Baranovich | 07 Feb 2017 9:55 a.m. PST |
I was in my local dollar/discount store and I came across these spectacular plastic trees! In the domestic/floral decorations section. $5.00 USD each, I bought three with the plan to make a modular forest piece that had a real-looking type forest canopy. Trees this size on wargaming and hobby websites go for like $20.00 USD each or pretty close to it. All I need to do now is add some flock to the canopy and paint and texture the bases. Looking at them though, the leaves don't look too bad just as they are, except for the shiny finish of the plastic. These ended up working out spectacularly well. Cool thing is that it's only three model trees, but it looks like many, many trees with the leaf canopies covering the branches. When I laid all three out on the board they made for a small forest that was a good 15" square. A great solution and alternative to having the usual sparse-looking individual trees representing a wooded area. Lesson learned is DON'T overlook dollar or craft stores, you can find wargaming gems if you keep your eyes open! Photos: link link link link link |
Winston Smith | 07 Feb 2017 10:25 a.m. PST |
Yes. Great stuff at dollar stores. |
Ivan DBA | 07 Feb 2017 10:38 a.m. PST |
Those look great! Which dollar store did they come from? |
War Panda | 07 Feb 2017 10:40 a.m. PST |
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Baranovich | 07 Feb 2017 10:41 a.m. PST |
@Ivan DBA, From Dollar Tree. (irony of the name, lol :P) I've also seen these at stores like Ocean State Job Lot and Jo Anne Fabrics. |
Winston Smith | 07 Feb 2017 10:52 a.m. PST |
Well. Have to check out my local Dollar Tree. I need to make another run for cheap superglue. |
michaelsbagley | 07 Feb 2017 1:20 p.m. PST |
These are great, thanks for sharing. They kind of have the look of a mangrove tree, which will be great for tropical terrain… or swamps, or tropical swamps. I'll be scouring the local Dollar Trees after work today for these. |
Oberlindes Sol LIC | 07 Feb 2017 1:36 p.m. PST |
I think I'll do the same as Michael -- Dollar Tree after work. |
Chokidar | 07 Feb 2017 2:03 p.m. PST |
Wow, lovely stuff. I wish we had things like that in Europe… |
Skeptic | 07 Feb 2017 2:30 p.m. PST |
Has anybody seen some in Canada yet? |
Baranovich | 07 Feb 2017 2:40 p.m. PST |
Hello all, Yeah, my only concern for others trying to get these is that this kind of stuff is totally hit or miss. Some areas or states might have these stocked and others not. The Dollar Tree I went to just happened to have this tiny section of floral stuff at the time and they had these trees, no idea why. I've been to a few other Dollar Trees in the state and they had no floral sections whatsoever. They come in this little fake planter box, like they are meant to be fake Bonzai trees for display I suppose. But in scale as I showed they look perfect as ordinary deciduous trees of any kind. Ocean State and big box places like that tend to have larger and more permanent floral/craft sections. I've seen these on several occasions at Ocean State. Michaels Crafts may have something like it, but I did not see any at the one I regularly go to. I'm in CT and we have several different kinds of dollar stores here plus Ocean State. I would also try Jo Anne Fabrics, they have a huge floral/craft section and these kinds of generically made things often show up at stores like that. |
Oberlindes Sol LIC | 07 Feb 2017 3:15 p.m. PST |
Baranovich reminds me that I have some of the plastic bonsai trees. I don't remember where I got them; I've had them for years. I use them for landscaped planters for 25mm games. |
Black Cavalier | 07 Feb 2017 6:45 p.m. PST |
Just checked a dollar tree in northern California. It did have a floral section but none of these trees |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 08 Feb 2017 7:59 a.m. PST |
Baranovich--Are you sure it was Dollar TREE? Everything at Dollar Tree is a dollar. There are other chains with "Dollar" in the name: Dollar Store, Dollar General,etc, that are discount stores, but don't limit themselves,pricewise. Sort of like the "59 Minute Cleaners": "It's just the name of the shop". |
Tommy20 | 08 Feb 2017 8:56 a.m. PST |
Hope you're right Hafen, as I tried three Dollar Tree stores last night and was denied… |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 08 Feb 2017 9:06 a.m. PST |
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Tommy20 | 08 Feb 2017 11:43 a.m. PST |
Denied access. None of them had any of the trees. Baranovich, do you still have the packaging? Was there any manufacturer/brand name on them? |
rampantlion | 08 Feb 2017 2:27 p.m. PST |
I tried 2 Dollar Trees in my area and neither had them. |
Baranovich | 08 Feb 2017 4:54 p.m. PST |
Yeah, it was Dollar Tree, but ours has some items that are priced at several dollars…..I thought most dollar stores did that now, where they have items that are a dollar but also things that are more than a dollar? Cleaning stuff is often more than a dollar, as is some of the knick knacky-type stuff. As I was saying guys, I sincerely didn't mean to lead anyone on a wild goose chase. I do recall as I said also seeing these at Ocean State Job Lot. Would be a good chance that a place like Jo Anne Fabrics would have them as well. If you have a place like Ocean State or a big box discount store near you, I would try them as well, since they have permanent floral sections in the store. Unfortunately, these had absolutely no packaging, they were on the shelf just in their floral base with a price tag, and just "Made in China" on the bottom. No manufacturer's marks either. However, I was able to find an image of it online, in fact this is the exact product that I got:
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Baranovich | 08 Feb 2017 4:55 p.m. PST |
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Flashman14 | 09 Feb 2017 3:44 p.m. PST |
Dollar Tree in Burke, VA has a seasonal floral section but not those. Nothing useful. This whole thing is fishy and it's tempting to label this as alternative facts but maybe someone else can corroborate. I've never known a Dollar Tree to have things for more than a dollar. The overall sentiment is correct – Dollar Tree and craft stores have useful things. But saying stores "like Jo Ann's" have this item, at this price point probably isn't true. That link above to an "exact" product would cost almost 30 dollars so I don't think you're quite getting the point. |
War Panda | 10 Feb 2017 9:12 a.m. PST |
Dollar stores are amazing sources for this hobby but I'm inclined to agree with Flashman's sentiments on this one |
Baranovich | 10 Feb 2017 10:43 a.m. PST |
Hey everybody, I really need to apologize for all the confusion. I got my stores crossed. I spent a day shopping going to a bunch of different places, and when I got everything back home, I thought that these had been a dollar store purchase. The reason I thought that is because we have a dollar store near here that does have items that cost more than $1.00 USD, but it is NOT Dollar Tree that does that, it's a local dollar store that is not a chain. I checked my receipts, these did come from Ocean State Job Lot. Ocean State has stores throughout the Northeast part of the U.S. HERE is the online link showing them for the $5.00 USD price. On their main page there is a place to click "Crazy Deals". If you scroll down a bit you'll see the fake bonzai tree listed for $5.00 USD. link
To my surprise Ocean State doesn't offer online shopping, you have to go to their stores directly to get stuff. Listen, I feel terrible that I led people to places that were dead ends, I'm really very sorry about that. I have an Ocean State Job Lot about five minutes from my house. They currently have these trees in stock and have had them on their shelves for some time. If anyone still wants some of these, and you don't have Ocean State Job Lot near you, I would be more than happy to pick them up and ship them to you, we could do the transaction through Paypal, price of course would be $5.00 USD for each tree, I'm not looking to make any money off this! |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 10 Feb 2017 12:49 p.m. PST |
No need to kick yourself so hard,Baranovich, we all make mistakes-"let him throw the first stone",etc. I just apologized for a goof on another thread. And be careful what you volunteer for here! And thanks for alerting us to a good deal! |
War Panda | 10 Feb 2017 2:34 p.m. PST |
Yeah thanks for letting know- easy mistake $5 USD is still a great deal |
Flashman14 | 10 Feb 2017 3:06 p.m. PST |
Aye – no worries Baranovich. I was just rankled since I rushed off to a Dollar Store immediately and was disappointed lol. Thanks for coming clean – respect! Now I gotta find an Ocean State nearby. |