Maybe I'm odd, Gregg, but all that tosh has never appealed to me. Really. Maybe it's because as I have never really given a damn about what people think of me, I have always been able to ignore the ways of Man! I dunno.
My son-in-law lives for a "wind-up". He seems to think that he's getting a one-up on his workmates. He never tries it with me, though!
I really don't get it. Never have. But he's come close to the boot a few times.
Similarly, I don't follow fashion or fad. If something I have works, that's all I ask of it. Everything else I make.
The boats I model need only stop, go, left, right. So 2 function propo is just fine. I'd drop a tone set in my older boats if I could get some, for the interest value, but I'm not paying ebay rates for collectors' items.
As for the politicking, well that does rear it's ugly head often, doesn't it?
I've seen it in everything from model railway clubs where there'd be the "guru" figure who likes to rule the roost from his favourite stool in the clubroom, to the "tanks are the Kings of models" faction from some morbidly obese blob who only moves once a month to take his endless Verlinden T34s to the model club, so he can poo-poo everybody else's efforts. You can imagine how he hated me for taking my latest professional commissions along. Yet I only went for the company of a couple of amusing fellas with whom I'd enjoy a Wexford or two in the Pub afterwards!
When I took a brass master of a Scimitar tank to display, he soon shut up!
The classic car club? Same thing. One guy will pay whatever it takes to have THE Concours perfect Spitfire or TVR and won't even speak to the raggy-arsed 'erbert like me who used to kick his old Spitfire if it cut out in a left hand bend! Not a straight panel on my old green Mk 2! Then I replaced the carbs and all was well again. He also shut up when I towed him home after a competition when his immaculate Mk 1 GT6 broke down.
The slot car club...the geezer who runs it cheats, because he can. He sets the rules about which motors, then buys high speed ones so he can go 30% faster than everyone else and they tolerate it because he runs the club.
So I'm with you, mate. I too, live amongst a lot of bodies and stretches of water any one of which I can sail my boat on without Johnny Wad showing off, or trying to!
Love your idea about the world leaders running models.
You could make it a weekend event. Model boat racing, slot racing, buggy competitions. I can just imagine I'madinnerjacket having a go at the marshalls, while O'bama's throwing string in front of Merkel's prop and Cameroon's spouting off about "fairness"!
I do wish I could draw cartoons!
Regards,
Vintagent