I’m all about advancing the hobby whenever the opportunity presents itself. When we first started out nearly 25 years ago, I remember several e-commerce businesses that sold models by listing them in a tabular format without any accompanying images or text. Instead they provided the SKU, a quick description and its price, sometimes showing the item’s anticipated date of release, if you were lucky. How they got by is anyone’s guess and, as you might have guessed, most of them have since folded, victims of old world marketing, lack of computing skills or laziness.
Needless to say that as the hobby has evolved so too has the tools used to promote the merchandise. Gone are the days of simple text, garish colors and oddly formatted graphics that neither entice nor excite. Instead, most companies are able to take advantage of the latest technological achievements that have come to the fore, all in an effort to make the customer as at ease as possible by enabling them to shop from the comfort of their phone, computer or tablet.
With this in mind, Amazon recently announced that merchants can now upload 3-D models to certain product listings/categories to showcase products from all angles and give customers more information that can help drive sales. Apparently, there’s no need for the wearing of special glasses, 3-D-enabled storefronts or any other modern-day contrivance that might spring to mind to give these products added spark over the more traditional 2-D images we’ve been used to over the last two decades. Spectacular, yes?
Using the latest in rotoscoping technology, 3-D models will enable would-be buyers to zoom in on an item from any conceivable vantage point, something they are unable to do using static imagery. In the case of an aircraft, customers can get a better close-up image of the model’s cockpit or rotate the product so they can see underneath an aircraft to view its weapons load out. While 2-D imagery can provide the same viewpoints, 3-D modeled products are more suitable for this type of scrutiny since you can zoom in or out using a singular vantage point.
We’ve sent this announcement to several of the hobby’s leading modelmakers to see if they can begin creating 3-D models for all of their upcoming products. While we recognize there’s a learning curve involved with new technology, we also realize that both the hobby and e-commerce are continuing to move forward, no longer bound by institutions and technology that pre-date the Internet. Its a brave new world out there and those companies still working in the past with outdated tools and technology will be the first to tell you they should’ve kept up.
The end result for several upcoming items could look like this: