Plastic Model Kit Retail Prices Soar And Children Lose A Favorite Pastime Hobby

What We Used To Enjoy As Children Can't Be Enjoyed By Our Children Now

Written By Jim Allan | 5-30-2016

Used to be you could go down to any store and grab a plastic model kit for $1.00 and be a happy camper back in the 1950's. Over the decades the prices of these plastic model kits jumped up but at low price hikes because they were being purchased for children. Adults would take advantage of these low prices and create some outstanding looks with them. But over the decades along with other popular hobby items the secondary market values jump up because some collectors are willing to pay high amounts of cash for popularity and rarity.

Model Kit building has gone from a child's pastime hobby into an adults form of artwork and so it be the retail prices are jumping up far past what it costs to manufacture them and produce a profit.

I built model kits when I was a child and used to get one on my birthday and for Christmas. They were inexpensive for my parents and I enjoyed building them although I didn't turn them into works of art with detailed paint jobs. I used to just put them together and play with them.

Back in the day so to speak 1 to 5 dollars was the norm for a plastic model kit. I purchased a couple as collectors items and left them unbuilt in the box and picked them up for $10.00 in the 1990's. Now I started building some model kits again as I grow into my elderly years and I looked at the prices in a few retail outlets and they wanted between $25.00 and $35.00 for a basic plastic model kit if you can find them now. Walmart and other popular retailers won't even carry them in their inventory now and quit doing so about 10 years ago. You have to go to a hobby shop to get them now.

Even the paint and building accessories have risen dramatically. A small jar of paint that used to cost .29 cents is now nearly $2.00. Unbelievable!

I said "What?". WoW, what happened. Is it the bad economy, the decline in model kit sales due to a changing population or profiteering off an adult collectors market?. Is it the massive immigration that's happening and foreigners not interested in model kits for their children? Is it a bad economy and manufacturers declining sales because people can't afford them or is it just the plain greed of manufactures that see dollar signs when they open their eyes? 

My thoughts is "All Three" reasons I listed above. I did purchase one for $25.00 that drew me in but haven't built it yet. I without a doubt will build it but I have two other model kits I had in storage for years I'm building that were far less expensive and hopefully I will be able to turn them into works of art although I doubt it. They will be good to look at though. I do have some decent unbuilt model kits in storage that I'm not going to build that have risen in value on the secondary collectors market. The model kits that I took a dive on I will build and turn them into built wonders in today's world of plastic model kit building we as consumers are getting charged up the ass for now.