This is the third issue of the magazine, and thanks must go to all our contributors and readers as we head for the shores of Volume 3. The Wargames; hobby scene for me is one that is growing, especially as the economies of the United States and Western Europe seem to be in a medium / long term stable situation. This combined with the common belief that more consumers have more and more leisure time and more disposable income. The Future looks good. However, this has its good and bad sides , the good being that the customer will have more choice, more companies will appear producing the wargames items you want, and others will inevitably increase their ranges and improve quality in the face of the new competition. The bad side however, is that other companies / individuals appear that damage the hobby. That is certain traders appear selling items that have been illegally copied from legitimate traders ranges ( they get away with it because of the weak laws on such issues and due to the high costs of taking legal action ) , many also appear that do not declare to the Inland revenue their earnings from the hobby (which gives them an unfair advantage over the legitimate trader). My first comment certainly covers several traders in the UK , and the later at least one in the UK. For the long term interest of the hobby, this must be stamped out, as at some point it will force out or damage those decent I hard working traders that we all value. The easiest way to do this is not to buy any of their products, the second is to inform the relevant parties of what they are doing. My comments apply to mainly white metal figures, but the resin / metal vehicte market is the one most strongly affected in my view. Several companies sell items in these mediums which are simply copies of readily available plastic kits , I for one started in the hobby buying such kits from the likes of Airfix, Matchbox etc., these companies have suffered due to the economic crisis in the last 20 years, and so do not release many new items. If companies persist in copying these kits the likelihood of them carrying on producing such kits in the future declines. So as a plea, please, vote with your pocket. Back to Frontline Vol. 1 Iss. 3 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Rolfe Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com