A massive hobby and toy party is happening in South Jersey this weekend

Stocked among classic pastimes like model railroad sets and remote-controlled cars at AAA Hobbies and Crafts in Magnolia are some more obscure options for the discerning hobbyist.

Want to build a 4D human stomach? They’ve got a kit for that. Feeling called to make a plastic model of a trucker who bears a striking resemblance to Christ but is 1/24 the size? They’ve got a kit for that, too (just ask for the “‘Holy Roller’ Jordan ‘Jesus’ Jamerson”).

At AAA Hobbies, there are entire microcosms waiting to be created, some from Star Wars, like Din Djarin’s Razor Crest ship, and others from real wars, like the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Here, the world really is what you make it — whether you use plastic, balsa wood, or latch hooks.

Research has shown that having a hobby can shape your world. A study published last year in Nature Medicine of over 93,000 people 65 and older found that those with hobbies had higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction.

“With everything that people deal with, it’s so important to have something that you can relax with,” said Alan Bass, AAA Hobbies’ third-generation president. “It’s just a way to get out of the real world and into your own world for a little bit.”

For four decades, this hobby emporium founded by a philatelist with a dream has been a staple on the White Horse Pike, where the murals on the building — featuring trains, race cars, and a 3D puzzle of a knight in shining armor — turn heads, even more than the single-arch McDonald’s sign across the street.

To celebrate the store’s 40th anniversary, AAA Hobbies is hosting a two-day celebration this weekend, where guests can try many of their hobbies for free.

Activities will include a track to race R/C cars and another for slot car racing, experts to teach model railroading and miniature figure painting, plastic model kit make-and-takes, science kits, Mini 4WD racing, arts and crafts, paint-by-numbers, and even model rocket blastoffs, if the weather cooperates.

“It’s a big event to give back and to let people try the hobbies that we like,” Bass said.

Bass’ paternal grandfather, Felix, was a CPA by trade, but his hobby was philately, or stamp collecting. When he’d make calls for his day job as an accountant, he’d bring along his extra stamps to sell.

The success of Felix Bass’ hobby side hustle inspired him and his wife, Inge, to become wholesale hobby distributors in the 1950s. After running a business out of their basement and operating stores at the Berlin Farmers Market and Cherry Hill Mall, they opened a warehouse on the White Horse Pike in 1981, and later, the hobby store in front of it.

Felix Bass named his store AAA Hobbies because he wanted top billing in the phone book.

“There were a million hobby shops at the time and he wanted to be first,” Alan Bass said.

Today, Stevens International — the family’s wholesale distribution company — makes up 85% of the business and takes up nearly 55,000-square-feet in the warehouse behind AAA Hobbies (also housed in the complex is MegaHobby.com, the family’s online business). Stevens International supplies products to about 1,000 retail stores across North America, which means at AAA Hobbies, when they say they’re going to check for something in the back, they probably have it.

“This store is a showroom for the warehouse,” said Jack Lynch, marketing manager. “We’re armed to the teeth.”

Bass’ wife, Emily, also works at the company. The couple’s Shetland sheepdog, Mika, volunteers at the store and warehouse, generally being adorable and trying, in vain, to keep the toy cars in line when they get moving.

Felix Bass eventually passed the reins to his son, Michael Steven, who in turn, passed them to his son, Alan. The younger Bass, 34, of Wenonah, grew up working summers in the warehouse and came on board full-time after graduating from Muhlenberg College in 2012.

“That is very much our family; you don’t start at the top,” he said.

Bass became president in 2021, though his dad and mom still work part-time. His grandpa died in 2008, but his grandmother, who’s now 93, continues to keep tabs on the company.

“She’s as quick as a whip,” Bass said. “Even now we’ll sit down and she’ll be like, ‘Alright. What internet marketing are you doing?’”

While the Bass family is in the hobby business, they aren’t hard-core hobbyists themselves.

“My grandparents and parents have always taught us that you have to be careful drawing the line between selling only what you love vs. selling what you know will sell,” Bass said.

Bass’ pastime is actually writing about hockey — he’s penned three books about the Flyers, including a biography of Ed Snider called The Last Sports Mogul.

The “bread and butter” at AAA Hobbies are plastic model kits and the average age of kit builders hovers around 50 and is predominately male, Bass said.

The sheer scope and variety of plastic diorama accessories at the store is fascinating. There are tiny street musicians, butchers, welders, Soviet villagers, smokestacks, sheep, mine detectors, trash cans, propane cylinders, cheesemongers, and “Servicewomen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

There’s even a kit with three dozen pigeons that are 1/35 the size of real pigeons.

“They fly off the shelves,” Emily Bass said.

Most people get introduced to a hobby by a relative when they’re young and come back to it later in life, Alan Bass said. But veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who want to build the armored vehicles they drove while serving, also find their way to the store, as do people who want to make something sentimental, like their grandfather’s old car.

“So it’s a lot of personal experience translated into hobbies,” he said.

The popularity of model railroading has significantly declined from where it was 40 years ago, given the financial investment required, Bass said, but the store still carries epic $500 train sets. The main three-track set on display features several trains, a doughnut shop, a hot dog stand, and, of course, a AAA Hobbies store.

Other hobbies, like Tamiya Mini 4WD racing — which involves autonomous-driving, easily-assembled cars that users craft to be as fast as possible — are growing. AAA Hobbies holds Mini 4WD track races at the store and hosts other groups and hobby clubs, like the Miniature Figure Collectors of America.

Bass is hoping to tap in to that communal spirit at this weekend’s celebrations, so those who are passionate about the hobby they love can share it with someone new.

One of Bass’ favorite things to do at work — something he reminds his warehouse employees to do as well — is to walk into the store and look at the faces of the customers.

“They’re so passionate about their hobbies … you get to watch someone just love what you’re selling,” he said. “And honestly, that’s the thing I’m looking forward to most about this event.”

AAA Hobbies’ 40th anniversary celebration is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the store at 706 N. White Horse Pike, Magnolia, N.J. 08049.