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Walking through WalMart the other day and noticed their model car display. I thought about getting a couple to throw in the gift donation barrel at work until I saw the price.
Twenty bucks for a model car. It was just a basic Revel Mustang model, nothing fancy. The cheap Snap Tite models were still fifteen bucks.
I haven't built many models since my childhood, but I don't ever remember them costing a lot of money. The model alone is expensive enough. Throw in glue, paint and brushes and it adds up.
My two sons (28 and 17 now) both attempted models. I think what happened is that society has changed and that kind of toy just isn't "it" like 40 years ago.
The oldest one did do model rockets in high school and still like to fart around with them. The younger one likes goose hunting. So does the oldest, just not as much.
Walking through WalMart the other day and noticed their model car display. I thought about getting a couple to throw in the gift donation barrel at work until I saw the price.
Twenty bucks for a model car. It was just a basic Revel Mustang model, nothing fancy. The cheap Snap Tite models were still fifteen bucks.
I haven't built many models since my childhood, but I don't ever remember them costing a lot of money. The model alone is expensive enough. Throw in glue, paint and brushes and it adds up.
What happened? Why are they so expensive?
I was into building models bigtime and got burnt out on them. I enjoyed the hobby and did some nice rides. Maybe I'll get back into it one day? I remember one model I did of Jeff Gordon's wrecked car. By the time I got the model, paint, glue, etc AND added in the cost of several roadtrips for research, buying reference pics, etc I had well over 500 bucks in that car and about six months of time.
I think they are so expensive because of the licensing issues and the cost of plastic these days?
It's not like there is a lot of plastic in those models, and a lot of the model airplanes I built as a kid are the ones on the shelf today. I recall paying maybe $2 for the larger ones, right under a dollar for the midsize ones, and buying the small planes that came in a plastic bag rather than a box for a quarter or so. Even with inflation, these kits seem overpriced these days.
Even worse would be the balsa kits, the Guillows ones. I have one of the kits that I paid $20 for a couple decades ago and those are running $83 from the manufacturer and $100 in the store. A franklin is a lot of money to spend on a kit.
I got back into models a couple of years back when the prices went up to around $20. I remember growing up paying $8 for a basic kit. Some times my car creations get a little elaborate and then the price goes up, buying multiple kits, or ordering special pieces, or even making home made pieces.
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