The 'ghost' market
John & all, granted this was a beautiful build by Oldbot, but to the general population, such handicrafts just don't exist. Being as close as we are to the hobby, we truly appreciate the 'kit' and the results but we are few and far between (realistically.) Chris over at Ecardmodels can probably attest to the extent of his customer base, which is probably insufficient *as it now stands* to support a minor European publisher going to the expense and trouble of starting up (from what must be nearly the ground up) a production and distribution network in North America. I must wonder if the Czech's did more paper modeling whether it would happen (those guys are "hungry" enough I think to take advantage of nearly any niche marketing opportunity.)
Without 'common knowledge' exposure, I don't look for HobbyLobby or Michael's Crafts to start carrying paper models anytime soon - and that would I expect be the size of retailer required to start getting those publishers into this country.
Really too bad... it is a fun and simple hobby (at least to get started!)
Regards, Robert (stating the obvious again!)