The Little World

And there never was. That is the nature of time…it moves forward. Pity some of the plastic model moulding firms are so stuck in the past.

This is particularly ironic when you consider that these firms want to make a profit in the future by moulding models of things that vanished a century ago…and they hope to derive this money from those who have no personal experience with any of the originals. It really is like investing in a Crown and Anchor wheel.

It’s particularly evident when you look at the model car shelf in the hobby shop. Whether the offerings are die cast or kit, they are generally pitched at a youth market that supposedly wants hot rods, muscle cars, and modern super wagons. There is very little in the way of stock standard transportation represented and almost no perfectly modern sedans or vans. The European firms are a little better with iconic consumer vehicles but not by much.

The same might be thought to apply to the armour shelf but here we see a real admixture of the latest vehicles with the historic ones. There is an eclectic mixture or armies and countries and a commendable fidelity to common scales. We aircraft makers are darned jealous.

The makers of model airplanes could also take a leaf and go out to the light plane airport. There is a far greater variety of buildable prototypes there than we ever get to see on model shelves. We can only use a limited number of historic oddities – give us some modern types, too.