I have to make some sort of a remark without sounding like an ogre. everyone has a favorite model that they want kitted and Lord knows that I've prodded Walt into one or two. Sometimes it's a winner as if a cottage industry owner can ever win. The other times are a disaster that is tough to suck up. All of the manufacturers I'm sure have their own personnel horror stories.
And it isn't restricted to model airplanes. My brother and I went to street rod show after street rod show in the late 1970's.
Everybody would come look at our 1932 Roadster body, and tell us how they just
desperately wanted to build a 1932 Phaeton (that's an open 4-seater, as opposed to the 2-seater roadster).
So, my dad put about two man-years into making a 1932 Phaeton body. We get it out in front of the street rodding public some time around 1980 (maybe 79, maybe 81 or 82). The crowds flock to our booth, and almost to a man say "
Oh Boy! Lokkit that! A 1932 Phaeton! Man, I just
desperately want to build one!".
"Just as soon as I build another 1932 Roadster. Could you sell me one of them, please?"
I don't know if we ever made our investment back, but it certainly wasn't while I was still working for my dad.
If there's a lesson there that's probably been learned by everyone selling into hobby markets, if not to everyone selling anything at all, it's this: you don't make a dime selling stuff that people
think they're
gonna want. You make money selling stuff that people
do want, or better yet, what they really
need.