iBorg

A few comments from someone who's read Model Cars Magazine since it evolved from Plastic Fanatic. Less than five years ago, MCM was possibly the best model car magazine published. I can fairly compare it to many past magazines such as Model Cars, Model Car Science, Rod and Custom Models (which was amazingly good), Scale Auto Enthusiast, Scale Auto, Car Modeler, Model Racing Replica News (look for it if you into grand prix and road racing cars) as well as several one time publications. MCM was that good. What happened? Eventually the cast of players that made it happen dwindled down to a one man show. Harry P and I believe Jairus did layouts. The writing was top notch. If MCM is to prosper it needs to become more than a one man show. This is a great first step. The question is has the time for MCM in its past form passed? I've worked in graphic arts education for 34 years. I think I have a good handle on the printing industry. Three years ago, I would have said no. Today I'm not so sure. To make it work would require advertisers, a distribution base and content. Right now the hobby is having a resurgence and there is a ready void with SA folding but is the future market a printed or a digital future? I wish MCM the best of luck. I'll be glad to buy it when I see it on sale.

That still is one of the scariest race cars built of all time.

Yep.....of the two Street Rodder or R and C, I much preferred R and C. I have close to a full of Hot Rod Deluxe. It was on my always buy list. Oh well.

Wow, SAe could become the Rod and Custom in 1/25 scale!

I NEVER would had seen that in that kit. Strangely it looks the part well.

I've often wondered about doing the same conversion. Yours looks straight forward. The results are outstanding.

I agree with you on that although you can have better copy protection on a CD. I think the issue with it not working for newer Macs is an issue. Mac laptops have been the leading laptops in sales for several years in a roll. While Windows is a more popular OS, Apple sells more units than any one of the Windows manufacturers.

Let's try to think of the positives. Maybe including cars in a larger circulation magazine may expose more modelers to cars. If they included anime it might even get more younger modelers exposed. If there's a strong focus on technique, maybe we'll learn something new. For example, would an article on 3D printers that focused on figures teach us something about 3D printers? Maybe their goal is to create a US based magazine to Tamiya's Model Magazine, which by the way focuses on other manufacturers than Tamiya. I feel like I've lost a friend. I know SAe helped keep me in the hobby thirty years ago. Maybe FSM will do the same for a new generation.

Before we condemn the decision to FSM over SAe, look at the number of advertisers. Advertisers pay the bills.

I think a lot of us owe our interest in the hobby to SAE. Maybe a new generation will discover it via Youtube. I know that I use Youtube for all sorts of things. This week, I'm planning on spending a couple of days working on my Audi. Without Youtube, I don't think I'd attempt it.

I want this for my display case......that is so unexpected and so very nice. Tremendous model. Bet you had fun making it. I 'm hey as to the decals, what kind of printer did you use?

If I ever thought I'd finish it, I'd have to buy one of those. Absolutely stunning kit.

It would be great if there was a link showing the sale or clearance kits.

Could it be unsold production? What is the quality of the Magnifer kit?

I will miss SAe. My collection is almost the full run from about issue 4 or 5 to now with maybe ten issues missing. I will miss the habit of going to the bookstore and buying it. I always went there hoping they'd sell enough copies to keep it so maybe people would discover the hobby. I think that in many ways SAe's demise was the result of a perfect storm. The consolidation of US based brands led to a loss in advertising. Alternative shopping channels another. For example, I remember getting SAE and finding the classifieds to look for Grail kits as well as Hobby Heaven's two page ads to see what rarity I could find. The hostile feedback for including either slot cars or diecast into a model car magazine helped drive away those potential advertisers. The loss of sales and potential advertisers for shows and aftermarket vendors from Covid 19 I'm also sure hurt the magazine's advertising base. Online alternatives to a print magazine to showing what's new being yet another such as Round 2's Youtube ads. The final straw may have been the issue that was printed but not sold at hobby shops and bookstores due to them being closed. The lost June issue's cover dealt with Hollywood vehicles. Combine that with an issue delivered to stores as we were moving into the lock down phase resulted in two magazine issues with minimal sales. When you lose that much revenue for what is a small circulation magazine, the results may be fatal. Magazines make money one of three ways, the most common is ad revenue is great enough to pay most costs and subscriber and newsstand sales are your profit. Less common is the subscriber base pays production costs and advertisers and newsstand sells are the profit. The third model is that newsstand sells pay production costs and profit came from subscribers and advertising. I do not know any magazine that currently makes enough from newsstand sells to pay the bills. The last one I know that tried that was Hot Rod Deluxe. That is why their subscription rate was so much higher than Hot Rod. Today, advertisers dictate page count (a ratio of ad pages per editorial pages) as well as editorial content. If the newer model companies were advertisers, they'd be featured in the reviews and project pages. Of course they can't advertise yet as they're not that profitable because they're not that well known.

My SAE collection is almost complete from issue 5. I've missed only a few issues in that time frame. I liked having it fo no other reason than to have an excuse to go to the hobby shop. What is strange about that is right now the hobby is having a huge increase in sales as we adapt to a new normal. In the past year I've gone from two or three magazines a month to one a quarter, Rodder's Journal. I'm not sure what I'll do now before I go to bed.

I've already commented on the car.....now let's talk about super modifieds. I went to see them the week of the 500 at Indianapolis Raceway Park. A bit of a muggy night. As the cars went around the back stretch they were amazing....actually pulled vapor trails. Exciting racing. The only cars I've seen to compare would be sprints or midgets on dirt. Absolutely worth a four hour drive.

Sorry no.....shipping is averaging $10 a kit so I can't do that.

I had one of the later MPC reissues of the Chrysler. I tried to sell it for $18.....nary a nibble. I'll admit I'm weird, I want the Gypsy Wagon and some of the trick motorcycles. I keep hoping Hobby Lobby gets the bikes as they're no where near worth the retail price.

I have a Compact Pussy Cat in my display case. Dad and I (more Dad than me I'd bet) built it when new. I'm missing the umbrella. I'll have to the Mean Machine to go with it.

GREAT build.....I love these cars.....I love your model.

This kit and others in the Jo-Han Classic car line may be the best engineered kits of the 1960's. If they were released today, I think they would still be highly regarded.

Congrats......very well deserved.

You're right. I forgot its a four stroke.

What you'd have to do is join the two four cylinders into one eight cylinder. The issue would be to get the crankshafts synchronised so no two cylinders would fire together. If you got the cylinder firing in proper order, which might require a custom crankshaft and cam shaft, it should work.