Is our hobby, growing or skrinking?

[unclescott58]

Welcome to the hobby Jason. Enjoy. It can be a lot fun. As to whether "our hobby" is growing or shrinking? Who really knows? And can I do really do anything about it? There is very little I can do about about the overall health of the hobby. All I can really do, is buy the kits I like and have fun building them. And stop worrying about "Is our hobby, growing or skrinking?" (That should be spelled shrinking by the way.)

In my professional career I work with kids. And I will never stop exposing them to the hobby, and encourage them to check it out. Beyond that, that's all I can do.

Scott

[southpier]

growing - by leaps & bounds.

just a few minutes internet searching will net a sophisticated lot of kits & parts that have never been offered. technology is on our side. we don't have everything we want (think pre 58 VW bug!) but we can get Eztel Classics, which are being reissued. and a bunch of other great stuff. what's to complain about?

oh yeah, I know: "there's flash on my kit". c'mon.

[AC Norton]

I think its been on the downslide for many years now. most younger fellas,,,not all of course, but most, have interests that are not hobby oriented. even though hobby shops still carry the latest models, better building supplies and such than ever, those hobby shops even when considering world wide numbers, are small in number compared to days gone. think of it this way,,almost every department store, dime store, even your local variety and corner stores, carried models, paint, glue, etc. you could even buy kits at some grocery stores. that's because young guys, and even dads were buying and building plastic in record numbers. it was an affordable and fun hobby, whether your interests were cars, military, sci fi,,,you name it. it had a hometown feel to it. local stores sponsored model contests in house on a regular basis, and young or old could enter and enjoy the fun. stores promoted in that way, because it helped the store and all its young customers. once computers, video games, and all the other bling things took over in the 80's, the writing was on the wall for the model hobby...the ace..

[Brett Barrow]

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

A lot of good kits came out of the 90's. But the model companies were being run (into the ground) by toy companies and were beholden to WalMart and the big-box stores when it came to subject matter. Glad that is over.

[Rob Hall]

One thing that was better in the 90s IMO is there were many full detail (and snap) kits of then-current subjects. There wasn't as much focus on 'nostalgia' (old) subjects as there is today.

[chepp]

Thanks for the various opinions, facts and other comments on this subject. I am (as usual) especially impressed with the rational posts by Tom Geiger, Art Anderson and charlie8575. It's a complex problem. One thing I might add is that market research done by individual companies is not likely to become publicly available. It is expensive and is usually considered a trade secret -- there would be nothing to gain from giving it away, especially when competitors might be able to use it to aid in competing against the company that paid for it.

On the other hand, many of Harry P's posts, especially the ones stating that building a model not being educational, don't seem worthy of one who is a moderator. I'll side with the trio mentioned above.

I've built plastic models, mostly of cars, since I was a little kid in the late '50s. I've had "how to" articles on them published since the '70s. My career since 1982 has been with die-cast toy and model manufacturers in the new products departments -- and often being involved with people formerly with the model kit manufacturers. I know, at work I'm part of the "dark side" since the majority of die-casts are already assembled, sometimes have fad trends in styling that traditionalists abhor, and on and on. Still, my hobby is building models. I can't predict the future of the hobby but it sure is interesting.

I have the luxury of living two miles from a huge brick-and-mortar full line hobby shop -- I hadn't even realized it existed when I moved here (east of Los Angeles) fifteen years ago. It seems to be going great. It stocks the common kits and items that one would expect, plus it carries all sorts of obscure items (weathering powder, for example), has a big RC track out back and is staffed with knowledgeable people. The store manufactures (or, at least, store brands them) hobby items, too. So between this store and the internet, just about anything I could want can be purchased -- and then re-shaped by me into my own vision in scale.

I can't imagine how things could be any better.

Edited September 15, 2014 by chepp

[Bob Ellis]

You could go on forever trying to answer this question. Maybe the is Yes, and No.

If you didn't live through the '60s, it's hard to imagine how it was. I remember my kids asking me after watching an old '60s Nick at Night show if everything in life was black and white back then. It wasn't, but it was.

The '60s was a 3 TV channel world unless your TV was adapted for UHF with a couple more channels. TV went off the air at Midnight and came back at 6 AM. At night as a kid, you did your homework, watched some TV and maybe some built a model kit. If you wanted to find out about something, you got a book or an encyclopedia.

In the '60s, building models was a way to pass the time, especially when it was raining and you could not go out to play ball, or build a fort in the woods. If you think model cars have taken a hit, consider how nobody plays board games anymore. I guess we can blame Nintendo on that and how it has proliferated into high tech computer games. As Danny DeVito said in the movie OTHER PEOPLES MONEY, " the best way to go out of business, is to get an increasing share of a shrinking market". Your business can go south even if you make the best product and less people want it anymore. Obsolescence. Maybe someday you download some file and you 3D print parts you need to build something.

Model kits were cheap in the '60s by today's standards. By the '70s, a kit price represented an hour at minimum wage. My thought has always been that the promo business subsidized the kits. Even today, kits aren't as expensive as you might think considering that volume is way down, and there are no subsidies anymore. The old kits were much more simple in design as well.

It's hard to imagine every store in town had models. You could find then at; drug stores, grocery stores, sporting goods stores, 5&10 stores, paper stores just to name a few. I remember buying an AMT '58 Impala at SEARS back in 1971. I would say there are about 30-40% as many hobby stores today compared to the '60s. It was not unusual to see blowouts of 50 cent kits from 1964 to the '70s.

I am guessing the amount of diehard modelers is the same today as back in the '60s. People that really loved it, kept doing it until even now. Kids who built a few models in the '60s are now replaced by kids finding other entertainment. Back in the '60s they also used firecrackers to blow up their models after they were tired of them. Not a true modeler.

I think things are about the same as they always were. They just look different.