Dave Ambrose Posted November 1, 2023 Posted November 1, 2023 On 10/31/2023 at 8:02 AM, Bugatti Fan said: Fact or just Dave's personal opinion? On what basis is he making that statement? Expand It's my personal opinion. I have read back issues for a fair number of model car magazines. Several things stand out to me. They carry a LOT more advertising than we carry now and it was much more detailed and granular. Advertising was an important information path then, now days, we search for products online, so it's not nearly as vital. I also remember a lot of dialog, often conducted in letters to the editor and spread over several issues, to debate what cars would be popular as models. That can have a lot of historical interest, but doesn't really contribute to the modern craft of building model cars. As I recall, many of the columns, were very contemporaneous, and didn't feel all that relevant now. That said, many of the build articles exhibit a high degree of craftsmanship and creativity in both materials and design. It makes for delightful reading. I miss slot cars too, though I was never very good at building them. 1
Bugatti Fan Posted November 1, 2023 Author Posted November 1, 2023 (edited) Dave, thanks for the response and the very salient points you have made.I have many issues of Scale Models magazine that started in the late 60's. There has been a shift I agree as many folk can look up products on line these days, hence the drop off in magazine advertising. Also, letters to the editor has been replaced by on on line forums like this one. But the biggest shift magazine wise that I have noticed down the years is that many magazines tend to have gone more pictorial with less 'in depth' explanatory text generally. To a large part due to digital imaging taking over from the limitations of film photography both in cost to the modeller writing the article in the first place, and the publisher having to reproduce pictures from prints, slides or negatives. High resolution pictures can simply be sent on line and used directly in the page composition. There is that old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, but is it? If many of the captions are too brief something gets lost along the way in technique explanation. Dan brought up about needing the setting up of links to advertisers, zooming content and so on that would make it a bigger job than it needs to be. All I would want is just to be able to read the pages from back issues. For example, if you can read an advert, then anyone can go on line to follow it up. Why go to the trouble of making the thing top heavy by trying to be too sophisticated with totally unnecessary ad ons? Edited November 1, 2023 by Bugatti Fan
peteski Posted November 1, 2023 Posted November 1, 2023 Back in the day the ads in the magazine didn't have either a website or email address info in them (much less Facebook or Twitter). Only phone number and address (so you could send a SASE for their catalog). No linking required. Plus many companies in those older ads no longer even exist.
Bugatti Fan Posted November 1, 2023 Author Posted November 1, 2023 A lot of those old companies like you say Pete have long gone. But those that still do exist probably have websites so easy to find on the web anyway just by searching with their company name. Mind you, looking at those old ads can be a real trip down memory lane for many of us 'old timers' in the hobby. Looking back does make one appreciate all the goodies that we take for granted that would have been pipe dreams back in the day!
Dave Ambrose Posted November 2, 2023 Posted November 2, 2023 On 11/1/2023 at 8:34 AM, Bugatti Fan said: Dave, thanks for the response and the very salient points you have made.I have many issues of Scale Models magazine that started in the late 60's. There has been a shift I agree as many folk can look up products on line these days, hence the drop off in magazine advertising. Also, letters to the editor has been replaced by on on line forums like this one. But the biggest shift magazine wise that I have noticed down the years is that many magazines tend to have gone more pictorial with less 'in depth' explanatory text generally. To a large part due to digital imaging taking over from the limitations of film photography both in cost to the modeller writing the article in the first place, and the publisher having to reproduce pictures from prints, slides or negatives. High resolution pictures can simply be sent on line and used directly in the page composition. There is that old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, but is it? If many of the captions are too brief something gets lost along the way in technique explanation. Expand It took a near-heroic effort to get from a 35mm negative to a ready to run set of printing plates. That isn't the case anymore, so yes, we can use more pictures. Thanks for your comment. I'll be more conscious about this going forward.
Straightliner59 Posted November 3, 2023 Posted November 3, 2023 On 11/1/2023 at 7:06 PM, Bugatti Fan said: Mind you, looking at those old ads can be a real trip down memory lane for many of us 'old timers' in the hobby. Looking back does make one appreciate all the goodies that we take for granted that would have been pipe dreams back in the day! Expand I like the old issues as time capsules, of sorts. It's interesting, looking through the SAE CDs, to see the old ads, and they can spark a ton of memories!
Motor City Posted November 6, 2023 Posted November 6, 2023 I would be interested in the early history of the model car companies with then-current or former employee interviews if they were covered in the magazines back then.
iBorg Posted November 6, 2023 Posted November 6, 2023 On 11/6/2023 at 2:27 PM, Motor City said: I would be interested in the early history of the model car companies with then-current or former employee interviews if they were covered in the magazines back then. Expand For the most part I don't remember those in those be covered in MCM. You might be more successful in finding that info in SAE or if you can find it the old, old, Model Car Journal.
Motor City Posted November 7, 2023 Posted November 7, 2023 On 11/6/2023 at 8:00 PM, iBorg said: For the most part I don't remember those in those be covered in MCM. You might be more successful in finding that info in SAE or if you can find it the old, old, Model Car Journal. Expand thanks; I forgot about my old Model Car Journal magazines
Bugatti Fan Posted November 8, 2023 Author Posted November 8, 2023 (edited) Model Car Journal........Not heard of that one. When was it published? Was aware of the Model Car Science magazine that I think was published back in the 60's? Maybe some trans Atlantic old timers in the US could give us the low down on them and any other American Auto modelling magazines of the past. Scale Auto's demise is well known about, but what happened to Model Car Builder? I heard that Roy Sorenson just decided to call it a day and close the magazine. Ertl used to mail out a small news sheet called the Blueprinter every so often that I can remember. Edited November 8, 2023 by Bugatti Fan
Straightliner59 Posted November 8, 2023 Posted November 8, 2023 On 11/8/2023 at 8:25 AM, Bugatti Fan said: Scale Auto's demise is well known about, but what happened to Model Car Builder? I heard that Roy Sorenson just decided to call it a day and close the magazine. Expand Yes, Roy just decided he didn't want to dedicate so much time, anymore. Model Car Journal was more oriented toward collectors, I'd say. That's not to say it didn't have a lot of interesting articles on old model kits, etc., it just wasn't as oriented toward builders.
Bugatti Fan Posted November 9, 2023 Author Posted November 9, 2023 Going off piste a bit here, but was there an organisation named the International Association of Automotive Modellers that I think was around in the 60's of 70's. Did they have a journal/newsletter? And what happened to them?
Straightliner59 Posted November 9, 2023 Posted November 9, 2023 On 11/9/2023 at 10:12 AM, Bugatti Fan said: Going off piste a bit here, but was there an organisation named the International Association of Automotive Modellers that I think was around in the 60's of 70's. Did they have a journal/newsletter? And what happened to them? Expand That rings a bell. I think I recall seeing their membership forms in ads in Car Model Magazine. I am reasonably certain that I have heard references to their newsletter, before. No idea what may have happened with them, other than they likely just faded into oblivion.
ToddModelCrazy Posted November 28, 2023 Posted November 28, 2023 Hi there, Great topic, and yes it would be a big project to digitize all the issues. But... I actually have a COMPLETE collection of Model Cars Magazine that I assembled during the worst of the pandemic via eBay when we couldn't go anywhere. It took a quite a lot of searching and expense, but I love this magazine. I also have MOST of the issues of Plastic Fanatic. Missing a very few earlier issues, but I have a list that tells me what I am missing. I also have EVERY issue of Car Model magazine, EVERY issue of Model Car Science magazine, and EVERY issue of Scale Auto Enthusiast and later Scale Auto. I also have the Scale Auto DVDs, both sets. The copyrights never expire, however, which would make copying any of these magazines illegal. If others have sizable collections of Model Cars Magazine, maybe we could each help to digitize them for Model Cars Magazine and Gregg so that he could produce his own DVDs and monetize them. This would only work if we donated our time to digitize the issues well and then gave them to Gregg 100%, so that he as the copyright holder could use them legally. But as the MCM folks said, there may not be much of a payback for sales of the DVDs due to the smaller readership. If I ever decide to sell all my issues, I will post my intentions here in case anyone is interested. Best wishes, Todd 1
Bugatti Fan Posted December 2, 2023 Author Posted December 2, 2023 (edited) Todd, it you have complete sets of magazines long gone and current, the International Model Car Builders Museum in Sandy, Utah would probably be very interested as they are in the process of archiving all the old model car magazines they can get. Not sure if they already have complete collections of not so they may well be looking for more archive materials. If monetizing your collection is not too big an issue I am sure that they would welcome any donation. Copyright regarding scanning has been mentioned. But would this still be an issue regarding magazines and the companies that were publishing them at the time may not exist any more? I would think that scanning magazines that were printed back in the 60's and 70's might be reasonably ok to do provided they were placed on the web as a totally free archive to be accessed. Edited December 2, 2023 by Bugatti Fan
RyanR0101 Posted February 21, 2024 Posted February 21, 2024 When I bought my lifetime subscription, one of the things that was supposed to be included was access to all digital back issues, which to 2012 were supposedly going to be easy to do. But nothing has materialized as far as I can tell, nor has the lifetime subscription patch, t shirt, or dash plaque turned up.,
Bugatti Fan Posted February 27, 2024 Author Posted February 27, 2024 You need to take this up with Mr.Hutchings the magazine owner Ryan
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