01-29-2012, 03:08 AM
I think the hobby will remain, but I do think it might depend on how 'toys' are marketted, and might be different from country to country.
Let me give you my observations:
I grew up in the Netherlands, in my teenage years, we had the first generations of home computers, gameboys etc coming up. I was into modelrailroading then too. It was shocking to see how the 'traditional hobbies' section in the local toy shops shrunk and made way for shelfs of computerised toys and games. , after about 8 years, there were no model trains for sale anymore, the 1st generation playstation was available and there was hardly anything 'craft' related for sale anymore. I've since revisited the same shop 20 yrs later while in town visiting family, and the situation has not changed, there's a bit of lego, and dolls etc, some puzzles, and the rest is computer games etc...
About 12 years ago, I moved to the UK, a similar toy store here still sells quite a bit of craft hobby supplies, model ships, planes, model trains (although 99.9% UK railroad models) etc etc. fast forward to today, and that is still the case, it is still looking pretty alive in the UK, and I'm wondering if this is because there are still many arts and craft shows organised, people here grow up with it, and perhaps this has it's influence on how people perceive these hobbies here. It appears there is also still a bit of a 'culture' on traditional hobbies in germany, but all and all the hobby has suffered. (Big manufacturers like Fleischmann, Roco, Marklin have all gone bankrupt over the past 10-15 years, and were restarted/reorganised mergers etc etc to keep them going, but nothing is like it was 15 years ago with big catalogs with loads of different models, it's a few models, loads of colour schemes and limited runs now..)
But comparing the Netherlands , UK and Germany, the cultural approach seems different, and toy shops looking for fast sales haven't helped either in some cases.
For young people, there may be a bit more involved:
It appears that 'peer pressure' also plays a role in young people not taking up the hobby, being made fun of because you 'play with trains', the general public probably has visions of an oval of track, with a train running around at high speeds, while you're wearing a conductors had and blow a whistle or whatever..... They don't see the craft involved, and as mentioned before by others, 'instant gratification' is what people are after, long term planning and goals are not what they seem to want, but is that their choice, or is it because they don't get shown that there is another way (not seeing model trains in a toy store when you grow up doesn't help things here...)
Koos
Let me give you my observations:
I grew up in the Netherlands, in my teenage years, we had the first generations of home computers, gameboys etc coming up. I was into modelrailroading then too. It was shocking to see how the 'traditional hobbies' section in the local toy shops shrunk and made way for shelfs of computerised toys and games. , after about 8 years, there were no model trains for sale anymore, the 1st generation playstation was available and there was hardly anything 'craft' related for sale anymore. I've since revisited the same shop 20 yrs later while in town visiting family, and the situation has not changed, there's a bit of lego, and dolls etc, some puzzles, and the rest is computer games etc...
About 12 years ago, I moved to the UK, a similar toy store here still sells quite a bit of craft hobby supplies, model ships, planes, model trains (although 99.9% UK railroad models) etc etc. fast forward to today, and that is still the case, it is still looking pretty alive in the UK, and I'm wondering if this is because there are still many arts and craft shows organised, people here grow up with it, and perhaps this has it's influence on how people perceive these hobbies here. It appears there is also still a bit of a 'culture' on traditional hobbies in germany, but all and all the hobby has suffered. (Big manufacturers like Fleischmann, Roco, Marklin have all gone bankrupt over the past 10-15 years, and were restarted/reorganised mergers etc etc to keep them going, but nothing is like it was 15 years ago with big catalogs with loads of different models, it's a few models, loads of colour schemes and limited runs now..)
But comparing the Netherlands , UK and Germany, the cultural approach seems different, and toy shops looking for fast sales haven't helped either in some cases.
For young people, there may be a bit more involved:
It appears that 'peer pressure' also plays a role in young people not taking up the hobby, being made fun of because you 'play with trains', the general public probably has visions of an oval of track, with a train running around at high speeds, while you're wearing a conductors had and blow a whistle or whatever..... They don't see the craft involved, and as mentioned before by others, 'instant gratification' is what people are after, long term planning and goals are not what they seem to want, but is that their choice, or is it because they don't get shown that there is another way (not seeing model trains in a toy store when you grow up doesn't help things here...)
Koos
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