Is our hobby, growing or skrinking?

[BSB Racing]

^{Building things does seem to be becoming a lost art. In 2006 I built a teardrop camper trailer which my wife and I go camping with. It always draws a crowd in campgrounds, and we give people "tours" of the trailer. When I tell people I built it myself, some of them (mostly younger folks) lapse into absolute shock to think I can do such a thing. One guy even said "Are you some kind of genius?" Heck no, it's basic carpentry - nothing too difficult, but I'm surprised that those people are amazed.}

^{Here's a pic of the trailer being used.}

Sweet '48 Chevy tail lights!! I take it back, I think the tail lights are '46 Ford. Looked at the picture on a bigger screen the 2nd time. BTW.....nice job on the teardrop.

Edited January 21, 2014 by BSB Racing

[Rob Hall]

Oh that is sweet, just replace the Ones with 4 and I am all over that

We probably will have one of those also sooner or later...

[martinfan5]

We probably will have one of those also sooner or later...

Of course , I will as well, but I am waiting for some games that I want to play to come out first, I am not going to get a PS4 just to have one

Edited January 21, 2014 by martinfan5

[niteowl7710]

Alright y'all are gonna have to pick a side of the fence to stand on and park a lawn chair for more than 15 minutes and stop trying to tap dance along top the pickets. The hobby is alive and well, look at all these kits, resurgence, renaissance, ONLINE SHOPPING -- WHOOOOOEEEEEEE!!

No one's at the hobby shop, doom, gloom, death spiral, etc, etc...

Well if everyone's shopping online, no wonder no one's at the LHS. If no one's buying anything how come the wholesale end of things is looking up?

If the hobby didn't die in the 70's and 80's when the cars were replicas of some of the least inspiring automobiles ever created -- man I can NOT wait until the next CHEVETTE model!!! Get out the way the new Pinto kits are in!!! -- then I think things are just fine and well into the foreseeable future. 65 is not the slow downward spiral into the grave that it was when our grandparents (or your parents for the older guys) was...life expectancy is far greater, QUALITY of life is far better as well.

[slusher]

I think there are some guys in there 40's coming back to the hobby and I know some men 10 years younger then me still playing and hooked on video games. Video games is a very big pastime for many adults now.

[Speedfreak]

"If the hobby didn't die in the 70's and 80's when the cars were replicas of some of the least inspiring automobiles ever created -- man I can NOT wait until the next CHEVETTE model!!! Get out the way the new Pinto kits are in!!! -- then I think things are just fine and well into the foreseeable future.

I'm pulling my lawn chair up James.

[1959scudetto]

Well, I cannot say how the hobby is developing in the US, but here in Austria the hobby-shops disappear or they give up model kits (except Revell Germany, which you can find very easily, almost everywhere) - Italeri, Tamiya, amt, airfix, mpc and many others are more or less gone - 30 years ago it was totally different, but today you are forced to order such kits and aftermarket parts online from Germany, USA, Japan etc.

I started model building in about 1969, with 10 years of age (1/72 airfix planes sailing ships and 1/32 cars - what I could afford for my small pocket money back then, on birthdays or Christmas I got Tamiya's 1/18 McLaren M8A or 1/12 Lotus 49 F1).

I lost interest about 5 years later, then rediscovered modelling in 1982 - as I am a car nut since my early childhood, this time I concentrated on cars and US trucks (amt's 1/25 Peterbilt wrecker enlightened the flame once again) and have not stopped ever since. For 25 years now I'm more collecting than building (2 kids, NO own hobby room) and have more than 370 kits in my stash.

I doubt that I will ever find the time to build them all - another problem which I'm not alone with.

(When I was a kid, I bought a model kit, finished it, and then bought another one).

Well, now I'm 54, trying to get rid off several kits that don't interest me no more (like it has been when aquired them), but at the same time I'm eagerly awaiting the new kit releases.

To make a long story short, I have much more ideas than time, space and money.

My two daughters are not interested in these things, and sometimes I feel a little bit like some kind of dinosaur.

Even if the hobby goes belly up, I will be busy for the rest of my life; I feel like the plastic modelling hobby will die with our generation (similar things seem to happen with railroad modeling here in Europe - when visiting the Vienna modelling fair in October, almost only old man are really interested in that - it is far too sophisticated and expensive to be used as a child's toy).

[ZTony8]

It seems like each generation tends to stick with the things that were in vogue as they were growing up.This is just human nature.For a prior generation of boys it was trains,for us it's model cars,for younger people it will be gaming or "extreme sports".Too bad I won't be around to see a bunch of geriatrics trying to pedal BMX bikes!

Our hobby will survive for quite a while.It won't have the "numbers" it did in the 60s but there will always be a core of enthusiasts, just like the train people or the people who re-create Civil War battles.

Edited January 21, 2014 by ZTony8

[clovis]

Interesting topic.

I too am worried about the long term viability of this hobby.

Back when I was a kid, building models was very popular. I quit building when I went off to college.

Back when I was building in the 80's, the 4-H entries at our fair were impressive, and numbered into the hundreds. The number of entries stayed way up through the 90's, and was so popular that the fair board built a special plexiglass wall (so they could put more models on the floor for viewing and keep people away from the models) and built additional shelving for display.

In the past few years, the number has dwindled to a shockingly low point.

Today, the fair boast hundreds of Lego entries. I know Legos are popular, but man alive, the number of Lego kit entries are astounding.

While I am 100% for small business and for the LHS, when Walmart quit carrying models, paints and supplies at cheap prices, the number of entries plummeted.

And I don't blame any parent for not getting into building a model with their kid. The kit prices at HTUSA are mind boggling, and the kit selection at HL is low, to say the least. A few years ago, I heard a parent say "We won't be doing this again. This entry cost us almost $100!" I even have a hard time justifying the cost of a build sometimes, and I am a straight-box builder.

I think kids still enjoy building when given the opportunity...but when does that opportunity exist? When you have to drive 25 miles to get a kit or a bottle of paint, and pay a fortune for it...

I've always said, cheap models at Wallyworld were the gateway to big, expensive models elsewhere, and to a lifetime of building.

Edited January 21, 2014 by clovis

[Harry P.]

No doubt that Walmart carrying model kits gave them exposure to a huge potential customer base, and probably snagged quite a few people who had never built a kit into buying one. Millions of people who may never have built a model kit may have seen them and given it a try.

Any time a product is only available at a certain, limited location, logic tells you that fewer people will ever see it. If model kits are only available at hobby shops, the odds of a person who has never seen or built a model kit walking in the door and buying a kit are far lower than that person "running into" the model display at Walmart.

Less exposure = fewer buyers. I agree that the loss of exposure in Walmart was a huge nail in the model building coffin. Sure, the people already involved in the hobby still know where to buy kits, but many casual or potential first-time buyers have been lost.

[Rob Hall]

No doubt that Walmart carrying model kits gave them exposure to a huge potential customer base, and probably snagged quite a few people who had never built a kit into buying one. Millions of people who may never have built a model kit may have seen them and given it a try.

Any time a product is only available at a certain, limited location, logic tells you that fewer people will ever see it. If model kits are only available at hobby shops, the odds of a person who has never seen or built a model kit walking in the door and buying a kit are far lower than that person "running into" the model display at Walmart.

Less exposure = fewer buyers. I agree that the loss of exposure in Walmart was a huge nail in the model building coffin. Sure, the people already involved in the hobby still know where to buy kits, but many casual or potential first-time buyers have been lost.

True enough...when I was a kid I had been building models at least 7-8 years before I ever stepped into an actual hobby shop...my early models all came from chain stores like KMart, Ben Franklin, TruValue hardware, or groceries...

[99monguse]

I started playing video games back in 1983 with the ATARI 2600, then Nintendo NES....all the way until now with a XBOX 360/ONE/PS4; I am 37. I build my first 1/24 1/25 model back in 1988 and built all the way until about 1992ish. Once I started driving with my first car 1984 Camaro T-Top and girls started chasing me, I seem to have lost interest in modeling...weird huh, who would have thought that would happen

I am really thinking about getting back into the hobby after watching countless youtube videos on guys builds!

[Speedfreak]

I started playing video games back in 1983 with the ATARI 2600, then Nintendo NES....all the way until now with a XBOX 360/ONE/PS4; I am 37. I build my first 1/24 1/25 model back in 1988 and built all the way until about 1992ish. Once I started driving with my first car 1984 Camaro T-Top and girls started chasing me, I seem to have lost interest in modeling...weird huh, who would have thought that would happen

I am really thinking about getting back into the hobby after watching countless youtube videos on guys builds!

Do it Brian!

[CJ1971]

On a sort of related note... I heard the other day that the Marines are instituting special classes in communication and basic social interaction/social skills.

Why? Apparently so many new recruits (and young people in general) are so used to communicating and interacting socially via texting and/or social media, that when it comes to actual face-to-face communication and social skills, they need help!

Scary.

I'm not surprised... At... All.

[clovis]

I started playing video games back in 1983 with the ATARI 2600, then Nintendo NES....all the way until now with a XBOX 360/ONE/PS4; I am 37. I build my first 1/24 1/25 model back in 1988 and built all the way until about 1992ish. Once I started driving with my first car 1984 Camaro T-Top and girls started chasing me, I seem to have lost interest in modeling...weird huh, who would have thought that would happen

I am really thinking about getting back into the hobby after watching countless youtube videos on guys builds!

You should definitely jump back in to modeling.

I had a 25+ year hiatus, much like you did, and have wondered many times why I ever quit building.

If you liked building then, you'll love it now!

[charlie8575]

On a sort of related note... I heard the other day that the Marines are instituting special classes in communication and basic social interaction/social skills.

Why? Apparently so many new recruits (and young people in general) are so used to communicating and interacting socially via texting and/or social media, that when it comes to actual face-to-face communication and social skills, they need help!

Scary.

I'd LOVE to see a copy of that curriculum.

I can think of quite few under-30s and high school kids I know that need something like that.

Charlie Larkin

[Tom Geiger]

Today, the fair boast hundreds of Lego entries. I know Legos are popular, but man alive, the number of Lego kit entries are astounding.

and there goes the theory that kids are all on computers and don't build with their hands! Lego seems to be very popular. I noticed that Walmart has almost a whole toy aisle devoted just to them. Then as I was investigating my idea of opening a hobby shop, I came across a toy store, about the size of a shop I'd want to open, that was doing well pretty much devoted to Lego! The owner told me that he competes with big box stores by having deeper stock and the hard to get items.

Now if we could only get some of these kids from Lego to come over to model cars.

[clovis]

and there goes the theory that kids are all on computers and don't build with their hands! Lego seems to be very popular. I noticed that Walmart has almost a whole toy aisle devoted just to them. Then as I was investigating my idea of opening a hobby shop, I came across a toy store, about the size of a shop I'd want to open, that was doing well pretty much devoted to Lego! The owner told me that he competes with big box stores by having deeper stock and the hard to get items.

Now if we could only get some of these kids from Lego to come over to model cars.

Good point, Tom.

I've often wondered about the differences between Legos and models, and why one is overshadowing the other.

The family/business that owns Lego has done a fantastic job marketing their product, including the use of child psychologists in why kids like the blocks. They've taken that information and used it to strategically market to kids. I wish that one of the model companies would do the same thing with kids and kits.

You can buy Legos almost everywhere. If you remove ebay and the internet from the equation, where does one buy a model? I think the closest place to us is 25 miles away, and I'm not out in the boonies.

Legos are more expensive than models, for the most part. The high end kits are expensive!

The distinct advantages of Legos over models:

1. You can build a Lego kit as many times as you want, or build anything at all, should you desire.

2. Legos are definitely considered "cool" by most kids, at least for now.

3. You can buy a Lego kit, build it, and it looks good. Buy a model...wow...I remember how bad some of my first models looked!

4. No mess. No paint, no glue, no broken parts.

5. When you are done with a Lego build, you still have a toy to play with; build a model, and you've got a fragile item that needs to sit on a shelf forever.

I am certainly no expert, but I did drink a Dr Pepper today. From my arm chair perspective, I think that kids are outgrowing Legos by a certain age, generally speaking. My nephew has aged out and is too cool to build with Legos now, but knows very little about building models, even though I've tried.

I think there is room for models to become popular, but we are starting to get a generation or two out of the "let's build a model" mentality. If you are 10 years old, and your mom and dad weren't exposed to models, there really is no chance that you'll pick it up as a hobby.

I think we need more marketing from the industry as a whole, and better availability of cheap kits and supplies.

Kids love to build...just look at the popularity of Minecraft...they just need exposure to model building.

[sliferkiller]

I'm 17, and my parents were never into this hobby. I'm getting into this hobby hopefully will continue but for the most part I dont see many teenagers my age building models..

[Tom Geiger]

I think there is room for models to become popular, but we are starting to get a generation or two out of the "let's build a model" mentality. If you are 10 years old, and your mom and dad weren't exposed to models, there really is no chance that you'll pick it up as a hobby.

I think we need more marketing from the industry as a whole, and better availability of cheap kits and supplies.

Kids love to build...just look at the popularity of Minecraft...they just need exposure to model building.

I'm 17, and my parents were never into this hobby. I'm getting into this hobby hopefully will continue but for the most part I dont see many teenagers my age building models..

Back when I was a kid in the last century, I learned about models and got involved through peer exposure. A lot of kids built back then and it was easy to buy models. Every corner soda shop, drug store, grocery store and chain store had models on display. As we know that's not the deal today.

So lets get a young perspective.. Jason, how did you discover models? What made you get involved? Where do you buy your models?

[Art Anderson]

I'm 17, and my parents were never into this hobby. I'm getting into this hobby hopefully will continue but for the most part I dont see many teenagers my age building models..

Jason,

I'm 70 yrs young, and neither of my parents were EVER into any sort of model building back when I started. My brother is 8 years older than me, and while he dabbled with building balsa & tissue flying model airplanes, a few solid wood aircraft kits, and a ton of wood hot rod kits in the late 1940's or so, he was no influence on my taking up this hobby when I did in 1952 at the age of 8.

In a real way, I was in on the "leading edge" of this hobby as we know it today--and while many of my schoolmates at least tried to build a plastic model or two, today I am the only one out of my HS graduating class (1962) who ever kept up in this hobby. But, they did at least try, "test the waters" so to speak.

When I look around at some of the contests I attend every year, it seems to me that at least at the contest level, the entry age seems to be about your age to perhaps early 20's or so.

That said, there does seem to be new blood coming into our hobby, otherwise it would have gone well into decline several years ago, as age, infirmity and passing away have surely thinned out the ranks of modelers my age.

Art

[cobramike]

I have tried to get younger folks interested in modeling, I think that allot of people see this hobby as a kids toy. I think that the main reason that the hobby is slow right now is because of computers, and the facebook crowd. Lets face it, there is just too much of spare time being wasted looking at a computer or gaming screen...LOL, yet here I am on my computer. (only because of taking a break from the last 3 hours of working on a model pickup).
Also my collection is growing as well. With winter coming on I will have more time to put into modeling again. I quit modeling back when I was constantly working on my 1:1 projects when I was 24, however since retiring I have got back into it
I just think that the younger generation (milliennals) just have too many other things to occupy their minds.

[Brett Barrow]

If anything, computers, the internet, message boards and Facebook have caused an explosion in modeling over the past few years. Just look at the number of Facebook modeling groups. Look at the successful modeling product businesses that have sprang up from well-known modelers' on-line prescience. An airplane modeling board I also participate on, Hyperscale's main "Plane Talking" board just had its largest number of page views ever in a month, 2.5 million in this past August 2014, and it's been around since 1999.

All I know is this hobby is in better shape now, in 2014, than it was when I started in the business, in 2001. Will it ever be the 60's or the 90's again? Probably not, but that's not a bad thing.

[martinfan5]

If anything, computers, the internet, message boards and Facebook have caused an explosion in modeling over the past few years. Just look at the number of Facebook modeling groups. Look at the successful modeling product businesses that have sprang up from well-known modelers' on-line prescience. An airplane modeling board I also participate on, Hyperscale's main "Plane Talking" board just had its largest number of page views ever in a month, 2.5 million in this past August 2014, and it's been around since 1999.

All I know is this hobby is in better shape now, in 2014, than it was when I started in the business, in 2001. Will it ever be the 60's or the 90's again? Probably not, but that's not a bad thing.

I like the kits that were being tooled up in the 90's.

[sliferkiller]

Back when I was a kid in the last century, I learned about models and got involved through peer exposure. A lot of kids built back then and it was easy to buy models. Every corner soda shop, drug store, grocery store and chain store had models on display. As we know that's not the deal today.

So lets get a young perspective.. Jason, how did you discover models? What made you get involved? Where do you buy your models?

Well I discovered models from gundam, it all started there. It was fun to cut those little parts off, sand them glue them together. Then i discovered car modelling at a trip to Michaels (arts and crafts store) and saw a section and there were Revell kits. I started off with a Mustang, Ferrari 612, and later on a Ferrari Enzo. This was probably back when i was 13? And believe me, my painting was horrible. The first two kits i built I brush painted the body. They turned out horrible. The third kit was spray painted and is still horrible. (no shine, very dull and very thick paint) I quit car modelling when i was around 14, and recently got back into it since i received a gift, a model car. The car by no means is great, but is a HUGE step up from what i have previously did. So i guess you can say I will be continuing this hobby for a while. Have a model ordered and have a model sitting at home waiting. And models i basically get from a local hobby store or Michaels, or online. I myself play video games and build models but models are my personal preference. People my age are hooked onto the internet, and have probably not discovered the art of modeling.

I would also like to add in, that I've told my friends to do modeling but most start out with Gundam (more popular to asians) hahaha. Most gave up because of their lack of skills (most likely cant paint so didnt recommend them to car models) or they cant support it (finance/time)

Edited September 15, 2014 by sliferkiller