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Hobby/Model shops in China


Draz87

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  • 4 months later...

Hi Draz,

I travel to China from time to time but never have been to Harbin nor Shenyang. But as your topic is Hobby/Model shops in China and as I wanted to open this topic as well (because I go to Shanghai, Guangzhou and some other places later this year again) I like to add my gathered addresses and ask for additional ones here.

One thing I realized on my trips to China is that the shops open and close all the time. Except from Hong Kong I never was more than once in a shop because they always closed or moved within one or two years. We this is my experience however... My latest list is here:

Shanghai:

Waigo hobby

Nearest metro station of Waigo hobby is Hongkou football stadium metro station. Shop is located to the south east side ground level of stadium.

The shop has some Tamiya and Hobby Boss/Trumpeter models but no huge selection - mainly airplanes and tanks IIRC. They also stock Tamiya paints. Their main focus is R/C stuff. I managed not to buy anything here, which is quite astounding...

營業時間 Business Hour:
星期一 至 日 Mon – Sun: 11:30 – 18:30
星期二 休息 Closed on Tuesday

電郵 E-mail:
[email protected]

網站 Website:
shanghai.waigohobby.com

Paradise RC Proshop

No plastic kits but Gunze and Tamiya paints, so maybe useful - if they still exist. The prices for the paints were cheap but do not get carried away - depending on your airline you can get into trouble when you carry flamables or spray cans.

No one spoke English there when I payed a visit.

1/F 570 Yananxi Road

200050 Shanghai

Tel 8621 52395052

email: info at paradiserc.com

Shanghai Yi Feng Model Store

was on 457-459 Nanjing Xi Lu but closed in 2013. When I went there a book store had just opened up inside and no sign of Yi Feng. The new shop owner knew there was a model store inside before but had no idea wether they closed or moved. This is pretty usual in Shanghai. To make matters worse shops which move do not keep their phone number either (was told me so). Yi Feng was obviously a shop with a very good selection so I wonder if they just moved.

Should anybody know the whereabouts of Yi Feng please let me know.

The other shop addresses in Shanghai which I had were obsolete by 2013.

Guangzhou

When you google "Hobby Shops in strange places Guangzhou" you get a link to this page:

http://battleshiprow.tripod.com/HSISP/Guangzhou.htm

They list four stores on Dongfeng Zhong RD. I have visited none - as I was in Guangzhou during the Dragon festival. I called there but none answered the phone. So maybe they were closed for the holiday only. As I called two or three of the store I guess they were only closed for holiday.

Btw.: To google "Hobby Shops in strange places" brings up some more pages - 2 about Tokiyo and one for Hong Kong:

Hong Kong

Likely the best city in China - especially for model shops... The majority is in Kowloon.

I have been in quite a few but it is 10 years ago already. One of those I remember and which is still in existence is:

WaiLee

There are two Wailee shops - a big one in Kowloon and a smaller one on the island in Wan Chai (Wan Chai RD 221) which is probably less easily to be found. I was definitely in the Wan Chai shop but though it is small it is crammed with Tamiya, Bandai and others at unbelievable prices. I remember to have bought a Tamiya Do 335 for about 12 GBP and an Academy B-29 for about the same amount plus some more...

I hope this information will be useful to anybody some day. If any one knows more LHS in China please add them here (hope this is fine for you Draz) or PM me.

Thanks,

Rene

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

I will be in Guangzhou and Shanghai end of this month again - anybody with any shop suggestions?

If I find time I will check the ones above and let you know wether they still exist (again there was no spare time on my last trip a month ago...).

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  • 1 month later...

OK - I was in China again and found time to check out for LHS in Guangzhou this time. As mentioned above (link there) there should be a few shops near Lihua park on Dongfeng Zhong RD). All but one is closed. The remaining one has just a handful of 1:700 battle ships and everything else is R/C:

 

LHS3

But luckily Jenny who is working there was kind enough to call around and she came up with a shop in an area where I have been last time already - it turned out that I was not 50 meters from the shop which is well hidden inside a little mall:

 

LHS2

Should anyone go to Guangzhou you should really visit this place. Take cash with you as they will not accept non-Chinese credit cards.

 

LHS1

 

LHS4

 

LHS5

Rene

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  • 2 years later...

It's been two years since anyone posted to this, but has anyone been to Guangzhou lately? I'm staying at the Marriott/China Hotel on the corner of Liuhia and Jiefang Road and I was hoping to find a hobby shop or toy shop that sold models. Hoping to snag the new Trumpeter J-31 kits while I'm out here.

Edited by Supertom
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In November they were still there, best to ask your hotel to give them a call to check.

Have a nice trip,

René

Edit: If you cannot see the pics because you do not have the pb fix please let ne know. I will try to find the file and move it to flickr

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  • 5 months later...

I just visited the Guangzhou shop Caerbannog mentioned.  Less kits than I remember from 2 years ago... 

 

Surprisingly, some Chinese brands (like GWH) completely absent. Still some good deals to be made: I bagged a Hasegawa 1/48 F-8E for the equivalent of £24 :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/07/2018 at 15:06, guillaume320 said:

I just visited the Guangzhou shop Caerbannog mentioned.  Less kits than I remember from 2 years ago... 

 

Surprisingly, some Chinese brands (like GWH) completely absent. Still some good deals to be made: I bagged a Hasegawa 1/48 F-8E for the equivalent of £24 :)

I recall that they had no GWH, when I visite them. Kit selection was not huge but quite nice back then. I had to remove several boxes back on the shelf because I was over my own and the baggage limit 🙂

18 minutes ago, Glen said:

Does anyone have  any updates for hobby shops in Shanghai? I’m there twice this month!

 

Cheers

Glen

Sorry Glen - I have a colleague in Shanghai who used to check for some LHS for me with little avail. By now I check for hobby stuff on TaoBao which is some kind of Chinese evilbay (but no bidding - just buy it now and only shops, which makes it easier for my purpose). Some people were able to create a fully working account, which is not easy as the site is in 99% Chinese and requires AliPay etc. You can however search for "Tamiya 1:48" without using Chinese letters. But what I do is copy the links for the items I want to buy and send them to my colleague so he purchases for me. I pay him, when I pic my stuf up. If you go there twice you may know some Chinese who can do the same for you. Here is a link to TaoBao :

https://world.taobao.com/

You can get the usual Asian brand quite cheap but also Kitty Hawk kits are much lower priced there. I even managed to get a long sold out Tunnan from Pilot Replicas last year. Although sometimes (not often) they list stuff they do not have. So if you have someone to check for you with the vendor this will be best.

 

Btw. Does Old Nics Burger Machine (I guess thatwas the name many years ago) still exist in Worthing?

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That’s a shame - I was preparing for a suitcase full of hobby Boss/ trumpeter kits at bargain prices! Kittyhawk would have also been good. I’ll have to do some searching when I’m there but it doesn’t look good.

 

There is still an Old Nicks fast food place in Worthing close to the football club. I have a feeling it was in the town centre years ago but not sure if I’ve mixed it up with somewhere else!

 

Cheers

Glen

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

A colleague of mine is in Shanghai for a couple of months, so has time to search the City on a larger schedule. Today he was in Wenmiao Lu, which seems to be famous for comics but also for model kits:

 

http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/activities/offbeat-wenmiao-shanghaicomics-street

 

He was there rather late today so the market was closed already. Some shops were still open and they seem to have a wide selection of kits from manga, sci-fi (the typical robot stuff but also Bandai Star Wars - he sent a pic of the Perfect Grade Millenium Falcon!) to airplanes, ships, tanks, etc.

 

Typical for me: It is close to the hotel where we used to stay some years ago...

 

René

 

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  • 11 months later...

I’m in Guangzhou at the moment and have just got back from the Man-Wah shop. A very nice little store and worth a visit. Been looking for a Hasegawa 1/32 P40E for a while and got one for £27. Not sure if that’s cheap but it made my day 😊

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  • 1 month later...

I have just got back from Shanghai and managed to get down to Wenmiao Street as recommended above. 

I would thoroughly reccomend it. The model shops almost all seem to be on the south side of the street.

If you like sci-fi stuff then there is a ridiculous range, if however like me you have no interest in sci-fi then there are only a few shops of interest. 

The two I bought stuff in were a toy shop right at the western end of the street (1st or 2nd shop) which continued through a number of cellar rooms of toys before finding kits at the back. They had some old and very large ship kits including a Bismark in 1:350th hanging from the ceiling whilst aircraft and armour were mostly down to the left.

 

The other shop was a few hundred meters down the street (again on the southern side) and had a large glass window with a display of aircraft, ships and (i think) model rail buildings. 

Inside it was about 4m by 2.5m modern and clean but stuffed full floor to ceiling of kits. They even had airfix and italieri piled above the door. 

 

I was in a hurry and didn't have a whole lot of luggage space but managed to pick up three kits at a pretty good price. 

 

There was no market when i went but I didn't miss it.

 

Only about thirty minutes walk from downtown (I guess about ten minutes taxi). 

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  • 2 months later...

I’ll have to check out Wenmiao Street next time I’m in Shanghai. Looks an interesting place.

 

Waigo hobbies has moved (apparently the week before I got drowned by a typhoon as I went looking for it....thanks Google maps!). It is now on Xingtongxin Road about 20 minutes walk north of Hongkou Football Stadium metro station. Its stock of kits seems to be running down every time I go there. Very little in the way of aircraft there now, mainly armour. Upstairs has a wide selection of paints. Western credit cards don’t appear to work there. I don’t know if Aircraft kits aren’t doing well in China as the shop I go to in Beijing has been shrinking its stock too.

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