Dumas Products is closing down

[Auger]

I suppose most folks are aware of the news - as of this April 15th Dumas will be closed down.
Here is their website and official announcement https://www.dumasproducts.com/
They will be filling orders for their remaining stock until it is sold out.
I can't believe this is happening but here we are.
It would be a shame if the kits they have created, engineered and produced are lost forever. Their boats and aircraft kits have always been excellent and of types that are iconic and in
many cases that are available nowhere else.
I'm hoping to hear that someone - or some other model kit manufacturing company - might pick up from Dumas and carry on in good faith with both the community and with the good people at Dumas who worked to provide quality kits and
a bit of history. In a digital age when our kids can't be torn from their screens long enough to know whether it's day or night, raining or sunny, it's more important than ever to have alternative and meaningful activities that get them outside together.
Hoping to hear good news eventually on this but who knows. In the meantime - if there was a Dumas project you wanted to work on someday...now might be your last chance to get started.

[Auger]

Dumas Products website now says May 15th 2026 will be their last day of operations.

[Ray Klein]

Just like the old brick and mortar hobby shops they probably didn't get enough support.

[kittyfritters]

It was a family business and I suspect that like many family businesses the current generation was ready to retire and the next generation had completely different interests and no desire to continue it so they just let it go. They may not have even had any desire to go through the process of selling it.

KF

[Auger]

well whatever the cause it's just sad to lose all the tooling, plans, and ultimately the work itself that surely employed some folks and kept families solvent for many years.
Hopefully it won't all be lost but nothing lasts forever.

[Ray Klein]

I suspect cell phones, social media and video games have done major damage to actual hands on hobbies of all types.

[kittyfritters]

I was at the California Science Center Museum, being an exhibit by building a model airplane when I was approached by a couple of teenage girls.

"How long does it take to build one of those?", one of them asked.

"About ten hours", I replied.

She turned to her friend and said, "I can't imagine taking ten hours to do anything!"

Can we say Instant Gratification?

KF

[Ray Klein]

they probably have spent ten hours in one stretch on social media, chasing meaningless dopamine hits!

[Auger]

nothing lasts forever, not even social media and the digital age. We might not see what comes next but there is comfort in certainty, and the certainty is that nothing lasts forever...entropy. It keeps things from getting stale and routine for eternity.
I'll tell you this for free - I do appreciate more and more the time I grew up in. Being a kid in the 60' and 70's was fantastic.

[kittyfritters]

... Being a kid in the 60' and 70's was fantastic.

Even more so in the 40s and 50s. No helicopter parents and you were expected to be able to entertain yourselves. I was thinking, the other day, that I had so much time to myself. I don't think that I would have the time now to build some of the monster models I built at the time and I'm semi-retired. (Of course, some of those models got built because no one told me I couldn't do it at the time.)

KF

[lawlor6494]

Yes, forties and fifties were a blast. I'm unsure how I survived all that freedom. At 8 YOA I would get on my Mustang (horse) with a canteen of water and ride out to the Manzano Mountain foothills and back before dark. Would have to ford a deep irrigation canal to and from. My horse, Navajo, was a good swimmer.