The Little World

I attended a model car collector’s display yesterday at our favourite exhibition hall. it’s a once-a-year event that allows the people who make dioramas and displays to show off to the people of Perth. There are also trade tables that cater to those who make a hobby income out of selling toy cars.

I had a display in the show – a street scene that I have been making for the last year. It’s in 1:18 scale and is an imaginative treatment of a part of a city I lived in as a child – Calgary, Alberta. The buildings and pavements are all scratch-built and the vehicles are heavily modified commercial die casts. The part I’m happiest with is the modularity of it all – I could fit enough material to do two full trestle tables into the back of my little Suzuki Swift hatchback.

The hall was newly decorated and there were plenty of table available for participants and sellers. And despite someone saying that the space was going to be empty, I thought it was filled very well. The round-the-edges display could have used some backdrop but I’ll know to bring my own next time. But will there be a next time?

Collecting die-cast models may be somewhat of a dying hobby. Most of the people who circulated round the hall were either club members or old chaps. There were a few children, but they were interested in the Mattel Hot Wheels stalls. The serious big-money items seem to have remained unsold on many tables. Not surprising when we are in an economic recession and people are sitting on their wallets. And it is hard to see how new members might be recruited if a big display is so poorly attended.

Things come and go. There is no pizzazz with Dinky or Corgi Toys. There is no coolness. There is little that the toys can do except mount up on shelves or be ground to dust in the sand pit. You actually have to have a grounding in other building hobbies before you can turn out dioramas that feature the models. And they must have an artistic idea to do it.

The plastic modellers seem to have it – so do the train people and the model car kit builders – their shows are always well-attended. And I suspect that they spend every bit as much on their hobbies as the die-cast people might – but the collecting hobby is held in obscurity.

For myself, I shall continue on my own way in my own way – combining die-cast and kit with scratchbuilds to make Little World scenes. I did do my part for the traders yesterday – I bought two 1:76 scale vehicles to place on my model airfield. I will do equally as much for the model train people when they have their expo in two weeks time as I need some small buildings for the diorama. I can do no more.

I’m sorry for the traders who did not trade well or the organisers who are looking at a deficit in club funds. I think more might be done to promote the day but suspect that this would be a long-term investment in advertising and public promotion. Hard to promote cool when you are the other side of 70.

Final note: One chap who makes the most delightful wooden vehicles in his own workshop put some realistic prices upon models for sale – of course people would not have paid that, and he was a little offended that they did not recognise the goodness of the models. Well, the other club members did see how well he had done, and I think he should be very proud of the imagination shown. The skill level learned can only have done him good. You can’t please everyone so you might as well please yourself!