Southern BC modellers...

I'm going to be in the greater Vancouver area later this week. Just wondering if there's any model shops that are "must visit" while I'm there. I'm looking mostly for Tamiya/Aoshima kits at a good price. But, if you know of a shop that sells older OOP kits, I'd love to hear of it. I'm looking for a Hasegawa 944 but will settle for an Italeri/Testors one if I can find it. Unfortunately it's been OOP for a long time. Any ideas?

Um, model prices here are not too good, IMO
off the top of my head, you can try these shops
Imperial hobbies
J-hobby
Hobby plus
Wing's Corner

Mostly located in Richmond and burnaby. The phone book should give you their addresses.

Magic Box at 37th and Arbutus is where I go. Lots of Tamiya kits and some harder to find items. You can call them to see if they have what you want. Haven't been to any other model shops.

Burnaby Area

Crystal Hobby, located in the Crystal Mall, which is right next to metrotown. They have the cheapest price on Tamiya spray cans (under 10 cdn) and some rare Aoishima Kits

And this shop located at Rumble and Royal Oak, drove by a few times but never been to.

Richmond Area

This new shop in this new mall, Aberdean Center, if you get to Cambie and No.3, the mall is easy to find, never been to there so I dunno if they are any good.

Wing's Corner, IMO, does not have anything too interesting regarding scale autos.


And of cuz, Magic Box, as mentioned before, the price ain't the best but the selection is the greatest. I mean Tamiya, Fujimi and supplies, Hagesawa and Aoishima, sadly, they dun carry much.

i second Crystal Hobbies in Crystal Mall beside Metrotown.. it's a chinese mall so it might be intimidating if you're not chinese. They'll tell you it's the last kit to make a sale even if it's not. Oh and bargain!!!

Wow, the responses are coming in for Burnaby... might have to check that out. I'll be in WhiteRock, so I guess that's a bit of a drive.

I might head down into the US for a little while too. Anything close worth checking out?

not sure, but http://www.modelexpress.net is near Vancouer I think

Modelexpress is located in Castleguard - which is south-east BC.

Imo there isn't a place that u can get model cheap in vancouver, that's why i order them through hlj. :biggrin:
Since u'll be in whiterock, a drive to burnaby is quite far imo.

Burnaby area:
There are 2 model shop inside the Crystal Mall, one on the 2nd floor and the other one near the market area. Both of them will have the newer kit. There's also a model shop inside Metrotown Center, the tamiya spray paint is the cheapest i found in Vancouver. :p

Richmond area:
As metioned, Imperial hobby will have the order kit, it carrys the AMT,Revell,Tamiya,Fujimi...etc It's the largest hobby store in town imo, you will find some older kit in there, but they are not cheap and there'll be lesser chance u'll find the newest kit inside there. They will have special from time to time though, so u might want to check it out.

The one in the new mall Aberdean Center, they are called "Racing Devil", It's a RC store with some tamiya model kit. The have the newest kit too, but again they are not cheap.

The one inside Richmond Public Market is called Wing's Corner u might want to check them out if u're in the Richmond area, since it's only a few blocks away from the Imperial hobby.

This is not a model shop, It's the Wall Mart :p but u might want to check it out, there's one in Coq area. It carries the Revell kit, and it's usually around 20 bucks range. And if u need some 1/24 model case, that's the place to go. They are under 10 bucks each and i found that is the cheapest in town. But u must open up the box to check if the clear plastic has any crack :eek:

That's all i know, hope u have a good trip down in Vancouver :)