There are statistics freaks all over the world – my weblog columns occasionally attract the attention of them when I mention some chart or set of tables. My email clogs for a week with mathematical proof of the existence of carrots. I am philosophical about it – it’s just email and somewhere somebody has to live with the number monomaniac – so I’ve got it easy.
But now I need one – because I have a foolish desire to know all about the scale plastic model business. I’m not going into it, mind, but I am curious about several points:
a. How many producers have ever put out scale plastic model kits. I mean major makers, Hong Kong sweatshops, small-run Czech factories, backyarders…the totality.
b. Who are/were they? Is there a complete list of them?
c. What models did they make?
d. How many of these were made?
I can draw upon a lot of childhood memories but these go nowhere near a decent survey of the trade. There were far more things made than I ever saw – and of the ones I remember so many have disappeared that it would be hard to find records of them. I’ve tried to find an illustration or record of a particular tracked vehicle I built in 1964 but the net yields nothing.
This whole set of queries is compounded by the fact that models were made in Europe and Asia as well that never reached the North American market.
Who is wise/foolish enough to guess at the numbers?
The Little World 
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