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Hey guys there is a new Hobbytown USA opening in Torrance CA. They are planning on doing 40K RTT's. My question, has anyone any experience with the chain and their events? Positive? Negative? Do they have a store employee run them?

Thanks for the info,

Darrian

The chain is really up in the air:

Their events tend to be run either by an employee or by someone with affiliation to the game company (we had a press ganger run PP stuff).

That means that their events are sometimes great and sometimes rotten, depending on whether they have someone helpful on staff/ willing to take charge. I've known two local Hobbytowns (different cities) and they were night and day- one was outstanding, the other terrible.

Talk to the SCV guys.

Hobbytown was the only place for GW RTTs up there for many years before Game2beat opened up.

They basically had a regular hobby store with a large room in the back with a lot of tables. But who knows what will happen at a new store.

Utah, Seattle, Dallas, and Philadelphia hobbytowns all suck(ed) horribly. :(

Wait, Seattle has one? And you've been there?

Years ago.

And yes.

I used to live in Santa Clarita back until a little under 4 years ago. Great store over there in the Pavilions shopping center, too bad Perfect Game never took advantage of becoming a better run tournament store and the other one that closed about 7 years ago, he used to be in Canyon country there. Oh well, the hobbytown in SCV had nice terrain as I recall too.

I think the Hobbytown in SCV closed. I cannot find it on the GW website.

Darrian

The Hobby Town in Allentown sucks pretty well. They have sort of a permanant 10% off GW which is sort of nice (40% off LotR, but doesn't do me much good...) and have a lot of hobby stuff, but they have no tables, meh staff and seem to have given themselves over to remote control cars etc. Not a bad place for random hobby stuff, but for 40k I go to the friendly game store some 15 minutes farther away, if nothing else because the girl and guy that work there are good folks. Bad customer service irks the hell out of me.

Every Hobbytown is owned independently by someone buying into the franchise. They have no overall plan for GW other than it being one of many lines they can choose to stock. Beyond that, it's up to the owner and staff. Some good, some not so good, many clueless.

I can second what Wehrkind said. But when they started @ their first location (off tighlman st.) they were hardcore about it. Shortly after they moved it petered out real quick. Heck @ the old location they would order FW stuff if you wanted. They still keep a decent stock of the GW product line. Hope that helps.

I think the general idea has already been put out there: Hobbytowns are franchised, so they really have a lot more to do with the local staff (and local community of gamers).

I buy virtually all of my stuff at the local Hobbytown, and used to do most of my playing there, until a smaller FLGS opened, and focused more on it. The prices at my local Hobbytown, while not as good as one coud get online, are still decent and probably fairly competitive after shipping. Plus the other tools of the trade are there, brushes, glues, blades, plasticard, etc. etc.

They even have a decent pen and paper gaming section.

Hey Im new to posting in forums but I work at the Hobby Town in Torrance and im trying to get a warhammer fantasy/40k game going. I play 40k myself but I have never hosted a game or tornament before. If I can get some pointers on what I should do I would appreciate it.

Where in torrance is the store located?

The HobbyTown USA that I get my Gw products from (located in Marrietta,GA) is fantastic,the staff is great,very helpful and there's almost always in store gaming going on,I love the place.

I trhink they take exception to people who run 45 lootas, so I wouldnt go if I were you.

The staff at the Hobbytown USA and Hobby Haven in the Kansas City area that I've been to seem to take great pride in their absolute ignorance of tabletop gaming. If it's not remote controlled, they don't care. Thanks to their lack of help, I have to pick through the kits myself to find anything. If it looks like a bear just rampaged through the tank and/or airplane model kits, it's likely I was just there.

Hobbytown in Torrance is located on the cross streets of Pacific Coast Highway and Crenshaw behind Mimi’s cafe in the Torrance Towne Center.

25357 Crenshaw Blvd
Torrance, CA 90505

I plan to setup a table every Friday 4:30pm for anyone that wants to play. Don’t have too many terrain to chose from but a couple customers volunteered to make some for the store. Ive picked up the warhammer fantasy rule book so I can help with rules and also play an army myself. Thinking of Highelves or Lizardmen

if you plan on running events-you will need more then 1 table. most of the hobbytowns around my area have closed down.
good luck in doing well.

If you have a Hobbytown like the one in Mobile, AL, you'll be in luck. The staff here is very welcome ( and kind of dominated ) by gamers. The most recent tournament that came up was awesome I make a point to either come in and sit at the table and paint, try to play there every weekend, and I'm buying most of all the new Guard stuff from them because I get a discount

Phryxis wrote:I think the general idea has already been put out there: Hobbytowns are franchised, so they really have a lot more to do with the local staff (and local community of gamers).

I buy virtually all of my stuff at the local Hobbytown, and used to do most of my playing there, until a smaller FLGS opened, and focused more on it. The prices at my local Hobbytown, while not as good as one coud get online, are still decent and probably fairly competitive after shipping. Plus the other tools of the trade are there, brushes, glues, blades, plasticard, etc. etc.

They even have a decent pen and paper gaming section.

Thirded. Depends on what the staff is into. The one I used to go to (Shenandoa, TX) was all RC Guys and the gaming was stuffed into a corner. The one gameable table always had some RC project strewn out on it. Local group tried to get some gaming going on there, but it just didn't happen. And then it closed. Seems to be a common theme, they pop up all over the place and disappear.

lord senobio wrote:if you plan on running events-you will need more then 1 table. most of the hobbytowns around my area have closed down.
good luck in doing well.

Yea Ive only build 1 table so far i plan to make at least 2 more for the shop.

Lord Senobio how many tables minimum do you need for events?

By the way April 17, 2009 I wont be in and so it will be put off to next friday.