The 1960s and 1970s are considered by many as the golden age of kit building and the enthusiastic schoolboys and young men building these kits became known as the Airfix Generation. The hobby went into decline in the 1990s as plastic kits gave way to video games, but the hobby has recently undergone a revival as the original members of the Airfix Generation take a nostalgic look back at their childhoods. Some, like the author, will become once again absorbed by the hobby, but many will be content to buy a few old kits – others are coming to the hobby from an entirely new perspective. Here, Tom Cole concentrates on the kits from Britain’s Airfix and Matchbox and looks at the early imports from Japan, in the form of Fujimi and Nitto, and the European Esci.