Using my Hobby Lobby 50% off coupon, i headed over to my local store at lunch and loaded up - all they had was Tamiya, but is that so bad? Here is what I got:

Marder III
M3 Lee (for $9.00? what a nice deal for my son!)
M4A3 105 How/Sherman
KingTiger
M-26 Pershing

And of course, a ton of paints! i figure I saved about $90 on the model tanks alone. Total bill came to $127

Is the coupon good for ANY hobby shop? I thought the coupon was good only at the Hobby Lobby retail store.

If you live near a national chain store that takes a 50% coupon, oh my are you lucky! :-)

Do you have to print off the coupon or can you just go in the store and they have the 50% off the models?

It's only good at Hobby Lobby, and you have to print out the coupon. They do it this way so ot everybody knows about it. I guess.

I am planning on going to Hobby Lobby this week to buy some kits....I can't wait

Sean

Check the "General Modeling" forum saying "50% Hobby Lobby Coupon" or something like it.

I was out there yesterday and couldn't decide what to get so I think I'll go back Friday and pull a Magee on 'em. I was in the plastic model aisle and the manager cruised by and asked if I had internet access. I said, "I have the coupon with me, thanks." I thought that was pretty cool of her.

Anyway, hot link to the actual coupon below for anyone that doesn't want to hunt it.

Shaun

http://www.hobbylobby.com/site3/weekly/coupons/coupon.cfm

Oh my god why do I live in a small country like Portugal? I love my Country, but sometimes I think that I'm losing a lot in the modeling scene... it's dificult here to find some stuff, like books per example. But, off course, I think that it happens due to the fact that scale modeling isn't a very popular hobby in Portugal (it's a litlle expensive for the portuguese wallets)... Well, I'll keep ordering for internet...

See yaaa

We have GOT to get one of those this far north.. Vermont is out of their range.
The closest one to me is .. Virginia? Maryland?
Do they even come North of the Mason Dixon line?

MD

We have one in Fargo ND (about a200 mile round trip for me) and a rumor of one in Grand Forks in the near future (about a 60 mile r/t). So hang in there, if they come to ND there's hope for you.
BTW: I have never hit the 50% model sale. They don't announce them in advance. It seems like the sale always happens the week after I make the trip. Also, in the Fargo store, the model secection is mostly cars.
Chuck

Howdy cfbush,

Hey, good news on the coming of a closer Hobby Lobby to you. They don't have a huge selection, but when they have these sales you can't beat the prices!

Tread.

Oh, BTW cfbush, what state is North Dakota in? #:-)

Ohio's a bit far for me to drive..... #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-)

Tread,
Right now North Dakota is in a frozen state, I think. Temp @ -33 actual...

Shaun.

Grand Forks Temp

To Chuck, and anybody else that is interested. Hobby Lobby doesn't announce more than a couple days in advance any sales. For obvious reasons. Their website will post the sales for the coming week as early as Saturday night. I have a habit now of checking about 11:00 pm mountain time their site at www.hobbylobby.com. Look at both newspaper add and coupons. The chain is closed on Sundays, and the sales run from Monday through Saturday. At most you'll have 7 days to take advantage of the sale.

Recently I also found out that they will run unadvertised sales to celebrate a grand opening. A new store opened in Colorado and all the H.L. stores in the state had special items on sale, among them models, that weren't listed in the newspaper add. I guess the only way to take advantage of one of those sales is to see if they are opening any new stores in your area and call the stores closest to you to see if they are runing un advertised specials.

One other thing. This last holliday season they carried over a sale from one week to another, as well as the current weeks add. The only way to know about this is to visit the store.

Right now, a state of suspended animation.

Chuck

Yep Shaun. And it's only gonna get colder. The advantage is that you can test fit parts by dipping them in water and holding them out the window for about 3 seconds.
Chuck

They were all over the place when I was stationed in Kentucky, Alabama and Texas, but since I've gone back to the Northeast, they are just not around here.

It was a great store to go to since they had a fairly comprehensive model aisle and my wife could go look at her arts & crafts or fabric sections.

What I need is a good, cheap German halftrack kit.

Cheap Trick of the Week

I went to three Hobby Lobbys to load up. At the last one, there was a long line and I had the last 2 1/2 ton 6X6 truck they had. It didn't have a sticker on it, so I figured they'd scan it when I paid for everything. Well, for some reason, the checkout lady didn't want to check it, so she decided to charge me what the Willys MB Jeep was.
So, when I got home and checked out the others I had bought, I was delighted to find out I paid half of $16.99 for the truck instead of half of $33.99. $8.50 for a $33.99 truck. Yeah!

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)

My local Hobby Lobby doesn't usually have a good armor and figure selection... this time they did, which is why I loaded up. Normally, they have about 5 or 6 items to choose from, but they have 100+ cars and 50+ airplanes to chose from.... we treadheads just don't get ourdue respect. Maybe if we clean off their shelves in the Plano/Dallas area, the local buyer will get the message and start adding a few more armor oriented SKU's to the selection.

Does this sound like most HL's, or is mine just run by a hotrod nut?

KFMagee: That sounds like the Hobby Lobbys here in Houston, although they have recently added a few new kits to their selection: the Ardennes King Tiger, the Pershing (which I picked up during this sale), the 105 M4A3, the late Panther and the Marder III. They also had the Sherman crew set and I bought all three that they had as I am always looking for US crewmen. I also did the unthinkable and picked up two Tamiya 1/48 airplanes, one for me and one for my wife to try (it was her idea!).

Sabot, the HL close to me had about 8 of the old Tamiya German 251 halftracks on Monday. PM if you want me to pick one up for you (it would be about $8.00 before sales tax, which is 8.25% here in Houston).

I've had good luck the last couple times I've been in the states (just got back from Oki) when I've hit my hometown Hobby Lobby. I picked up the Academy MH-60 and the MRC AH-1W and AH-1T all in 1/35 for 50% off. Now if I could only find a pair of AH-6s...

No, this sounds about right. There are three HLs in town and I hit all three regularly. In each case they have one entire side of an aisle devoted to cars, while tanks, ships, and planes are all crowed into the same amout of space. Each store is different in what they carry, to a point. The largest had a lousy selection of armor last night, though that might have been because they got cleaned out. It has a good selection of wingy thingys. Another had good armor, four copies of the Pershing, several King Tigers, Dragon Wagons, and Marders, but not many planes. The last one had the best selection of ships. This might be the buyers buy different stuff or the customers buy out different items more.

I really, really, wish they'd bring back the figure sets they used to carry. I got the DML Airborne and Ranger kits at HL over a year ago but now they only carry some American Civil War sets and a DML German Naval troops, that I figure they just can't give away. They've got some old Tamiya figures, but nothing that I'd want, like the ancient German Infantry set, the modern American tank crew, things like that.

Any of themHave a Tamiya A-1h (navy) version??????? Someone willing to pick one up for me???? I'll pay you back....really!!!!!

Hobby Lobby sounds about like the Robert's Craft stores that are here as far as selection and sales, although they don't have sales that good.

Every week there is a 40% off on item coupon, some weeks it's 50%. They used to have a decent amount of armor, but I went in there yesterday to find something to build OOTB (to get me back going since getting bogged down on a detailing project) and there was very little armor, mainly cars.

Did pick up an Academy Achilles which was on clearance for I think $17, and all the Model Master paints were clearance 50% off (which worries me, maybe they're not carry that stuff anymore). They do have ridiculous things, though, like selling an M-60 Blazer same price as the Tamiya Pershing becomes they couldn't find a price and they "looked" similiar. Oh well. I just ended up grabbing something off my shelf to build instead, although might have to go back to get the Academy Vulcan and FIST kits if they go 50%.

(Wow, I tend to be long winded on a simple reply :-) )

If you go to HobbyLobby.com, you can get a map of locations.

Sealhead