The Hobbies Factory, the only hobby shop on the Central Coast, is celebrating its fourth anniversary this month.
The small family-run business was opened at Ourimbah during the COVID pandemic by hobby expert Sacha Meale.
He and his two staff members have a collective experience in hobbies of more than 100 years.
More than just a shop, The Hobbies Factory offers many services including scale plastic build kits, cars, trucks, planes and tanks and also services and stocks radio control cars.
With a background in toy retail, Meale decided to combine his passion and his expertise to provide a unique service that not only sells products, but is also home to community events including school holiday workshops.
“I realised the Central Coast needed a hobby shop,” he said.
“We offer more than just selling products.
“We are very community minded and for the past two years, every school holidays, we’ve held in-store workshops where the kids can learn how to build and paint plastic kits.”
One extremely popular workshop sees children customise Hot Wheels cars by stripping them down before adding their own touch with acrylic paints.
The shop is also used by members of the Central Coast Model Makers Men’s Shed for their monthly meetings.
“We have two fold-out tables that are free and used as workspaces for many different people that walk into the shop,” Meale said.
“It’s an active work space where people can come and fix things or just have a chat.
“We do it all, we have a spray booth, a compressor and drills.”
The shop also offers online workshops for building plastic kits and instore airbrush courses.
It also doeso radio control car repairs and stocks remote control car tools and spares.
The Hobbies Factory is open seven days a week between 10am and 4pm at 3/53 Pacific Hwy, Ourimbah.
