[ Post a Response | 1250 Scale Message Board ]
Posted by Kevin P. Burke
on 11/4/2009, 12:37 pm, in reply to "Massively OT and a concern..."
75.69.238.172
This hobby has survived currency fluctuation and bad economic times. Remember the 1970s? The dollar tracked as badly against the DM back then as it has against the Euro (if not worse) over the last several years. "High" model prices had become a factor in the late 70s and early 80s. Then the US dollar made a bit of a recovery. Some manufacturers went out of business (Delphin and Star come to mind). The US economic picture of the middle 70s to early 80s was as dismal as now. Whether these negative conditions will recover this time is a subject beyond this discussion. My point is this hobby has seen "bad times" before, retrenched then moved forward again.
Now the bad news, which has been articulated here so many times before. Demographics will diminish this hobby to a fraction of what it once was. Those of us born in the 40s, 50s and early 60s grew up with WW2. It was all around us, movies, books , TV series and the people, service members and civilians, who had taken part in it. And they were young people back then. The "war" was never far away. Those of us here from that era had (probably) built Revell, Airfix or Aurora plastic models of HOOD, BISMARK and IOWA by the time we were 10, then at some point transitioned to the 1/1200, 1/1250 scale world. And even back then, the models available numbered in the hundreds. And the big majority of the models produced were of...WW2 ships! Surprise! Then Navis brought the ships of WW1 and earlier vessels to us. And the march to the expansive 1/1250 world of today was in full swing. I do not think it would be unrealistic to state that this hobby is largely a hobby of "baby boomers".
The model shows I have attended at NYC have
shown a dearth of young people (under 40) in attendance. As the history of the 20th centuery becomes more distant, this hobby will continue to shrink. Bad economic times will not kill it as it has survived them before. They will however abet the shrinking process. As toy soldiers of all periods are collected today, so will model ships. The hobby that is emerging will be far smaller than in the recent past. There will be fewer manufacturers, dealers AND collectors. Fewer models will be made, but they will be of higher quality...and more expensive.
Bad economic times are just that...BAD. But good times or bad times, this hobby will survive in some form and it will NOT be a growth industry.
--Previous Message--
: I don't usually comment about strings on the
: SteelNavy message board, but this one,
: "Massively OT..." is very
: interesting to read. It is depressing to
: see how many of the posters there are
: unemployed, having lost their jobs within
: the past year or so.
:
: I am aware of some 1200/1250 collectors in
: the same predicament, and some who have sold
: off their collections as a consequence.
: These are difficult times for many people.
:
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