Ahhh, The Internet!
The internet has, quite frankly, been GREAT for my wargaming hobby.
It has allowed me to look at photos of beautiful games... it has allowed me to buy miniatures, hassle-free, from almost anywhere in the world... it has allowed me to chit chat with fellow wargamers... it has allowed me to look at beautiful figures... and it has allowed me to look at beautiful figures!
Honestly The Internet has been great for almost every aspect of my miniature collecting and wargaming.
The only thing that the internet has hurt, I think, is the physical stores that I buy my toy soldiers at.
Just recently I dropped in at my local hobby shop, Highway Hobby. There used to be two such shops around, but unfortunately Game Master (run by Mr. and Mrs. McCauley) went out of business and was replaced by a shop that seems to sell only card games and Dungeons and Dragons stuff... i.e. no hobby that requires any skill or dedication of time.
Anyway... that left me with Highway Hobby. Now, they were never the BEST possible place... having been around since 1953, they specialized mainly in model trains and cars and the like, but they DID have a decent selection of Games Workshop miniatures, and they did have all the paints, varnishes, flock, glue, and balsa that any good gamer needs. I would drop in once a month, pick up White Dwarf, and browse through the paints, grabbing what I needed. It was just so nice having a local hobby place to browse through.
Well, as I said, I recently dropped in, and found that Highway Hobby is going out of business:(
While I am glad that we have the internet and internet shopping, and I am glad I can have almost any miniature at the touch of a button, there is nothing that will ever replace being able to physically go to a store and wander around the wares, picking up what you need. It is, in a way, a real shame that the age of internet shopping has, sort of, ended the age of personal shopping. I wish that there was a REAL toy soldier shop around here, something that carried historicals and the like, but unfortunately, there is not, and unfortunately the only thing even close is now shutting down.
It is a shame.
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3 comments:
That's sad to hear. A great local one here went out of business several years ago - American Eagles in Tacoma. It was a landmark, for me anyway. I still miss the one in Hawaii, Pete's Modelcraft Store, that went out of business decades ago. I loved to peruse the models there when I was very young - got me hooked on military modeling. Dean
Sorry to hear that.
I remember going to the regional (not even local, what a shame) store and just looking through the 25mm and thinking, what a cool idea, painting little guys. Just walking down the one aisle, gathering all the boxes that caught my eye, sitting down in a corner and looking at the little guys made me so happy, and got me into the whole hobby. Hope something else opens up soon!
regards,
john
I am not wanting to pick a fight but I feel a need to point out that it's not really a fair assessment to label card game and role-playing games as one requiring no skill or dedication of time. Both of those may not require modeling skill but require other aesthetic or strategic skills and do require a fair amount of dedication to really do well. I encourage you to explore both a little rather than writing them off so easily. As a former role-playing game master I can say it takes a lot of creativity and dedication to create an entertaining game world and intelligent game play.
Also, I'm very sorry to hear your LGS is going out of business. Where I am in Ohio my closest hobby shop is over an hour away and the LGS has come and gone three times.
(As an aside I'm aware this comment is really late but I am just getting to read this posting.)
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