When teenagers ruled the hobby …

[absmiami]

Check this out …

[absmiami]

In this Oct 1968 Car Model issue - we were all introduced to Mr Keeler’s work in the mag’s iconic funny car contest - but quite a few of the placing entrants were kids - the fourth place finisher caught my eye - a precocious 14 yr old by the name of Timothy Boyd - wonder whatever became of young Timmy …. ??

[stavanzer]

10 hours ago, absmiami said:

a precocious 14 yr old by the name of Timothy Boyd - wonder whatever became of young Timmy …. ??

The World will never know.....

[Bainford]

Rumour has it, he's still playing with his little model cars. I guess some people never grow up. 

[tim boyd]

Hah!!!  And probably all true, too. 

Way more than you would ever want to know on this....TB

Tim Boyd's Car Model/MPC/Dodge National Contest Winner Restoration | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy.

Edited August 19 by tim boyd

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

1 hour ago, tim boyd said:

Hah!!!  And probably all true, too. 

Way more than you would ever want to know on this....TB

Tim Boyd's Car Model/MPC/Dodge National Contest Winner Restoration | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy.

That is fantastic, rebuilding a 50 year old build. I'm more amazed at the fact that you have all the models you've built. I stopped building around the 2nd year of high school, and have no idea what happened to any of my models.

This is a somewhat touchy subject for me. Today, this hobby is not ruled by teenagers. I'm well aware of changing times and, interests, and such, but I belive the kit manufacturers didn't make much of an effort to stay relevant and inviting to youngsters, and still don't. As a kid I was able to build models of cars I saw on the road at the time. Of course I built my share of '32 Fords and Tri-5 Chevy's and such, but the majority were current,  '60's and '70's. If the majority of kits available at that time were 40 to 50 year old cars, I probably would have never touched a tube of glue. And that's what is mostly available today, cars that are nearly 60 years old. 

It just leads me to belive that once those of us who started building way back when, are gone, so will be the hobby. But if the manufacturers don't care, the old builders don't care, then why should I? 

(Didn't mean to highjack the thread or be a buzz kill, but thanks for listening.)

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

43 minutes ago, Perspect Scale Modelworks said:

And that's what is mostly available today, cars that are nearly 60 years old. 

It just leads me to belive that once those of us who started building way back when, are gone, so will be the hobby. But if the manufacturers don't care, the old builders don't care, then why should I? 

I know what you mean, but there are plenty of more-or-less contemporary models being manufactured too.

Still, as long as there are pining-for-the-past geezers like me with plenty of disposable cash to burn, it only makes sense for the US manufacturers, at least, to cater to their interests. We won't be around much longer, so get our money before it's tied up in probate, waiting to be dispersed to our rainbow-haired descendants who'd much rather call Uber than own and drive and insure and maintain a yucky icky smelly greasy planet-destroying automobile of any description.

Another point: a large number of kits represent timeless classics that transcend generational interests. A GT40 or a Miura is every bit as appealing to a younger motorhead who actually knows something (rare they are, but they do exist) as some twin-turboed late-model Asian or Euro rocket...and I say that because I have a fondness for contemporary performance cars as well as the old stuff, and find them to be just as "relevent" in my own life as '32 Fords, '49 Chebbies, '50s dragsters, '60s and '70s Can Am cars, etc. It works both ways. I actually know one 18-year old who thinks Cords are the coolest cars ever built.

But there is the very real and undeniable truth that, because of a variety of factors, a large number of younger people simply HAVE NO INTEREST IN MACHINES, cars, planes, or anything else that goes vroom vroom.

Having shelves full of white-bread Nissans and Yotytos and Teslas and Buick crossovers and whatever Stellantis builds probably wouldn't change that fact one little bit.

Edited Tuesday at 03:27 AM by Ace-Garageguy
punctiliousness

[Bainford]

3 hours ago, tim boyd said:

Hah!!!  And probably all true, too. 

Way more than you would ever want to know on this....TB

Tim Boyd's Car Model/MPC/Dodge National Contest Winner Restoration | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy.

I just spent a good hour or so pouring through the restoration. I admire your maintaining as much original plastic as possible. Much more difficult than recreating from scratch, I'm sure. My favourite part was chapter 3; it was like an archeological dig as the paint layers disappeared and the original body work was revealed. Cool stuff. And the restoration looks awesome. The whole story is very cool, and I must say; some very innovative work for a 14 year old. Very impressive. By the way, I dig the bright green magneto and starter motor.