Hobby Shop memories - Life in America

[Music] do do you remember spending saturdays getting your fingertips covered in glue making model airplanes or positioning tiny trees and toy cars on model railroad sets you would usually find all of these products on the cluttered shelves of your local hobby shop [Music] model kits literally cram the shelves they also stocked paint glue materials to make pinewood derby cars and books to stash collectible coins let's also not forget the model trains and cars as well as the plastic tanks and fighter planes they carried [Music] usually they had pegs loaded down by epoxy tubes rubber tires train set buildings nylon airplane propellers and model rocket motors hiding the walls there were also displays stuffed with one cylinder glow plug engines and rc transmitters [Music] so [Music] model collecting and model building were quintessential hobbies in the united states and assembling models were especially popular from the 1930s to the 1970s [Music] during the 1930s and 40s most models were made of wood some of these included the balsa wood gliders cars airplanes and boats [Music] perhaps one of the most well-known model companies is revell who pioneered the plastic model kits it started in 1943 when founder louis glazer had the idea to build a true to scale car out of plastic parts this idea revolutionized the recreation of modeling [Music] shortly after aluminum model toys or amt aurora and monogram got into making plastic model kits too by the 1950s plastic models were extremely popular in fact the magazine boy's life said that 80 percent of boys would become builders of scale models by 1956. [Music] the various model companies eventually started to veer away from the stock models many specialty modelers and customizers famous for their wild creations were hired by model companies to sponsor and create new kit designs [Music] as video games from the 1980s came into the picture the popularity of model building dropped off the majority of kids who once spent hours gluing and clamping plastic parts together are now grown-ups with kids or grandkids of their own [Music] do [Music] while the majority of hobby shops have since closed down there are still some around which hobby shops do you remember from your [Music] childhood [Music] you

Channel: Recollection Road

Views: 224,334

Keywords: Recollection Road, nostalgia, memories, photos, history, closed, forgotten, business, past, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, memory, yesteryear, golden age, photo album, oldies, fifties, sixties, abandoned, 20th century, hobby, hobby shop, models, trains, miniatures, rc cars, radio controlled, revell, amt, monogram, aurora, kits, stamps, coins, collect, collections, boys life magazine

Id: eLMDGoZzC_g

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Gerry1of1]

I still go to the hobby store regularly.

Still plastic model kits and balsa wood airplanes they fly with a rubber band motor. But most space is for remote control cars, helicopters, and planes. Small corner for trains.

We had 3 hobby stores, two of them are closed now. Online competition and people do make things with their hands anymore.