Contest Issue

[Guest]

When is the contest issue due out?

[Ramfins59]

I was advised on this board that it will be out sometime in March/April.

[martinfan5]

So it should be hitting the mail box in june or july

[High octane]

Contest Issue? I thought the next issue would be the "dune buggy" issue, what a bummer!

[Big Daddy]

  On 3/22/2012 at 11:35 PM, martinfan5 said:

So it should be hitting the mail box in june or july

If were lucky

[Dr. Cranky]

Mine just landed, and it's a beautiful gathering of models. You better put on your sunglasses (as ZZ TOP would sing) because your eyes might just explode from all the eye candy glowing in there.

And the issue is thick and meaty, really lots to salivate over in there.

[Darren B]

  On 3/26/2012 at 8:52 PM, Dr. Cranky said:

Mine just landed, and it's a beautiful gathering of models. You better put on your sunglasses (as ZZ TOP would sing) because your eyes might just explode from all the eye candy glowing in there.

And the issue is thick and meaty, really lots to salivate over in there.

I agree Dr. every since I got it yesterday every time i look at it again I see another killer car or truck for great inspiration!!!

[mrm]

I don't know how wise most people will say what I am about to write is, but true to my principles, I will say what is on my mind.

I am disappointed.

I buy the magazine for many reasons, but like many others one of the big ones is the model contest coverage. Over the years I have not kept all the magazine issues ( I always got BOTH magazines) but I have kept the contest issues since '99.

I have to say that recent contest issues of MCM have disappointed me. I started to notice a weird tendency for the pictures that appear. There are times when there are 20 pictures of a show and 4 people have 4 pictures of models built by them and then there are four more for all the rest. I know some people make models better than others and I know that everyone feels like they should have their photo in the magazine, but c'mon, Really?

We talk about keeping the hobby alive and bringing fresh blood into it and that's what we do? On a contest with 50 entrants we show the work of the same four people? It reminds me back in the late '90s when I was active on the shows there was a guy who used to enter models on behalf of his two children and be so proud of the load of trophies in his house. How about showing some encouragement to the newbies in the hobby? How about motivating some kid to do better next time by publishing a photo of his glue bomb and giving him a hand? We all know who the names in the hobby are and I am not saying not to show their work. It is inspirational and it should be shared. But does this mean you have to show a picture of everything they brought to a show instead of making some other guys happy too?

And about the last contest issue.....I'm so baffled by the content, that I did not even take the time I usually take to look and read everything in there. The biggest shows in the country are missing! WTF!!!!! This is the cream of the crop from the show scene for the past year? No Salt lake City? No Heartlands? No Ohio...........

I used to buy the magazine from a local book store to support the local business, but the new owner is an a$$, so for last fathers day my wife gifted me a couple of subscriptions. The last few issues had no contest coverage at all and now I receive the special issue that looks like half of it is missing.

I think this magazine is starting to lose some of the things that made the BETTER choice of the two model magazines and it hurts me to see it.

Just my two cents.

Edited March 28, 2012 by mrm

[Gregg]

You must have missed the 8 pages I did in July 2011 issue covering the BIGGEST show, GSL.

Oh, did you want me to run it again, charge you twice?

All the big shows that I go to (or went to, since travel is basically off limits for now) are put in the mag usually the next issue.

With a full story, not just captions.

As for the photos that are sent in, we run what we are given, and if there are only four photos that are good enough for print quality, then that's what we have.

Plus, a lot of times, builders don't bring their models up to be photographed at a lot of the shows.

Yes, I try to make as many people happy as I can, sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

There's more to it than meets the eye, and we do the best that we can with what we are given.

You want to see more shows? Send in the photos from your show, or get some guys together and work on being part of our national band of merry photo-takers.

I will be putting more resources up on the main site for photos and contest/show info, like spec sheets, photo guidelines, etc.

[mrm]

  On 3/28/2012 at 7:43 PM, Gregg said:

Oh, did you want me to run it again, charge you twice?

Nice!!!!

You know very well what I am saying. Or maybe I did not say it clear. I should have divided the two issues. This contest issue is better than the previous ones in regards to the pictures being published being from the same few. But as far as contest covered it lacks compared to the ones in the past. Also having the guys who took the pictures from the show and wrote the coverage to publish their own models in the contest annual is like winning a contest that you are judging.

Look, I am not trying to pick an argument or bash your magazine. It is called constructive criticism, which I am giving exactly because I like the magazine and I would like to see it held up to the previous high standard. Something that is slipping lately.

And if you publish one kid's glue bomb from every contest that is published for one year, feel free to charge me double and renew my subscription. We all have been kids and we all have been at contests. And we all know darn well, that for most kids having their model published means a lot more than a trophy.

Edited March 28, 2012 by mrm

[Steven Zimmerman]

I, for one, have been very happy with the' Model Cars' contest coverage, . Admittedly, since Gregg is not able to visit the shows here on the mainland as much ( and i understand why, the coverage is not as good as it was,but I blame no one), Gregg was about as good as it gets, both in his personal contest coverage, and in fantastic photography....I used to stand back and watch that man effortlessly take photo after photo after photo, and still keep up endless 'banter' with the people in line for photographs....I do not sense that from other magazine's photographers, And I felt Gregg's love of both the hobby AND the hobbyists, was always right there on his shirt sleeve.... Now, I've been very lucky over the years, with a few pictures in the magazines myself, but I agree with him, submit pictures yourself, or find a way to help ! I would bet Model Cars Magazine takes literally hundreds of photographs at every contest they cover, and I know 'I' would not like to be the individual who has to choose what makes the magazines, and what does'nt........'Z'

[Danno]

I'm not going to repost Steve Z's text, but ...

x2 what he said!!

[martinfan5]

X3 to what he said

[Erik Smith]

I vote no glue bombs. I don't want to look at that and neither do the other readers. One kid might, the kid who built it, but I don't. I like to be inspired by other builders.

I haven't picked up the contest issue yet, but I usually enjoy them. We will see if this one is the same.

[LoneWolf15]

I have to echo " Z " on his comments here . Greg worked the shows like a magician , smooth with the banter , genuinely interested in what each and every individual had to say . You would be hard pressed to find a better ambassador for the hobby on the planet .

Due to health issues , his participation at the shows is pretty much non existent at the moment . Depending on others to come through for you is a mixed bag at best . Overall , the last few issues of the Contest issue have been pretty good in my opinion .

As to certain individuals making the magazine , photowise, on a regular basis ? They pretty much earn it each and everytime . As far as I see it , it's just like an award at a show , you have to work for it .

The " staff " for this magazine does an outstanding job , working hard to promote the most important aspect there is , the hobby itself !

[Harry P.]

Just to add to what Gregg said... we run with what we have.

We like to give each contest a minimum of 4 pages. In a few cases, we just don't have enough photos from that particular contest to fill four pages, so we go with three. And sometimes, the photos submitted from a particular contest contain multiple photos from the same builder(s). Sometimes I get a lot of photos of models from the same builder(s).

I first try to fill each contest's pages with photos from as many different builders that I can, and if I still have a few spots to fill after I've used up all the other photos, then I'll go back and drop in some of those photos from the same builders, to fill out the "holes."

And sometimes the photos I get are so bad that they're literally not usable.

Like I said, we run with what we have. Gregg can't personally cover as many contests as he used to, our "west coast guy," Darryl Gassaway, has said he wants to retire from the contest coverage, So we need some new people to step up and submit more contests. We can't feature a contest if we don't have any photos! (and captions, too!)

[Drgon63]

Looking forward to mine coming soon....always great coverage and i also share Steve Z's sentiments...Gregg always does an outstanding job and i enjoy each and every issue of the magazine.

Gregg

I hope you get to feeling better... sorry we will miss the Big Kahuna at the NNL east.... stay well and get better buddy

Mahalo pilialoha

[mrm]

  On 3/28/2012 at 8:17 PM, Steven Zimmerman said:

I, for one, have been very happy with the' Model Cars' contest coverage, . Admittedly, since Gregg is not able to visit the shows here on the mainland as much ( and i understand why, the coverage is not as good as it was,but I blame no one), Gregg was about as good as it gets, both in his personal contest coverage, and in fantastic photography....I used to stand back and watch that man effortlessly take photo after photo after photo, and still keep up endless 'banter' with the people in line for photographs....I do not sense that from other magazine's photographers, And I felt Gregg's love of both the hobby AND the hobbyists, was always right there on his shirt sleeve.... Now, I've been very lucky over the years, with a few pictures in the magazines myself, but I agree with him, submit pictures yourself, or find a way to help ! I would bet Model Cars Magazine takes literally hundreds of photographs at every contest they cover, and I know 'I' would not like to be the individual who has to choose what makes the magazines, and what does'nt........'Z'

I agree with you wholeheartedly. And that is exactly what I was saying. Gregg WAS as good as it gets. You USED TO stand back and...... I never stood next to the man , but I always felt about him the way you do and I got that impression from the magazine, which says a lot. But the key word is USED to.

I don't mind helping if I could. But I live in a region where the nearest Hobby shop is a couple of hours away and contests are unheard of. And please don't take everything so literally.

Obviously there are people who DO take pictures at the contests. And they send the content to the mag. English is not my first language, but as far as I know, the editor's job is to decide what goes in his magazine and to make sure it is done in the proper way = to his liking and standards. So here we have a situation, where there is admittedly an issue, as small as it may be, and I don't get what is going on. Gregg is one of the great things that has happened to the hobby in the past decade and I guy that we learned to respect for his love for the hobby and his commitment and standards. Now he is saying that "it's not really my fault" which is the last thing I expected by him. He choses the material published. He choses the people whose material is used and it is his responsibility what the outcome is. He is the "commander in chief" ,no?!

There was a coverage of a show (I don't remember from the top of my head) in the past, where it was explained what a wonderful turnout it had and how many participant with how many total models were presented. And then there were the photos of 4 entrants on two pages. What happened to the other people? How did they feel when they saw the coverage in a contest annual? How many of them will go back the next year?

And about the glue bombs, it was just a figure of speech. I mean really, how many glue bombs you see on a contest table? I think really highly of John Teresi (it is just the first name that comes to mind, which is a compliment). We all know what he can do and we are all inspired by his work. I really admire the guy and his models. But instead of having pictures of four of his models from one contest, don't you think it would be better if had two of his pictures and each of two youngsters, that would get motivated by it and maybe one day become as good as John himself. Or should we just ignore them until they go into die cast or RC or fishing or whatever and then 5 years from now start a thread about "what's the future of the hobby"

Edited March 28, 2012 by mrm

[Dr. Cranky]

At this year's BAMA show (all all the shows I remember) Tommy May was kind enough to set up the photography table and he got lots of the models that he thought would look cool in the magazine photographed, and it's a great idea for people to take the initiative and set up similar tables and photograph the models from their local shows. This makes the coverage more thorough and then the magazine benefits from it.

I am very pleased with the coverage and sometimes I like to see a model photographed from several angles, etc . . .

[mrm]

  On 3/28/2012 at 8:42 PM, Harry P. said:

Just to add to what Gregg said...

I understand. Sorry, your post appeared while I was typing mine.

I have two little monkeys at home (my boys) and my wife's job does not allow for much time off, which make me going to contests almost impossible anymore, as it is at least a two day adventure due to my location. However if I can be of any help at the couple of events I would like to go, I'll be more than happy to help.