NNL?

[mnwildpunk]

Ok so I have been on this forum off and on for about 2 yrs. I have seen the abreveation NNL dozens of times I know it's some type of show and that is it. First off what does NNL stand for? I typed it in google search and got 1000's of different sites none that looked related. I know also there is divisions like east, midwest, south. Which one would be closest to Minnesota? Thanks for the answers

[Tom Geiger]

Dave, NNL stands for National Nameless Luminaries. It's an old story. Going back over 30 years ago, Mark Gustavson envisioned holding a world championship of car modeling out in Salt Lake City. He promoted this as the place where all the big dogs would go to compete. Only for his first show, nobody came. Just one person, Andy Martin showed up. Mark was upset and penned an article in his Putty Thrower column in Scale Auto. He mentioned that these 'national luminaries who would remain nameless', hadn't responded.

Around the same time, a group of adult modelers would get together the evening before the Toledo Toy Show at someone's house just for an evening of barbecue, and model car camaraderie. Model cars were displayed on doors sitting on saw horses just so everyone could share. This group commented on Mark's article and decided to share their Friday evening get together with more modelers. In jest, they called it the NNL, for Nameless National Luminaries, as a tongue in cheek jab at Mark. They felt that the contest thing had gone too far in the way of competition, so they envisioned an event without awards, just models and friends. This the NNL Nationals in Toledo was born. This show has been going over 30 years.

Other modelers and clubs enjoyed the casual format and decided to duplicate the concept. The first was NNL East in New Jersey. Tri-State Scale Model Car Club president, the late John Slivoski, had attended the Toledo meets and asked for permission to hold a similar meet in NJ. They agreed as long as he stayed true to the concept. This show is in it's 27th year.

While the original group wanted no awards at all, they relented to others who wanted a few simple awards, all people's choice. So you would have a Best in Show and Best Theme awards. A junior award was also created to encourage youth.

Across the country, and around the world, the format was adapted by other clubs. Some stayed true to the format and others took it off their own direction. It's important to note that there is no NNL organization that is responsible for all the shows. NNL has become a name that describes the format. The individual shows are run by local organizations.

[Nitro Neil]

There is a short explanation from Mark Gustavson himself in this thread from 2009. Mark Gustavson runs the National Model Car Museum in Utah. He wrote an article that was featured in Scale Auto Enthusiast back in 1980 that complained about a lack of attendance at his national model car championship.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23662

There is also more detailed info at Mark's website, including a copy of the original article.

http://www.customclinic.com/News/NNL/nnl.html

Edited February 27, 2013 by Nitro Neil

[1930fordpickup]

Tom the NNL Nationals in Toledo is a great show. Like them on Facebook you can get all the info from them.

Not to far from my house , so I have been there many times. They have a good Toy show that goes on at the same time.

A bunch of kits for sale great resin casters.

Bring a fist full of spending money. LOL

[moparfarmer]

DAVE:...The NNL NORTH is on May 19 in Bloomington RPM model club puts it on...Contact Robert Maderich at robertmadericj69@hotmail.com for more information....

[jas1957]

Tom about covered it, just check the coming events in the magazine or the Contest & Shows or calendar sections of the forum. They are all over the country. Great places to have fun & not sweat the trophies.

[kalbert]

DAVE:...The NNL NORTH is on May 19 in Bloomington RPM model club puts it on...Contact Robert Maderich at robertmadericj69@hotmail.com for more information....

Sweet! I'll have to check into that too!

[tim boyd]

Tom's description is very accurate except for a minor detail...the first ever NNL took place on Tom Woodruff's garage in central Ohio in the summer of 1980...Tom, Chuck Helppie and I invited all the former MPC Contest winners that we could track down to an event that would feature NO competition. In the end, six people showed up, the three of us, Andy Martin (the same guy mentioned in Tom's post above and a regular on this board, Bob Bost, and Gary Dale. We had a ball. This soon evolved into the fall event at Toledo that Tom describes, taking place the Saturday night before the Toledo Toy Show. But unlike today's NNL's that run out of steam in late afternoon, back then we would go late into the evening...maybe even to midnight or beyond...heh we were young!

The 33rd annual NNL Nats was last fall....located no more than about five milles northwest ot the infamous Toledo turnpike Motel where our first hugely successful (at least for the time) NNL took place - the Merc Deuce reunion.

Best regards...TIM

[mnwildpunk]

Thank you all I learned a lot

[moparfarmer]

DAVE:...I typed the wrong contact for Robert Maderich...Should read robertmaderich69@hotmail.com

[Mercman]

Already got my room reserved for this years event in MPlS. Hope to see you there. Here are links to past shows.

http://s8.beta.photobucket.com/user/mercman51/library/NNL North 2009

http://s8.beta.photobucket.com/user/mercman51/library/NNL North 2010

http://s8.beta.photobucket.com/user/mercman51/library/NNL North 2011

http://s8.beta.photobucket.com/user/mercman51/library/NNL North 2012

If you open 2012, scroll through the side bar to the main title, then click on the different categories.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Mercman

[tim boyd]

And here is a link to albums with full coverage of the NNL Nationals in Toledo....including "cult themes" from 2012 going all the way back to 2007 http://public.fotki.com/funman1712/model-car-events-co/ Best regards...TIM

[Tom Geiger]

and to add to the festivities, here's the NNL East albums for the past 12 years:

http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/

or to learn of the next show, go to the website:

http://www.nnleast.com

[carrucha]

Pretty interesting. Thanks for the info Tom.