Let’s capture the teenagers’ attention
Revell\\\\\\\'s advert from the September 1968 Scale Modeler magazine
By Mario Covalski
Everybody knows that modeling has turned into a specialized activity, and we’ve already tackled this topic in previous editorials. If you, my friend use to build aircrafts….don’t draw closer to the group of those devoted to armored vehicles…this is well known, it’s not a question that you’ll not be welcomed; in point of fact, in the clubs all disciplines coexist, but every group speak their own language using different codes, words, a great many own ways of communication.
Even within each group there are subgroups, don’t speak to a WWII fanatic about modern aircrafts or vehicles, probably he’ll lose interest in going on talking to you.
This is neither bad nor good, so, everyone enjoys the hobby according to his/her feelings and pleasure. As modeler, I personally would talk about subjects I’m nowadays interested in, and about projects I’m working on, but, daily, I answer by e-mail concerns about models and subjects I built 5 or 10 years ago, and I feel it my duty, since I’m leading a modeling magazine, but also as an experienced modeler, who loves this activity.
There are a lot of modelers, who don’t belong to any particular group, but don’t have clearly-defined tastes either. They are the newcomers to the hobby, many of them are adults who will be easily get adapted, and eventually might change their group of interest, but very few people value teenagers or even the children as they ought to; actually they have not developed the character of an adult yet, and to be honest, I don’t see anybody thinking of them.
But, to understand this, just go and see an old Monogram’s advertising (back in the year 1965), happy faces of 12 to15 years old children showing their models in hand.
Everybody involved in the hobby, makes up a community…that in many cases serves to the only purpose to fill the self-satisfaction of the members, just look around and I believe you’ll agree with me.
In the past, adults shared the plastic modeling with their children, as a way of being of any help to the youngest or inexperienced (remember that Airfix advertising ). Nowadays, most of the modelers make up a group with the only target to show they can be better than others.…while having fun building models…and the youngest (say children or teenagers) are excluded, there’s no space for them, and this becomes evident in the forums, contests and even in the magazines articles, which are not written for those who neither have thorough knowledge on the subject nor use the proper terminology…they are texts from experts to experts.
Don’t be surprised then, when children feels strongly attracted to electronic games, such industry think of them indeed!!
Here, we have to accept a certain amount of responsibility, and we hope that our magazine is full of notes for those newcomers to this activity who are anxious to receive basic knowledge with which nobody is born into the world, in spite that a lot of people think so.
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