Except there are no longer any 10 year olds drooling over this kit like there were decades ago (they all grew up, are on a nostalgia bent and are currently revisiting their youth with this abomination of a kit). Kids these days, young men, cannot be pried away from their video games long enough to even ascertain whether this hobby even exists. It's so far beyond their interests these days, I have not words to describe it.
-Harq
I would have to agree with Harquebus regarding the nostalgia associated with this kit. However, I can't totally agree that it is an 'abomination.' I have been scaling the drawings to do my mods to the Blue Devil, and although there are some very obvious errors, the plans actually do scale out to 1:125, based on the Fletcher Class Plans CD. And, although I have spent more than the original cost of the kit on the photo-etch alone and more for plastic bits (I beams, H beams, small dia. rod, flat stock in various thicknesses) the total spent to date would not cover even a comparably sized fiberglass hull, and then I would have to build all else from scratch. I have been following the scale build threads on the internet, and most modelers may spend from twice the cost of the kit to five or six times on multiple photo-etch and replacement parts, and their models don't even do anything (besides look damn pretty!)
I totally agree with the comments regarding the young generation being infatuated with video games, but they can be dissuaded. During a recent visit. my grandson kept bugging me for my phone, because his mother has games on hers. I do not. However, he also loves trains and cars, so giving him a 3D car to play with was greatly preferred to the video. He is now 4, and I will make sure that he is indoctrinated into something other than the video to play with. There are boats in his future.
The one helpful thing about video gaming is that it does develop eye-hand coordination, which took me a little while to re-learn when going back to flying r/c or driving a high speed boat from a distance.
PeeJay