Are we car modellers a dying breed ??

[willimo]

You know I think it is interesting that ya'll are thinking about a model/video game licensing agreement of some sort. That idea popped into my head the other day when I was telling someone about all the cars I had in GT3; it occured to me at that moment thatthe majority of them were made by Tamiya. And also Fujimi, save the JGTC cars. It further occured to me that Gran Turismo 1 and Castrol NSX led me to buy my first Tamiya model, a Castrol Mugen NSX (at great expense to a sophomore, I think, in highschool). Even though that kit sat on my shelf, I bought and built a few other Tamiyas in the mean time.

An interesting note, the game Automodellista seems to have some sort of Tamiya license. One of the prizes you can win for being a good driver is a Tamiya banner to put in your garage. And later you can win a track, called Tamiya, that's actually and RC track and turns whatever car you've got into an RC for the race! Isn't that nuts?

Unfortunately, even though we think the companies missed the boat by avoiding that sort of license agreement, I guess Tamiya takes themselves too seriously to do something like that - to just rebox old kits for a video game tie in. Fujimi might consider something like that, but that might lead to more dissappointing results than them not doing it at all (though it might not, either?).

I would credit GT1,2,3 for getting a ton of people into models. That game made the Skyline a household name and what model gets built more than any other here? But I would have a hard time saying that video games in general are not competing with other hobbies - there are games out there other than racing games!

[73superduty]

Not sure what I can add that hasn't alrady been said, but I will mention my lhs and my thoughts.
This appears to be a regional(continental)/continent problem.
I have one LHS here and the selection is poor. Lots more Ships, planes and military as was previously mentioned in other posts.
Aftermarket items are close to nil and if there are any it mainly applies to low riders, of which they sell no low rider models.
I see a few Hasagawa kits, and one or two other japanese manufactures sprinkled through.
Supplies are relegated to only Testors.
Just recently I was able to acquire some Tamiya Paint and was just blown away by the ease of use. However, my LHS will not carry it.
I get disgusted with them, however I still go to buy waht ever I can.
I too know my LHS owner on a first name basis. In fact I worked for him a few Christmas' for free! Well, he'd let me take a model home at the end of the day. Worked out great for him and I.
I talked with him just yesterday and he told me he was hoping on a great Christmas, things are certainly tight there. I'd hate to see him close up as they have been in buisness over 30 years.
The likes of Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby and Michael's get my main model money. You can't beat Hobby Lobby's 50% off sales. That definitely hurts the LHS.
I am happy to say we have a local car model club, they do not allow any military modeling. They promote the hobby the best they can. They have two shows a year and donate make and takes to kids.
No matter how you slice it, modeling will be here, just that we are in a dip now.
Chris

[BaNe]

found this interesting link about this very subject.

http://www.bonediggers.com/2-1/unglu/unglu.html

[RyanGiorgio]

My LHS actually has a decent amount of car kits...and they do get the latest Tamiya kits. I don't think they sell too many of them though. The store is mostly trains. I know what your saying though, PMan, that our stores carry every little individual aftermarket part for an army kit or train set, but zero aftermarket parts for auto models. If my LHS got in some rims, I'd buy them in large quantities. I don't buy rims that often, because its a pain in the ass for me to order off the internet...which is my only way to purchase them. I think that eventually die-cast, army kits, and R/C are going to kill of the last of us modellers.

`RG

[SonyMobile]

I agree %100, Car modeling is not what It used to be, at least you guys have LHS's my closest is a bookstore downtown that at one time had a total of 4 Revell models!, now they have one, and half a rack of testors paints. thats it. which is ok, but other than that its a half hour drive to a Military base where there is a hobby shop that has a hole wall of over priced Revells and AMT's. and 5 old tamiya kits in the corner, then there is about 3-4 walls of military models, and there is NO after market decals/wheels/parts of any sort for the car modelers, but a large rack full of photoetched/resin/diecast guns and other military accessories for sale.the majority of the tamiya paint is only paint you would ever see on a military vehicle, then if you drive another 20min there is another hobby shop, which is a cool shop but over priced, and all the kits suck. they have a big wall full of car models but they are all ugly ass kits that nobody in there right mind would want to build, and then a gigantic stack of nascars... And i love nascar, just dont like building nascar kits.. and all the paint is extremely over priced...

so to some, i have it real good, and to some i have it reaaaaal bad, this is why I order the majority of my kits over the internet, unless i find something i really like at a store like walmart, or a store downtown here that stocked about 30 kits, but there were only 5 models to choose from because they were all the same.!

[Layla's Keeper]

Now, I wouldn't say that military modeling is a big threat. If anything, car kits have been a threat to military modeling for a longer time. There've been kits of armor and soldiers and that sort of thing in many different media for much longer than there have been plastic car kits.

And, in fact, many of the kit companies do both cars and military. Tamiya, Revell, and Hasegawa come directly to mind. And, recently, some military companies have started trying to chase the model car money. Dragon and Trumpeter are the best examples of this.

If the model car market goes away, it hurts all the other modeling people too. Let's say Tamiya blew a whole two year's tooling budget on a 1:12scale kit of the Audi R8R, and it tanks in sales. I mean, seriously tanks. As in, Revell 1970 AAR 'Cuda tanks. Well, guess what, that means not only no new cars from Tamiya for two years, but that leaves the ship, plane, tank, and motorcycle people out in the cold too. And, let's take it a step further and say it drives them into a position like Fujimi post-Enthusiast series. That's five genres of modeling that are out new releases for a long time because of one failed mega-kit.

There's not as much animosity between the car guys and the rest as there used to be. The only group of modelers who still seems to hold car modelers in contempt are rivet-counting model railroaders (I should know, I was a member of Ohio's Emerald Necklace model railroad club). That's mostly because model cars are unique in the hobby.

Most other models are replicas; scale miniatures of something that did exist. A ship builder recreates the Cutty Sark with all of her riggings. A tank builder will build a diorama of a King Tiger rumbling through the ruins of a town in the Sarthe. A train builder will map out towns and countrysides that existed decades and decades ago. And a plane builder will recreate a Supermarine Spitfire, waiting to takeoff in defense of Britain.

By comparison, model cars are more individualized and more a field for creativity. Yes, there are replica builders amongst us who create exact replicas down to the last detail, but there's more scale hot rodders and customizers. People who want to build their fantasies. In a sense, model cars are the modern art of modeling, whereas military modeling is the classical style.

[klohiq]

I'm thinking about purchasing a few models finally. I have enjoyed real cars, r/c cars and car video games for years. I built models awhile ago, but all were muscle cars. Not exactly fun for me to build...all were purchased from walmart and such too...and none were built to any amazing perfection.

This board has really made me consider building some models of cars I hope to own someday...some of the members here make amazingly realistic models...I hope to do the same someday...

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Maybe I should answer the original question-are we a dying breed? I think the dwindling numbers have waned, and we're actually getting more interest in younger modelers than in the past, probably due to the interest in the cars that are seen in the video games. Our tuner category at our NNL was packed! Some old pharts like myself and Veyron and plenty of younger builders...so many that we're going to have a regular space for tuners. As long as there is interest in real cars, there will be someone interested in creating model cars. Maybe not as many as in the past, but a solid number of fanatics. And it may be a smaller, more devoted, more expensive market that serves the fanatics that are left. I just wish the model companies weren't lying around like dead fish waiting for the market to turn...they haven't done anything exciting PR wise in years. They don't advertise, when they do it's only preaching to the choir. They should advertise in new places, get known in different places. They don't do a damned thing to make anyone want to build model cars. Simply producing a product isn't enough. They should look beyond just movie licenses. They don't. Every time they fail at something, they never go anywhere near what they failed at...even if they were close, but not quite. Seems like fear motivates them more than a visionary attitude.

[CADguy]

Wow! Great response, and very thought provoking.

Dying breed? I hope not, I still have about 100 kits to finish.

I'm not sure how many people here have children, but I feel they are the key to keeping this hobby afloat. New blood buying, building, and loving cars.

I have 3 children aged 9,7, and 2. My 2 oldest (boys) have taken on an interest in building recently. Which is surprising after years of me yelling "DON'T TOUCH!" when they got curious.

I have fully encouraged them to try their hand at building, and have bought them simple snap together kits. They need the "instant gratification" so easy kits that we can finish in a couple hours time is perfect. I haven't let them venture out on their own and build alone yet, but they're getting there. Now, I only get asked to figure out where they strayed and help them solve problems, and I'm always elected to put on decals.

The time spent with them is much better quality time than playing PS2 or watching cartoons.

Model building teaches kids co-ordination, following directions, reading, organization, etc.

The only problem I see in the future is them wanting to build MY kits. And I'm positive one day my wife will force me to share..LOL But not today..

Anyways, my point is this. If you have kids, or a younger brother, or sister, or even the neighbors kid. Share your love of modeling, and knowlege with them. I'm glad I did.

[SchuberT]

This topic kind of concerns me because I'm just now getting into modelling cars, but I'm not old enough to order anything online and my parents refuse to bust out the credit card to help me out. I go to some of the LHSs around here but find nothing but maybe a couple Tamiya kits from about 6 months ago. Revell kit's are an abundance, but I refuse to buy any at the moment. I have only seen one Enzo, which also was a Revell. Kind of sucks how the rest of the stores are RC related rather than modelling. My dad is really considering opening his own hobby shop that will be exclusively plastic models and paints, which I think is a great idea because I could get a discount on my kits

[p9o1r1sche]

Dying breed? I hope not, I still have about 100 kits to finish. - CADguy

I think my 100+ kits are going to kill me! At least I'll die happy.

[spymaker]

Dying breed indeed! last time I went to spore, I went to the local hobby shops like central hobby plus, specialist centre, achtung hobby they have tons of these military & airplanes models. And the the car model kits are usually discounted around 30 t0 50 percent(and their stocks are less than 10 models!!!!), which is great for me. I bought some of the hard to find kits like the jaguar xjs series from hasegawa's or even ARII Cadillacs. But on the other side, the retailers said nobody builds model cars anymore, the trends now is more in the model planes & armors line(which is boring for me).

People these days don't really like to spend time anymore in doing precisions, artworks, etc. In conjuction with my work field which is in Graphic Design, clients just want instant results out of everything ,there's no challenge on everything these days and of course less money they are willing to spend.

Well, it's like fujimi I heard their managements are now bankers type of people, these guys just want instant money, the don't have the passion in the process or the passion in their products. Just take a look at the recent quality of the models now it's not as good as it use to be, you name it, the wheels are small (And this just a marketing trick for us to BUY the seperate wheels) and the curb side body looking weirder than ever.

Its very hard to find good company like TAMIYA now, even these guys if you observe carefully they get money from RC and the 1:32 slot cars to support the 1:24 model kits line, which is very popular in japan and even my country Indonesia.

The trends now is also in diecast cars, I hears the licence fee to manufacture are also less than model kits. Just take look Maisto's and AutoArts they rule the market now just in 8 yrs in business they even beat the original makers in diecast business like Burago or Corgi's even Hotwheels. The original model kits manufature....well they started since the 1950's!

In Indonesia the supply of model kits is still ok and complete with retailers marking ups the product sky high. The gouverment in here are very stupid especially with their tax system whic usually goe into their own pocket. I will give you some stupid facts, I ordered from HLJ like a year ago with ems shipping which landed in airport customs services, they charge the tax twice the original price, and they call it luxury tax...what THE???!!!!!...

So yeah, now for me I just keep my my stocks until I got the moods to build them. On the bright side is now collectible items and it will raise in value in the future because lot of company stop making them.

Passion, Arts, Money, Business, Customer Satisfactions they just don't get along anymore, thanks to the people who loves war and making everything into a global scale economic turmoils

Regards

Andrian aka Spymaker

[Purpura Delujo]

Thats stupid that peopple in NZ pay up to $500 for a XUI Brock racer, I see the fully detailed VX commodores and XY falcons for only $200 here, and they are genuine items too.
I'm lucky, a shop just opened in Penrith which is pretty close to me (i've been down there 3 times in the past 3 days) and they stock a shitload of car kits, but only revell and amt though, quite a few rare MPC and Monogram kits aswell as the brand new released from the Us. The guy there mostly does RC cars but a few requests and he ordered in alot of plastic models.
In fact, he has 4 more 63 impala lowriders and a few Monte Carlos now, looks like I am going to need a few hundred dolars......

[Sebstar]

Well i just got into model cars by a post on performanceforums.com, where d0p3y (celsior) showed off some of his work. Don't know why I got into it, but I like 3d animation so I guess it came kinda naturally.
I have 3 hobby shops within about 10 minutes drive, so its easy to hop down there and check out the local bargains. Often however, that doesn't happen though. Most models are priced at AU$45+, which quite frankly is a rip off, especially when it is a kit like the Tamiya GT-Four. Of course one shop has some models cheap, while another one has other models cheap. So it makes it possible for me to find models priced at around AU$30 which is pretty good. Thats how I got my Rx7 and GT-Four. However one of the hobby shops is really going down in model cars. Everytime I go there, they have less and less Tamiya models (I think they have around 10 now). And the models they have are outrageously priced. I really won't buy a 10 year old model here if i can get 2 new models from japan for that price. It really is a matter of convenience. I'd rather wait a month to get goods for half the price from japan than buy them here. If they only decreased every model price by only 20% (which still prices cars such as a modena or enzo at $52), then I would definately consider buying models here. And don't even get me started on aftermarket rims. They cost AU$25 here at every model shop i've been to. I buy models for the same price! If rims were $12 i would definately buy them, but not that much..

Needless to say I don't think that we are a dying breed. There seriously has not been one time yet when I have walked into the model shops (at different times in the day) and not seen another person. Usually there is 3 or more people in the shops with me. Even at 10 in the morning at just before closing. I think it's all a matter of cost though. No way in hell would a person buy a 10 year old model car for AU$50 (for example the GT-Four at one of the local shops).

that is all

[exhaust smoke]

My local model shops do not stock that much car kits either, only the main stream stuff. Also, with UK tax being so high, I buy all Tamiya/Hasegawa/Fujimi stuff from HLJ anyway. I mean, why would I pay £35.00 GBP for the Tamiya Enzo for example when I can get it from the source at around £14-£15 GBP? Also the availablility of Fujimi/Hasegawa stuff is really really bad.