Surprised at Kmart today

[Els]

I was at the local Kmart today and the kids wanted to look in the toy section before we left. I was walking around there when I noticed a model section. I was pretty suprised, I haven't seen stores like this selling models for a long time. The selection wasn't great, mostly car kits with a couple revell 1:48 aircraft kits and some of the easy aircraft kits. It kind of brought back memories of being a kid, when most stores had kits.

Els

[GreyGhost]

When I was growing up in the 70s/80s, Kmart had a whole aisle dedicated to models ...

Cars and trucks, etc on one side, Aircraft and ships, etc on the other side ... That's where most of my kits came from back then in fact ...

Gregg

Edited September 17, 2010 by GreyGhost

[Els]

I remember when I was about 12 years old I bought a Jeep CJ-7 kit at a 7 Eleven. Ahh the glory days when kits were cheap and everywhere...

Els

[strikeeagle801]

I noticed that the Fred Meyer here in town has started carrying a few again. They have not for several years, and there is still only about 10 different kits (total) there, but it's a start I guess.

Aaron

[RedHeadKevin]

KB toys and Toys R Us used to have pretty good model selections too. I remember getting a Tamiya Abrams kit at TRU, and a Testor's AC-130 at KB.

[jholt]

KB toys and Toys R Us used to have pretty good model selections too. I remember getting a Tamiya Abrams kit at TRU, and a Testor's AC-130 at KB.

Hell I remember passing up the Testors 48 scale C-130 for $11.99 at KB. I remember the TRU Abrams for $19.99. I'd buy one and then take it to one of the local Hobby Shop chains and say I got it as a gift (no reciept). They'd give me store credit for $60.

[Les / Creative Edge Photo]

Ahh the good old days. I remember back in the 70's and 80's here in Canada, especially B.C. We had Woodwards Dept. store. IMO the best dept. store company in Canada at the time. They had a very well stocked plastic model isle. Then there was a toy store called Toys & Wheels. They also had a fully stocked plastic model isle. Spent a lot of my allowance money at these stores back when. Of course the good old hobby stores we had were also good then too.

[CorsairMan]

I bought my first 'serious' kit with the money I saved up. It was a Monogram F4 (grey navy variant on the box) with cool box art. 1/48 scale! Huge! Back then they had real 'toy stores' in malls and the local one was called Toy World.

I even got little bottles of testors paint and orange tube glue....

[Kalashnikov-47]

I remember when Toys-R-Us was the best place in town to buy kits. Ditto

Gregg's comments on K-Mart back in the day, although "my day" was the 60's.

They had a selection as good as anybody's. Nowadays, I wouldn't care whether

or not they stock kits that would satisfy my interests, but I'd feel pretty encouraged

if they started stocking simple/cheap model kits for the kids.....

[Oroka]

lol, K-mart. Just that brings back memories. In Canada, K-mart was bought by the Hudson Bay company and all turned into Zellers (also owned by the Bay). I have to drive 40 mins just to get Testors glue now, if I want anything more than a basic car or plane kit, I have to go to Toronto, 3 hours away, or order online!

[Lucien Harpress]

Ah, yes, K-Mart. My current place of employment. I think we have a grand total of 10 kit at our store, 8 of which are snap-together.

This led to one of my more humerous night at work- the particular manager that night made it really easy to get away with crap I technically wasn't supposed to. Like take a snap-together kit off the shelf and build it. Then put it back in the box. And back on the shelf. :lol:

The best part came about a month later, when a similar-looking kit was returned by a customer. Reason for return? "Already Built".

Now how could THAT'VE happened?

Edited September 18, 2010 by Lucien Harpress

[Jolly Roger]

I remember VONS also selled models, just can't remember.. was VONS more like a huge pharmacy? it sure smelled like one, lol.

Used to go there with my mom (yeah it was probably a pharmacy) and there was this entire aisle of kits! i bought a 1/48th Revell F-117, there were also SR-71's, the nice Mustangs, and even Guillows balsa wood models.

[VADM Fangschleister]

When I was growing up in the 70s/80s, Kmart had a whole aisle dedicated to models ...

Cars and trucks, etc on one side, Aircraft and ships, etc on the other side ... That's where most of my kits came from back then in fact ...

Gregg

Man, you're not kidding. I remember one of my best Christmas hauls ever when I got a Tamiya motorized battleship and my 1/32 F-16A which I had gotten caught ogling at K-Mart in about 1977 or so.

The whole aisle was chock full of models I had never seen before! Those were the days.

[ross blackford]

, Isn't it amazing how kit prices have jumped over the years? At Easter time 1974 I was on my way to Canberra for Easter and had to get a little bit of work done on my car in Parramatta west of Sydney. While the work was being done I wandered down the street to Berg's Hobbies and bought the then new Italeri Gotha Go-242/244 kit for $4.75. The price tag is still on the box and I still have that kit in my stash. It's one of the ones that won't be getting sold on ebay shortly. Now that kit when it's re-released commands almost 10 times that much. Oh and our local K-mart here in Waratah used to sell kits at a very reasonable price. I bought my Italeri Bell 47/UH-13 kit there some years ago (with Aussie and New Zealand decals) for under $20. Perhaps they were giving the LHS too much of a run for his money. I haven't seen kits in any K-mart store anywhere for a while now. Toy R Us have a small range, mainly cars and AFVs, although the ToysRUs in Echuca in Victoria has a model shop attached with a reasonable range of kits and a lot of railway models.

:P,

Ross.

[phasephantomphixer]

Retail store-wise here North of Seattle, I also have the K-Mart with the same selection (once in a while deal) and Fred Meyer. If I go on a 10-20% off "toys" day, I can get a Revell F-101, F-14A-D, Mi-24, etc. for @ $10-12.00. Once I found a clearance and got 'em @$5.00.

Before I moved up here, in Northern Calif. the spots were Longs Drugs (They closed the one here and G-friend didn't tell me until it was picked clean!) with Hase. Tamiya, etc. and Thrifty Drug.

Best haul I had down there was at Kay Bee toys about 6 yrs. ago when they were moving the 1/32 Revell F-4E's at $18.00. Got 'em '4 even less on Military Discount Thursday!

[Charlie Cheetah]

Ah yes, We had a Kmart here in town when I was growing up, they had the model kit selection I had ever seen, with stuff you'd never see in a dept store currently. I remember buying the AMT? BJ and the Bear 1/25 Kenworth Aerodyne Cab-Over kit and a seperate Fruehoff reefer trailer for a combined total of about $30. The Kmart was accross town though so I didnt get there very ofter to spend my saved allowes. I remember Sears having a good selection too, and they were just a few blocks away so I could just walk over or ride my bike. We also had Woolco (Large dept store chain that was eventually bought out by WalMart), they had a good selection of model kits and HO trains and accessories too.

I had no idea HBC bought Kmart here in Canada, are you sure about that? I know we had at least 1 Zellers store in buisiness just a short distance from the Kmart for many years. That could explain why Sears hasnt opened any Kmarts in Canada now that Kmart is part of Sears Holdings.

[Arkasha]

Hell I remember passing up the Testors 48 scale C-130 for $11.99 at KB. I remember the TRU Abrams for $19.99. I'd buy one and then take it to one of the local Hobby Shop chains and say I got it as a gift (no reciept). They'd give me store credit for $60.

Dishonest much?

:P

[71roadrunner426]

I remember buying my first models at my Kmart, here in Notheast Pa in the late 70's and early 80's when my grandmother would take me, the 1/48 white box Monogram kit's like the F4U-4 Corsair , Hellcat, Dauntless ,TBF Avenger, and Revell's 1/32 Corsairs and the 1/32 Bell Huey's, the slick and the gunship and the AH-1G. yes my friend they where the good old days no putting sanding no resin upgrades and CHEAP, simple but great, I miss those days. And that same Kmart is still there.

[Steve N]

I grew up in a little Michigan town of about 500 people, and back in the 70s both the supermarket and hardware store had model sections. The nearest "big" towns had K-marts and such with big model selections, and one even had a nice little hobby shop. Now I'd be surprised if you could find a plastic kit for sale anywhere in the county.

SN

[Lucas C.]

:D, Isn't it amazing how kit prices have jumped over the years? At Easter time 1974 I was on my way to Canberra for Easter and had to get a little bit of work done on my car in Parramatta west of Sydney. While the work was being done I wandered down the street to Berg's Hobbies and bought the then new Italeri Gotha Go-242/244 kit for $4.75. The price tag is still on the box and I still have that kit in my stash. It's one of the ones that won't be getting sold on ebay shortly. Now that kit when it's re-released commands almost 10 times that much. Oh and our local K-mart here in Waratah used to sell kits at a very reasonable price. I bought my Italeri Bell 47/UH-13 kit there some years ago (with Aussie and New Zealand decals) for under $20. Perhaps they were giving the LHS too much of a run for his money. :lol: I haven't seen kits in any K-mart store anywhere for a while now. Toy R Us have a small range, mainly cars and AFVs, although the ToysRUs in Echuca in Victoria has a model shop attached with a reasonable range of kits and a lot of railway models.

:lol:,

Ross.

The frightening part is that most of the change in prices hasn't been the result of kit manufacturers looking to grab more of our money. Out of curiosity, I googled an inflation calculator for Australia and plugged in $4.75 in 1974 dollars to see what the equivalent would be now. In 2009 Aussie Dollars, it would be $32.05!!! :) :o

[Kostucha]

I was surprised at Micheals carrying kits, and they weren't too bad - that's where I picked up the B-25J from Monogram at. Walmarts don't carry them, few stores if any carry them. In Brandon Manitoba, you

had two stores that carried them. One went under last year, and the other is just... well... a home decor store with a corner overfilled with die cast and trains and a handful of other plastic kits...

Winnipeg on the other hand! Ha-HA!!! This seems to be Gods country with a few steller shops.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,

Mark.

[William G]

Bought my first kit in the early 70's. Star Trek USS Enterprise

I bought it with some birthday cash.

This was at an Alco in Kansas.

I remember buying them in K Marts, Drugstores, and even some C-Stores...

A few of them had massive selections of kits.

Others had only 1 or 2 kits.

My hometown, had the one big store Alco, and even a small hobby shop, Perez's Hobby Shop.

I remember going there, buying my first model Rocket Estes Mosquito, all of these my Grandfather helped me build..

Hmm now i am going to have to stop at the K-Marts here and see if they have anything...

Thanks Guys!!!

William G