2012

Here we are in the first week of the new year and I still seemed to mired in the mojo implosion that hit in early December. I am hoping that the Revell Halifax can pull me out of the funk - if it would finally hit an American online retailer. Maybe the Airfix Swordfish too.

Though I haven't seen a full official 2012 new-kit list (just the 2011 kits that didn't quite make it to market in time) I haven't seen much that really gets the blood pumping. There are always cool items in the Czech lists (SH's Balliol, AZ's Chipmunk) but not much has surfaced in the injected manufacturers' lists. Now it is early and both Airfix and Revell tend to make their official announcments at Nuremberg, so hopefully we'll see some exciting things before long. But I suspect that the extensive world recession has gone on so long that businesses, especially in a non-essential category like hobby retailing, have finally decided to pull back a bit in order to weather the storm in better shape.

The problem is that, in hobbies, NEW is everything. I spent ten years in the late 90s / early 00s as an online hobby retailer, and can tell you that what is new sells. No new product = limp sales. It's just the nature of it. A year of retrenchment we can probably all survive. But if it goes on too long, it becomes a dangerous death spiral. No new kits = no new income = no new development = no new kits. With the successes on the last 12 months I would love to see the momentum continue. I really think this has been one of the better years in memory, certainly in my scale of 1:72.

On another subject, we're celebrating the one-year anniversay of the 72 Land blog. Another reason to outwit Jack the Mojo-ripper. We seem to be increasing page hits on a monthly basis, even when the content doesn't keep up. It's been rather fun from my perspective, so I fully intend to keep on pumping these things out.

My total of completed kits in 2011 was 39, most of which have been displayed here. It's unlikely that I will exceed that in 2012 (at least if my employment status returns to normal) but I will keep posting the work that does get done. I'll shortly be posting a visual summary of those models at my other 1:72 scale home, Robert Renscho's 1:72 Aircraft site: http://z15.invisionfree.com/72nd_Aircraft/index.php

To all the readers and followers of 72 Land, I wish you a great and productive 2012.