Oakridge Hobbies and Toys Retail Store. Largest Hobby Shop and Toy Store in the Chicagoland Area.

Established in 1987, by the Robb family, who are model railroading and dollhouse miniature enthusiasts, Oakridge began as a mail-order retailer, supplying much needed scale miniatures and accessories to hobbyist and model railroaders working in "O" Scale (Lionel Trains) and "G" Scale (L.G.B. Trains).

Oakridge's Old Mill Shoppes, Christmas Season.

1994, Oakridge opened its first retail store complex "Oakridge's Old Mill Shoppes", which was four stores in a building built in the facade of a rustic old mill next to a creek with a hobby and toy shop, dollhouse shop, Christmas shop and gift shop all under one roof.

Slot Car Racing at Oakridge Hobbies & Toys' Downers Grove Store.

Oakridge Hobbies, nationally recognized as one of the largest and top retailers of home electric slot car race sets, slot cars and slot car tracks, specializing in H.O. Scale, 1:32 Scale and 1:43 Scale Slot Car Racing by many fine quality manufacturers.

Strong as an Oak ...

Many folks have asked how we came up with the name Oakridge? Oak is a strong hardwood. A majestic oak tree is a sign of strength and longevity. Groves and ridges or bluffs of century old oaks are common in the rural Midwest, and was the panoramic view out the back window, that was the inspiration for our company's name.

Established in 1987, by the Robb family, who are model railroading, slot car racing, toy collecting and dollhouse miniature enthusiasts, Oakridge began as a mail-order retailer, supplying much needed scale miniatures and accessories to hobbyist and model railroaders working in "O" Scale (Lionel Trains) and "G" Scale (L.G.B. Trains). In 1988 the Oakridge Corporation was formed. Oakridge also recognized a need by dollhouse miniaturist for scale miniatures in the "smaller scales" (quarter scale and half scale), so an expansion in product offerings was made to encompass and blend the miniatures of model railroaders and the miniatures of dollhouse miniaturist together to offer one source to both hobbies. It was recognized that the model railroader's dioramas were becoming more sophisticated with the use of lighted and decorated building interiors, and with Oakridge's expanded catalog offering, dollhouse miniaturists now had an additional source for interior accessories and miniatures for their quarter and half scale miniature houses, room boxes and displays. In 1991 The Oakridge Corporation expanded again with the addition of a manufacturing division, to offer 1/4" ("O") Scale and 1/2" ("G") Scale wood craftsman building kits that could be utilized by both the model railroader and smaller scales dollhouse miniature enthusiast. In the Fall of 1991 Oakridge opened its first catalog showroom open to the public. In 1992 Oakridge expanded into 1" scale dollhouse miniatures by offering two 1" Scale dollhouse kits and a 200 page "121 Catalogue" (1 inch to 1 foot scale).

By 1994, Oakridge was internationally recognized as the largest and most comprehensive source for 1/4" ("O") Scale and 1/2" ("G") Scale model railroading and dollhouse miniatures, building kits and hobby supplies, offering two separate 200 page specialty scale mail-order catalogs.

Also, in that same year, Oakridge opened its first retail store complex "Oakridge's Old Mill Shoppes", which was four stores in a building built in the facade of a rustic old mill next to a creek with a hobby and toy shop, dollhouse shop, Christmas shop and gift shop all under one roof. In 1997, Oakridge went worldwide, launching its flagship web site OakridgeHobbies.com. In 2000, Oakridge open its second retail location specializing in "Hobbies & Toys". Since that time, Oakridge has continued to expand and grow. Oakridge has launched additional specialty web sites and has warehouse facilities for ecommerce operations, along with retail "brick and mortar" operations.

Everyday is Christmas at Oakridge!

Today, The Oakridge Corporation, in addition to specializing in scale modeling supplies, manufacturing, mail-order catalog sales and retail "brick and mortar" operations, operates many internet specialty retail ecommerce sites, and has also become nationally recognized as one of the leading online retailers for Slot Car Racing (slot-car-racing.com), Paint By Number Craft Kits (paintbynumberkits.com), Jigsaw Puzzles (thepuzzlezone.com), Plastic Model Car, Truck, Military, Aircraft and Ship Model Kits (Plastic-Model-Kits.com), Construction Toys (constructiontoyzone.com), Dollhouse Miniatures and Supplies (dollhousesupplies.com), Melissa & Doug Toys, Playmobil and Small World Toys kids' toys (ehobbiesandtoys.com) and Farm Toys and Farm Tractor Collectible Gifts (farmtractorcollectibles.com).

Our family of affiliate web sites include:

"OakridgeHobbies.com", "HobbyShopAmerica.com", "elvestoyshop.com", "thetoyelf.com", "elvestoys.com", "FarmTractorCollectibles.com", "eHobbiesandToys.com", "Plastic-Model-Kits.com", "Scale-Miniatures.com", "ConstructionToyZone.com", "DollhouseSupplies.com", "ThePuzzleZone.com", "Slot-Car-Racing.com", "TheHobbyZone.com", "Carrera-Slot-Car-Racing", "SCX-Slot-Car-Racing", "Scalextric-Slot-Car-Racing", "SCX-AMERICA.com", "SCX-USA.com", "HobbyShop-USA.com", "ToyStore-USA.com", "PaintByNumberKits.com", "ToyStore-America.com", "OldMillShoppe.com", "OakridgeHobbiesandToys.com", "theHobbyZone.com", "StuffedAnimalPals.com", "OakTreeToys.com", "OakToys.com", "OakHobby.com", "OakTreeHobbies.com", "ChicagolandHobbyShop.com", "IllinoisHobbyShop.com", "eOAKRIDGE.com", "NapervilleHobbies.com", "OakridgeStores.com", DownersGroveHobbies.com", "OakTreeHobbies.com".

The web sites listed above, "OakridgeHobbies.com", "Oakridge's Old Mill Shoppes" and "Oakridge Hobbies and Toys" are all media properties and trademarks of The Oakridge Corporation. © 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Its a Wonderful Life! Where else can you work, where you deal with toys and hobbies all day and have the pleasure of helping other folks by supplying them with that special toy or gift for a very special person and occasion or helping a hobbyist find that hard-to-find miniature item for their scale model diorama or help Hollywood movie special effects set designers with scale miniature model supplies for the next Award-Winning movie! The only other place that we at Oakridge can think of, is maybe the North Pole!

To all of you, from all of us at Oakridge - Thank you for all your business through the years. We hope that all the Toys and Hobbies that we have been able to provide, have brought you and your loved ones, many happy hours of fun and play!

The Robb Family
and our loyal hard working staff of elves!