# Any pictures of old 1960's Aurora Hobby Stores?



## BatToys (Feb 4, 2002)

Any pictures of old 1960's Aurora Hobby Stores?


----------



## Zorro (Jun 22, 1999)

This issue of AFM has some great photos of one particular Hobby Shop at the height of the Aurora Monster Craze.


----------



## buzzconroy (Jun 28, 2002)

As a kid during mid 60's, not much hobby stores, because every other store carried paints and kits, smoke shops, gas stations, drugstores,woolworths, kresgies,supermarkets,hardware, variety stores, Hobby shop was usaually downtown, out of the way for a kid.

Randy


----------



## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

Very True Buzz. When I was a kit it was hard to find a store that didnt sell model kits LOL.. I think the only place you couldnt find them was gas stations.


----------



## MJB (Aug 3, 2001)

Wish that I had a picture of the hobby store that I went to growing up. It was run by a little old man and was in the last shop of an old center. I remember it being a little dark but magical with all the models. He must have retired, passed on or sold the place because it soon moved to a lighter lit store within a half mile from where it used to be. 

I found out about a year ago that the excellent sculptor of garage kits, Jeff Yahger, used to be taken to the same place by his dad when he was growing up in Ohio.


----------



## Robert Wolfe (Dec 24, 2003)

What Part Of Ohio Was It In Mjb My Uncle Owned 1 In Garfield Heights Ohio ??


----------



## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I should take some photos of my Aurora shelf/corner in my hobby shop. I have about 50 boxed kits (airplanes, ships, tanks, knights) and a lot of built ups... World War I planes, tanks, one of the knights, and a complete set of all of the Monster kits. Everyone gets a kick out of all the vintage stuff. Moneys been short so I have sold off some of the boxed kits... but will buy more sometime down the line when things pick up. Easy come, easy go, easy come again!


----------



## Kit (Jul 9, 2009)

You know what would you could do? Instead of coming up with a question out of the ether and just throwing it up here, have a little fun! Go to Google.com, and type this in:

1960* hobby shop

and hit search. Then hit the Images button at the top of the page. 

You'll find all kinds of stuff that you can post here and share with all of us. Takes only a minute, and it means you're giving a gift instead of asking for one.

Look at this one, for instance:


----------



## Todd P. (Apr 12, 2007)

Anyone else have a Duckwall's store in walking distance? I did. You could buy model kits and goldfish in the same aisle. Halloween costumes were displayed every year only a few feet away.

The place shut down years ago; that area is now one of the city's 'hoods.


----------



## Zorro (Jun 22, 1999)

Kit said:


>


 
That's one of the photos in the above mentioned AFM I was talking about.


----------



## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Kit said:


> You know what would you could do? Instead of coming up with a question out of the ether and just throwing it up here, have a little fun! Go to Google.com
> 
> You'll find all kinds of stuff that you can post here and share with all of us. Takes only a minute, and it means you're giving a gift instead of asking for one.
> 
> This is a models discussion forum, Kit, and the way this thread was started is fairly normal here; noone was asking for a gift, or a lecture.


----------



## Kit (Jul 9, 2009)

Thanks for the free one, then.


----------



## BatToys (Feb 4, 2002)

Zorro, thanks for the photo. I did get that issue and it was one of their best ones.

Google was very little help on _Aurora _Hobby Stores. But it was nice to see 1960's stores.

I was looking mainly for photos of hobby stores that had Aurora Factory Built Ups on display.

I remember the hobby store I went to when I was five and seeing the Factory Superman way up on a shelf. When they closed in 1976 I bought the factory Superman for $3.50. Fortunately the owner had saved a few Factorys for himself and I bought them.

I asked the owners recently about photos but that store never thought to take any! 

Thirty years ago they had tons of sealed Aurora kits, car kits etc and threw them all in the garbage because they waited to move out until the walls were being knocked down. Imagine if they saved them.


----------



## Kit (Jul 9, 2009)

I don't ever remember a hobby store that was an Aurora hobby store, and I moved around and saw a few. Most hobby stores were independents, and not owned or run by the manufacturers, and didn't specialize in any one brand, but carried several. The ones I saw almost all had some Aurora kits, including on an Army base, and I remember seeing a few buildups here and there in stores. 

When I was a kid, though, model kits were sold in so many places, you could see a buildup that I guess now must have been company-supplied. About 20 years ago, I picked up cheaply about a half-dozen Aurora company buildups and displays at a furniture store, of all places, that had a hobby corner and had them down in the basement collecting dust. 

I don't think Aurora had hobby shops, though. I'd be interested to know whether they did. Tom Graham's Aurora book has some nice pictures of company buildups.


----------



## razorwyre1 (Jan 28, 2004)

kit, i dont think battoys is asking about stores owned by aurora, but rather store that featured aurora products (i doubt a hobby shop could make it stocking only one manufacturer... simply not enough selection to do it. a kiosk, maybe, but not a store.)
i hit the web hoping for photos of stoner's hobby shop, which was a fixture in wyandotte michigan through the 60s and into the 70s, but while i found plenty of photos of downtown from that era, none even had its exterior in them.


----------



## docplastic (May 10, 2003)

*Aurora Store*

The only retail location Aurora opened was a very elaborate slot car parlor on Long Island that operated only briefly during the slot car heyday of the 1960s. The purpose was to showcase Aurora's slot car products and to test them against the competition. Also to promote the visibility of the slot car sport. However, no plastic models were involved.


----------



## BatToys (Feb 4, 2002)

The 1960's hobby store in my neighborhood was an independent. They sold other kits like planes, large model cars and had a slot car track but really all I saw there were Aurora Factorys on display. And their metal shelves behind the counter were all Aurora kits.

B&C Hobby Shop in Chicago. I think was the name. I think it was mainly slot cars as they had two huge tracks.

Now I remember another hobby shop where they had an even mix of kits. Aurora monster Factorys and airplanes hanging from ceiling. But B&C shelves looked like all they carried was Aurora. 

If they ordered a dozen Aurora kits like Superman, they would get a Factory Superman for the same price of a single kit.

And I remember opening up a Napolean Solo kit and like all Aurora kits had this aroma like a "new car smell." Even at arms length away the fumes from their kits were noticeble. Other company kits did not have that.

My Dad, who recently passed away, bought me my first Aurora kit King Kong in 1965.
Later he bought me a Superman and a Factory Gigantic Frankenstein from Barnetts Five and Ten.

The nice thing about building model kits back then was it was a good way to learn how to assemble something from instructions. There was no Internet to compete for my time.


----------



## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

I don't recall any 'Hobby Shops' when I was a kid...I bought most (if not all) of my kits at the local 'Smoke Shop' and I've always associated opening an Aurora kit,with that unique smell of styrene mixed in with the aroma of pipe tobacco...heavenly :thumbsup: The shop owner would allow us to open the kits right there, (after we paid our 98 cents of course) so we knew what colors of paint we needed...smart move on his behalf...
So Pictures ?...none....
Memories ?.....Millions...:thumbsup:
Mcdee


----------



## Kit (Jul 9, 2009)

Here's an old hobby shop you can visit now!

http://www.modelaircraft.org/museum/hobbyshop.aspx


----------



## Greg Roccaro (Feb 9, 2003)

GREAT question to get a thread going BATTOYS...I too love to see photos and hear memories about hobby shops from the 1950's-1970's. Thank you.
Greg


----------



## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

The hobby shop I bought my models from was in fact a hardware store with the models and supplies on one side and hardware on the other, I think the store is still there under the original name Nagengast, on Fresh Pond Rd in Ridgewood Queens N.Y. he had all the AMT car kits which I had bought most of them there and he did have a large Aurora assortment as well, the owner was a great man as he would let you inspect the kits and offer advice on how to build it. Question, what issue is that Amazing Figure Modeler article in ?
Thanks for this memory trip. Karl


----------



## steve123 (Feb 9, 2009)

My dad would bring me home kits while I was little, 4 or so. Then I was able to go shopping with him, it was Marshal Field's and Sports and Hobbies in Park Forrest Ill. Sports and Hobbies had sporting goods, Models and slotcars...I'll never forget seeing the slot kits in big glass display cases,..like jewelry...
The little general store in Monee, Ill. that was only 5 miles away (I could ride my bike) had a few Hawk and Aurora kits, supply was low and spotty, I never knew what they would have for sale


----------



## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

starduster said:


> The hobby shop I bought my models from was in fact a hardware store with the models and supplies on one side and hardware on the other, I think the store is still there under the original name Nagengast, on Fresh Pond Rd in Ridgewood Queens N.Y. he had all the AMT car kits which I had bought most of them there and he did have a large Aurora assortment as well, the owner was a great man as he would let you inspect the kits and offer advice on how to build it. Question, what issue is that Amazing Figure Modeler article in ?
> Thanks for this memory trip. Karl


Are you talking about Rick Palmer the article says his HS is in Parsippany New Jersey...AFM #38...
Mcdee


----------



## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

No, this store was located in Ridgewood / Queens N.Y. I don't know Rick Palmer, I know the building is still there but don't know what store is in there now. Karl


----------



## MJB (Aug 3, 2001)

Mr. Wolfe,

Sorry I didn't see you had asked but no, I grew up in Dayton.


----------

