What is the largest demographic buying scale military toys?

[thetatau87]

This question is posed primarily to the manufactures, but anyone on this board could have input on who buys them. I would really like to see actual demographic data from market studies or actual sales that show what age group is the biggest market buying all the great military toys on the market now.

Do kids actually play with these or are most of the sales to older buyers that are collectors or that just put them on display? I have never seen anyone under 25 looking at or buying military toys in retail stores. They are sold in the toy section of Wal-Mart and TRU, but are they primarily toys or display models?

I was born in 1975 (I'm 31 now) and grew up playing with GI Joe. I always wished that there was something more realistic and built in the correct scale available when I was a kid. Now there is a large variety of accurate scale military equipment available and I wonder if kids are actually playing with them or if they are too busy playing video games and texting on their cell phones while they listen to mp3's on their ipod. The best I had when I actually played with toys was the GI Joe Skystriker that loosely replicated an F-14.

[chaffhappy]

I'm mirroring those thoughts. In my mid-30s now, also grew up on GIJoe because the only other things were fragile models to appease my interest in detailed accuracy and scale, and yet nothing compares to the lines and 1:18 scale items we have today.

I would venture that any kids that DO get involved with this stuff are mostly through a shared interest with one or both parents, or maybe even an older sibling. The planes are always a big expense, but BBI had a smart call with their lighter vehicles a few years ago in TRU, and of course getting an awesome and fully-detailed Little Bird or Kiowa in any scheme is a winner at only $20 each, that any kid could ask their parents to buy for them. (which might explain why they seem to sell faster lately, heh)

So as a collecting hobby I would think this would be one of those rare areas where parents actually go shopping WITH their kids, rather than FOR them. Which in my book is a another winning formula for longterm customer loyalty. I'd think it would HAVE to be that kind of shared interest because, unlike Star Wars or Transformers which have alot of marketed media glamour and commercialized history for kids (of all ages), you have to have more than just a casual interest in BBI's or 21st's catalogue of military history.

Oh sure, you see parents sharing shopping carts with their kids for SW or TF toys, too, but I think it speaks volumes that any interest for BBI or 21st isn't based on or influenced by a tv commercial or by following whatever popular marketing is bombarding the airwaves. Again, we don't see the higher-priced items at local retail stores, so I'd think the demographic for online retailers should be strongly in the adult field.

I'd be curious to know how many of the collectors were veterans, or in service now, or just plain collectors with a strong interest. But, sure, it'd be great to hear about anyone in college --or younger-- who went out and got their own 1:18 scale plane.

[tmanthegreat]

I would agree that it is an older collector group buying these "toys." The stuff does get sold in my area, but I have only rarely seen anyone under twenty eyeing a ME-109G or Stuka zu Fuss on the Wal Mart shelves. I know for a fact that at my local Hobbytown store, it is mostly older people that buy the 21c and small-scale military products. Why? They are the ones that have the money, knowledge, and appreciation of them. We find certain things to be appealing that other less-informed buyers would look at as being odd and would pass over (again, that's why few people went running after Stuka zu Fusses). I'm sure there are parents that unwittingly buy an F-86 or Panzer IV for their kids seeing that it's a plane and a tank, but certainly it is not that many...

[Rogue]

It would take a hell of a Firecracker to blowup a F-4!

Well maybe not, the last victim i had was a 1/48 Superfortress.

[BadCatMatt]

Two main market segments, really:

Ages 25-35 Former military who purchase Vietnam to Present equipment that they themselves used, worked on, was at a base with . . . etc.

Ages 60-115 History buffs who devour WWII equipment of all types and research this stretch of history with religious fervor. In fact, call a Corsair an "F4Y" and you'll get a reaction similiar to the statement "Adam and Eve were kicked out of Marvin Gardens" spoken at a Bible conference.

Fun Stuff!

[Jericoeagle1]

Matt,

Has BBI hinted to you of other 1/18 aircraft this year I'm not asking for specifics mind you. It seemed that for a while 21st was setting up to make a few announcements here on new aircraft but have now clamed up. Has BBI done the same? Sorry don't mean to take this off topic.

[BadCatMatt]

bbi Hellcat . . . that's the only news I know.

[Shin Densetsu]

I'm 22 and honestly I never see people my age looking at 21st stuff in walmart. I am not at walmart every week but when I do go I am usually the only person my age looking at the 21st offerings.

When I do see people looking most of the time they are adults probably 15-20 years older than myself.

But I will tell you the stuff sells. The 1/48 stuff sold very very quick, and either it is not getting restocked much or its a hot seller because I rarely see them now. Avengers sold really quick, last I saw one was in fall and I could not find one at all after or before xmas.

I guess we do have a good deal of groundpounders in my area but I just never really see them. But shelves don't like so they are out there somewhere.

[STUKA]

Yeah - I have only watched a few kids run by the XD aisle (chime in crickets - but have seen plenty of older vet type gentlemen eyeing the pak 40s and german vehicles from time to time - I usually shop at night and they by day - and only once did I cross their path - well his to be exact - and old Navy vet - man did he not want to stop talking about sherman. Speaking of Sherman's My grandfather was an officer on the USS Oberon AKA 14 - and tells me when they unloaded the shermans from the hold the crew would have to sit inside the tank and the rocking of the ship would make the sherman swing back and forth sometimes causing the cables to snap - the tank would hit and sink quickly.

[Rowsdower]

I'm 31 and collected (and destroyed) Joes from 1984 on. I also built models and was really into WWII. I always liked how GI Joe would take a real aircraft or vehicle and "pimp it out." Like the Huey Cobra became the Dragonfly, Chinook became the Tomahawk, Blackbird became the Night Raven, etc. I collect my favorite figures to replace the ones I trashed. I love some of the remakes, Vipers, Viper Lockdown, etc.

Anyhow I've only seen two guys actually looking at XD since I've been collecting. I mean looking as collectors not just out of passing interest. They were both in their 40s-50s. I haven't really seen any kids either though, maybe I scare them away.

[pickelhaube]

Well I am 47 , an old fart I guess. I have only seen two other guys when I am on the hunt at Wal-Mart and both I would guess in there 30's . We gave each other the all knowing nod but never struck up a conversation. I guess the moment was too awkward.

[Threetoughtrucks]

Well, since most of you are old enough to be my kids, or grandkids, I do run into guys from their twenties to their 50's in the toy aisle. Most just make believe they are looking for their kids but I see the longing glances at our toys. With me in the aisle happily stuffing my cart with sale toys these guys are just too embarased to go for our toys.

I can tell the looks, and the dejected looks when they leave the aisle to me. Fine with me, I'm not proud....

So says one of the very few Silver Backs in the crowd, old as dirt and proud of it.....so there .

TTT

[flayrah]

I have never personally seen a child buy, seriously consider, or even look at a 1:18 military vehicle or figure or more than a few seconds (although I know there must be some kids who are interested). Every buyer I have seen has been either men from mid-20's though 50's, or a mother-type (usually during Christmas). I have had many kids look at me as I'm looking at 1:18, so I don't know how that fits in the demographics...

I have noticed MANY men who get a sparkle in their eye when they see 1:18, particulary aircraft, and then the sparkle quickly dies when they pick up the box, show it to their accompanying wife, girlfriend, etc and she almost always says something like "that's nice..."

[chaffhappy]

BadCatMatt, that's the main audience to be expected, huh. And I would imagine some of those pilots have a wide-eyed son or daughter who follows their careers with nearly the same passion. And I also imagine those very kids would love to get their hands on a BBI F-18 or F-16 in 1:18 scale. That's the main way I see kids getting involved.

My main interest for jets and planes started thanks to my father, who was a radar technician in the Air Force during Vietnam. He worked mostly on the larger birds. While his main role was support rather than combat, there was still a shared fascination with jets and helicopters, and I remember reading a lot of books as a child while he was gone.

So here I am decades later, doing my share for the hobby and testing my wife's patience with my growing collection. And still I persevere. I hope you're listening, BBI and 21st! I'm a minor but contributing statistic, against my wife's better judgement!

Actually, I'm lucky that my wife can appreciate the craftsmanship in how the planes and jets were sculpted and assembled to make an astounding detailed likeness of the real thing. It's the hit on the pocketbook that dulls her enthusiasm.

[thetatau87]

I'm 31 and collected (and destroyed) Joes from 1984 on. I also built models and was really into WWII. I always liked how GI Joe would take a real aircraft or vehicle and "pimp it out." Like the Huey Cobra became the Dragonfly, Chinook became the Tomahawk, Blackbird became the Night Raven, etc. I collect my favorite figures to replace the ones I trashed. I love some of the remakes, Vipers, Viper Lockdown, etc.

Me too! I was quite a good shot with my BB gun!! It kills me to know how much all that stuff I destroyed would be worth now. I took a different view of the GI Joe "copies" of actual vehicles. Even at 10 years old I would pick them apart for inaccuracies to the real thing, but there was nothing else available so I would go down into the basement and build another model to get something that actually looked like the real thing. I once got a 1:48 A-7 to fly in a somewhat stable trajectory with a model rocket motor carefully counted in the tail. The following crash and ensuing fire would have made a pretty good diorama scene.

[thetatau87]

So here I am decades later, doing my share for the hobby and testing my wife's patience with my growing collection. And still I persevere. I hope you're listening, BBI and 21st! I'm a minor but contributing statistic, against my wife's better judgement!

Actually, I'm lucky that my wife can appreciate the craftsmanship in how the planes and jets were sculpted and assembled to make an astounding detailed likeness of the real thing. It's the hit on the pocketbook that dulls her enthusiasm.

Next time your wife starts giving you grief, go into the closet and start counting her pairs of shoes and adding up the cost. You can also bring out the purses and expensive make up she used once and never touched again. I have always told my wife that I will never complain about what she spends on shoes, make up, haircuts and color, etc... as long as she doesn't complain about my collecting scale airplanes and cars and my spending on modifying my car.

As long as the spending is kept within the budget I don't care what she buys and she better not care what I buy. We both have money set aside in the budget to buy what ever we feel like. We each get and equal amount and neither has any say in how the other spends that money. Everything needs to be a 2-way street to keep things smooth on the home front.

[chaffhappy]

As far as the GIJoe toys go, I actually found myself less interested in the cartoons than I did the comics, because Larry Hama was a real military buff for accuracy, and had more control over the stories. He wrote alot of classic hardware into the series and took liberties to have the joe vehicles mix it up with contemporary or historical jets and armour, just for some odd comparisons in a "what if" theme.

Examples: in one mission a Tomahawk helicopter is heading to an emergency extraction in Southeast Asia and has a brief encounter with 2 Russian Hinds, that goes pretty badly for the joes. In another issue, a covert team uses a PBY Catalina(!) as a makeshift cargo plane to transport some classified terrorist hardware to an Air Force base in Asia, when a Hind shoots them down. There was even a story with a brief dogfight between, of all things, a prototype mini-jet of some kind and a Stearman bi-plane. Now THAT was an odd mix.

[pokeyjtc]

I also fit into the group that several of you guys are in. I'm 32, and I was heavily into GI Joe in the '80s. I loved GI Joe, but I always wished for more accurate WW2 toys. I wanted it so badly, I even wrote Hasbro a letter begging them to start a WW2 line for GI Joe.

As for the people I see buying this stuff, I have only ever run into one other collector, who was about ten years older than me. I helped one kid who was probably 6 years old pick out the figure he wanted by explaining who each guy was and what he did. Occasionally, when I am standing in the checkout line holding a 1:18 plane, somebody asks me a question about it, or some little kid stares at it, but that's about it.

[khatean]

40 with 3 kids and I'm the biggest one. I buy the planes and hang them in my two boys rooms and in the garage. No way I'd buy them for them to play with (not yet since they are 6 & 3) because that $50 toy will be toast in 10 minutes. Pink attack helicpoters hanging in my daughters room is never going to happen.
I would have loved stuff like this as a kid, but the cost would have kept this kind of toy to a gift for a Birthday or Christmas. Having young children you want to make sure that the youngest doesn't try and eat those cool small parts the older child is playing with. Therefore, a good toy for now is one you can throw against the wall and nothing breaks off.

[Quixote511]

Well, I am 25. I have only run into one set of young boys looking at a bbi Mustang/Corsair at TRU. Other than that, I have run into many guys my age and older eyeing this stuff up because they grew up on Joes, but they wanted more realism.

[Jericoeagle1]

Well, I am 25. I have only run into one set of young boys looking at a bbi Mustang/Corsair at TRU. Other than that, I have run into many guys my age and older eyeing this stuff up because they grew up on Joes, but they wanted more realism.

I always tend to see guys my age (47) or older looking as well. I've never seen a kid looking at the 1/18 stuff however, I've noted several taking an interest in the 1/32 and smaller items.

[Flytiger]

$wise, one of the largest "demographic" groups are the people who purchase for later resale. These are the people who never open the boxes. They put them away somewhere and when the model/series is out of production or has become hard to get they put them up on ebay.

If you hold out long enough, some of the pieces will nearly double in value. Just look what happens when an older 21C P-38 shows up on ebay.

Me, I'm building a collection ~1 or 2 per month for my grandsons (currently 4) to fight over (LOL!) when I go. Hopefully they'll have about over 250 to divide up.

Now, if a B-25 or a B-17 comes along, those numbers may change.