HobbyLink Japan, and myself, are very excited about the opportunity that we've been given to sponsor Modeler Site, and thereby support the fantastic work that Mario and his son, and all the contributors have done for what is surely one of the finest hobby sites on the Internet.

The economics of the Internet have made it extremely difficult for high-quality, free sites to continue to exist. The bandwidth and disk space required cost far more than anyone can support alone. Normally, sites turn to advertisers, but with the global economic downturn, advertising revenue is also very low. Recognizing that neither traditional advertising or charging users for access were realistic alternatives at this time, Mario and I worked out an arrangement where our sponsorship is far beyond a simple banner advertisement. It will help both companies in a much greater way. It includes putting our name all over the place, and providing direct links to many areas of our web site. I'm happy to have HLJ associated in this way with a site of this quality, and I hope that we do nothing to offend Mario and his team by being associated with us!

The Internet is not the only segment of the economy that's weak right now. So is the hobby industry. Young people (and some not so young!) spend more time now playing video games than building models. What's more, the world has become a much more peaceful place (a good thing), and scenes of exciting weapons destroying enemy vehicles on the news are rare. Let's admit it -- wars and conflicts are good for model sales! Also now, the number of WWII survivors dwindle rapidly, and they were some of the world's most avid modelers. These days, many Japanese children don't even know what a Zero, or the Yamato is! 

I'm a traditional aircraft modeler (WWII subjects), and this disappoints me. But it's a reality that we simply cannot fight. People are going to model whatever is dynamic and current, and that's where we have to put our energies. That's why automobile modeling (with new cars being built every year!), and now character modeling have become the most lively parts of the hobby. 

Even before we joined forces, Mario has made a great contribution to the hobby community with Modeler Site's great automobile modeling articles. I hope that HLJ, and the contributors we can recruit, can offer more in the way of character modeling (science-fiction, anime characters, figures
and more) than many of the visitors to this site have seen before. Both in terms of information on what's available and how to build it, and also by providing you with a way to purchase these items (hey, we have to earn a living here!). Look for changes along these lines in the month's to come!

I look forward to a long and prosperous partnership. Thank you all!