For the record I will declare my expertise. I’m an expert at proving I’m no expert with pretty much every model I build! But if ignorance is bliss I’m lovin’ it…
Let’s take the Time Machine back to…1968, when I started building Airfix kits. I was 12, my Dad (who served in WW2) was 48. I war-gamed with several mates using 1:72 mainly German tanks & figures.
I recall zero commotion from any quarter – parental, educational, political – about any of that. I would have thought the WW2 generation had the most right (the only right?) to protest if they’d thought it would turn us kids into Nazis and/or disrespect our parents’ sacrifices. They didn’t, it didn’t, and on the contrary I think they preferred not to be ignored or forgotten.
The only uproar (in the ‘60’s) I was aware of related to a set of bubble-gum cards depicting the American Civil War in some gory episodes. I treasured the whole set, until it got accidentally thrown out.
How far backwards we’ve come.
The ones with facsimile Confederate banknotes in the pack? I didn’t keep the cards but I can’t recall disposing of the dollars. Dad and some of his mates liberated a whole load of Reichsmarks and used them literally as Monopoly Money when playing the game until they discovered a backwoods boozer which was happy to take them; if the landlord stuck them under his mattress for a few years he may have got the better end of the deal…
he other cards around at the time were “Mars Attacks”, I believe there was some fuss over those requiring some to be reprinted.
Cheers,
M
There is a little bit of mystery around that german ww2 stuff , with their uncountable variants and prototypes ( what in fact present a stupid waste of time and engineering ) . But it’s history and i don’t like to care about.
And im a real german, with a lot of typical behaviors and i know that .
Indeed. But for the engineer wasting all that time instead of being sent to the Ostfront it was the best possible use of his time.
It takes a lot of political willpower to say ‘This is good enough, build a lot of it’
There is a saying that the best or perfect is the enemy of the good:
Somewhat similar example: My Opa worked in the Flensburg dockyard, cutting steel for submarines.
Hitler got the idea that submarines were a waste of time/effort and a lot of dockyard workers became available for the Ostfront. I think my Opa was on a train heading east when Hitler changed his mind (influenced by Dönitz?) and the dockyard workers were sent back to continue building submarines.
Cutting steel in Flensburg, even if the dockyard got bombed, had better chances of survival than going to the Ostfront.
Yep those were they - also accidentally disposed off. Imagine those facsimile notes being produced now - probably end up in the US Supreme Court, judging by recent rulings about the Confederate flag.