J&B Hobbies — Local services in Janesville

What a strange place. I have been here 3 times. Once just at the tail end of covid. You could at least get down narrowly some of the isles. It was way cluttered. There were half-eaten food, bags of fast food all over. You could at least see the RC track I think. The smell was awful, so bad I had to get out.

A couple years ago for the second visit the smell was so bad it was burning my eyes and I had trouble breathing. It was pungent and painful. I had to leave before he did. He didn't last much longer.

This final trip - you can only get down the main isle where you first enter, this is where the model kits are. Gundam prices were a little higher than I can find online shipped when not on sale, but they weren't terrible. The problem was much of the lighting in the store was out - it was so dark you literally cannot see what they have, certainly not the prices without turning on the light on your phone or by flashlight. There are arcade games on - you can hear them, but there aren't walkable paths through the building to get to them. I'm not sure why they are using the electricity for them.

There were boxes everywhere keeping you from getting to anything, obviously things have spent years in this shop. Considering how huge it is - it's been relegated down to one accessible isle. Which is very sad considering how large this space is. It's just like a hoarding situation. The smell was better, and it was a little funky - but I didn't feel the need to rush outside to breath. Whatever they had going on seems mitigated. That said - we still felt gross after being in there and needed hand sanitizer.

This is a situation that's built after years of neglect. Someone could go through and clean this place up (maybe if they had somewhere to stage one section of the store at a time, I don't think they have that). Maybe they need to break down the RC car? None of the pictures on the site show what this store is really like. All the bright pictures are from the place next door. That looks cluttered but you can shop it. This. This is just..something else.

Honestly - it feels like one of those B horror movies where you go in - but you don't come out. If your curious - check it out! It's very unique. Not really in a 'charming' kind of way. More of a 'Well, that's a once in a lifetime experience' kind of way.

Selection of Gundam models were above average (with prices being a little pricier, but not bad. I support my husband's habit and am used to finding the best deal on these things). Just gundam models and some of the older style american plastic models that require cement/etc. (I don't know anything about those). They had quite a few HG, MG, and there might have been some PG's. Some older kits, some newer. A not terrible mix. Ex: MG Gundam Thunderbolt was 89.99, I think the RG Zeong was 62.99, and I think the HG Kshatriya was $50. HG Z'Gok Seed...

Disorganized prices far above MSRP. If you like hot wheel then yes go there but everything else i saw seems more like a personal collection that's got out of hand and priced at the highest valued price. Im assuming ebays auction page is where the prices come from. Would be a neat store if you were able to find and buy items for there cost and not mark up value. I understand buying to resell but when you have a distributor cost dont go robbing the consumer and gouged put prices like a person on ebay. Once again plenty of neat items in the store your just un able to see most of it I only went in one of the buildings of the two but I expect more of the same...

Interesting stuff- but couldn't get to a lot of the stuff due to lack of organization and a lot of stuff was overpriced. I do like thrift shops with some fun searching but I do like being able to actually get to it and see it (no lights in some areas). There were destroyed model building sets that were priced at like 25-50 dollars. Some of them were sealed but most of them weren't so I don't know why they were priced like that when there's a good chance it didn't even come with everything needed or that it was damaged. Fun to look around but don't expect to find much you can...