Vintage hobby shop memorabilia

[Mindwarp]

I don't know how much interest there would be but how about a thread for hobby shop memorabilia? We have vintage catalogs, vintage manufacturers ads, vintage magazines seems hobby shops would fit in there. The reason I mention this is that I found a decal for a hobby shop in an rc10 box and thought it was interesting to me and it might be to others. I searched for the store online but it appears they're not around anymore but the search did show that a member here called Whiskers had worked there bitd. http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1503

This is an enhanced scan, the actual decal is white on transparent background.

[arf]

I don't really have anything to show, but I thought i might share my story. In 1978 I worked for Polk's Model Craft Hobbies. Five floors of hobbies on Fifth Avenue and 34th St. in New York. I was hired by Nat Polk and worked for his son Lewis. The top floor was offices and phones for mail orders. The fourth floor was all RC planes and a few cars. Tamiya kits were like gold, we could only drool over the shrink wrapped boxes. Nothing RC was displayed or demonstrated you had to know what you were getting into. Only the manager understood the particulars of building a kit and the magic of radios and battery charging. I sold plastic models (floor 2) and trains (floor 3.) The 1st floor was toys and dolls. They had a huge warehouse in New Jersey, but for me it was all about the basement. Decades of broken and returned hobby stuff. The commercial slot car track shoved in the corner. Digging thru the rusted steel shelving with the bare bulb overhead on my lunch hour I found half built Pocher car kits. Dozens of opened Heller plastic kits missing or broken parts. Motorific cars, parts, and track. Minitanks. Boxes and boxes of Mabuchi slot car motors. Every toy from my childhood from Schuco to Robot Commando. German and Japanese stuff I could only Imagine what it was. I think the Polks owned Aristocraft, there was tons of that, mostly electronics.

I could go on, but I discovered racing RC cars when i picked up a newsletter with a strange and fascinating article called "To Diff or Not to Diff" about the advantages of running one in your 1/8th scale gasser. I was hooked.

Later, Lewis Polk ran the numbers, and figured out that the building with it's exclusive midtown address was more valuable as office rental space.

Found this: http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/museum/comp/PolksHobbies.pdf

[transamman908]

I have this T&A wheel display that came from Parlor hobbies in N.J. You could get a haircut and buy RC10 parts all in the same visit, how cool is that. I forget the owners name but was very friendly and knowegable in R/C and was always trying to invent hop ups for the JRX2 and RC10.

[Mindwarp]

Good stuff guys! Interesting tire display.

I found half built Pocher car kits

Oh wow, those are awesome kits!