Quoted By:
I remember talking to a boomer who recalled making models back in the 60s, and the one thing he said he missed was the glue. He mentioned how the old stuff fizzed as it dried and said that it "was simply better" than the modern stuff without elaborating further.
I recently did some digging and discovered that back in the day there was a brief moral panic around youngsters getting high from sniffing the polystyrene cement. (I think there was a late-50s poll that said making plastic models was the third most popular boys' past time in the US.) Chemical companies quickly changed the recipe, by adding horseradish, before phasing out the toluene completely. It turns out there's an unspoken reason why so many boomers are still in the hobby while being frustrated with their lack of success in reliving their childhood experiences and not understanding why.
