HobbyTown USA (Newport News) – Shop Report | Hampton Roads Scale Modelers

A relative newcomer in the Northside area hobby market, the Newport News HobbyTown USA store has still been located in the Denbigh Crossing Shopping Center for at least eight years after leaving an original location on Warwick Blvd. Fairly standard for a HT-USA franchise, the store’s primary business focus is on RC products with a supporting cast of other hobby related genres such as: model railroading, wargaming, kites, coin collecting, ‘treasure hunting’ (as in metal detectors), model rocketry, diecast ‘replicas’, plastic modeling and crafty (aka ‘educational’) toys for youngsters.

For the scale modeler, the store offers a selection of ‘low-high’ quality mix of kits, ranging from the latest ‘vintage’ reissues from Lindberg to modern Tamiya & Trumpeter toolings. Plastic model kits represent (space-wise) approximately 15% of the store’s shelf real estate. A decent selection of tools, paints (such as Tamiya, Testors Model Master and PollyScale brands) and other related supplies provides a good spread for anyone’s needs. A fairly comprehensive spread of modeling related magazines and historical treatises supports the modeler’s reading “needs”. Cost for merchandize is essentially ‘MSRP’ – or more – but there are occasional discounted items and a store ‘frequent flyer’ program. Availability of needed basic supplies is the biggest advantage. The below ‘picture tour’ shows the store’s layout and product lines.(Store contact & hours info is at bottom.)