Subscribe to the "latest acquisitions" thread.  You'll see this hobby ain't dyin'.

T e d

Indeed, yesterday I was looking over some various YouTube videos on painting, etc - and found some from this young guy. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8k6eLGwL0j-W9pK65QlXCg/videos

Kinda made me smile and think of our discussion here. Good to know it's still an interest. 

German Armour

Hi, yes. In my area we have no hobby shops, except for one that is 3 1/2 hrs away. The price is a major factor in my purchase decisions. Dragon kits are too expensive and I am 18, so the older Tamiya shake & bake kits are my usual buys. Also at Regina in Saskatchewan where the hobby shop is located there are a Gundam club and a model club but too far for me to go for meetings. If model companies where to create reasonable kits under $40 like older tamiya then there would maybe be more interest. Bandai must be really smart to do what there doing. :)

 

Check out DragonUSA.com, they usually have some pretty good sales, sometimes 60% off. I picked up the 1/72 Hellcat and Sea Venom kits, didn't pay over $15 for either with their Black Friday Sale. 

I was born in '78, and I love it!  I built aircraft in my younger years, got away from the hobby for a while, and when I came back the first time, I was into building cars (working in a bodyshop made painting the bodies easy, with access to industrial grade spray equipment....).  Then I got away from the hobby for a bit as I started a family.  

One day my little brother and I were reminiscing, and he told me how he used to love watching me building those planes, watching them come together....so I bought another airplane kit....and I've been back ever since.

I am working towards becoming assistant Scout Master in my kids' cub scout pack, and I hosted a model group build.  I (the pack, with money earned by selling popcorn) bought 25 snap tite A10 warthog models and 25 sprue nippers, and one Saturday afternoon, we met and built our kits together!  I've heard so much positive feedback, that I will be starting the Pack 17 model Club, where we will meet once a month to discuss our builds, show off what we have finished, and just chat about things.  I am even thinking we can show off our work at the monthly pack Meetings!

I am hopeful that I can introduce some new blood into the hobby through my scouts!

Sorry about dredging up a zombie post, it went dead less than a month ago so hopefully it's not too stinky.....

At our IPMS club meeting last week a couple guys were talking about the IPMS Richmond, Virginia show (I didn't go, sprained ankle). Seemed they had 99 Gundam kits show up! They had to clear a couple tables and split a bunch of catagories just to fit all of them in. And most of the entries were from from the younger crowd. Makes me want to pick up a Gundam kit now too!!! 

Bish

Nino, if you look on the Average Age of modellers thread, you will see a lot of us in the 40-50 bracket, the Gen X. From what i have seen on here and at shows, we seem to make up a big chunk of model builders. I would say we were the last of those who built models as kids before the age of video games and so on, 70's 80's. And we are now in the position that we arestill working but kids have grown up so we have the time and money to build models.

I think for many of us, our Grandparents fought in WW2 and our parents were children during it. And coming from east Anglia and with a dad interested in history, i grew up with stories of aircraft filling the skies going out to Europe. And we also had all those movies from the 60's and 70's. So we were still close enough to WW2 that it was not that long ago, but we didn't experiance the aftermath such as bombed out cities or rationing or family still being away from home and that may have made us more curious.

 

Gamera

Sorry about dredging up a zombie post, it went dead less than a month ago so hopefully it's not too stinky.....

At our IPMS club meeting last week a couple guys were talking about the IPMS Richmond, Virginia show (I didn't go, sprained ankle). Seemed they had 99 Gundam kits show up! They had to clear a couple tables and split a bunch of catagories just to fit all of them in. And most of the entries were from from the younger crowd. Makes me want to pick up a Gundam kit now too!!! 

 

Yup, there is a Gundam Club here that has an annual contest, aside from there standard meetings. There are literally hundreds of entries in their contest. And the vast majority of these builders are millennials. The Gundam and other similar anime subjects are the domain of the younger builders.

I was borne in 1987 so technically I am a millennial I guess? 

I was always interested in aviation and armored vehicles so naturally I built some models badly ws a kid and now I am back to it.

It does seem like people my age are too busy with their kids, loans, early careers to have any time consuming hobbies. But I am noticing a resurgence in crafts like woodworking, metal working etc...Who knows, maybe more people my age will pick up modeling again? 

Ted4321

Subscribe to the "latest acquisitions" thread.  You'll see this hobby ain't dyin'.

 

T e d

 

Ted

I agree that the unbelievable stashes hoarded by those who love this hobby is a strong driver for this industry. 

Ages ago, I used to have a horrendous stash too, which I gave away when I took a break from the hobby. So, I do understand this. Now that I’m back at the hobby, I’m practising tons of restraint holding back from making purchases of kits I will probably never build. 

Which brings me to the crux of this discussion. After this generation of styrene besotted folks pass, there may not be that many to hold up this hobby. 

Unless something changes to bring back the popularity of this hobby, like it once had back in the ’60s to ’90s, I don’t think the industry held up by stash hoarders is sustainable. 

Where I’m at, this hobby is about as vibrant as a dead horse.  Anyway, let’s just keep enjoying the hobby and recognise there are things we can change and others we can’t. 

stikpusher

 

 

Gamera

Sorry about dredging up a zombie post, it went dead less than a month ago so hopefully it's not too stinky.....

At our IPMS club meeting last week a couple guys were talking about the IPMS Richmond, Virginia show (I didn't go, sprained ankle). Seemed they had 99 Gundam kits show up! They had to clear a couple tables and split a bunch of catagories just to fit all of them in. And most of the entries were from from the younger crowd. Makes me want to pick up a Gundam kit now too!!! 

 

 

 

 

Yup, there is a Gundam Club here that has an annual contest, aside from there standard meetings. There are literally hundreds of entries in their contest. And the vast majority of these builders are millennials. The Gundam and other similar anime subjects are the domain of the younger builders.

 

Lol, as a couple of people already pointed it out I was aware of the thriving Gundam community. Our show normally gets a half-dozen or so of them in the SF robots & combat suits catagory.

But no one expected 99 Gundam kits to show up!!! 

It is a trend that I have also observed over the last 15 years or so.  What was once a shunned and little understood genre has become almost mainstream.  And yes, most of the builders are young.  I suppose all those shows on Cartoon Network are paying off.

I have been a “Gunpla” builder for about 35 years now, so my introduction and exposure was quite different.  (In my best grandpa voice) Back in the day, there were no shows airing in the US, so we had to scrape what little we could get from Japan.  And there were no dubs or subtitles.  And we had to walk to Japan Video - uphill, BOTH ways! 

As much as I am an old school fan, I have to admit it‘s the kids that are carrying the Gunpla torch today.  And they have carried it further and higher than us old timers were ever able to.

Take heart scale curmudgeons, other stuff that are drawing kids into modeling are more in your comfort zone, like World of Tanks.  Again, I found myself tsking when I heard about the game, but it is producing kids highly knowledgeable about even obscure armor.  I had a fun talk with a kid who must have been 10 years old, about prototype postwar tanks.  Yeah yeah, all tech, no deep history, but it will eventually seep in.

So I think it’s safe to say that the kids will continue to keep the hobby alive after we are gone.

Thanks G, I'd been tossing around the terms 'Mechs' and 'Mecha.' I looked up 'Gunpla' and it gives me a much better idea of what we're talking about. 

And seems the Bandai 'Pacific Rim' Jaegers are considered sorta quasi-Gundam even though they aren't in the series. So I already have a few of them already and didn't know it! 

Gamera

Thanks G, I'd been tossing around the terms 'Mechs' and 'Mecha.' I looked up 'Gunpla' and it gives me a much better idea of what we're talking about. 

And seems the Bandai 'Pacific Rim' Jaegers are considered sorta quasi-Gundam even though they aren't in the series. So I already have a few of them already and didn't know it! 

Gamera, it's really whatever you want to call it since Gunpla is Gundam-specific, but has become sort of a generic term like Xerox and Kleenex.  The Pacific Rim mechs have a more Japanese influence in their designs, especially the ones from the second movie.  I think the first movie designs were more "Super Robot", i.e. the 1970s Japanese cartoons like Mazinger Z and Raideen.  I live in fear that one day Gundam will hit the big screen in a dumb Power Rangers type format versus a more serious take on the genre.  But Bandai could be sitting on a gold mine if they could pull it off like Marvel's supehero flicks.

At the end of the day they are plastic models like any other, including the scale stuff like airplanes.  Only with arms and legs.    It's all good - I'm a scale guy that went Gunpla, and I know several Gunpla guys that went scale.  It will all balance out and the kids will continue modeling, maybe not as we know it, but continue it nonetheless.

Real G

 

 

Gamera

Thanks G, I'd been tossing around the terms 'Mechs' and 'Mecha.' I looked up 'Gunpla' and it gives me a much better idea of what we're talking about. 

And seems the Bandai 'Pacific Rim' Jaegers are considered sorta quasi-Gundam even though they aren't in the series. So I already have a few of them already and didn't know it! 

 

 

 

Gamera, it's really whatever you want to call it since Gunpla is Gundam-specific, but has become sort of a generic term like Xerox and Kleenex.  The Pacific Rim mechs have a more Japanese influence in their designs, especially the ones from the second movie.  I think the first movie designs were more "Super Robot", i.e. the 1970s Japanese cartoons like Mazinger Z and Raideen.  I live in fear that one day Gundam will hit the big screen in a dumb Power Rangers type format versus a more serious take on the genre.  But Bandai could be sitting on a gold mine if they could pull it off like Marvel's supehero flicks.

At the end of the day they are plastic models like any other, including the scale stuff like airplanes.  Only with arms and legs.    It's all good - I'm a scale guy that went Gunpla, and I know several Gunpla guys that went scale.  It will all balance out and the kids will continue modeling, maybe not as we know it, but continue it nonetheless.

 

 

Lol, I guess just to be fair I'll stick with the more generic term 'Mech'. 

We should try to work to bring some of these guys into our IPMS club, just not sure how. We don't have any younger members and most of the ones we have at our show tend to be car modelers.

You want those guys in your club? Have a mecha themed show or meeting and get the word out about it. Start with a meeting and let the word of mouth build up, until the numbers needed for a show are there. Some of the early Gundam even has some armor and wheeled vehicle kits as well. So the modelers who prefer those genres can stay in their lane and still partake. 

Good ideas! 

As VA Spartan brought it up our entire club is a bunch of Boomers and a handful of Gen-Xers like me. Our youngest member is 47 or so. 

Only issue is there are only about three members including myself that build anything SF related and we're all of the Trek/Wars type. I'll bring it up at our next business meeting at the end of the month. 

If there is a local game store or hobby shop that those guys frequent, show up and recruit them. If you see them on any other websites, especially sci fi modeling, contact them. Be assertive and let them know that they are wanted and welcome. 

Yeah, we've got a local gaming store. I used to pop in now and again when I played D&D. I was thinking about leaving some flyers for our club and show.