>>10913398Dying hobby. One which peaked in the 90s for normies and 00s for ultra-autists. That is not to say that things have gone downhill in quality necessarily (as a car, plane and train guy at the very least). Even then, some giants have fallen. Ever wondered why toys were more common up until the 00s (I will give you a hint, there is a big company which starts with a T and ends with an with an YCO that is missing now because the execs fucked up big time).
On the train front, Lionel is now shit when it comes to QC, but that is the only common nitpick (aside fro Heljan's grossly overpriced product).
Ultimately, across all hobbies, price is the biggest concern, and prices have gone up. A plastic model kit could be bought for as cheap as $3.00 five years ago and that price was pretty steady having only gone up $1.00 in 15 years. Now the price is $6.00. Diecast cars have been fairly stable, but ones from the likes of Hot Wheels have also seen a slight price hike, from $1.00 at Dollar General to $1.50. Slot cars went from $20-30/set to near unobtainium that is $50 or more and model trains have gone up ludicrously so in price from just under $100 to now $250, though this is somewhat attributable to price gouging, so this is where I think the big issue lies.
