Tail End Charlie

Nuremberg Toy Fair 2025

Text: Jakub Nademlejnský

Knowing that it would fall to me to prepare the Tail End Charlie for this issue, I suggested to my colleagues that I write it at the very last minute, on Sunday morning, immediately after returning from Nuremberg at midnight on Saturday, as it would surely be of interest to readers. So I am writing my feelings in the heat of the moment. While we were in a very positive mood on the way home, I've decided to split this Tail End Charlie into two parts, positive and negative, with the positive part being the one I'd like to start with, as it's definitely the one that's prevailing in me.

Our participation in Nuremberg certainly served its purpose. Although there were not as many meetings at our stand as in the years before COVID, since representatives from companies in the plastic modelling industry did not come in the same numbers as in these years. However, the meetings were intense, we could afford to have them long and substantive, to deepen relationships, to stay focused during them, not having to rush because of other meetings or because a participant was already waiting for another meeting in front of the stand. So the whole thing took place in a very relaxed atmosphere, visitors came to us with smiles on their faces. For example, we brewed over 50 cups of coffee for guests during the show. Our coffee was said to be the best in the whole world, made by our CEO Mr Šulc himself, and he was probably very proud of it. The number of company stands from our branch remained practically unchanged, apart from us there were Special Hobby, Tamiya, Airfix at the Hornby stand, Academy, Miniart, Trumpeter/HobbyBoss, Clearprop together with the accessories producer Reskit, Italeri, Heller together with the distributor Glow2B, the trading company Modellbau König, the company Hobby-Pro, which distributes Zvezda and Dragon in Europe, the distributor and profile producer Albion Alloys and Revell in Hall 12. 2. It has to be said that it is quite a walk from Hall 7 to Hall 12.2, but the Revell stand is well worth a visit. Revell and Tamiya have the largest stands in our industry, both offering the opportunity to drive RC cars, for example. Revell has expanded its range considerably and, as well as plastic models, now offers a relatively new range of plywood and paper models.

In the past, the Nuremberg fair was used extensively by companies for press conferences, which Eduard also held until last year. Last year it was just a modest conference held on our small stand. Due to a lack of interest from the media and the public, no conference was held this year. And hardly anyone asked for one. We simply presented our future plans individually to those who were interested. It was more work for us, but we didn't mind, it was interesting to see the individual reactions. Everyone could ask individual questions, we pleased or surprised almost everyone and I had a nice feeling about it. In the past, the fair was also used by companies to announce long-awaited absolute novelties. I think the trade fair is losing this function as well, with companies preferring to use social networks or other online channels for this purpose. In short, we live in the internet age and going to a trade fair is probably not so fashionable for journalists or even modellers. However, there have been a few exceptions. Tamiya announced the new Hotchkiss H-39 tank in 1/35th scale, IBG finished their campaign of revealing new model lines and brought the first 1/72nd scale mouldings of the Mk.I-V Spitfire range, they also showed renderings of the Mc.200,202 and 205 and the Hs 129 in 1/72nd scale.

Now for the negatives. As the number of other companies in related fields continues to dwindle, we moved again. This time from Hall 7A to Hall 7, which was not completely full. This point contributes to the fact that fewer and fewer people and companies are coming to the show overall, which weakens the whole show in terms of making new contacts. Perhaps this is why most of our distributors from the USA have not come to the show since COVID, nor have our distributor from Japan or most of the manufacturers from Asia. There are also fewer and fewer media representatives. This year, the public were able to visit the show for the entire duration, but this did not increase the number of visitors, at least in our hall. The aisles were rather half-empty, there were no crowds. Another blemish is the catering, the quality of which is getting worse every year. Regrettably, the fair also served us a bitter end in the form of the impossibility to drive our car into the area to get things from our stand while we were packing, so we had to drive on the pavement around the whole area on a small mobile trolley. Unfortunately, most of the companies had the same idea, so we had to dodge various adventurers with pallet trucks or hastily constructed improvised trolleys.

But as I said at the beginning, I am convinced that the show is still relevant to our business. It may be declining in importance, but it is still worth attending. We see meeting our business partners live as an important and strengthening part of our business relationships. Finally, I would like to thank everyone who visited our stand. See you next year!