Maplewood Hobby

What a CRAP place. Customer Service is terrible, the guy behind the counter is really rude, unfriendly, unhelpful and pretty much just weird. The place is small and full of old train sets, it says they carry other things but anything thats worth buying is not in stock and has to be specially ordered. To Sum it up in a nutshell its an old railway shop that has limited stock of other things, its dirty and smells weird with staff that were just RUDE and BAD in all aspects, DONT waste your time not worth the gas. Also read some other comments on here and my girlfriend said she felt the same way UNCOMFORTABLE when we went in there and she definitely wouldnt go back !!

I am a female and have never felt ignored or oogled at Maplewood Hobby. The gentlemen who work there know their stuff and Rich the manager takes his job seriously (including keeping the atmosphere appropriate for the younger patrons, which is not an easy feat given the age range in attendance at most gaming events). The fact is that at almost any gaming store or con if you are female you are in a serious minority and you might feel out of place. This is unfortunate and I wish it wasn’t the case, but it is. I hope Morgan’s experience was a one-​off and hope she will stop by again — we need more female gamers.

First and foremost, to speak to the Morgan D. review. I go into Maplewood Hobby with my wife from time to time. She definitely feels like the only girl in there — which is usually the case, and this is offered with no commentary or inflection by me — but never once, even if I’m a few minutes behind her, has she been ignored and DEFINITELY not ogled. It looks like she had a bad experience but it’s unfortunate that she didn’t ask for someone who worked there other than the oglers to make things right.
Anyway, actual content. I’ve been getting big into building plastic models these days. It’s one hell of a surprisingly rewarding hobby. Mostly because it requires focus and concentration — you cannot multitask, it is not possible. Compare that to any line of work — ANY line of work, from retail monkey to brain surgeon — and you come to realize very quickly that focus and concentration are joyful for a very simple reason. When you focus on one thing solely, it means you do so because you choose to do so. You have made choices in your life based upon options available to you or a path you have forged, that allows you to say «I am doing this now. I am ONLY doing this now. I am approaching it with the desire to do so. It is my hobby, and I will do it.»
The same logic applies to the strategic application of plastic cement as it does to repairing old MGs, and Maplewood Hobby has been a great place to learn the craft and one hell of a good solid local business. It is a store in the old school tradition, where the people who work there know what they’re talking about and are willing to help. Go into any major retail chain store and tell me the sales people, who are paid just above minimum wage and are rewarded based on their ability to convince you into buying a service plan, know jack squat about how to really work with what they sell.
Rich and the guys who work at Maplewood Hobby are knowledgable as hell not only about the products they carry, but about what they don’t. They know what else is out there, and they will get it for you in a swift order. They will help you figure out how to mix the right paint color, how to do weathering, probably even how to scratch-​build stuff if you want to.
Why only four stars? Simply put, the modern retail hobby shop is a dying breed. The store’s main focus is keeping the local Warhammer, tabletop gaming, and other strategy wargaming/​miniature wargaming crowds close at hand to offer a gaming space and commercial space. MtG and other card games happen, and as such it’s hard for a small shop to get good distributors. I tried to order some Gundam model kits from them a while back, and simply put, their distributor just didn’t return their calls.
I cannot speak to their other stocks — it looks like they have every single Warhammer and Warhammer 40k figure/​map accessory/​rulebook that was ever made. Kudos to them. Should they get better distributors, maybe they can be more competitive — but it’s a local business worth supporting.

Lots of stuff here, pity about the weird smell and the way the staff either ignored or ogled me for daring to be a woman in a gaming store. I felt so awkward I did not even check out the upstairs. That’s some customer service there.

An excellent Hobby Shop both for the old school (model trains, planes, and automobiles) and the new school (Warhammer, 40K, etc). Friendly staff, absolutely massive inventory, and a place to just sit and paint.
Strongly recommended for all you fellow nerds.