RC Hobby Shop

Advertised and touted as being Houston’s largest RC shop, if you go into this shop, expect to be disappointed. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the store was selling off inventory and going out of business. It’s an RC shop in Texas, but not one Traxxas vehicle is for sale. It’s an RC shop for both nitro-​powered and electric cars and trucks, but there are few batteries and no nitro fuel available, there hasn’t been for some time, and no one seems to know when more is coming in.
They use the excuses of a busy Christmas season and winter storms in the north and Midwest as reasons for having no stock, but encourage customers to order from them. What gives? It’s either available, or it’s not. If I can order it from you and expect to get it, why can’t you have it in stock? If I come into a store, it’s because I want to swipe my card or pay in cash and take something home then. I don’t want to wait a week or a month for an order that «might come in soon.» If I wanted to order and wait, I could do that online at a cheaper price.
They advertise having rental vehicles available to run on their tracks, but no vehicles ever seem to be available. They do have free tracks to use, but they seem to do little to no maintenance on the tracks. They’re overgrown with weeds and difficult to use.
The owner never seems to be there. The guy who everyone seems to think is the owner is gruff and difficult, and often gives off the attitude that he can’t be bothered helping customers. He’d rather watch YouTube videos on the register computers and brag about his RC planes. Some of the other staff seem to be knowledgeable, pleasant, and helpful, but like something else, attitude flows downhill. If the owner doesn’t work, doesn’t stock the store, and doesn’t seem to care, why should the staff?
This is a business that is wounded and seems to be dying a slow death. They like to blame their woes on the ongoing Brand Ln construction project, but it would seem to me that in order to get people to brave the construction and come to the store, you need to give them a reason to come, not make up excuses why you have nothing. Someone needs to do the right thing and put this critically-​wounded business out of its mercy!

I wish I could give Matt the owner 5 stars, but his shop is definitely 5 star. I only say 4 star because of their tracks having a few issues that are being slowly taken care of.
I’ve been a loyal customer of theirs since 2006, and during that time I’ve met all of their employees.
Every one of them are into usually one or two specialized segments of RC whether it be planes, boats, large scale gassers, large scale and ¹⁄₁₀ scale off road, and ¹⁄₁₀ on road racing, and bashing rigs of all sizes all power systems from brushless to nitro to gas.
I’ve been lucky enough to own 29 on road entry level touring cars, bashing and race trucks, race specialized nitro and brushless buggies, pro competition crawlers, sportsman crawlers, scale crawlers, two ¹⁄₅ Baja 5b buggy SS builds with one converted to a 5T truck. I also owned two fast electric brushless 4s fiberglass hull speedboats and one trainer brushless airplane.
Sometimes I ask them questions or they ask me because scale crawlers, scale rally cars, and scale short course trucks are all the rage again.
Every crawler build I start now I know enough to buy piece by piece and create a truly one of a kind scale crawler or competition crawler. Some of my crawlers are meant to hit 40 mph with enough torque to rip the tires right off the aluminum or carbon fiber beadlocks depending on setup.
If they do not know they will tell you they do not know. However don’t go into the shop not knowing anything except how much is in your wallet or your credit limit.
Do your homework first, the Internet is a great place to learn all kits. What their weak points are and what their strengths are.
At the end of the day they’re just expensive toys… no need to get mad or bad talk an owner who has been in the business for over 20 years.
A strong track record of survival in all economic times in any business past 10 years is already difficult. Put yourself in his shoes not only did he expand he was ambitious enough to take on 3 tracks on property.
We’re all here to have fun and learn. Nobody knows everything. Just have a little patience.
Alex Chen

They never have any parts in stock for the most common brands. It’s very unfortunate.

the staff is great. very quick to offer help. large selection of planes, rc cars and parts. i went here mainly for the rc car tracks. they were in poor condition. lots of grass around them that made it hard to drive the whole corse without your car getting stuck. one was and oval shaped track which was fun. the other was huge with a bunch of turns. it was free. i would pay $ 3 dollars if it would help get the track cleaned professionally.

This used to be the «go to» hobby shop in town but I am afraid that has turned into the place to avoid! Most of the employees are young and really don’t give a shit about customer service.

So I wanted to fly a kite with my girlfriend’s niece the other day and found out that this place carried them. They’re located in the Gerland’s shopping center off of 59 in Sugar Land.
What a FUN little store! There were people outside playing with really badass looking radio controlled (RC) cars in the parking lot. I went inside and discovered their plethora of RC cars, helicopters, boats and airplanes. The prices range from the $ 30 mark and go up to $ 300.
They have a flight simulator in the store that can show you what it’s like flying an RC helicopter or plane. I found the kite section and skipped the cheesy ones and sprung $ 25 on a «stunt kite» that has dual controls. I am 100% without a doubt gonna come back here and buy some useless toy to play with on the lake!