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Build it, and they will come. The future of our hobby.


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For decades now, I have seen the attempts to bring kids in to our hobby. I’ve seen donks. I’ve seen tuners. I’ve seen late model muscle cars. I’ve seen TV and movie cars. I’ve seen kits with video disks included.
I’ve seen lots of money and effort poured into this so called “youth” market.
But, lets face it- you cannot force them to like this hobby. Maybe it’s just not their thing.
Meantime, there are plenty of us current builders, some right here online, some not, waiting with money in hand for some new tool kits. As well as reissued and modified tooling.
Forcing model kits onto a generation that doesn’t want to look up from their video game or text app is futile, and a total waste of resources.
Give the attention to your current customer base. We will buy it. And in turn, I am certain that in 25+ years from now, there will still be guys that want model kits of that vintage 2013 Camaro ZL1, or the 1983 Hurst Olds that their dad had built.
That is way down the road, and I am sure the players in the hobby market will adjust to whatever happens in the future.
But if future builders want a model of a 2016 Camry, then all hope is gone anyhow. Some of today’s kids couldn’t tell the difference between a Keurig, and a KIA. And Revell will be tooling up 1:1 scale vintage Gameboy controller kits for them.

 

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Hey, 2016 Camrys are pretty nice.

I wouldn't hold my breath, unless it's aimed at the Japanese market. The most successful model kits appear to be based on aspirational cars, like '60s muscle cars for American modelers. Exotic super cars seem to be among more recent issues since that fit that description. The problem is that there are so few production cars these days that are attainable to own at a decent price and hold any special interest. And the American car culture just isn't there anymore for young people the way it was for we old guys.

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I will play Devil's advocate.

We focus on the car side of things. I have seen lots of kids buying Gundam kits and war gaming figures in my LHS. I have even overheard one of the employees tell someone in the store that those sections of the store is where most of their money is made. There are kids in the modeling hobby, they just found their own niche. We can hope that they gravitate to the car side as their interests change. There needs to be something in the car aisle that appeals to them when that happens. We, on this forum, are a small concentrated percentage of the market. There are lots of builders out there they do not know this board exists and there are those that do not care. How many of us commit to buy 10 kits a month at our LHS? If we all did that, then we may have a larger voice in what should and should not be built. We are a fraction of the overall market. I just don't know what that fraction is.

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Hey, 2016 Camrys are pretty nice.

If the "CAMRY" exterior name could be replaced with "KENMORE", I doubt many would care. As long as it went from point A, to point B. And covered by a warranty. Nothing more than an automotive appliance.
That's actually not a slam at Toyota, as much as a dig on the "automotive challenged" in society. They would be perfectly content with a Maytag automobile. Just be sure to include cup holders.

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I strongly agree with you Jon, as I started building model kits in the mid 50's as plastic modeling was very popular then and it grew quite a bit into the 60's & 70's also. When the time comes I will try to introduce my grandson into model car building, but  I don't have any great expectations on the outcome. I built models and still do for MY enjoyment, and if the kids today who hardly seem interested in real cars yet alone model cars don't carry the hobby on after us geezers are gone, I really don't care.

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At 66 I don't worry too much about the future of the hobby (never did really).

But I'm greatly enjoying the present state of affairs, where us old guys seem to be the main target market. For a number of years now there have been more interesting classic subjects released each year than I can keep up with (Hudsons, Chryslers, Pontiacs etc). 

Buy lots of these now and you can keep building even if the whole hobby dries up.

What me worry.

Edited by peekay
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I strongly agree with you Jon, as I started building model kits in the mid 50's as plastic modeling was very popular then and it grew quite a bit into the 60's & 70's also. When the time comes I will try to introduce my grandson into model car building, but  I don't have any great expectations on the outcome. I built models and still do for MY enjoyment, and if the kids today who hardly seem interested in real cars yet alone model cars don't carry the hobby on after us geezers are gone, I really don't care.

I have also watched the years go by, hoping that my nephews would take interest in the hobby. Bought them a kit. Nothing became of it. One even had it, unbuilt in the box, at his mom's yard sale years later. But then again, I didn't offer to help, either. The parents didn't help. They were too busy running errands in their Maytag Minivan.

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If the "CAMRY" exterior name could be replaced with "KENMORE", I doubt many would care. As long as it went from point A, to point B. And covered by a warranty. Nothing more than an automotive appliance.That's actually not a slam at Toyota, as much as a dig on the "automotive challenged" in society. They would be perfectly content with a Maytag automobile. Just be sure to include cup holders.

And they actually replaced "Henry J" with "Sears" at one point.  The fact is, most people have been treating automobiles like appliances since the days of the Model T, and that is okay, because that is exactly what most of them were built for.  Always, this accompanied by the same sad refrain of how nobody loves cars anymore, repeated word for word throughout the yearslike some Buddhist mantra.

   You don't think anyone will get enthused about a 2016 Camry?  Let's just take a look at one of Moebius' recent offerings, the 1965 Plymouth Belvedere..  People have been enthusiastic about it, and rightly so, but those of you who were around in the 60's, do you ever remember thinking to yourself at any point, "Oh yeah, I wish I had one of those sweet Plymouth Belvederes!".  It was just about as vanilla a vehicle as Detroit ever produced, yet it 2016, we're excited about this artifact from the past, just like how fragments of ancient Greek pottery are so much more interesting than what's left of that coffee cup you dropped.

   So yes, it's pretty much a certainty that future generations will get excited over a 2016 Camry, and it's no more a mental defect than getting excited over Chrysler products that were built when the Beatles were big.   And here's why:

First, there aren't going to be a lot of them around, precisely because most of them will be used and discarded like the appliances they are.  Also, it won't be just a 2016 Camry anymore.  It'll be a the Camry that used to belong to a beloved relative who isn't around anymore.  Maybe it'll be the Camry they learned to drive in, or went on that wonderful trip to that place that shut down a few years ago.   It'll an artifact of a bygone age, a reminder of people and places that are no longer with you, of value that maybe people don't hold anymore.

So, remember this when you catch yourself moaning about why they don't make great cars like those 2016 Camrys anymore.

Edited by Richard Bartrop
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I just spent part of the day teaching 3rd and 4th grade kids (and one teacher) how to build Revell's 2013 Camaro snap kits. We had a great time. The builds turned out well, and several kids asked about doing it again in the next school year. If your worried about the future of our hobby, which I'm not, get involved. Teach a kid or two how to build a model. We like to complain about how kids do or don't do this or that. "They only play video games." Not if you expose them to something with enthusiasm. Like I have for models cars.

Seven model cars were started a week ago Friday. Eight models were completed today. And most looked pretty good in the end. Some parts were broken. Some parts were missed in a step or two. Stickers were in some cases put on crooked. And there were some hand made graphics made with permanent markers. One kid was perfectionist, and everything had to be prefect. Loved watching him getting the stickers for the side marker lights, put on just right. And all eight kids were happy that they had a model to bring home. And the teacher was very pleased with how things went, and how the kids learned and behaved.

By the way, I'd love to do more of this in the future. But, expenses being what they are, I can't afford to buy all of the kits myself. The NNL North was kind enough to donate 10 Camaro snap kits. If anybody is interested in doing the same, I'd be pleased to take any and all donates like that. I will continue to promote hobby to kids. It's not going to die because I didn't do my part.

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At 66 I don't worry too much about the future of the hobby (never did really).

But I'm greatly enjoying the present state of affairs, where us old guys seem to be the main target market. For a number of years now there have been more interesting classic subjects released each year than I can keep up with (Hudsons, Chryslers, Pontiacs etc). 

Buy lots of these and now and you can keep building even if the whole hobby dries up.

What me worry.

That's how I'm looking at it. Still, I couldn't help but notice a lot of us are grayer at the shows and such than we were 10-15 years ago. There are young folks going to the shows, but not in the numbers that those of us in the 50+ age bracket are going. 

Inevitably, the hobby will change------what that change will be I don't know. I'm of the belief that 10 years from now 3D printing will be the mainstream, and we'll be able to make whatever we want. Young folks might get more into that as it does involve some computer smarts, and they're not as timid about taking that kind of thing on.

But as you said...........I've got soooooo many kits and projects in mind that I'm certain I won't get around to all of them before I'm no longer walking the earth. :blink: The hobby could disappear next year, and I'd still have enough supplies and whatnot to last quite a long time.

And yes, there is more subject matter coming out that I wouldn't have dreamed possible even 10 years ago! There's more I'm sure in the pipeline--------I may buy it for no more than the simple reason that I may like that particular car.

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Lets face reality. Car enthusiasts have always been a small minority of the population. Cars were intended to be, from the get-go, transportation appliances. Consider this: of the 15 MILLION model T Fords built, how many do you honestly think got modified for speed, or raced? 

Most people simply do not get the fascination some of us have with machinery, including cars, aircraft, guns...anything mechanical that's loud and scary to someone with the mind of a stand-in-line-do-like-everyone-else little sheeple.

It's always been the lunatic fringe that has seen a car and wondered how to make it faster, or, when confronted with two cars, wondered which one was the fastest. And again, MOST people just don't give a damm. Never did, never will. The emasculation of the American male in popular culture hasn't helped, with women having more than half the money (and gaining) and wanting their own balls too...and they usually keep their man's dangly bits in the pocket away from the bucks.

Think it was really different in the way-back? Then explain why the Chevette...possibly the most insipid zero nothing of a mediocre car ever built...was the number one selling small-car in the USA in 1979 and 1980.

Also consider: in the early days, racing was all about "win on Sunday, sell on Monday". That philosophy sold a lot of me-too cars to people who wanted to identify with a sport that they had neither the nads nor the bucks to indulge in. The cars racing were much closer to what you could go into the showroom and buy, too. It makes a difference.

But racing gradually has evolved into an industry that provides fast, loud rolling billboards to the marketers of the world, and costs boxcars full of dollars to participate in at the upper levels. It's just not accessible any more...and even I, about as hard-core a car-enthusiast as you can get, find racing that's so far removed from reality kinda pointless and boring.

But there are still a goodly number of grass-roots participants in motor-sports and guys (and even a few women) who are greasy-knuckles car enthusiasts...but probably not in the percentages there were in earlier decades.

There are also fewer people who know what a steam locomotive is (or would have any interest in modeling one) or who could build a birdhouse with simple tools, or change a flat tire or their own oil. Unless there's an app for it.

It's jus' the way it is, and I'm glad that for the foreseeable future, I'll be able to pick from the widest array of kits and components and materials in the history of Man.

Kids not interested? Fine. More for me. :D

 

 

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Don't underestimate kids' interest in building models. If it tickles their fancy, they'll build'em. There must be other age groups besides adults buying model kits. Otherwise, the manufacturers wouldn't be producing them. The lack of kid sightings at model shows isn't a good indication of the state of the hobby either. Face it, these shows are attended by middle aged to old farts for whom they are the styrene equivalent of the Raccoon Lodge. Kids don' need no stinkin' clubs or shows to have fun.

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Don't underestimate kids' interest in building models. If it tickles their fancy, they'll build'em. There must be other age groups besides adults buying model kits. Otherwise, the manufacturers wouldn't be producing them. The lack of kid sightings at model shows isn't a good indication of the state of the hobby either. Face it, these shows are attended by middle aged to old farts for whom they are the styrene equivalent of the Raccoon Lodge. Kids don' need no stinkin' clubs or shows to have fun.

Man's got a point...or three. And some kids exposed to model building will love it and stay with it, some will drift away and come back later, and some just won't give a rats rear.

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Just a thought about the Toyota Camry; how much does it differ in looks from a Chevy Impala, or a Ford Fusion, or a Honda Civic or a ....  Do you see where I am going?  Up until the mid to late 70's each brand had a specific design, you could tell what it was 300 yards away.  Today there is really no style in the automotive industry, we have become too scared and must protect ourselves from ourselves.  As far as muscle, it is out there; a turbo 4 cylinder has as many horses as a 4 bbl 350.  There may be a continuation of modeling in the younger generations, I truly hope so.  I am trying to thin my stock at the local shows and when a man or woman brings a kid by I will give the kid a kit, usually one of the simplest to build I have.  Just hopefully that will be a spark.  One more thought then I have to go to dinner (the wife is calling) we need to be more constructive in our approach to these younger folks builds.  Not nasty as some responses I have read on this and other forums, but then not all sugar-coated either; make our comments have meaning and offer advice.  After all if I can open doors and make them look good and the new kid can't, does not make me a better modeler; it just means I have sliced, diced, and cursed more plastic than they have.

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Just a thought about the Toyota Camry; how much does it differ in looks from a Chevy Impala, or a Ford Fusion, or a Honda Civic or a ....  Do you see where I am going?  Up until the mid to late 70's each brand had a specific design, you could tell what it was 300 yards away.  Today there is really no style in the automotive industry, we have become too scared and must protect ourselves from ourselves.  As far as muscle, it is out there; a turbo 4 cylinder has as many horses as a 4 bbl 350.  There may be a continuation of modeling in the younger generations, I truly hope so.  I am trying to thin my stock at the local shows and when a man or woman brings a kid by I will give the kid a kit, usually one of the simplest to build I have.  Just hopefully that will be a spark.  One more thought then I have to go to dinner (the wife is calling) we need to be more constructive in our approach to these younger folks builds.  Not nasty as some responses I have read on this and other forums, but then not all sugar-coated either; make our comments have meaning and offer advice.  After all if I can open doors and make them look good and the new kid can't, does not make me a better modeler; it just means I have sliced, diced, and cursed more plastic than they have.

How much does a 1940 Ford really differ From a 1940 Chevy, or a 1940 Plymouth, or a Nash or a Studebaker?  About this much...

http://oldcarbrochures.org/var/resizes/Misc%20Brochures/1940-American-Vehicles/1940%20American%20Cars%20%28Colliers%29-0a.jpg?m=1330102191

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Here's my take on the whole "we gotta get kids into the hobby" thing.

Why?

Why is it the "duty" of people who are into the model car hobby to recruit kids? Isn't a hobby something a person chooses based on their own personal preferences and interests? The point being, if a kid has an interest in model cars, he/she will get involved in the hobby without any external prodding! That's how it worked with me. My dad had zero interest in cars, or model cars. But I got involved in the hobby because it interested me. I didn't need to be recruited... my own interest got me involved.

And that is how it should be! A person should choose their hobby based on their own interests, not the wishful thinking of others.

I chose my hobby. I think we should let others choose their hobby, whatever it may be. Just because we are interested in model cars doesn't mean that others must also be, or that it is somehow our "duty" to force our hobby onto others. A hobby is a personal choice, not the result of recruitment.

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Here's my take on the whole "we gotta get kids into the hobby" thing.

Why?

Why is it the "duty" of people who are into the model car hobby to recruit kids? Isn't a hobby something a person chooses based on their own personal preferences and interests? The point being, if a kid has an interest in model cars, he/she will get involved in the hobby without any external prodding! That's how it worked with me. My dad had zero interest in cars, or model cars. But I got involved in the hobby because it interested me. I didn't need to be recruited... my own interest got me involved.

And that is how it should be! A person should choose their hobby based on their own interests, not the wishful thinking of others.

I chose my hobby. I think we should let others choose their hobby, whatever it may be. Just because we are interested in model cars doesn't mean that others must also be.

It isn't as easy to expose kids to the hobby as it was years ago. A lot of the big mainstream stores no longer carry model kits. You need to take them to a hobby store, which are fewer and further between.

I agree we don't have to recruit them, but we should at least expose them to it, when we can.

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