Bowser Loco Kits

[Sumpter250]

I'm sorry that the "builders" don't seem to carry enough influence in the market to have suppliers even maintain interesting and affordable offerings

Bob, "builders" do carry influence, there's just not enough of us left for that influence to be felt.

in a kit, they don't need to make the investment in LABOR that a RTR loco requires.

Absolutely!!!!!! So, why don't kits sell as well as RTR ? :?: :?: :?:

Its a closure of history..When I was 10 years old I built my first Penn-Line kit,a PRR H9 2-8-0,under my dad's experience watchful eye...It was pure joy when the engine moved for the first time.That's the type of joy we can't get by simply opening a box..Doesn't come close to comparing the joy and yes pride..

The majority of modern model railroaders....bought RTR!!!!
The profits were in RTR.
The kit manufacturers went to RTR, to stay in business.
When I first started in this hobby, there wasn't the variety....the detail was all in brass....I could barely afford the materials to build with, much less buy kits, or more expensively, buy RTR (read that brass, considering the times).
I built! I read and enjoyed the "construction articles" in MR, and I built some of them. To get the detail for the die cast loco kits, I bought cast brass parts, one at a time.
It became a discipline.

I was part of this hobby before the "I want it all, and I want it now" era.
The last laugh, however, is that those of us who "took on the discipline of building" will continue to enjoy the hobby. Those who took the easier path of RTR, will have to learn "the discipline", or find another hobby.
We may yet see the resurrection of the scale parts industry....come back all ye of Kemtron, Cal Scale, Scale Structures Limited, and all the others whose names escape me at the moment,fame.....come back to the hobby magazines, the construction articles that long ago made modelers of us "model" railroaders.......come back all ye heroes like John Allen, Al Armitage, Mel Thornburgh, Jack Work.....teach us again how to build models.
The pride of ownership, lasts only until the next thing to own comes along. The pride of accomplishment....the joy of doing...now that lasts forever.and costs so much less