Robbies Hobbies

I went in with some broken miniature ceramic figurines that I couldn’t glue back together. I asked the owner if he could repair them and he said he could sell me the glue to do it. He took a look at one of the figures, grabbed some glue, fixed it on the spot, and sent me on my way free of charge.
This is the kind of customer service that doesn’t exist in big corporate stores. What a nice guy!
By the way, I found out about this place because of a billboard on 4^th and Goodale. Advertising really pays off!

This is a nice store and a nice owner. I stopped in today mainly to chat and he didn’t mind a bit. We talked about trains and cars (I have an old radio controlled car) and the owners of the various tracks and shops. He’s a very nice and very knowleable guy!

This place is cute in so many ways. I’ll admit, I have a thing for nerdy types. I like making them flustered. This place probably does more internet business than it does in the… real corporeal world. I enjoy popping in from time to time. I know absolutely nothing about trains, and desire to know little more. I’ll never understand spending 500 dollars on a car for your collection, but if it floats your boat…

Growing up, i was always under the assumption that hobby stores were nothing more than glorified arts and craft shops that carried a model Corvette here and there. Boy did Robbies Hobbies prove me wrong. If I would’ve gotten a taste of the goods this shop has to offer when I was 5, you’d probably find me sitting in the middle of a model train set like the one on display here to this very day. Although the back of the stores functions as a printing shop for whatever reason, the real draw here is, as mentioned, model trains. Lots of them. The allure of putting hours of effort in to a motorized convoy of metal boxes that go around in a circle over and over may have been lost on me many years ago, but there’s no way you can not respect the selection of parts and building supplies that are on display here. From what I could tell, most of the prices were incredibly reasonable as well. It seemed very possible to get yourself started for under $ 100, which seems to be a rather low threshold for any free-​time undertaking to me. Certainly cheaper than playing guitar, that’s for sure. It’s easy to get lost with all the selection here, which must do wonders for attracting the business of youngsters that are still new to the world of model trains as a hobby. The mere fact that Robbies exists is yet another reason why I love Columbus– if you want it, we’ve got it.