Many years ago, I wrote an essay on my history of the plastic model hobby. I mentioned how it was my wife Mayu who got me back into the hobby. Although I had bought a couple of models here and there, she is the one who came home one day in 2005 with an AT-AT from Empire Strikes Back by AMT and asked me to build her a “doggy horse” as she called them. That’s what got me back into the hobby.
I grew up with a local hobby retail chain called Hobby Bench. In fact, this is where Mayu bought the AT-AT, as she went inside while waiting for the next bus to take her home. While they had a decent supply of model kits, supplies and tools, the guys working the counter only seemed to care about radio control stuff. They’d always be talking with other RC hobby enthusiasts, to the point where I felt hesitant to even ask a question. I once asked if it’s possible to mix Testors acrylic paints with Tamiya acrylic paints and the clerk said, “Yeah, they’re both acrylics. Why not?” Well, that turned out to not be a good idea and it just shows their lack of expertise.
Then I discovered Andy’s Hobby Headquarters. I was impressed with both Andy’s knowledge and enthusiasm for the model hobby, and there was no RC stuff in his store at all! His store was focused solely on plastic modeling. His advice was always great and I always enjoyed talking with him.
Before I moved back to Japan, I gave him a huge stack of Hobby Japan ad Dengeki Hobby magazines to share with his modeling club. The last time I saw him was in March 2012, when I bought my 1:537 USS Reliant from Star Trek and the corresponding decals. Then eventually Andy became well-known among the YouTube modeling community.
In my recent trip to Arizona, I stopped by. He wasn’t there, and the man working there seemed used to disappointing people for not being Andy. Andy now spends most of his time at the new Hobby HQ store in Tolleson. The guy working at the original location may as well have a nametag that says, “Hi, I’m NOT Andy. Deal with it.” It was still cool to see how the store has changed, though. Here are some pictures I took.
I was surprised to see a Perfect Grade Millennium Falcon there!
There was this awesome Cylon Raider by Moebius Models hanging from the ceiling. I reached up high to take this photo. There was also an old Kenner X-Wing toy behind it. Notice all the Gunpla on the shelves in the background below.
Lots of Perfect Grade Gundam models.
So many Fujimi car model kits! Years ago when I worked at Aoshima, I had tried to build a relationship with Andy and tried to get him to purchase Aoshima kits directly from me. It didn’t really work out though. I don’t know why. Still, it was great to see all of the Fujimi car kits there.
I was surprised to see so many Hasegawa kits with their old box designs.
Here you can see the new Hasegawa boxes (top) and the old ones (bottom).
I wished I had taken more photos, but I actually ended up talking quite a lot with the store clerk. I know people would’ve liked me to take a video tour of the store, but I was with two friends and we had other places to go. I wasn’t alone. Maybe next time!