Swap Meets, Shows and Contests…

Text: Jakub Nademlejnský

This year, my exhibition team colleagues got down to business pretty quickly. We have only completed the first three months of this year and we have already visited five events: the toy fair in Nuremberg, the toy fair in Verona, the modeling festival in Bytom, the Panthers Cup modeling competition in Prosek and the exhibition of plastic models at the event known here as Easter Prostějov. I think this represents a record, and if by some chance it doesn’t, it was definitely a record performance for our exhibition teams in March, with, apart from the first weekend of the month, they were at one event or another and believe me it was a real buzz. And not only for us, but also for all of our other colleagues who, in one form or another, participated in the preparation for the events, whether it was their work on pre-orders, the preparation of goods that we took to the events, and also the marketing department that supports sales and coordinates transport, accommodations and everything else that needed attending to. And we do it because, actually, we do enjoy coming out to you, our customers. In addition, we often combine these trips with the preparation of references for our future projects, as was the case, for example, during our trip to Italy in the fall, which you have certainly already read about in Vladimír Šulc's article in this issue.

 This list is far from complete for the year and will only grow! In addition to the already traditional and well-established events, you will be able to meet us, for example, at an exhibition in Zagreb, Croatia, or at the tank museum in Saumur, France. This year is a kind of testing year for new exhibitions for us, and so far I have to say that the visits we have tried out as an experiment have proven themselves. The toy fair in Verona was a pleasant surprise, and our participation in Bytom was also positive according to the feedback from our colleagues, so I expect that we will participate in both events next year as well.

 To the contrary though, another traditional event that Eduard has been participating in for over thirty years surprised us this year in a disappointing way. Let me return once again to the Nuremberg Toy Fair this year. I wanted to take a break from evaluating this event and wait to see how other editors and other commentators reacted to this year’s event. And you know what I learned? Practically nothing. Not much at all was written about Nuremberg. I read some rather superficial reports, as if the authors were not even at the fair, and the impression was that the fair didn’t interest many. After all, practically none of the companies in our field announced any truly fresh, breathtaking news at the show. Even we only repeated previously announced projects. We held a conference at our table for this purpose, where only three guests showed up that were representatives of the modeling public or the press. But through their virtual absence, I learned something about Nuremberg. Was there any reason to attend? Does it actually make sense to participate in such a fair anymore?

 I think the organizers needlessly dealt with matters that actually did not attract participants. A good example was this year's allowing the general public admission to the halls and permission for participants to sell exhibited goods. The fair takes place from Wednesday to Saturday, but I think we could organize meetings and seminars where it would be possible to discuss everything necessary in just two days. Such informal discussions at the tables would disappear and important matters could be dealt with. We could discuss other matters over a beer in the evening as well. In short, instead of unnecessary incremental (and unnecessary) innovations, the organizers should rather think about decreasing the costs of the exhibition spaces and shortening the event, which would make the fair more accessible, more attractive for a larger number of exhibitors, and also for the people traveling to the fair., who are constantly decreasing due to the ever-increasing prices of the tables, because it no longer makes any real sense for them to attend. This would ultimately make the fair more meaningful for other companies, the press and the public, the numbers of which could be reversed and increase.

But I also see no need to be exclusively negative, either. We were still happy to be able to meet representatives of a number of companies from the industry, whom we have not seen in Nuremberg for a few years due to covid. We had several such meetings, because, apart from us, ICM, Revell, Special Hobby, Miniart, Academy, Gunze, Hobby Boss/Trumpeter (these sharing a common table), Tamiya and Zvezda through their Austrian representatives took part in the fair. The participation of Ukrainian companies was a surprise for me personally, especially ICM, who’s presence despite the destruction in Kiev, put a smile on my face.

 However, the other events this year have excited us greatly so far, and I expect the trend to continue. The next upcoming event is the exhibition in Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary, and I hereby invite you all to our exhibit and tables and you definitely have something to look forward to, as we will bring along our limited edition 1:48th scale P-51B Mustang!

The team at the Eduard table at the Nuremberg fair (from left Jan Zdiarský, Martin Ferkl, Vladimír Šulc, Jakub Nademlejnský and Jan Bobek).

Table at the Panthers Cup contest.

The table at Bytom.

Limited Edition Spitfire Mk.Vb Early prepared especially for the Bytom Festival with extra Polish markings.