Death of the Blue Box

[Subwayaz]

I think unfortunately like anything else in business; it comes down to $$$$ profit margin if you will. Atearn and many other manufacturers realized that they could stand to make more money with Modular builds(RTR) than they could on Kits; so in a pich we lost out on our kits

[SquirrelHollow]

It further solidifies the reason for the problems I have been having in sourcing brass for a loco scratch build.  (And supports the Blue-Box drop.)

No one wants to do a damn thing any more.  "Gimme. Gimme!"  The major buyers in "our" hobby, almost all want RTR items.  The collectors and 'doll-towners' are driving our bread and butter away. 

I had to visit 7 (seven!) hobby shops to find styrene shapes and sheet.  I had to visit 3 more (in addition to the 7), to find K&S brass shapes.  When I found the brass, the shop owner quickly came over and said, "If you want anything, but rod, tube, and sheet... you better get it now; K&S has discontinued almost all the shapes."  After about 15 phone calls, I located another supplier of K&S brass.  He verified that they had discontinued many of their shapes.  "Told me it's not worth repairing the tooling, since nobody buys it."

Only a tiny, abysmal percentage of the population actually builds anything now.... not even kits.

(In this case, there seem to have been many more factors.)

[wm3798]

To follow up on Dave Schneider's comment...
My son is now in 8th grade, and there is no longer "shop class".  I was always in a college-prep track when I was in school, but in 7th-9th grades, I always had shop.  We learned some basic drafting, metal work and wood work skills.  The drafting skills enabled me to develop a good side business in residential design, Metal Shop helped me understand how to use things like soldering irons and a break, and wood shop helped me in just about every aspect of renovating my house, from framing to finishing.

Now they plop the kids down in front of a computer and show them how to type (which is also a valuable skill), but they have no ideas what to do with their hands otherwise.  Fortunately, we live in a 100+ year old house, so I'm giving plenty of opportunities to learn how to work paint strippers, palm sanders and table saws.  This spring he's going to learn how to use a 40' ladder!

(He has fearlessly built a couple of Blue Boxes, so I know he can paint a gable!)

Lee