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Bay Area (San Jose, San Fran etc.)


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In Campbell:

DJ Hobby:

Might be the #1 shop around here. Pretty good Kit selection and pretty good paint selection.

Prices are same as any other places.

They arent as quick to get new kits but will surely order something for you if you want.

Decal: has alot of Superscale, Aeromaster,Eagle Strike

Mountain View:

Yanni's Hobby:

Paint: he doesnt carry that much paint, only tamiya and model master.

Kits: He is quick to get new kits however he has a small store so the in store collection is ok.

Decal: He only has a few random sheets of whatever.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

The best hobby shop in the Bay Area is not quite exactly a hobby shop at all.

The Ace Hardware (yeah, with your helpful hardware man) in Berkeley sells hardware upstairs, but downstairs has a great hobby shop. Lots of classic and hard-to-find kits bought from estate sales. Awesome selection, and if you have an Ace discount card, you can use it with kit purchases.

It's on University Ave literally a block away from campus. Just get to the corner of Shattuck and University and start walking up towards campus and you can't miss it.

It also has the plus of being across the street from a great Indian restaurant, a block away from one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area (the Taiwan, which is basically on the corner of University and Shattuck), and two blocks away from a legendary brew pub called Triple Rock.

D&J is a great place as well. Very impressive paint and decal selection.

Yanni's - is that the new place that one of the employees opened after San Antonio Hobby closed up? I heard one of the guys who worked there opened a new place kinda nearby...

There's a hobby shop in Hayward kinda near the airport. I bought my VC-10 there. Haven't been there in a while, but I was planning to go again fairly soon. I'll post details after I pay the place a new visit.

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  • 2 months later...

Seems like Sheldon Hobby has re-opened. Althought its mostly R/C, i find it useful since i use polly scale paint and they carry polly scale there. Way better then driving all the way to DJ. Also, it seems they started to carry models now. The selection is real small and of the aircrafts I think all i saw was a photo panther and a Hasegawa 1/72 IDF B-17.

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Yanni's - is that the new place that one of the employees opened after San Antonio Hobby closed up? I heard one of the guys who worked there opened a new place kinda nearby...

Nergol, Yes, I think Yanni was one of the employees of San Antonio Hoby Shop that closed when I was still at Mountain View, just wasnt around anymore when he opened one himself.

Eric

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm heading to SF on vacation next month. I ran a search through FSM's links and came up with these listings:

CHAN'S TRAINS & HOBBIES

2450 VAN NESS AVE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Ph: 415 885 2899

FRANCISCAN HOBBIES

1920 OCEAN AVE # A

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Ph: 415-584-3919

HOBBY CO OF S F THE

5150 GEARY BLVD

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Ph: 415 386 2802

Anyone have opinions on these???

TIA

Tony

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All of the below are decent hobby stores (a small bit of everything), but not of the same league as, Ace Hardware, Yannis; and DJ's. If you had to pick one place, go to Ace Hardware.

I'm heading to SF on vacation next month. I ran a search through FSM's links and came up with these listings:

CHAN'S TRAINS & HOBBIES

2450 VAN NESS AVE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Ph: 415 885 2899

FRANCISCAN HOBBIES

1920 OCEAN AVE # A

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Ph: 415-584-3919

HOBBY CO OF S F THE

5150 GEARY BLVD

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Ph: 415 386 2802

Anyone have opinions on these???

TIA

Tony

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  • 1 month later...
Just got back home......oooohhhh boy!!!!

Like the ads say - "ACE is the place!!"

Freakin unbelievable!!! Thanks guys, for the lead on that place!!

Well, I told gO that all the month of June all hobby kits and stuff were 15% off. I picked up another 1/48 Hasegawa F-4M and an F/A-18C (I wanted the F/A-18A but the C was cheaper by $10!!!) plus hobby supplies. The Ace Hardware is near work so I make a trip to that shop after paydays... :thumbsup:

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Well, I told gO that all the month of June all hobby kits and stuff were 15% off. I picked up another 1/48 Hasegawa F-4M and an F/A-18C (I wanted the F/A-18A but the C was cheaper by $10!!!) plus hobby supplies. The Ace Hardware is near work so I make a trip to that shop after paydays... :cheers:

Gee, thanks for lettin' the rest of us in on that!

Grumble grumble... :thumbsup:

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Gee, thanks for lettin' the rest of us in on that!

Grumble grumble... :)

Okay Pete, how about this?

20% off everything until the end of July over at Loose Caboose Hobby in Napa, CA. Just got back from there and didn't find what I needed (AIM-9Ds from the Hasegawa Weapons set 1/48) but thought you might want to know!

:)

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Hobbies Unlimited in San Lorenzo is outstanding!

I've been a customer since 1982 and there is no better hobby shop in the East Bay. The shop carries an excellent inventory of plastic (cars, planes, armor & ships) along with trains, RC, etc. It also has an excellent inventory of accessories, paints, magazines, reference books, etc.

San Lorenzo is located in between Hayward and San Leandro. Hobbies Unlimited is located off Hesperian Blvd. about two miles north of the Hayward airport.

Jeff

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  • 6 months later...

Yo yoy yo wassup mahomies! Bay Area reppn!

Ahhh but seriously. I have been talking with a few friends about making a trip down to the Berkely ACE the next time they have a sale, but then, and I really, really don't want to get political, I realized that I have decided not to spend a dime in Berkeley :-( so the ACE there is a no-go for me. Bummer! We planned to hit a few record stores and the Naan and Curry and then I was going to hit the Spanish Table to pick up some Spanish groceries (from Spain-special stuff) for the wife. Well, she's going to Spain in March so she can get her fix there, but I'm still SOL for model shops. Dang Berzerkely city council!

Pete ayaout

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Over my lifetime, I've spent many hours wandering up and down the aisles of D&J Hobby. My first visit was sometime in the late 70s / early 80s. On my first visit, I vaguely recall them being accros the street from what was their location for the last 30 years. Sounds like for my future visit, I need to go to a 3rd location.

I'm not able to visit much as I used to, but on those rare occasion's, I can still recognize the guy behind the cash register. My most fondest memory is walking up the the counter and being able to look at/buy any sheet that SuperScale had ever produced. They even made stuff for aircraft that didn't exits in kit form.

Okay, now is when I need to fade into that speech about how in my day we had to scratch build everying, walk uphill to school both ways, the price of gas was less than milk, blah blah blah...

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I go to D&J but there selection is not as good as it use to be. g0 command0 do you live in the Fremont area and do you go to the Fremont club meetings.

Im from San Jose, i go to D&J too, they are a mere shadow of their former stuff. They went from 3 whole ailes of airplane kits down to one. They stopped carrying Polly scale paint ( primary reason i went there) and when i decided to swictch/try out gunze, they said they didnt know when theyll get more. Anyone know hwere i can get Gunze paint in the Bay area?

Side note, theres a hobby shop in Redwood City called J&M Hobby House or something like that, any one been there?

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  • 8 years later...

So I just read that ACE has moved a couple of blocks from the old location.......did they keep the model section?????

I haven't been since they moved, but this is a temporary location until their old block is totally torn down and rebuilt.

They had a massive sale of models before they moved. That didn't include the newest kits or paints/supplies, so I don't think they are out of the model selling business yet.

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  • 1 month later...

Ace Hardware is now down to just two aisles of plastic kits - one for aircraft, and one for everything else.

Still a great stock of provisions; paints, glues, materials, etc.

Sadly, the kit space is a shadow of the modelling Mecca it used to be. :crying2:

On the plus side, they kept the doors open - so many brick & mortar shops have just gone, it's not funny.

Secondly, I was told they plan to refocus the stock on more current product, so they're holding sales to clear space for new arrivals. :thumbsup:

Edited by RotorheadTX
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