 2013. See https://www.thenewstn.com/brentwood...7ea85011e5.html

Sadly, even the Wayback Machine is confused and redirects searches for hobby-lobby.com (which was Hobby Lobby International’s URL) to the chain’s web site. *sigh*

I worked with Jim Martin and his support of electric power, including helping with the introduction the Czech company Model Motors’ products to the US (AXi motors) as well as JETI’s speed controls, among other things.

It appears that Hobby Express, as a descendant of Hobby Lobby International, is also gone.

To circle back to Bill’s initial post: I’ll have to check my local HL soon. My wife and I get home from our NARAM/family visit trip tomorrow. The last time I was in there before I left, all of what they carried (including A8-3s and B6-4s) were well stocked.
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Old 08-09-2023, 07:21 AM
Bob Austin Bob Austin is offline
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All these years I had assumed they were the same. I remember the first time I saw a Hobby Lobby store I was so excited to go in - thinking about all those ads I had seen over the years. What a disappointment that was.

Today I am just glad to have one around. It is the closest I get to anything resembling the hobby shops of old. At least I can buy paints, supplies (like balsa) and the occasional plastic model kit. The rocket kits haven't been updated for a couple of years. Now I tend to have to order everything else on-line and hope that it resembles the picture on the web site.
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Old 08-09-2023, 07:46 AM
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The Hobby Lobby in Brentwood had their own models, such as the Telemaster, plus a lot of German models and electronics from Graupner. They did a lot of electric sailplane stuff with folding props before we started seeing much of it in Tower catalogs. They sold Ultracote under their own brand name when all I could get elsewhere was Monokote. I heard they were the only importers of Ultracote, but I don't know if that's true. I did start seeing the Ultracote brand in the Tower catalog after Hobby Lobby closed its doors.

The store was mainly a warehouse with a small retail area up front. Some of their models were on the wall or hanging. The Senior (or was it Giant?) Telemaster was truly a giant to me considering the largest models I'd ever seen before that were .40 size planes.
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