Need your opinions...

**markcrowel** · #1 03-27-2009, 07:45 PM

Fellow builders,

If you have any opinions at all about this type of model car, please post them. I want as much input from as many people as possible.

The model car hobby hasn't caught on very well with today's kids, and I'd like to help revive it through paper models. I want to market simple, inexpensive, generic cardboard models. They would not be daunting or tedious, but would still involve enough work for a preteen to feel that he will have accomplished something.

Shown here is the first rough prototype. It would have a precut center strip and side panels of lightweight cardboard, of the type found on the backs of writing tablets (about 1/32 inch thick). This should give the model a feeling of substance. The pictorial features would be printed on white cardstock. To assemble the body, the cardboard center strip (grille panel, hood, windshield, roof, and trunk) would be flap-glued to the cardboard side panels with non-toxic glue (i.e. Elmers). The cardstock pictorial features would be colored by the customer with crayons or colored pencils, cut out, and glued to the assembled body.

Scale: 1/32, (six and three-eighths inches long, two inches wide).
Projected price: $2.50 each.
These will be sold at the yard sales that my wife and I have often through the spring and summer. There is too much competition on the internet from free downloads, so I will concentrate on selling them locally.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

**B-Manic** · #2 03-27-2009, 08:09 PM

I think its a great idea. If yours were unique in some way, perhaps a cops and robbers play set. Or if they came with traffic lights, or a fire department set, just a thought.

**markcrowel** · #3 03-27-2009, 08:36 PM

Good idea!

**Tim Crowe** · #4 03-28-2009, 01:37 AM

Maybe you could do them in so they can be coloured in the style of a local football / basketball team?

Tim

**markcrowel** · #5 03-28-2009, 05:42 AM

Thank you. Please keep the ideas coming.

**dansls1** · #6 03-28-2009, 07:04 AM

I would think that you would probably get more interest if the subjects were more targetted to the younger generation - fast and furious tuners, Nascar and monster trucks for example.

**lee4752** · #7 03-28-2009, 08:18 AM

Don't forget the popularity of pokemon and bakugan. Super Mario Bros. still seems to do for my kids as well.

**markcrowel** · #8 03-29-2009, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lee4752

Don't forget the popularity of pokemon and bakugan. Super Mario Bros. still seems to do for my kids as well.

I worry about copyright issues with commercial items, but something resembling popular cartoon or video games could be an idea.

**whulsey** · #9 03-29-2009, 07:32 PM

From what I see on the plastic side with the cars, a good portion of the kids (especially the older ones) tend to be into the tuner, Fast and Furious style cars; or donks and low riders.

**markcrowel** · #10 04-05-2009, 05:53 PM

Not to bump my own thread again, but I want to ask: Is a preteen more likely to buy the model he wants to build, because he likes the way it looks or what it represents; or, is he likely to try what he thinks won't be too difficult?

I'm asking this because I'm not sure if today's kids have the attention span/ambition that my generation did back in the 1960's, at least when it comes to building models. We would look at the box art on a model kit, and if the car's picture looked so good that we just had to have it, we'd buy it. We ignored the difficulties, at least until we opened the box once we got it home.