I have no local hobby store that even sells TRF goods - in fact, I have yet to find any store in the Netherlands where I could get most of the TRF parts I need.
This however isn't confined to Tamiya - Being someone who likes to do custom stuff I regularly need parts that a local hobby shop can't keep in stock or can't even get a hold of. And for the spares they do have, it's often at half price online (the most extreme example so far was that I needed a flanged bearing that costs 2.50GBP a piece online and 10GBP in the store - and they didn't have it in stock either).
Then lastly, if it wasn't for RC websites I would never have started racing... I think my Hobby would have been a short one, as the community part of this hobby is valuable to me!
