No More D12-3 at Hobby Lobby?

[Tom Flint]

So I've been noticing D12-3s being hard to find at hobby lobby stores near me and lo and behold, I looked on their website and the D12-3 isn't showing up any more? Did they really stop carrying it altogether? Say it ain't so....

 

[Scott_650]

HL only stocks motors that work with the rockets they sell - the D12-5 is a recommended motor for the Hi-Flier XL, Cherokee E and Olympus. The D12-3 is the recommended motor for the Olympus while lifting an egg but not for the other two 24mm powered kits. Rationalizing inventory is most likely the goal here.

 

[PDawg]

Saw D-12-3s at all 3 Hobby Lobby's I've recently been to. 2 of them were ftrshly restocked.

 

[Scott_650]

Saw D-12-3s at all 3 Hobby Lobby's I've recently been to. 2 of them were ftrshly restocked.

HL doesn’t list the D12-3 on their website - the website is typically a reflection of what the store’s have access to, hopefully we’ll see the -3s available again on the site and at all the stores.

 

[BEC]

Heck I was just in our local one a couple of hours ago….but I didn’t look at 24mm motors. Got the last two packs of B6-6s at the $5.99 price (now $6.99) but didn’t look at Ds or Es. Sorry….

 

[Moldie]

There were 2 packs of D12-3s left in a Hobby Lobby in NE Ohio. They had the orange "reduced" stickers on them and were priced at $4.49 each.
A couple of other motors also had the orange stickers on them but I forget which ones. I think C6-7s and C6-0s.

The Hi Flier XL was also marked reduced for $7.99.
Also the Baby Bertha but I do not know the price.

 

[bjphoenix]

I've visited the 2 HL stores within 5 miles of my house- no markdowns on anything. Neither store had a lot of motors on the pegs, 2-4 of each one. I bought most of the D12 from each store but left 1 or 2 of each delay on the pegs for other customers. I managed only about 7 packs of D12 total including both 3 sec. and 5 sec. delays. D12 is the motor I fly the most, B6 after that. I looked at the kits that they had which included HiFlier XL and Olympus. The Olympus being a payload rocket it would be valid to fly it with D12-3 with some payloads.

 

[BEC]

Two to four of each type (two per peg) is pretty much the standard stock level at HL. I'm surprised when I see more than that of just about anything in the rocket section.

 

[BEC]

D12-3s were marked discontinued (and marked down to 4.49 for the one pack that was left) at my nearest Hobby Lobby today. Also marked discontinued and stock marked down are C6-0, C6-3 and 1/2A3-4T. Considering the kits that are not discontinued, I don't understand some of those choices.

I bought all the discontinued motors at that store and will hit another that's on the way home from a doctor's appointment tomorrow. Depending on what I find, I may try another one or two that are within reasonable striking distance.

And to think I just went in the store to get a couple of packs of C6-0s today....and got one.

Kits with discontinued stickers/shelf tags included the Generic E2X, Baby Bertha, Hi Flier and Hi FlierXL, Long Ranger, and Crossfire ISX. Also Alpha III launch sets at the crazy price of $10.49.

 

[SolarYellow]

Dang. Just went past the HL at lunch and didn't go in because I went in to check last week and nothing was marked down.

 

[BEC]

When each store does their marking down and clearancing seems to be nearly random.

When they dropped 29mm Estes motors several years ago I hit H-L stores all around the area, and even a few enroute to Muncie (I was driving to NARAM-61) and it was all over the place with respect to what was on sale when. I'm pretty sure I made at least three rounds of the local stores once they started clearing those out.

 

[BEC]

We stopped at the next-nearest H-L today on the way back from a medical appointment as I suggested above.

Their rocket section was already pared down some. I got one pack of marked down B6-6s as well as another C6-3. I left the 1/2A3-4Ts this time as well as two packs of D12-3s.

Oddly they did NOT have the Generic E2X or Hi Flier XL tagged as discontinued/marked down and had stock of both.

As I say, they seem to a bit random about these things.

 

[Raythain]

Definitely looks like they’re clearing some things out around here too. Cleaned my local HL out of D12-3, C6-0, B6-6 and 1/2A3-4T with clearance tags. Picked up an Alpha III as well, but they were out of a lot of the kits. Only things I saw on clearance were a Hi-Flier and a Long Ranger.

 

[majordude]

Are they dropping model rocketry products entirety or is this just a product refresh?

 

[PDawg]

Are they dropping model rocketry products entirety or is this just a product refresh?

Hobby Lobby has only been dropping products these last few years, never seen anything added. They offer about 70% less than 2 years ago .

 

[tsmith1315]

Our nearest Hobby Lobby (Tifton, GA) looks about the same as it did 3-4 years ago. If there's less product, it's probably no more than 15% less. They have D12-3's on the rack, too.

 

[BEC]

In our area it looks like they are significantly downsizing that section. As I noted above, they’re marking 1/2A3-4Ts, B6-6s, C6-0s, C6-7s and D12-3s as “discontinued” along with a number of kits they’ve carried for awhile. Since the space is shrinking it doesn’t look like they’re planning to bring in any new kits to replace the ones being dropped. *sigh*

But even around here the timing of the changes from store to store varies. I’ve been to three now in the last couple of days and while the end state looks similar (kits and motors discontinued and space closed up) they are each in different stages of the change.

 

[ksaves2]

I remember when the B motors were like .45 cents apiece when I was a kid! That shows my age.

 

[dmaaero]

I cleaned out 3 stores of the D 12-3 motors so far, one store even sold me the D12-5 motors for the same price as the D12-3, something like 4.50 a pack. The other 2 stores would not go for that.

 

[terryg]

Got two packs of b6-6 and one pack of c6-0's at half off. Some of labels behind the pegs have a D written on them with a sharpie (D for discontinued?).

 

[BEC]

Got two packs of b6-6 and one pack of c6-0's at half off. Some of labels behind the pegs have a D written on them with a sharpie (D for disconinued?).

Yup, discontinued. (not sure what "disconinued" is, though.... )

I remember when the B motors were like .45 cents apiece when I was a kid! That shows my age.

Wow, two B's for less than a penny? That's a long long time ago.

 

[jadebox]

Yup, discontinued. (not sure what "disconinued" is, though.... )

Wow, two B's for less than a penny? That's a long long time ago.

C'mon ... you knew what ksaves2 meant.

But ....

The local gas station had hot dogs for . 99 cents each. I was tempted to hand the cashier a dollar and ask for 100 of them.

https://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html?m=1

 

[OC-Patrick]

Went to the local HL. I picked up 2 packs of D12-3 for $4.49, 1 pack C6-3 for $4.49 and 1 pack B6-6 for $3.49 - marked for clearance. They had 1/4A3's but wasn't interested, and 1/8" launch rods and a Swift marked down on clearance. Really gotta wonder how they decide what goes on clearance - seems random to me.

 

[Azamiryou]

The local gas station had hot dogs for . 99 cents each. I was tempted to hand the cashier a dollar and ask for 100 of them.

101!

 

[user 45779]

I just checked out the HL in Medford,OR and nothing left had clearance tags, but there were LOTS of empty pegs!

 

[BigMacDaddy]

Apparently they only sell motors that match the rockets that they sell.

So if they eliminate rockets that use D12-3 engines they get rid of those engines.

I guess that they still will sell some models that use D12-5 and E12 engines...

FWIW - lots of other stuff is on clearance - plastic model kits and modeling supplies. Take a look beyond the rocketry area for other deals.

 

[BEC]

I just checked out the HL in Medford,OR and nothing left had clearance tags, but there were LOTS of empty pegs!
View attachment 634363

And four of the hooks that aren't empty are things that are being discontinued locally (Baby Bertha, Crossfire ISX, 1/2A3-4T, B6-6)

 

[jadebox]

The local gas station had hot dogs for . 99 cents each. I was tempted to hand the cashier a dollar and ask for 100 of them.

https://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html?m=1

101!

I wasn't that hungry.

 

[user 45779]

My buddy got a few "reduced" items yesterday at the HL in Medford, OR...they were the last ones.

 

[tsmith1315]

Our nearest Hobby Lobby (Tifton, GA) looks about the same as it did 3-4 years ago. If there's less product, it's probably no more than 15% less. They have D12-3's on the rack, too.

I spoke too soon.






And I went back and got the 2 Crossfire kits, too. I left a pack of 1/4 A's and about 5 kits behind. Maybe this will help spark more interest from the grandchildren.