'Everything We Do There Is Fun' At Toms River Toy, Hobby Store

TOMS RIVER, NJ — It's the one phrase guaranteed to irritate any parent: "I'm bored."

Randy Holt has an answer for that: HobbyTown, the toy and hobby store he owns in Indian Head Plaza in Toms River. The store has an array of toys and games and crafts to appeal to a range of interests.

"This store is designed for people who are bored," Holt said Monday.

There are Barbie and Ken dolls, with Barbie accessories. There's Polly Pockets and stuffed animals. There's Dungeons and Dragons and other roleplaying games. There's paint-by-numbers and models to assemble.

There's puzzles. Flat puzzles, 3D puzzles, thousand-piece jigsaws for adults and 10-piece puzzles for small hands. There are toys that mix fun and learning for the kids, and toys that let adults escape and be kids once more.

And there's a full aisle of Lego toys, from classic block sets to Star Wars, Barbie and other themed model sets.

"I didn't want just a small assortment," Holt said, adding he's hoping to get a Lego character for display in the store.

Holt said he was looking for something new to do a few years ago when he decided to open HobbyTown, which is a franchise of the national company.

"I've had many businesses in Toms River," he said, including restaurants and gyms, and he even owned an organic farm for a few years, until red tape forced him to give it up.

"I was always into hobbies," Holt said, and he started researching to see what the options were in Toms River. At the time, there were very few options beyond big box stores like Walmart and Target. Toys R Us, which is getting ready to make a comeback on a smaller scale, was starting to close its stores.

"I started researching all the various options," he said. "I went to all the various hobby shops and I found out what I didn't want to be."

The HobbyTown franchise, however, offered what he wanted to be.

The store opened in December 2017, and it has grown into a thriving business of employees and regular customers who come for the various hobbies and the help Holt and his employees offer.

"They become like family," Holt said. "They talk to you about everything."

In addition to the selection of race cars and radio-controlled vehicles and model airplanes, the store also is a Radio Shack dealer, which allowed it to stay open as an essential business during the pandemic, he said.

The pandemic drew people in who were looking for ways to pass the time, Holt said, and among the most popular items were jigsaw puzzles.

"Our puzzles sold out right away," he said. From there the attention moved to radio-controlled vehicles and models — "anything buildable. Anything that put families together."

HobbyTown has an array of radio-controlled items, the widest selection in the area, and that has made the store popular "just because we have it."

"You won’t see that stuff in a Walmart or a Target," he said, because those stores feed on having a large selection with just a few of each item.

"For a small store like us it makes sense" to carry an intensive selection of radio-controlled items and parts.

Holt said his favorite hobby is auto racing, and the shop has an elaborate selection of racing cars that can be built, along with fuel, tires, and all the parts needed to keep them on the track.

They also host racing leagues one to two nights per week, which draw people from young kids to retirees for the camaraderie and competition.

Holt gave an interview to Ars Technica in 2019 about the racing and the model cars at the shop; video posted to YouTube shows the racing league's popularity.

"We can't do as much right now because of staffing," he said.

Staffing is the hard part when it comes to being able to meet the needs of all of their customers, because he cannot have employees who are dedicated solely to helping customers troubleshoot when their radio-controlled vehicles are not working properly. That is complicated by customers whose patience is short-lived in the face of staffing stresses.

"A lot of the things I sell, when customers come in with a problem, we say, 'Let’s just help you work on it.' But not everyone has the patience," Holt said.

Holt said they keep doing everything they can to serve their customers, whether they're picking up a package of Play-Doh or a radio-controlled airplane that they will be building from the wheels up.

"We just care about our customers," Holt said. "I don’t think the toy industry is going away. You need people who show you what to do and how it works."

The store is in the back corner at Indian Head Plaza on Route 9, between the Pasta House and Rising Sun Karate. The store is open from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

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