[Espeefan]

Take heart, Joe. It's a hobby and past time, just like everything else we do for fun. This hobby is not so much different then model railroading, and look how often outsiders call that hobby 'playing with toy trains'. It doesn't help the fact either, that there really are some toy trains, and then there are some genuine scale models of trains. The difference is significant, but the uneducated people really don't know any better. The guys who collect the toy trains are fine with the term toy (because they know they are toys), but if you called an HO scale modeler's super detailed locomotive the same thing, he'd be offended.

In the same way, this scale modeling facite of the hobby really is unique and shares very little in common with the other radio controlled models out there. And because it's still so new to North America, most people might not understand the level of engineering that goes into replicating a functional scale piece of equipment. They aren't really toys, but miniature scale machines. They work the same way, function the same way, look the same way, but are just on a smaller scale. Eventually people may figure it out, but maybe the best way to prove it all of the sudden is to just tell them how much a good excavator costs, and that should dispell the thought of these things being toys.

Anyway Joe, I wouldn't worry to much about what the outsiders think. One just has to look at your youtube videos and see how popular they are among those who really know the hobby. I think your videos do a much better job of promoting the hobby then anything else out there.