Editorial
The annual evaluation of the Nuremberg Fair is a February editorial staple. There were times when the evaluation of all participants was carried out in superlatives and optimistic assessments of the flood of new products.
The annual evaluation of the Nuremberg
Fair is a February editorial staple. There were
times when the evaluation of all participants
was carried out in superlatives and optimistic
assessments of the flood of new products. There
were also times when exhibiting at the fair was
an honor and not an easily achievable privilege.
When we went to the fair for the first time,
I think in 1991, we never even dreamed that we
would have a table there, we were happy to
get into the halls and be able to offer our then
very modest assortment to potential customers.
There were quite a few of them at that early
exhibition, but most of them looked at us
somewhat suspiciously, but we still left satisfied
and full of hope. European companies didn't care
about us, but we left with two crucial contacts,
we met Mr. Ono, the owner and founder of the
Japanese company Beaver, and the Americans
Chuck Harransky and Jerry Campbell, the
owners and heads of the then famous and
renowned publishing house Squadron Signal
and its affiliated distribution company MMD.
Both companies still exist today, although they
have long since had different owners, and their
ownership structure has changed several times
over the years, but the important thing is that
we still do business with both of them today.
A year later, we started trying to get our own
table at the fair. However, getting one at the fair
was not easy in the early nineties, the demand
from potential exhibitors exceeded the supply
and the capabilities of the exhibition center.
You could apply, which got you on a waiting
list, and then you waited for several years for
a place to become available. So we applied, and
nothing happened, until in 1995, thanks to active
lobbying, we were promoted to the position of
standbys and, surprisingly, we got a table that
year. The exhibition center was expanding at
the time, the exhibition center built temporary
inflatable halls and we got into one of them
as stand-ins for a Chinese company. We were
probably the only Europeans in that hall among
all the Chinese, we didn't even have time to let
our partners know that we had a table or where
it was, but Mr. Ono found us in a flash. I still don't
know how he did it.
In the second half of the nineties, thanks
to the completion of additional halls and the
expansion of the exhibition area, tables in
Nuremberg became available to practically
anyone who wanted to exhibit at the fair, and
companies took advantage of this. The end
of the nineties, the turn of the millennium
and the 2000s were the golden age of plastic
models in Nuremberg. You could find practically
everything from our field there. In addition to
manufacturers, distribution companies also
exhibited there, not only European but also from
overseas, so if a manufacturing company did not
have its own table, you could find its products
at the table of its distributor. Those distributors
who did not have a table got a level of exposure
at Nuremberg anyway, but for them it was the
other way around, they usually made use of the
tables from one of their suppliers. For example,
Eduard. Companies in Nuremberg announced
news, organized press conferences and
dinners with their business partners. Modeling
journalists and modelers themselves attended
the fair, and for many, visiting the fair was one of
the highlights of the year. ModellFan magazine
presented its Model of the Year awards at
a ceremony in one of the conference halls, and
the award carried its own weight.
At the end of the 2000s, the fair began to
change. As is often the case, change came
gradually, slowly and inconspicuously. Changes
often come in stealth mode, and when they are
fully implemented, there is nothing you can
do about them. When I think about it, the first
subtle sign of the fair's declining prestige was
that ModellFan magazine stopped presenting
its award at a joint meeting with the award-
winning manufacturers, with a banquet and gifts
for the participants. Instead, the editor-in-chief,
Mr. Lacina, began presenting the awards at the
tables of the award-winning manufacturers.
It still had its level, but it was no longer the same.
They also started giving the Model of the Year
award to more manufacturers, maybe it wasn't
quite as extreme, but it seemed that everyone
who attended the fair, or maybe everyone
who sent samples or advertised in ModellFan,
received a Model of the Year award. This began
a slow, inflationary erosion of the clout of the
award. It still exists today, but it is no longer
the same. And I'm not writing this because
we didn't get the Model of the Year this year.
We haven't been getting it for a few years, since
EDITORIAL
INFO Eduard4
February 2026