Time Machine Hobby

One of the larger stores carrying toys, models, RC, & trains in CT.
Their RC manager Steve Sladyk is extremely knowledgeable in RC. He is an extremely active member of my AMA RC field and I can tell you that on his days off chances are he is at the field flying his helis, drones, & planes with us.
Very good selection of planes from micro sized up to giant sized, my guess is at any given moment they have around 50 models to choose from. Excellent inventory of LiPo batteries and other accessories such as DuBro.
They also have the largest train department that I’ve seen in any store in the state of Connecticut. They also have a very elaborate & large train layout and even their own train club which meets in the store. Personally I am not into trains, but I know if I were then I’d probably exclusively be shopping in their store.

I forgot this place existed for the longest time. How? I don’t know because it’s amazing. If you have kids, bring them here. There are a million things to look at and seriously, if you tell your kid they can pick one thing out, you’ll keep them occupied for hours because there are so many cool things. Puzzles, board games, craft kits, stuffed animals, animal figurines, books, science kits, trains, dollhouse stuff, toys… I’m a grown-​up and I love this place.

Love this hobby store! It’s huge and it has an awesome huge dollhouse section with some great stuff and it’s affordable!

Amazing spot. A throwback to the great stores of America past.
The store utilizes an old Bön-​Ami factory in the north end.
The first floor has an amazing selection of throwback toys, art supplies, retro candies, tin toys and an assortment of learning toys and educational games and workbooks perfect for car trips with the kids
The rest of floor one consists of a activity room for the kids to play in, a huge assortment of toys, games, puzzles, science kits, models, books and die cast cars
The second floor has a great selection of classic train sets, doll houses and rc cars, planes and drones
It also has an amazing train set maintained by a local group that utilizes half the floor and runs twice a month and is open to the public, unlike anything you have seen or will likely see anywhere else
The staff obviously loves the place as much as the customers and make the shopping experience a truly relaxing, enjoyable experience
They have a truly amazing amount and variety of products, coupled with the activities, events and involvement in any and all community events make this a truly amazing place that continues to thrive in this era of big business and horribly run and operated stores of the Walmart ilk
Stop there once and you will become one of the many lifelong customers that make this a one of a kind place that make it the type of place any community should be proud to have

My husband was having a birthday and I thought it was high time to get him back into one of his favorite childhood hobbies; models. Lo and behold finding a quality model these days is not as easy as you might think!
Insert this place. Not only do they have oodles of models to choose from depending upon your interest (cars, planes, bikes, boats, military etc) but the selection of those in those genres is boggling.
I was pleased as punch to find a BMW which I had about given up hope on as well since my hubs is a self proclaimed «fanatic» and I figured this would be just the thing to piqué his interest. Now I never did a model in my life so the guys there were super helpful when I inquired about paints and cement… even gave me 10% off my purchase!
Really can’t say enough about this place. Legos, matchbox, etc! So. Many. Toys.

This is what I wrote 5÷3÷2015: The first time I came here was the end of January, my boyfriend discovered this place’s existence because he was on a board game kick and was looking for specific expansions to Dominion. (All that sort of stuff is actually across the street in Portal though.)
The 2^nd floor of the place is all model train stuff with HUGE layouts (they even have a replica of Horseshoe Curve — train geeks know what that is) and they seem to have a wide variety of modeling stuff. I never could get into it… not only are model trains expensive, some elaborate layouts take up massive amounts of space. I can still appreciate the effort that goes into building them though. They also have a decent selection of railroad-​related magazines (which I’ll keep in mind when I get photos published in Railpace again and people want copies… ha)
I came up here looking for something very specific, which they unfortunately didn’t have in stock, but were willing to order for me and pick up on their next supplier run, which is apparently weekly.
Update: I’m knocking two stars off because they never ordered the specific thing I was looking for (or just didn’t call when it came in). I ended up going elsewhere to get it.

I am mostly interested in N scale model trains, admittedly a narrow interest. They had a fair range of the most obvious RTR stuff but little breadth or depth. I am always on the lookout for unusual things.
HO and large scales seemed rather better represented than N scale however. I still give it high marks for its catering to other hobbies than my own.

Cool place expensive over priced toy.
But it’s supporting family business so in ok with it I hate big corps company’s
But Rc department is a huge failure only for airplane and heli Guys takes for ever to get parts ebay a lot faster

Store is huge!!! I actually didn’t purchase anything though bc it was way overpriced and I knew I could find the same thing on amazon for cheaper. I didn’t go upstairs but there is like a whole area for model trains and stuff. Pretty cool store.

Time Machine, built inside an old Manchester Mill, really does take you into a Time Machine of childhood days gone by. Their selection ranges from kid’s toys including lego, play mobile, beanie babies, children’s books, model rockets to a wide selection for all ages which includes models, Radio Control items, puzzles, painting materials and history books.
The staff there is incredibly nice and very helpful. The people in the Radio Control (RC) section are always very knowledgeable and do a great job of helping customers.
This place is a nice little gem.

This place is awesome. The top floor is all about trains and dollhouses. All the train accessories you could ever need/​want or didn’t even know existed. The dollhouse accessories were so micro small that it makes me want to buy them all (lol).
The first floor when you walk into the building is the regular toy store selection. There are dolls, games, books, cars, model airplanes, etc. When you venture to the register there is a mineral/​rock display and near that an art corner where you can get supplies.
There was a lower level but I didn’t have a chance to check that out yet. I’ll definitely be going back!
(It’s only 4 stars because: the place was a bit disorganised and since there was so much a bit cluttered. I felt a bit claustrophobic walking the aisles.)

I went the first time hoping to get a unique gift for Christmas. Holy hell, I was not disappointed. I wandered around for half an hour and even though they (seemingly) didn’t have any if the games I was looking for I didn’t mind– there were so many other awesome items I was dumbstruck.
Long story short– when I asked about a particular game, sure enough they had it across the street in a whole other store just for tabletop gaming. I’m in love and can’t wait to go back. And it’s a hell of a long drive from my house.
And I also love that they’re in a cool old building.

What a nice surprise.
An amazing selection of Lego’s, Board Games, Model Planes, Trains… The list goes on.
I would recommend this store to any kid or kid at heart. The prices vary, some better than others.
Give this place a chance, it might just surprise you.

This is a good place in which to get lost. The selection of toys can either be the fulfillment of your inner child’s dreams or be a bit overwhelming. My partner had one experience, and I had the other. We got a kite and a ship in a bottle, shared memories of building toy race cars, and spent plenty of time looking at the model train set. This is definitely worth a stop if you live in or are driving by the area, perhaps especially around Christmas time.

What a wonderful place! I stopped by on a Sunday with my son to watch the model train display. He was entrances with all the «choo choos» and watched them for a while. Then he got to pick a piece of candy off the special Halloween train (and I got a 10% coupon).
Next we went to the Thomas area where there is a train table and dollhouse. My son played while I searched for a particular Thomas train I’ve been unable to locate. I had just about given up when I looked down and my son was holding the very train we were looking for! It was a display engine on the table. I asked if they had any more to sell and after checking inventory I was told they did not but that I could take that one! It is a little beat up but the train shares my son’s name so he really wanted it! How kind of them to understand my problem! I ended up using my coupon toward a double aquarium car set which will go nicely in my son’s stocking.
All told we spent about 1.5 hours here and I expect we’ll be back soon. Very satisfied!

i don’t care how old you are, if you have kids in your life or not, or even if you hate life… go here! Go! and LIVE!
So cool, so much fun! it was a toss up and who had more fun: me, my husband, or my 17 month year old daughter.
everything from birth to a huge adult hobby section… lots of items out to play with… whisical…a great way to spend a cold afternoon…
We didn’t have time to go upstairs and check out the toy trains, but I heard it amazing. next time, for sure.
I will go here frequently! You can go shopping for anyone in your life, show up with NO ideas, and leave with way too much!
in a huge old building, on a side street in Manchester (which looks more like a place for industrial work, or murders).
I will recommend to anyone and everyone!
also, we get 10% off coupons mailed to us in those booklets of coupons on a regular basis
can be overpriced

SERIOUSLY?
I lost my boyfriend in the first 30 seconds and found him 45 minutes later playing with legos at a table. By himself. In a corner. This store is magical.
In the meantime, I discovered art supplies, science kits, paints for model cars and trains, a plethora of stuffed toys, puzzles (10,000 pieces — are you insane?), radio control stuff — a piece of everything. And that’s just on the first level.
The second floor has a pretty wild range of model train accessories and dollhouse miniatures. Here’s the thing — I loved having a dollhouse when I was but a young gal. Hence, I nerded out something awful in this section.
Oh, then I found Nick and dragged him out of the store.
But I will say this — especially when it comes time to do bday/​holiday shopping for his niece & nephew — we will never shop in another toy store again.

I saw the Unilocal reviews for Time Machine and figured there was no way a local toy/​hobby store could possibly get 5 stars across the board… Wow, was I wrong.
If this were only a hobby/​train shop, it would easily be the best (and one of the biggest) I’ve ever set foot in. But there’s also an entire floor devoted to toys — and not the plasticky garbage you can find at any Walmart or Toys R Us, but hundreds (thousands?) of toys that are really high quality, many of them made in the U.S.A. and Europe. They don’t have a single video game in the store (that’s a plus), but do have a great selection of puzzles, kids’ games, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
I spent two hours in here with a 2-​year old and had to drag him away. (Note: Two-​year-​olds are not known for their long attention spans). We spent over an hour in the train section alone.
Some of the other comments mention the nerd factor of this place. You know what? Then slap a «Kick Me» sign on my back and let me go back to wandering the aisles.

Well, well, well. The Time Machine. We are incredibly lucky to have the greatest toy store on the planet close to us. The place is huge and has an amazing array of model trains. In fact, they run their sets on Sunday from 1pm to 4pm. It’s not a small set and it’s extremely impressive. I like it because they have toys for little kids and adults that act like kids. I can’t wait to get some RC aircraft. Perhaps my wife will read this and get me one for the holidays. A geeky adult can only dream.

I swear when my boyfriend and I went there on a Sunday we were in sensory overload. This is totally a nerd hotspot but one must see it at least once in their life time. It’s toys galore but it is in a class of its own. It is not your typical Toys R Us. The toys they carry were unique brain stimulating toys. Many parents don’t realize children have to work on their hands and eyes coordination. A simple leap pad isn’t going to properly prepare your child for their next developmental milestone properly. They had toys for all ages. We had so much fun touching all the toys there. I love that they have toys that are science related yet fun. There were educational toys as well as silly gag gifts.
Their anatomy models were amazing. I know that if I had one of those models while in school, studying would have been a tad easier. I don’t know where you can find a model of an ear and be able to take it apart besides an online store that will charge you triple the price. If I had child I would definitely buy them realistic anatomy parts. They also had tons of gag gifts such as Poop that grows!
The highlight of this hobby shop is the amazing train sets. They don’t have a room devoted to the trains they have a FLOOR devoted to nothing but train sets. This store is just ridiculous. They use every square inch to the max. Every corner you turn there’s a new toy awaiting to be handled and played with.
Great selection but I don’t remember seeing a sales associate walking around the store. If you don’t have an agenda expect to spend tons of time sorting through tons of toys arranged in a chaotic system. We didn’t mind that the toys were arranged in no particular order or system because we had time to waste. This toy store has the feel of an old toy store you often read about in old Christmas stories.
Parking was pretty easy. They have their own lot with tons of space. The space is easy to locate. Overall the place was a great experience. I just wish someone would dust.