Hey I just moved to Houston Tx and the only decent hobby store here has closed...Any one out there in cyber world know of any hobby stores in the Houston area ....I have been using the internet but I miss going to the hobby store and just looking an talking to other hobbist .

Did you ever find a good store? I'm going to be in Houston this weekend and would love to do some shopping

Hi John and Jake:

Unfortunately, unless you are interested in R/C, since Hobby Island closed, Houston has become a vast scale model waste land. There are three general hobby shops that I am aware of, two in the central part of the city and the third way up north in an area called Spring.

I'll start with the two central shops. G & G Hobby Shop is in the Rice Village, the oldest in town, small, lots of scratch building materials because it caters to Rice University architecture students, friendly service, quite pricey on kits (retail +), high but acceptable price on modeling supplies; phone number is 713-529-7752. Next is M & M Hobbies on Chimney Rock just south of US 59. This shop has new owners and I have not been inside since that change even though it is only about 10 minutes from my house. They primarily cater to R/Cers, but used to carry a decent amount of scale models at retail prices, and sub-par selection of supples. Former owners were less than friendly to browsers so I never got in the habit of visiting very often and now I am completely in the habit of buying online so have not felt the need to try the new owners.

Up north is Larry's Hobbies, it is very far away from my house and I have never visited (about 50 minute drive). Their number is 281-443-7373.

While the hobby shops are not good, there is a very active model club community with an active Houston Armor Club which meets the last Thursday of the month at the Tracy Gee Community Center on the wesst side of town from 7 to 9 pm. Also meet the 1st and 3rd Saturdays from 9 to 2 at the Tracy Gee for what we call a build-in. We are a very friendly club not affiliated with any national organization. PM me if you want additional information about the HAC. There are also at least 2 IPMS clubs, one of which also meets at the Tracy Gee, I don't attend their meetings but do participate in their contest every April, called Modelmania.

Hope this helps both of you.

Keith Middleton
HAC Treasurer