| Sean Kotz

Special to The Roanoke Times

CHRISTIANSBURG -- When Stacy Martin opened Adventure Hobbies in 2004, it was something of a cosmic accident.

Martin, who is a financial adviser by day, was trying to find a radio-controlled airplane for his son, but there was none to be found in the New River Valley.

Realizing that there was a demand to be met, Martin opened his original store in an open space off his parents' Power Zone-All Seasons store in Christiansburg.

They quickly started seeing that there were many neglected hobbyists in the area who were forced to drive to Salem or Roanoke just to get a part of a radio-controlled vehicle or a model kit for the weekend.

Last year, the shop expanded into a new space at 1655 Roanoke St. in Christiansburg, next to the Event Centre.

"We tripled the inventory when we opened this location in 2008," Martin said. "You have to stay new and fresh.

"You can't assume that just because you have a swinging door, people are going to come in."

To that end, Adventure Hobbies works very hard to keep customers informed, connected and entertained with events such as the recent Family Fun Day.

On June 13, the store had an open house with refreshments and model displays and blocked off a large section of the parking lot for flying model demos.

The main reason is that Martin wants to see more families not just in his shop, but also interacting.

The Revell model company sponsored a "Make 'n Take" model giveaway, with parents helping children through the building process if they were too young to do it on their own.

Martin is planning more events like this and believes they help foster a community of people of different ages, backgrounds and interests bound together by a shared experience.

Regular customer Troy Williams of Ripplemead is a radio-controlled helicopter enthusiast and said he is thankful to have access to a fully stocked hobby shop in the New River Valley.

"It's nice to be able to drive 10 or 15 minutes and get something you need today rather than order something off the Internet and wait until the end of the week," Williams said.

Williams said Adventure Hobbies does a great job of listening to the needs of the customers and keeping things in stock that they use frequently.

He also feels that having a hobby store nearby promotes an activity that is good for anyone willing to give it a try.

"You learn to build the model, you learn how to use good common and mechanical sense, and then when you put it together you can see it do something instead of just watching it on a screen," he added.

Prather Lanier, 23, is a Virginia Tech mechanical engineering graduate student and regular customer at Adventure Hobbies.

He said he finds working with RC cars, planes and helicopters relaxing.

"It's just fun," he said. "It's great to get out on the weekends and do something that is just relaxing and have a hobby shop locally where you can get all the supplies that you need."

Store manager Matt Martin, no relation to the store's owner, said that the store has made an effort to reach out to Virginia Tech students such as Lanier, but also to the community at large, which has meant a steady rise in the customer base.

"When I started, I'd say we had around 700 customers," said Matt Martin, who has been the manager for a little over two years.

"Today, we have over 2,300 on our mailing list, and lots who are regulars who are not on the list yet."

He said the most important aspect of the hobby business is being able to have variety and be able to get items in for the customer quickly.

So for him, the store's No. 1 concern is knowing what customers want and being able to deliver an item for a customer more cheaply than they will find it online.

"We've got rockets, planes, trains, model kits, RC kits," Matt Martin said, "and whatever we don't have, we can get."

They also boost specific inventory seasonally to meet fluctuating demand. For example, rockets do well in the spring and trains do best around Christmas.

However, both the owner and manager have noticed a resurgence in a variety of plastic model kits, such as old Aurora dinosaur re-issues and cars, planes and tanks.

In part, Stacy Martin feels this is because people are traveling less and staying at home more and are returning to homebound, hands-on entertainment.

In addition to model kits, Adventure Hobbies caters to other pastimes and carries metal detectors and science-based toys and activities for kids.

According to Matt Martin, the best part of the job is that the customers love being in the store.

"You never have someone come in angry," he said.

"This is their hobby and they enjoy doing it."