A few weeks ago, we had our HVAC system tested, and in order to do so, I had to move some boxes in our upstairs bonus room in order to get to the attic access door. While the boxes were displaced, I decided that I needed to do something that I hadn't done in at least 15 years–take an inventory of what I have in the "modeler's stash". While not true for all, some modelers are pack rats, and amass a collection of un-built kits that rival that of any well-stocked hobby shop–and I am no exception to that rule. As of this posting, I'm at 1,500 and counting–and that's more or less just kits, no aftermarket doo-dads or decal sheets included. If you think 1,500 is a lot, ponder this–a few years ago, there was an estate sale for a modeler who had died with some 10,000 un-built kits in his collection.
Why do we do this? We're supposedly sane people, right? None of us has ever appeared on Reality TV as some weird victim of our "habits", at least not that I know of. So why would otherwise upstanding people, viable contributors to society, gather such a large number of little plastic airplanes, ships, cars, tanks, or whatever? Why does anyone collect and/or hoard anything?
For some modelers, it has been the threat of "Limited Edition" kits. You know the drill–"Buy it now or pay through the nose later." Early on, I fell for it, but very rarely these days do I rush out to buy a mainstream kit because I don't think it'll be available in a week, month, or year. Mind you, there are some cottage industry kits that are limited to a certain number–and I will get those if the subject interests me, since a good many of those are truly "if you snooze, you lose", but for the most part I know that the kit will, more than likely, be available when I'm ready to purchase it.
Along the same lines, there is the "The molds were destroyed" story. Rumors abound on the interwebs about two or three kits that will never again be available since the company did away with the tooling. Airliner modelers chase their Holy Grail in the form of the Otaki 1/144 Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. Small-scale military modelers likewise snap up every one of the 1/144 Otaki/Entex/Nitto/Revell/Testors C-5A Galaxy kits they come across. Both kits, we're told, will never again be made, since Otaki is said to have dumped the molds in Tokyo Bay. The stories behind those actions are many and varied, but I don't know if anyone knows the real dope. Steel molds cost way too much for them to just be dumped.
Another angle: "Well, you know that the original mold of the Superfly was irreversibly altered in order to make the Super-Duperfly, right?" The only kit molds that I believe were "permanently altered" would have to be Revell's 1/115 scale Lockheed Electra airliner and their 1/48 H-34. The Electra story goes that the sales of the Electra kit had dropped off, and the U.S. Navy had just introduced the Electra-derived P-3A Orion to the fleet. Revell decided to capitalize by altering their Electra tool into an Orion, but in order to do so they could not go back. Whether true or not, we haven't seen Revell reissue an Electra kit, so I'd have to the story has merit. As for the H-34, it is said that Revell changed the molds to make a Queen's Flight Wessex, altering the molds in such a way that to mold an H-34 was now impossible. Nowadays, though, with slide mold technology and mold inserts, that is a thing of the past. I'm not falling for that line…
How about the collector? While there are kit collectors out there, I'm not one of them. True collectors want pristine examples of what they collect, whether that be coins, stamps, cars, dishes, or whatever. Nope, the boxes in the stash are dusty, some crumpled, some gone altogether. Nope, I'm no collector.
I'm a builder–a very slow builder, but I bought every kit I own with the intention of building it. The problem is time–it keeps moving. Will I ever get all of the kits in my stash built? The only way I can see that happening is if I were to crank out two or three a week until I leave this world for the next, without buying anything new. The way I build, that's not likely to happen. The alternative would be to do what I'm doing: Take stock, figure out what you really can live without, and sell the rest as SIDNA. SIDNA, by the way, politely stands for Stuff I Don't Need Anymore, and I've held a number of SIDNA sales over the past 15 years or so. Another one is looming…
Until next time, be good to one another. I bid you peace.