Tales From the Hobby Department Part 5

[Red_Dazes]

Trouble with Pine Car
Because I am a shut in, who lives in a tiny one bed room apartment half underground, and only ventures out into the world for nourishment and work... I some how managed to completely miss the news that this is....in fact... Pine Wood Derby season. In hind-sight this explains the HAVOC that has been wrecked on my poor pine car rack on a day basis and also why I can't seem to keep any of it in stock for more than an hour......
It seems, however, now that the veil has been lifted from my eyes I have become the target for all of the frantic, drooling hordes.... for the most part it is all the same wild eyed, frothing at the mouth "but I NEED this sticker/glue/body kit/weight NOW!" sort of people who can't seem to grasp that I am out of stock and do not keep a secret stash of Pine Car stuff locked in my back room just for them.
Yesterday though.... I got a guy who stood there growling (I'm serious)at me for about 15 minutes because he realized that some of our parts do not meet the specifications the Cub Scouts have for their Pine Wood Derby...there fore meaning he cannot buy them for his child and must actually spend more money on APPROVED parts.
Knowing nothing about Pine wood this was news to me. However my apologies were curtly brushed aside as he was convinced that I not only KNEW this but was hiding it just to get his kid in trouble......
I have now made a point to tell people to double check the rules and guidelines BEFORE they purchase something.


Price Points
Apparently our company are masters of deception and tricky advertising.... because the gentlemen I spoke with thinks it is completely unacceptable that we sell [Model Car] for $17.99....and our store in the Tri-Cities sells it for $40.00.....

And investigation is under way to find out what the F*** is going on.


TOOBS
I truly think some parents open up our little toobs of toys, hand them to their children and say "Go forth and FROLIC about the store my child!" It's the only explanation I can come up with. Cause every time I find one of those stupid things empty...you can be sure if I hang on to it for a week I will find the contents strewn about the store....


Adventures in Figurines

If you recall in our last installment there was a truly spectacular party that happened.... involving a feather boa and much......... inappropriateness...
It seems that the effects of this party had not wore off quite as throughly as I had thought. Through out the week I caught many, individuals, involved in fraternizing...

-It seemed the Red and Blue Knights had settled their respective differences and decided "Make Love not War" was a perfectly acceptable clause....however, when the after glow wore off they realized what had happened and.... well, it seems they decided to kill each other instead. Possibly so no one will ever know what happened.... possibly because they are just too stuck in their ways.

-Chief Flying Chicken was celebrating his victory over the Cowboys...he was accompanied by the 4 Indian maidens......and one little Indian boy.... I didn't ask and I don't want to know.

-There was a MASSIVE remake of Broke Back Mountain going on with the cowboys... I don't know if they'll ever live it down.

-The Stegosaurus and the Allosaurus also seemed to over come their differances... and if your wondering who wears the pants in that relationship...let me just tell you Spike definitely Wasn't on the bottom of that food chain.

-And of course the Jockeys.... but we all expect that by now.

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I was walking, well strolling really, down the figurine aisle at the end of the day. To double check on things. Nothing seemed amiss, until I noticed the Clowfish hiding down by the lip of the base board (he is bright ORANGE and hard to miss)... upon picking him up I suddenly noticed that the entire base board was lined with toys. All the way down to the end of the aisle. They were just under the lip and so hard to see from my height. Cowboys, Indians, Cows, Sheep, Pigs, Horses, Dogs, Cats, Raccoons, Wolves, Bears...etc.... all of them making a break for freedom. I'm glad I saw them when I did.... who knows what sort of Chaos they would have wrecked on the store left to their own devices.


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The damn appaloosas are at it again.... I found one way over in Spring Gazing Balls... How they keep getting out I just can't imagine, I swear I'm going to start locking them in the Airbrush case.
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I found the Mega-Rex crouched behind one of my large display easels. His mouth was open and so I thought he was being fearsome and claiming the high ground... however as I got closer I realized that he actually looked frightened and more like he was hiding behind the easel.
...now I wondered to myself... what could possibly be so fearsome as to force the Mega-Rex to FLEE. Upon investigation I found a Chin-Strap Penguin in his place...
Apparently Penguins are the one animal so terrifying, evil, and sadistic enough to frighten even the fearsome Mega-Rex...... I now have a new worry to keep me up at night.

I fear the day when the Penguin Toob is unleashed onto the store.... by the time I find them it may be too late!...If that day ever comes...God Help us....God Help us all....

[Android Kaeli]

I hate Pinewood Derby with a passion -- only because when we have the stuff out during it's 'season', very few people buy it. As soon as the stuff gets packed away, everyone and their children wants Pinewood Derby.

The last time I put the stuff into boxes and onto the topstock, I told the SM I'm not going to be bringing it down again every ten minutes. Sure enough, ten minutes later someone wanted the Pinewood Derby stuff. >.<

[protege]

Yesterday though.... I got a guy who stood there growling (I'm serious)at me for about 15 minutes because he realized that some of our parts do not meet the specifications the Cub Scouts have for their Pine Wood Derby...there fore meaning he cannot buy them for his child and must actually spend more money on APPROVED parts.

His mind would explode if I told him about the Pinewood car I built years ago. There *weren't* any weight kits or parts packs. Everything we used came out of the box. I've attached photos of one my dad and I built over 25 years ago. My car was cut from a solid wood block...and doing that boat-tail on the back was a bitch Many years later, the car is somewhat battered--the paint has peeled off in spots, one of the front wheels is held on with a staple, etc.

Price Points
Apparently our company are masters of deception and tricky advertising.... because the gentlemen I spoke with thinks it is completely unacceptable that we sell [Model Car] for $17.99....and our store in the Tri-Cities sells it for $40.00.....

And investigation is under way to find out what the F*** is going on.

It could simply be that the store manager was simply tired of looking at the kit, and chose to mark it down. I wouldn't mind seeing my local hobby shop mark down their Hasagawa Ferrari kits. There's a 1960s Testarossa that I wouldn't mind building But seriously, I can usually pick up some of their more obscure items for bargain prices. He knows that nobody else is interested in 1980s Skylines, Datsun Bluebirds, Leopards or other long-outdated Tamiya kits...so he'll usually mark them down. He hates to see that stuff on shelves too long.

[Red_Dazes]

It could simply be that the store manager was simply tired of looking at the kit, and chose to mark it down. I wouldn't mind seeing my local hobby shop mark down their Hasagawa Ferrari kits. There's a 1960s Testarossa that I wouldn't mind building But seriously, I can usually pick up some of their more obscure items for bargain prices. He knows that nobody else is interested in 1980s Skylines, Datsun Bluebirds, Leopards or other long-outdated Tamiya kits...so he'll usually mark them down. He hates to see that stuff on shelves too long.

No the $17.99 is our stores price and it is also the price point in the department list (I double checked) it's not a very nice model...mid range at best so why the other store would have it for $40 is beyond me.... still waiting to hear back on that though

[jedimaster91]

Ah yes, Pinewood Derby. All my little Weblos (and one Wolf) are beyond estatic. I can't wait for it to be over. And the last time I even heard of Pinewood Derby was when Li'l Bro was a Cubby. He's 19 now.

[Skeksin]

Never much cared about Pinewood Derby.....Until they had a "parents" contest where basically anything went for car design. One had a small electric fan on the back to help propel it. He won too. I immediately started thinking about how fast one of those cars would be if you put a model rocket engine in the sucker.....

[protege]

No the $17.99 is our stores price and it is also the price point in the department list (I double checked) it's not a very nice model...mid range at best so why the other store would have it for $40 is beyond me.... still waiting to hear back on that though

Ah, Ok...wasn't so sure on that. Still, you'd be surprised at the amount of crap reissues that are currently selling for lots more than they should be. Kits that weren't even good the *first* time around, yet are still reissued because companies are too cheap to clean up the molds. AMT's 1963 Corvette, and the Jeep Commando kits come to mind

[mikoyan29]

Generally when I buy models, I stick to Tamiya models because they are usually a pleasure to work with, don't have to do too much cutting of the flash and what not. Airfix models....gah.

Anyways, how is your store supposed to know what the other store is doing? If your store is cheaper then what is the guy complaining about? I could see him complaining if its the other way.

And Pinewood Derby....when I was a cub scout, we had basically a block of wood that you cut the car out of.

[flybye023]

Never much cared about Pinewood Derby.....Until they had a "parents" contest where basically anything went for car design. One had a small electric fan on the back to help propel it. He won too. I immediately started thinking about how fast one of those cars would be if you put a model rocket engine in the sucker.....

My brothers tried that. It didn't make the car go faster. It launched the car into the air and since they were in the garage at the time it bounced off the walls, floor and ceiling until finally it broke through the window.

[nicolecj]

It is a shame that the free love party did not solve all of that world's problems... but then they never do, but I am sure everything had a great time!

[Jester]

My brothers tried that. It didn't make the car go faster. It launched the car into the air and since they were in the garage at the time it bounced off the walls, floor and ceiling until finally it broke through the window.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that they may have had just a weeeee bit too much horsepower in that fan!

[Foxfeathers]

Oh god, pinewood cars. I have bad memories of those from my cub scout days. Lets just say there was rigging going on by one of the judges in favor of his grandson. I moved shortly after wards so I don't know what happened besides mine and other parents where pissed.

[dalesys]

I immediately started thinking about how fast one of those cars would be if you put a model rocket engine in the sucker.....

We took a used CO2 cartridge (for a pellet gun), packed it full of matchheads, and fitted it into a yellow Revell 1/24 plastic Model T...

It went about fifty feet down our suburban street before detonating.


We found bits of yellow plastic a lot farther away than that.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I was walking, well strolling really, down the figurine aisle at the end of the day. To double check on things. Nothing seemed amiss, until I noticed the Clowfish hiding down by the lip of the base board (he is bright ORANGE and hard to miss)... upon picking him up I suddenly noticed that the entire base board was lined with toys. All the way down to the end of the aisle. They were just under the lip and so hard to see from my height. Cowboys, Indians, Cows, Sheep, Pigs, Horses, Dogs, Cats, Raccoons, Wolves, Bears...etc.... all of them making a break for freedom. I'm glad I saw them when I did.... who knows what sort of Chaos they would have wrecked on the store left to their own devices.

This is starting to sound like a plot line for Toy Story 4.

[protege]

I should have posted these earlier. This is the Pinewood car my dad and I built many years ago. This thing was a monster--the wheel seams have been sanded off, and the axles coated with graphite. Both 'mods' made it pretty damn fast (notice how there's no kanji or stupid yellow stickers on it ) Not really surprising, since the car was *just* under the weight limit. I had to grind out part of the underside, and make one of the weight 'plugs' removable. Out of 100+ cars, I came in 4th that year, it's one and only race.