Hi All
My two cents - it "aint" dead yet ("aint" is a Hebrew term I believe so legal English now!)
As an example of a recent surprise in my life...... I thought plastic model tanks were a thing of the past - only done by nerds until a recent experience....
I have had to do an academic sabbatical - thing you do when your an academic Doc - My dear wife said your getting old and need a hobby outside of medicine and she want results this leave period (note can't play sport, can't play music, drinking does not work etc etc)- I talked about ASL and she said Blah Blah Blah so I go a message that I needed more and having more and more VASL PBEM players which I did on my long service leave I noted was not helpful (stress of waiting on next log - tried every thing I could to remember rules and failed! - roll of dice stress etc etc) so I stayed static with my current games! and opened up one of those cupboards (that you never open in a hurry!) and there was covered in dust all these 1/35 model tanks from my childhood - started to clean them and tried a few repair jobs and went - oh well lets have a look at this!
So a journey started - new models - from 2-3 companies in my day to now 10! - really expensive and out of the reach of most children (until I looked at the price of LEGO!!) - really cool tools, really cool paints and lots of things I learnt a huge amount from by building and painting etc etc as well as soooo many shops sell the stuff!- I most probably have way overspent on this hobby believing my current building rate of 2 or 3 a week would continue and I am back to work soon (no time again!) so I now can see me doing one afternoon a week maybe on it or a couple of hours over two evenings (you may say live VASL may be an option but time zones continue to hinder that, I always get a call to the hospital even when not on call and I never have weekends)
My message is - lets take a helicopter view of this! and we are fine
Sure MMP - best product on the market but 9 other companies produce this stuff
I don't really see a lack of players any more being any mora reality than I see house prices falling soon despite the fact that a house is no longer a home but a piggy bank
I really cant see Hasbro giving up on this market but I am not a business man
Maybe - like when the queens dies - only the UK will have a monarchy in the commonwealth - Australia will join the modern world and get a president
Maybe when Perry, Chas etc etc move on we might see a change but I wont be alive then probably and If I am, I have so much un-played stuff, so many unpunched counters and there are so many TPP always coming out - conclusion.... I and the rest of you will be ok!
Think about it - we now have digital releases from MMP - products and rule books - things happen for reasons - the future is upon us - old and nerdy we are but that does not mean we are inflexible
My Thoughts and back to writing these papers for the sabbatical and building a German 88mm Flak mount on a tractor recently bout out from trumpeter
Rob
PS 1. - I never understand why these truck and half-track models make you build engines in such detail only to have them under the hood and never seen!!!
PS 2. - I really find putting track links together bit by bit a real chore! - bring back complete rubber tracks for 1/35 models!!
