The state of our hobby

The hobby really needs something new and exciting to electrify the masses. The F-14 came pretty close, from what I can tell. Everyone was excited about its release, which consequently became part of its problem. Delays, delays.. delays! The delays on the F-14, and, well, pretty much every big 1:18 release are terrible moral killers. It’s come to the point that many (MANY!) people will not believe a new piece is coming out until it’s physically in their hands. The saddest part is that no one can blame them! Everything is vaporware until it’s sitting at my doorstep.

Of course, there are a bazillion things that go into a product release, me least of all being qualified to judge. But this is my editorial (and yes, I started that sentence with BUT, this is my editorial!) and I will judge accordingly! Thousand of other companies, from thousands of other product lines announce products and release dates and.. meet them. This is not some random phenomenon. Every toy that comes out of China has to pass inspections, be packaged and shipped to the United States. Issues to crop up that are out of anyone control, but I am starting to think the Chinese mafia has it out for 1:18 scale collectors at this point.

Another issue that we are dealing with in our hobby is the ridiculous first and secondary prices for much of the 1:18 scale merchandise. A quick glance at eBay will make you wish you never got into 1:18 scale. Sadly, I can say the same for glancing at most major 1:18 scale online stores as well. $100 for a static tank is just way too much money! $200-$300 for 21st Century Toys Cobras?! Yikes. Of course, this is the market, and it will behave accordingly, if people are paying top dollar for these ever dwindling stocks, then the prices will remain high.

The real downside (other than never getting that rare piece), is that we are all excluding tons of fresh blood from really getting into our hobby. The price points are a huge barrier to the G.I. Joe/Action Figure crowd, and for good reason. They are used to buying crappy plastic fantasy vehicles for $15 or $20, and they balk when asked to pay upwards of $100 for a questionably crappy plastic historic vehicle. Usually, any of them who hang around long enough to spot the differences is in it for the long run (adding another person to the eBay hunters!).