London Modelzone New Branch - Oxford Street

[Mike]

ModelZone, the UK’s largest model and hobby retailer have announced they will be opening a new store, located at 52-56 New Oxford Street, after recently having to close their flagship central London store in Holborn due to site redevelopment.

The official launch event will kick off this Monday 3^rd June at 9:30am.

The first 30 customer’s through doors will receive a FREE goody bag worth over £75 filled with ModelZone goodies. All customers will have the opportunity to enter an exclusive free prize draw to win £500 of ModelZone vouchers during the day!

Plus, a special F1 appearance outside the store on the morning of the launch, from the Marussia F1 team. It’s not every day you see an F1 car parked on New Oxford Street...

The event will be highly secured by the likes of Darth Vader & the Stormtroopers from the 501^st UK Garrison, so come along to have your photos taken! Or of if you can’t make the morning... Get involved in the action during lunch... Just in time for F1 Driver Rodolfo Gonzalez, who will be cutting the ribbon at 12:30pm.

They can guarantee some perfect photo opportunities!

For more information and updates on ModelZone New Oxford Street, please visit www.modelzone.co.uk, or follow them on Facebook & Twitter.

Don't forget to mention you saw it on Britmodeller if you're chatting with anyone important

[sennapod]

Hellelujah, at last a central london store. It can't be much than 200 - 300 yards from the old store. Will be visiting tomorrow.

[rmcclure]

Oh what good news. I'll miss the launch day but will be in there next week for sure.

[rmcclure]

^{Hmmm...I went for a look round at lunchtime today and came away pretty underwhelmed. There's half as much floorspace as the old Holborn branch and the stock is uninspiring to say the least. Model kits were limited to very mainstream stuff and not very much of that - as a rough guess I'd say there was no more than 30% as many kits as Holborn had. Paint and glues are still well stocked and varied but they didn't even have any Vallejo AB cleaner. It's really good news that we have some sort of hobby shop in town and I try to be as positive about these things as possible but that was a deeply disappointing trip. I overheard one of the staff telling somebody that they hadn't had any support from manufacturers and that what stock they did have had either been spirited away from Holborn or was the result of a not terribly official raid on the warehouse. She did say that they were expecting deliveries and new stock by the end of this month so here's hoping. I know MZ has its detractors but I've always liked them - the larger stores are spacious and often pretty well stocked for the less eclectic builders among us (me!) - so I really hope that they can turn this store around and stop it from becoming yet another outlet for 57 varieties of miniature RC helicopter.}

^{Anybody else been there yet?}

^{Cheers all,}

^Roger

[sennapod]

HI Roger

yes I've been - in fact I was one of the 'first 30' and so got the goody bag....

I also want to remain positive - but I also share the same concerns as you. Ultimately I'm thankful we have *something* in central London, but I agree with you that the ratio of RC helicopters and 'blinged-up' cars (not the Tamiya R/C stuff which had a dedicated counter at the old branch) far outweighed the kits - which I also agree had about 1/3 or even 1/4 the shelf space of the old store. On the positive side - the extended window space means they have a far better display of diecasts which may lure people in off the street,

You would assume MZ know where their profit margins are made, and have given floor-space accordingly - ie to the R/C stuff, but we can only hope the choice of kits eventually finds a natural balance. Personally I found some choice items (mainly into F1 models so found the Red Bull and Ebro Lotus 72 which has both been pretty hard to find on the shelves.

Not quite sure about the Location: positive side - it's nearer Oxford St / Tott Ct road and the British Museum, which may pull in more of the tourist trade. Negative side - I feel that entire area from Holborn to Oxford St itself has always been a bit of a dead-zone - however there are some large redevelopment projects gong on (ie the old Royal Mail distribution centre and the old MZ building itself) so in years to come it might get busier in which case MZ have chosen well

[SeaVenom]

Strange they open a new store in London............then a few weeks later they go out of business. And at the same time as some other High street names.