Hobby Expo Gets Kids Off Computers
Illawarra Mercury
Friday March 19, 1999
When Thomas the Tank Engine became a commercial success, did you ever stop to consider what happened to his offsiders?
Well, you can find out this weekend, when Illawarra Model Railway Association and Prime TV present the fourth annual Hobby Expo, at BHP Sports Stadium.
Along with trains, there will be model cars, teddy bears, dolls, stamps and digital cameras. A 20m pool will house the model boats, and the aero club will stage its annual combat missions. These missions require one plane to slash the attached streamers of another plane.
Expo secretary Norm Hodges said the biggest cheers came when the planes crashed in mid-air. The kids went wild with excitement.
According to Ann Fay, of Model Sports, Fairy Meadow, the expo focused on hobbies which would ``get the kids away from the computer ... giving them something to do with their hands".
Mr Hodges, a director of the 38-year-old Illawarra Model Railway Association, said the expo now included a variety of exhibits to fill the large space available at the Stadium in Unanderra.
The expo will be held from 9am to 5pm tomorrow and 9am to 4pm on Sunday. A family ticket will cost $12 (two adults and four children), $6 for an adult, and $3 for children and pensioners.
© 1999 Illawarra Mercury