Hobbies in Hong Kong

I spent last week in Hong Kong for work. In between appointments I was able to walk around. Normally while traveling I spend as little time shopping as possible, however, since a lot of hobby kits are shipped out of Hong Kong, I thought this would be a good time to poke around.

The nice people at the hotel provided me with this swell phone, type in the magic words and "Badda-Boom-Badda-Bing".

This was one of the early ones I found. This one was OK, I bought an old Fujimi 1/32 Canter truck. And a Hasegawa steamroller.

On my second trip out I found Continental Hobbies:

This view is misleading, in fact this is a pretty raw neighborhood. Here is the view taken from the shop corner:

A few blocks away are the outdoor markets. Various organs in piles, luggage, watches, vegetables and money changers. I don't think I want to see a watch ever again.

A view looking into the Continental. Looks promising. You never know in Hong Kong...I stepped into a lot of interesting places. 

Turned out to be the hobby store I was looking for. Inventory is literally stowed up in the open ceiling. No old stuff, everything from the last few years. Prices were about 25% - 50% lower than average retail in the US, but no shipping. This shop carried mostly armor and aircraft.

I spoke with the owner, he said he had been there for 50 years.

I bought a lot, here is a shot of my packing once home. For the other kits, I cut the parts off the sprues with my nail clippers and combined them in these boxes. The Saturn is a Lego kit I bought at the last minute and carried onto the plane home.

Here's the real haul: 1/35 Mini Art Household Crockery & Glass, Hasegawa 1/35 Hitachi Vibratory Combined Roller ZC50C-5, 1/32 ICM Polikarpov I-153, 1/35 Hobbyboss Soviet MBV-2 Armored Train, Trumpeter Mini Razor Saw and 1/35 Mini art Soviet Train Tracks.

I even had time to snap a few ref pics of trucks...

Enjoy!