Bye bye Maplin / Toys R Us

[RustySpoons]

The best one I ever had was a Magna Cart (Name always made me laugh) from Costco, that was incredibly strong and a far better design. So good someone half inched it from me!

 

[jeallen01]

Maplins Update:
Online store closing on Sunday 29th - (some?) bricks & mortar stores staying open.

Further "25%"-off on-line Flash deals here

Just bought one of their 48W soldering stations for £27 inc delivery - can't seem to copy & paste the links (Kaspersky A/V I think) but the Maplins code number is N34FB. Seems to be same item as sells elsewhere from £48 to over £70.

 

[Archive-8]

 

[jeallen01]

@Chris1979
As I said on Friday that the website would be.

PS: my soldering station appears to currently be out on delivery, and should be here this afternoon.

 

[Channel Hopper]

I popped into the branch at New Malden on Saturday, really not a lot left on the shelves.

However after a few minutes of searching I managed to secure a Dremel like tool pack (grind/cut/sand accessories), a large tube of heatsink compound and a Bluetooth hands free system for just on £40.

 

[jeallen01]

...PS: soldering station..

Has arrived, works and looks pretty much identical to this Duratool one - except for the colour of the base-station unit.

Only has the 0.5mm tip and so I need to get some more like the various options for the Duratool - but will have to be careful as, apparently, there are a number of different tip body diameters to "choose" from. Nevertheless, I should have pretty much the full set of the station and the tips for less than £40 total

 

[jeallen01]

Popped into the local (Uxbridge) branch - and got 53m of WF100 for £11, but, if you need something else, there is 100m of twin "Chinese lookalike CT100" for £39.99 = around 20p/m if you split the twin into single-core cable!
Also, got a Maxview Omnisat digital satellite Compass for around £27 ("normally" around £39-45) - seems to "work", but a bit "approximate" in terms of the actual direction of the sat (might give more info in a few weeks when I finally get to do more with dishes at the bottom of the garden).

 

[Ghostleader]

Popped into the local (Uxbridge) branch - and got 53m of WF100 for £11, but, if you need something else, there is 100m of twin "Chinese lookalike CT100" for £39.99 = around 20p/m if you split the twin into single-core cable!
Also, got a Maxview Omnisat digital satellite Compass for around £27 ("normally" around £39-45) - seems to "work", but a bit "approximate" in terms of the actual direction of the sat (might give more info in a few weeks when I finally get to do more with dishes at the bottom of the garden).

That Maxview digital compass is a lot of c#*p mate, every time you power on you need to "calibrate" it by leaving it on a perfectly flat surface, I binned the one I had.

 

[jeallen01]

That Maxview digital compass is a lot of c#*p mate, every time you power on you need to "calibrate" it by leaving it on a perfectly flat surface, I binned the one I had.

TBH - given the frequency with which I would use it - I can live with recalibrating the compass each time I need to do that.

 

[RustySpoons]

Has anyone been in to a Maplin store the past few days, they had a load of Camping Satellite kits in my local store, just wondering if they have discounted them in any stores yet?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Has anyone been in to a Maplin store the past few days, they had a load of Camping Satellite kits in my local store, just wondering if they have discounted them in any stores yet?

Now is the winter.... oh never mind.

 

[jeallen01]

....
The Maplins iron only has the 0.5mm tip and so I need to get some more like the various options for the Duratool - but will have to be careful as, apparently, there are a number of different tip body diameters to "choose" from. Nevertheless, I should have pretty much the full set of the station and the tips for less than £40 total

Update: Measured the external & internal dimensions of the supplied tip, then got CPC to confirm those for the Duratoool tips, and they are the same. So bought some and I now have 2 other tips of different sizes - which I checked and they do fit the Maplins iron - with 2 more to follow when CPC have them back in stock

 

[RustySpoons]

Popped in my "Local" store today, the only thing worth buying is the reels of cable.
Got 100m of WF100 for £10

 

[jeallen01]

Popped in my "Local" store today, the only thing worth buying is the reels of cable.
Got 100m of WF100 for £10

"beats" my 53m for £10.99 a few days ago - maybe I should have waited?

 

[RustySpoons]

"beats" my 53m for £10.99 a few days ago - maybe I should have waited?

Go back in there and get more.

 

[jeallen01]

Go back in there and get more.

I got the only reel of WF100 that they had at the time - and, TBH, I don't really need any more for the foreseeable future.

 

[RustySpoons]

I got the only reel of WF100 that they had at the time - and, TBH, I don't really need any more for the foreseeable future.

Well you still had a bargain

 

[Channel Hopper]

Can anyone confirm the stores are now closed permanently ?

I popped into the Eastcheap store late last week and there was quite a bit left to sell.

 

[jeallen01]

Nearest to us, Uxbridge, closed about 3 weeks ago - if any are still open now, they will the few that have been doing the best business over the last few weeks.

 

[RustySpoons]

The Cardiff stores seemed to be an outlet for other wares! Shavers, vacuum cleaners and all sorts of odd things. I guess some stock from another retailer that went out of business or some cheap stock bought somewhere?