I just got back home after spending twenty days settling my son down for his new life in college in Irvine, California and well, I had some spare time so I popped into Brookhurst Hobbies (Google map), who this year is celebrating their fifty years of establishment. That’s an amazing achievement especially considering the state of our hobby nowadays where everything can pretty much be found online.
Walking in felt like I was transported back to the 1980s and 1990s with how the furnishings looked. Products were strewn everywhere which made me wonder how they managed their inventory. There was also a whole section of hobby-related books: way more than I’ve ever seen anywhere that caters to all hobbyists.
Just as how the hobby has evolved, Brookhurst has also done that by having about a quarter of the shop dedicated to other related products so mixed into the usual ship, tank and airtcraft models are Warhammer, RPG dice, war games, Star Wars Legion, Gunpla, Battletech and many other products. Price and variety-wise they can’t really compare to what you can get online but there’s something to be said about being able to hold and look at something on the shelf, especially the books. Somewhat surprisingly, Brookhurst doesn’t stock RC models at all.
As usual for me, I bought stuff that couldn’t be easily found in my neck of the wood. I was also conscious about my luggage space.
I also took the opportunity to buy some stuff off Spruebrothers, which is one of the biggest online retailers for scale modeling that due to the ridiculous shipping rates, only arbitrarily caters to an International clientele. I noted that the stuff I got from Spruebrothers were not available at Brookhurst and vice versa.
