Are scale models actually toys?

Introduction

So the other day a customer wrote asking about servos, and mentioned in passing how during a party for his wife’s birthday a couple arrived and the guy’s wife artlessly laughed at him (in his own home) by exclaiming in a loud voice, ‘Oh look, he plays with toy airplanes!’

Worse, as host, he could only grin and bear it while she smirked like a halfwit hyena. Sad thing is – a full week after the fact – the guy’s still chapped at being unmanned in public. Honestly? I wish I knew what motivates folks to put others down, for no reason, but here we are.

Thing is, I could commiserate because it brought to mind a similar incident in our lives. Turning back the clock +40 years, we were hosting a Christmas party. And in what’s now become family lore, some guy’s wife archly quipped along similar lines about me and ‘my’ toy model airplanes. She didn’t count on Lynn’s quiet defense!

Seems my gal’s in the loop about the woman’s husband fooling around with a side-piece (open secret, pretty young thing working as a lingerie model), so when she quietly responded with; ‘Yes, but at least my husband’s toys don’t have two legs.’ You could have heard a pin drop. The woman, now beet-red, gathered purse and husband, and stormed out in a huff.

Minor lesson, and paraphrasing songwriter Jim Croce . . .

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape,
You don’t spit into the wind,
You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger,
And you don’t mess around with Lynn!

So this brings up, what makes for a toy? Are toys just for children? Obviously, dolls and playhouses are toys; what about a stuffed bear?

Are stuffed bears toys?

I think the answer is pretty obviously, yes. I once witnessed my daughter with a tea set and Mr. Bear sitting with cup and saucer placed before him. And providing children comfort at stressful times is a side-benefit. Yet, a few moments online, reveals a gorgeous stuffed bear (for the well heeled) once went for $2.1 million.

Question is; does this – in any way – make it more, or less of a toy, than the one we purchased for Niki at Walmart for $35?

This is the pricey stuffed critter, offered as proof I kid you not.

So if $2.1M is a bit much for a toy, what about a stuffed bear costing $298 from vendor Neiman Marcus? Again, is this any more or less a toy just because it doesn’t set their buyer back millions? Especially when this one is also by Steiff? And what if a film maker subsequently uses it as a prop? Does it stop being a toy due to professional use?

Does price, or the use someone may make of it, make it less of a toy?

Motorized construction cranes toys?

And what about a construction set with motorized winches, like a construction crane miniaturized to fit on a table. We’ve all seen these dotting city skylines, man perched in a cage high above doing the work of building our cities, right?

So a kid playing with one is obviously playing with a toy, agreed? So what about a grown ass man playing with the same toy? Does his age automatically stop this thing from being a toy?

I’m asking with a purpose because this beauty is available from Tractor Supply for a cool $450 and reason I know this is because a customer recently confessed to buying a set on impulse. For his kid?

Nope, for himself. Seems he bought it expressly to play with for his own joy of living because he’d wanted one as a kid. However, his parents, too hard pressed making a home, could never afford one.

So does his age (mid-40s) make this thing any more, or less, a toy?

So for whom are toys made?

So to the question of what makes something a toy, let’s look at other examples of real life things reduced in scale such that they become toys. What about model airplanes and trucks? Are they toys? And what about the component parts for these toys? I’m speaking of repair and replacement bits and bobs.

Ones, which are little different than replacing a doll’s lost eye, broken gears, or burnt motor in an erector set. Or maybe for the purpose of making upgrades. After all, they’re essential parts of the toy because without them, then the toy doesn’t function as intended, right?

And circling back around to my customer, let’s nail down the question, are toys only for children versus grown men and women? And if they are only for children, are they only a toy if used just for play, or is it still a toy when they’re used for the purpose of teaching hand-eye coordination under the guise of play?

Honestly? Who is to say with certainty?

Are model airplanes and trucks toys?

Continuing with scale models of full size cars, airplanes, boats, and such . . . toys, which are expressly created for fun and play, but are maybe also useful for learning life lessons. Lessons to do with striving, and not giving up when it’s hard. After all, flying a model airplane isn’t easy, takes hard work to master. And are they still toys when used for competing?

What better than friendly competition for learning a thing or two, and not just about sportsmanship, but about getting along with others? So do they cease to be toys if the fun is competition?

Let’s look at competition more carefully.

Competition

So if the toy is used for competition, does it cease to be a toy? If this seems to be a stupid question it’s because I’m an engineer and as such, we strive to find out where the rules no longer apply. The limits.

For, example, take a bar of steel to which we apply force until it begins to bend. And if more force is applied until it breaks, thus, we learn the limits. Limits like the yield strength of the material as well as the ultimate strength for same.

In the case of toys, the question posed is; what are the limits of a model, of a real thing reduced in size, when does it stop being a toy? Does it? And is it anything to to do with wealth, age, application, or gender?

This may seem nuts – but – we have to test limits, to find them! Reason is when people make fun of others for playing with toys they do them a disservice. And this may should be called out exactly as someone should be called out for being a bigot! It’s unacceptable.

Spare parts

Continuing with model cars, airplanes, boats, and such then in light of the fact these toy can’t so much as function without a servo for steering, then does this make our servos a toy-component? A reasonable man might well say . . . ‘Yes.’

Added to the fact these toys are very often sold without the essential components required for completion, like a servo. This, expressly because it allows for customization, which again, is part of the fun of the toy.

Thus, playing with the completed toy, and assembly, are separate aspects of play. E.g. playing what-if with features is truly another method of play, and one which is simply played under another guise!

Are 1s and 0s play, also?

And reflect on this; isn’t play with toy cars and boats especially important when participation trophies are all the craze? Isn’t it important if for no other reason that to foster mechanical skills, creating aptitude under the aegis of play, skills which will serve a lifetime? Aren’t these types of toys important as an alternative to alone-time packed into bedrooms with computer games?

After all, computers games are alternative forms of play commonly resulting in people (adults and kids alike) whiling away the hours mindlessly with nothing to show for it. Perhaps in playing with a Nintendo Switch with a driving game, where both the Switch and the RC model truck involved driving but only one has a scaled down version of a real man carrying vehicle with which to play?

By way of example, and costing less than millions is this fun model of a Ford Raptor – scaled down to fun size – and offered by Traxxas at a price – $500 – pretty much everyone can afford!

Funny thing is, somehow along the way, parents, who when their kids were little bought dolls and playhouses, and 12V riding cars like a miniaturized Jeep – instead of continuing to introducing youth to model airplanes, cars, and other mechanical toys – often end up handing them virtual toys. Why?

Could it be because it’s easier to hand them an iPad or Switch, which they’re begging for because their friends have them. Or because of a paucity of hobby shops?

Hard to tell but ascribing blame is an exercise in futility. Especially when we don’t know anybody else’s life circumstances. However, one thing is certain, taking kids to a pond to race boats, a race track to play with miniature model trucks, or to the model airplane flying field to see them fly the model sucks down a lot more time that giving them an iPad.

So we never blame parents regarding their use of available time. Just as some can take kids to scouting, others can carry youth, or themselves, out to enjoy a spot of flying with models performing realistic warbird maneuvers (usually with a scale model of P-51 or Spitfire). Doing so passes the time in play as the miniatures of man carrying models allow free reign of the imagination, a requisite for play.

Moreover, for some parents, discovering with a relief alternatives of play involving scale models exist, is a near existential experience. Especially when – maybe desperate to divorce their kids from screens – such a discovery (of scale modeling toys) is sometimes viewed as something of a godsend! And if you want to know the truth, I’ve had wives thank us for our role in modeling. Why?

It’s because their husbands – upon discovering model cars or airplanes now, instead of arriving home to kick off their shoes and cuddling up to a Sony PlayStation – while away idle time in their workshop, instead. They actually discover a side of them involving being handy. How? Maybe gluing bits of balsa together, or preparing a truck for the track at Friday night races brings it out, dunno!

Switching gears, are grownups playing with model airplanes and trucks actually discriminated against? Sadly, if the experience of my customer and I is anything to go by, yes. We’ve both experienced people looking down their noses at their notions of what constitutes acceptable adult play. Meaning ones who self-appoint themselves judge, jury, and executioner regarding flying or racing scale model is bad – but – hitting a ball with a stick and playing golf is good. Hmmm.

This, with zero consideration for how perhaps life’s circumstances meant their not playing with the toys as children. Toys, which only now as adults, they can finally afford because the yearning remains.

Playhouse

Another example may be eye opening. One of my wife’s co-workers bought the toy dollhouse below for her granddaughter. Thing is, she’s just 4 months old, so who do you think this lovely toy Palace Playhouse is really for?

Facts are, neither age, nor gender limits us in playing with toys. And what’s more, the above playhouse – without the furniture and accoutrements like beds, dresser, people, bassinet, even the mirrors on the wall – isn’t complete. These bits and bobs are essential, else the illusion for play simply isn’t complete. So, are the little bed or the dresser – available separately for sale – also required for these toys to fulfill their intended functioning? Yes! And just as much as a servo is required for a model boat to steer else it doesn’t fulfill its intended function. It’s the exact same thing.

And this is what actually defines toys in our view. Miniature representations of real things, dolls for people, stuffed critters representing in miniature full size animals like bears, or playhouses as proxy for a some day in future home, and model cars on the raceway, they all allow us to play as surely as Walter Mitty did within his imagination.

The kid, or grown man at the pond engaging his competitive spirit playing with a model boat, or the model engineer dressed just like the real thing, an engineer running a train set, but instead of a beast weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds and costing millions (and perhaps an entire supporting team for a race truck), they play instead with small scale model toy . . . for pleasure.

So a little kid (or a late 20s mother) playing with a miniature playhouse – pretending it’s for a 4 month old – is just as OK as a nine year old little girl racing her scale model boat across a pond, right?

Or are we mistaken? Is our basic premise of play and scale models totally wrong? Do age, cost, gender, and such determine what’s appropriate and real play? How sad if this is the case.

Discrimination

Anyway, it’s our suspicion, being deemed too old to play with toys is discriminatory of age, which hardly seems fair in our America! Especially when it’s through play with toys, playhouses, or models, in this ‘how’ that many find fulfillment and relaxation from the grind of work. Or where they may enjoy the fruits of competition.

Competition is, after all, part of life in America.

Participation

And with regard to competition, everybody participates in their own way. Some partake in playing softball with their church team. Some by building flying models! And some by racing . . . like these big boys.

Does participation create a limit in what’s a toy?

Educational toys and play

And yet, dismissively referring to model boats or trucks as toys for big boys, seems inane. Even wrong.

Like how about when grandparents or parents make use of toy model trucks for introducing kids to play with mechanical things? For learning which way a nut is turned on a bolt to tighten or loosen? This is especially useful for parents desperately wanting to instill motor skills in their kids whose interest perhaps lies in computer games. Parents living in fear their kids may turn out to be mechanically inept adults!

So it seems wrong-headed to denigrate these toys, purchased principally for fun despite the fact they can also be put to serious use. Mankind, after all, can always find a way to take the fun out of anything. True, as surely as the shrew whose sharp tongue denigrated my customer within his own home!

However, it’s modeling, which may serve to remove kids, by choice, from the allure of computer games and play on a Nintendo Switch. And at the same time, get them outdoors. So viewing modeling with suspicion, as if there were something wrong with play because of age is sad. Or assuming it’s not play with toys because of what they cost is wrong, also.

Very sad if considering the alternative, which are youth and adults, both, often longing for a world of the 1s and 0s of digital play. Sigh.

ProModeler’s role in the toy supply chain

At ProModeler we’re proud of our role in the toy supply-chain. Our components are essential for the function of certain toys with which both adults and kids play. These being principally for model trucks, airplanes, or boats as operated at full scale by people. With the miniatures they play for the simple enjoyment of life. Of pretending they’re flying the model, or racing the truck, or rearranging the furniture in a playhouse. It’s in the mind!

And it’s a wholesome activity. Especially so after seeing kids learning both how to play with others, as well as learning important lessons in regard to sportsmanship through play. It even leads some to seek opportunities to introduce the joy of playing with models to others!

So where do we draw the line regarding what makes a toy? Is a scale model of an airplane or truck a toy? What about the parts required to complete them?

Summary

As we have shown, toys aren’t just for children, and they may comprise more than dolls, stuffed toys, playhouses or composition, e.g. wood, fabric, plastic, or metal. Some toys are motorized, others aren’t, but all these example are about playing with and having fun with reproductions of real things . . . scale models.

Moreover, the toy supply chain also comprises more than just the entire toy, like a play house needs furniture, and thus, includes essential component like servos for a model. And even spare and replacement parts, like replacing a lost doll’s eye, broken gears, motor, or upgrades.

And these toys aren’t just for children because America is a nation that prides itself on non-discrimination in it’s every ugly form. So we stand against all discrimination and not just with regard to race, sex, age but against play. After all, America is certainly not against those, for whom life’s circumstances meant not playing with the toys, which only now as adults, they can finally afford.

Why? It’s because we’re a nation of fun loving men and women for whom age is a number, and for whom toys are just as much a part of our make up as baseball and apple pie.

So where do we draw the line at what makes for a toy? Nobody really knows but what makes it especially personal for me is this; my mother, embarrassed by the photographer wanting to substitute a prop in his studio for my own favored stuffed mutt, trekked across town on a city bus one day after asking a neighbor to keep an eye on me.

What for? To buy replacement eyes, which she lovingly sewed on, thus repairing my beloved toy pooch. This, after this photo was taken.

Yes, I’m proud to be accused of playing with my models. I refuse to hide in shame. If someone laughs at you, laugh back. Don’t bow down to mean spirited people. Rejoice in the pride of play. I do.