Frogger
I understand your point. I am not challenging whether 18th scalers are the "right" or the "wrong" product.
There's a few tracks in my area, and they cater to 8th, 10th, 12th, and 5th scale... no successful 18th scale track. Someone actually opened one a few months ago but it seems he'll close it as he isn't getting the required attendance levels to break even, even though he marketed it to the local racer community as a "cheaper" way to race. Racers still like the other classes... I don't see any competitive, pan-regional small scale racing being organised soon, with the big shot drivers sent by manufacturers to such races. I don't see many (if at all) small scale racing being relayed by the press and the internet, barring the odd headline on oople. No regional racing => no worlds (this only works for baseball otherwise).
Commercially, if small scale is here to stay, well, I haven't seen it appear as such yet. If the level of "news" in one category is an indication of this category's health, take xray - Juraj's recent column clearly specified "we don't see any opportunity in evolving any of our 18th scale cars as they fit the market needs right now". If you know how greedy the Hudy family is (if only to pay their plants' bills) and you look into how they've expanded their lineup these past 10yrs and how often they release "updates" for their core lines, this is a STRONG signal that they're disinterested from this segment - which is a shame as their stuff is simply BiC.
Likewise, HPI has thrown ridiculous amounts of money at supporting the micro-rs4. There's been a cult following for a couple of years, it's all gone now. If these guys haven't cracked it with their ludicrous marketing firepower, no-one will.
Paul
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