From experience of working in model shops I would say that the main problem for kit makers is that there is no longer any tradition of handing down kit building skills. Many of the current younger generation have dads who never got to see the contents of an Airfix kit during their youth so they don’t know how to make kits and can’t pass knowledge on to their sons.
When I last worked in a shop I noticed that most youngsters who came in for kits were accompanied by grandad and there was usually a bond between the younger and older person probably created by the shared interest and sharing of knowledge. The kit choice was nearly always a joint decision and this involved discussion and communication – also a fairly alien concept to many modern youths.
I do think that kit building helped promote creativity in all of us and also stimulated our interest in avaition, cars etc and led us all to find fulfilling interests – certainly interests which were far more useful than seeing how many people you can bludgeon to death in a computer game. Don’t get me wrong I am not totally against computer gaming but I am against games which help instil violence and a lack of respect for others and their property in our young and I believe there are many games out there which – inadvertently or otherwise – do manage to do just that.
Maybe a comparatively cheap way to promote model making would be for Hornby to look at some kind of road show which went to schools to promote the hobby during craft lessons or visited youth centres during school holidays. With a couple of competent Hornby staff in attendance to help put the models together it may sow the seeds for a few new kit builders. Both Hornby and Corgi already have road show vehicles promotuing their ranges so this would just be a different and possibly even more productive way to promote their brands.
Having worked with the Corgi Road Show on 3 occassions I got the impression there were two kinds of visitor. Many were already customers and a vast majority of the rest were gawpers who dismissed the whole thing as expensive toys which cost far too much money and there was usually a further comment to their young son of “anway yopu smash all your toys within five minutes (that lack of respect thing again!). Incidentally many of this group would happily shell out around a fiver for a lovingly crafted packet of fags but Corgi models were way too expensive for “just a toy.”
Maybe promoting the hobby (particularly kit building) to the young is the way to go.