unclescott58
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Posts posted by unclescott58
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On 8/14/2022 at 2:26 PM, Daddyfink said:
It looks good. And I don’t mind seeing it here.
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20 minutes ago, Daddyfink said:
You want to know the state of the hobby? It's simple! Just look at AMT about to tool up a 1/25 scale kit from a T.V. Show that has been off the air since March of 1967! Before I was born later that year! LOL! And the show only lasted One Season!!
If that does not say 'We Are Catering To The Boomers" I don't know what does! LOL!
We, Gen X, are lucky we did not have the modern day distractions and thus had to rely on physical activities, reading, Television and our own crazy imaginations! And the model companies catered to us at those times. Revell made all of these Adventure Kits with extra goodies and we ate them up! So maybe in about 10 more years, I am 54 now, they will start making more A Team Vans or something more obscure.
As for kids today, I am not going to worry about it, as long as I had fun with my hobby, they can figure it out themselves!
Oh! By the way, the be spending my hard earned “baby-boomer” bucks on the new 1/25 scale Green Hornet Black Beauty when Round 2 releases it. Too bad for those future model builders who have no interest it.
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5 minutes ago, Daddyfink said:
You want to know the state of the hobby? It's simple! Just look at AMT about to tool up a 1/25 scale kit from a T.V. Show that has been off the air since March of 1967! Before I was born later that year! LOL! And the show only lasted One Season!!
If that does not say 'We Are Catering To The Boomers" I don't know what does! LOL!
We, Gen X, are lucky we did not have the modern day distractions and thus had to rely on physical activities, reading, Television and our own crazy imaginations! And the model companies catered to us at those times. Revell made all of these Adventure Kits with extra goodies and we ate them up! So maybe in about 10 more years, I am 54 now, they will start making more A Team Vans or something more obscure.
As for kids today, I am not going to worry about it, as long as I had fun with my hobby, they can figure it out themselves!
Amen. Your last line especially says it all.
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2 hours ago, mrm said:
There are few things apparently I failed to make come clear through "my rant". First off, I don't look down on anyone, which is silly to even insinuate, simply because I am part of that same group. At least according to my kids. And then, this is not about my kid or your kid. My kid used to build Ed Roth cars. He had a huge kick out of building the Boothill Express with me. When he was a kid. He made a C3 Corvette and he is in love with those darn death traps to this day. (And before you jump to conclusions again, I've owned six Corvettes, two of which C3s and loved each and every one of them. Which does not change the fact that the only crappier car I've owned was the C4 Corvette)The Benz he bought at the last show is from the '80s, which is about a quarter of a century before he was born, so I am not sure where do you get the notion that I think kids today should only like current cars.
The point I was trying to make is that even tho I would like to see every variation of every Ferrari from their 75 year history made in a model and that would love to see Revell release a new '32 Ford variation every other year, we should be more aware of the direction we are driving the hobby in. And it is not toward bright future for sure. The industry needs to open the scope of their demographic targeting and figure out how to appeal to more diverse crowd and attract fresh blood. Times have changed dramatically since I first started building models and that probably was couple decades after your generation. Clubs in general are becoming a thing of the past, same as brick and mortar hobby shops and printed publications. And the main reason is mainly technology and the lack of necessity for these things. Perhaps we should embrace those changes and look for ways to make them work to our benefit instead of fighting them, which pushes potential new members of the hobby away. I'm 46. I am not giving up my hobby over reception of my model at a contest. But someone who is just starting in the hobby may not feel this way. I am not going to quit the hobby because no one has released any of the last ten Ferrari cars, because I can still find new ways to build the same old Revell Deuce from 25 years ago. But many young kids may never pick a tube of glue because of it. And we can wax poetic about past trends all we want, but the facts remain the same. If I enter a perfectly built and fully detailed Ferrari F12 in factory stock class, I stand no chance against the requisite Camaros, Challengers and Chevelles built to the same standard, by default. If I we make a poll of what new tool Revell should make, I promise you the winner would be a variation of a car already made over and over again. The Chip Foose deal comes to mind. More and more people I used to see at the shows or used to look up to, for their skills or styles are no longer with us. And there is nobody coming to replace them. Again, I'm 46 and I'm considered one of the "young modelers". That is ridiculous and can't be good for the hobby.
Again I agree with a lot of what your saying. But, I get the impression from what your saying, that we need to change something to get others to come into our hobby. What do we change? Most of us here, have no power over the direction things are going within the hobby. The only thing I can do to change things within the hobby is spend my money on things they put out. And I like what the model companies are putting out. I now have the money to buy those old kits they reissue, that I wanted in past when I did not the money. I am not going to buy models I am not interested in, just to encourage future model building. So, what is the answer? I think it’s really out of my hands. And to be honest, I don’t really care if goes on past me or not. It a leisure, recreational item. Not something that’s going to effect the well being of the world in long run. If this one dies, other things will replace it.
By the way. What do you think about the River Rat boat? I can not remember if said anything about that or not.
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I love the movie, and your model. Very nice.
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Because of it being mentioned another in thread here, I pulled out my old Lindberg Cougar II kit, to look at finishing it. I ran across a curious problem. For some reason I’m missing door hinge retainers, part #52, for both sides. Plus, I’m also missing the same basic parts for the trunk. Listed as “trunk hinge”, part #58. And again both of them. This is a weird one. Everything else seems to be there. Why have these parts have been misplaced, I do not know?
I’m hoping someone out there can help me. I know the Lindberg Cougar II kits are still fairly easy find. But, I’d hate to have to buy one for just those four missing parts.
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1 hour ago, mrm said:
Your last paragraph demonstrates a lot of what's wrong with the way of thinking of most current modelers IMO.
I have two teenagers at home. And they are so different from one another, that you would think they grew up on different planets. The younger one is quiet and very passionate about his possessions. He still loves Legos and it's all about Star Wars and .....drum roll....."Racing Champions" - a series of cool cars. Some of them can blow your mind with their engineering, as small as they are. He follows what gets announced, when it will be released and pretty much everything else we follow on here about model kits. He's 13yo and has all of them, besides the fact that he doesn't work, has no means of personal transportation and they cost pretty much same as a model kit. What I notice is, that some of them are proudly displayed on a shelf and others are stored. The ones displayed are some cool cars that are popular with teenagers today, can be seen on spotter blogs, car an coffees and for the most part have never been made into plastic models. Here's a hint: there are no Mavericks and Dodge Darts amongst them and none are from 1958, '64 or seventy-something. The other things he's getting into and is really passionate about is Formula One racing. A big part of this interest is the Netflix series he watches with his brother "Drive to Survive". An absolute gem of a show. When was the last time a Formula kit was released? Meanwhile diecast companies are releasing each year's grid in numerous of scales and that hobby seems to be thriving. Have you been on a diecast forum lately? To take a peak at the interest on a global level? Because model making and the companies involved are global companies and don't exist just in a world between two oceans.
Now take my older son. He loves cars and all his buddies love cars too. They go to every cars and coffe show and yes, they are on their phones all the time. And they watch countless videos on youtube or tictoc or whatever. Half of them are about cars. They love hotwheels and would spend literally days driving between all the Targets and Walmarts they can think of, in search of some rare hotwheels cars that they saw on video that just got released. You wanna guess what they are? Drift cars, Nissan GTR's, Porsches, AMGs and Miatas.
There is a car show every Friday, literally in the parking lot behind my back yard. In the afternoon. They don't care about it. Do you know why? Because it's two rows of C4 and C5 Corvette waxers in their '50s and '60s , a sea of Tri-five Chevies and a bunch of clapped out muscle cars with Elvis Presley as a background music. And the crowd is all retirement age. In other words the teenagers can not relate.
My kids will wake up at 6am on a Saturday with their friends to drive an hour to get to a cars and coffee. And then they will come home and talk all day about what newest Ferrari or lambo they saw, the details on some cool tuned BMW, the burn out show at the end that the JDM crowd puts on or the LS swapped Miatas. I hear them talk about how cool the 55 Chevy ice cream truck was or how "fire" the newest twin turboed Corvette that showed up was. They appreciate a well done '50 Merc or a pro built '69 Camaro. But they mainly care about two categories. What's cool that they can afford and realistically own and what is the latest dream otherworldly hypercar for $3 Million.
My kid used to build models with me. He used to take the drive from Aspen Colorado, all the way to Kansas City for the Heartland Nationals. He won wards in the Junior class and a couple of his models even made it on the pages of the Contest Annuals. That was when his teeth were falling out. Nowadays he still builds models. The Bandai Star Wars figures. But he doesn't care coming with me to the shows. And literally what he says is: "I don't care to go because it's always the same thing - bunch of old guys and only ugly old American cars and hot rods." I don't personally share his feelings and in a way it hurts me that he feels this way, but that is the reality of how he and his friends feel. He did come to the last show I went to. And he really appreciated the craftsmanship on some models. And he even bought himself a model with his own money. An old Japanese kit of a square Mercedes Benz 190E with ground effects and custom wheels. Because a couple of his buddies drive similar ones and because it's something he finds cool and he knows he can actually afford to own and drive.
The interest is there. The young generation with the potential to cary the torch of the hobby does exist. The problem is that the current modelers crowd, for the most part, is stubborn, selfish and unwilling to move out of the proverbial past. And the industry is caught between a rock and a hard place, because they do realize they need to look to the future, but meanwhile are catering to the money flow from a generation that is on its way out.
In general agree with what you have to say. But, who are buying the kits? According to companies offering them, it must us old fogies, because that’s who their aiming their kits mainly at.
One of my complaints, and something I don’t understand, is they tell us it cost so much to tool up a new kit. And there isn’t enough interest to justify the costs. Especially making kits of the newer stuff, that may interest the kids. Yet they put money into to tooling up models of both new and old cars in die cast form all the time. Mainly in 1/64th and 1/18th scales. I many times have wondered about that? Especially the 1/18th scale stuff. Are they not expensive to tool up too? There are so many die cast models out there that I would love to see also offered as plastic “build” kits.
Back to the kids. I don’t see a lot of kids interested in cars, new or old, in way we were. I blame part of this on the over regulated, over reliable, look alike vehicles we drive today. These are great in getting one from point A-to-B. The best cars and trucks ever in some ways. But, for most part they are bland and boring. I know, some are not. And they much faster and more reliable than what we had 50 years ago. But, do they really bring out the passions like cars did in the past? I’m just not seeing it with most of the kids I work with. They in general could care less about cars. New or old. Plus, the interests with the youth in general are changing. I not only do I see few, to no kids joining car and model clubs I belong to. But, clubs and other like organizations in general. I fear for organizations like the Buick club I belong to. Or the Son’s of Norway that my parents were active in. The local Lions club is not getting younger people to join like they use to. Nor do I see the number of Boy Scouts that were around back in the day. Do I know why or what the answer to this is? No. I only hope if the old groups and/or clubs die off, the upcoming youth find and start organizations that meet their needs in the future. At this point, I’m not seeing it. And is that okay? Maybe so. I’m 64, and the future is no longer for me. It belongs to them. I can show them one way of getting there. But, I can’t force or drag them to the way I think they should go. I can only lead by example. And I’m sure what ever path they choose it will be okay. It’s been that way for thousands of years, if not longer.
How about we get back to old Revell River Rat boat tooling? I know if Revell or Atlantis brings back, especially the boat part of the kit, I’ll be buying.
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42 minutes ago, CabDriver said:
In their defense, the original version of the car didn't have a steering wheel either - just some levers to steer it like a skid steer
In this video (around the 20 second mark) you can see this guy trying hard not to crash it - it looked kinda 'twitchy' to drive...
Fun to see the video. I forgot about that intro, until seeing it again. Also check out the YouTube video from “Little Cars”, on the car itself. Good history on the car, and shows the end of the show with the car leaving the theater and the cartoon Pink Panther chasing after it. See this stuff, really makes me wish I still had the Pink Panther model kit.
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5 hours ago, mrm said:
I really wish that Atlantis, or any other brand for that matter, tries to produce some new kits that grab the attention of the younger generations, rather than keep reissuing obsolete kits designed half a century ago, so the hobby can survive past the lifespan of the current generation modelers.
I work with high school kids. No matter what is offered by model companies, the youth of today have little to no interest in building models. There are a few, but very few. If it’s not dealing with doing it on an iPhone, or snapped together with Legos, kids are basically have no interested in it. I even have a display case in our school (Spring Lake Park High School, Spring Lark Park, MN) with models on display, and a poster inviting students to join the MCCM (Model Car Club of Minnesota). So, I continue working on encouraging kids to take interest in our hobby. But, with very few results.
As far as I can see the hobby has very little of future. But that’s okay, the companies will keep getting my money as long as I’m alive. Plus, I have more money than most high school kids anyhow.
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2 hours ago, Mark said:
For 1970, Palmer made three 1/25 scale car kits that were an attempt at competing with AMT and MPC: one-piece bodies, more detail. Their Corvette was pretty much a copy of an MPC kit, with some different optional parts. Same for their Dodge Challenger. Their Boss 302 Mustang (with a 428 engine!) copied parts from AMT and MPC. These kits had a few unique parts like Firestone radial tires (so lettered on the sidewalls). The Mustang had the Ford "black stripe" hubcap/trim ring wheels that nobody else included in a kit until Round 2 put them in their '71 Mustang reissue. These three kits ended up with Lindberg and were reissued by them with some changes. The Mustang had been modified by Palmer to look somewhat like a '71, the Challenger was updated to '71 and later '72.
Lindberg's '40 Ford coupe was also an ex-PSM kit, one they never released. It was largely cribbed from AMT's kit. Supposedly they had started on a '36 Ford kit (another AMT copy) but didn't get too far on that one, if at all.
Interesting. I built the Lindberg ‘40 Ford. It was not bad. But not great either. The box art on Lindberg (re)issue of the Mustang and Challenger were enough to scare my away from them. And now hearing your expiation of their origins, I understand why. The only reason I ended up with their ‘40 Ford, is it came with Lindberg’s reissue of IMC’s Dodge L-700 and flatbed trailer. In the end, with a little work, the ‘40 Ford turned out pretty darn good.
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37 minutes ago, Mark said:
I don't remember ever seeing the Eldon packaging of these kits in any store back in the day. I did have the Sand Draggin, but I got that one as a gift.
The model car kit market was in a decline in the late Sixties, as baby boomers were going to college, getting married, or getting drafted. That would have been a tough time for a newcomer, as Palmer's PSM brand proved, as did Aurora's short-lived comeback attempt around that time.
“Palmer’s PSM brand”? I know Palmer. But, I know nothing about “Palmer’s PSM brand”. Tell us more.
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It looks great. I like it.
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20 hours ago, rsmodels said:
Beautiful, I love the old Comets! Real nice work.
Thank you. I too love Comets.
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Hey! I thought we all agree. No real cars. Only models. A heck of a deal tipping that old ‘32 upside down and not damaging it! All kidding aside, a very nice ‘32. I like the other two models too.
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Looks great. Very nice job.
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I’m wondering what happened to Eldon’s custom model car kits from the late 60’s, or early 70’s. I know that a Japanese model company reissued some of them somewhere a long the line. I only know of the six seen below. Of which I had three. The Pink Panther, the Milk Truck, and the Bathtub. Where there more? I’d love to see the three I had reissued. I remember them as being fairly fun kits to build.
I’d like to know more about the history of these kits. They must not have sold all that well since Eldon never issued more kits than that, that I know of? In fact I don’t remember seeing any Eldon’s slot cars, or anything else from them shortly after these kit came out.
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55 minutes ago, oldscool said:
Since Round2 is improving old tools, Why not do a 51 Ford? I'm not sure of the interior differences but the body changes appear to be minor. Tool up a new grille and tail lights and change the side trim.
How about taking their old ‘50 convertible, clone the die, update that to a ‘51 with a Victoria roof? That way you could still offer the old ‘50 convertible in the future, and a new ‘51 Vicky. That make a cool set of shoebox Fords. The ‘49 club coupe. The ‘50 convertible. And a ‘51 Victoria.
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Nice Torino.
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Nice Willys. And Steak ‘N Shake, one of my favorite restaurants as a sponsor.
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On 8/14/2022 at 9:14 AM, slusher said:
Great looking Cyclone Scoot!
Thank you Carl.
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Lovely. I especially like the colors.
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Beautiful.
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Kool! I like it.
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58 minutes ago, Can-Con said:
I know that Scott. I meant Testors. I also know it was originally an IMC as the tires that were being discussed, that's why I made the post.
This is the box it came in. , , You did know Testors reissued this kit, right?
Yea I do remember it. This all reminds me, that I need to finish my Lindberg version one of these days.
Testor's paint
in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Posted
That price, sounds more 70’s than 60’s to me. I thought they went for about 15 cents a bottle in the mid-to-late 60’s? It’s been a long time, so I may be wrong about that.