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Walmart - Diecast Rolling Stock - WITH GRAFFITI

Drew posted in part:

I agree on a couple points. This type of product is aimed at a trashy, criminal element of our culture which unfortunately has managed to glorify itself in such a way as to attract children into thinking it's "cool". This the result of law makers failing to take the problems seriously. It's before my time but I'm thinking back in the early depression gangster era, that gangs had a "cool" air about them too, that is until the government got serious and created "G-Men" to hunt them down and take them dead or alive. Then G-Men became the cool ones.

As mentioned in another post, it's incredible that a known criminal can have his crimes duplicated on "collectibles" and yet the person is still apparently running free and continuing his tagging spree. It'd be nice to see some survalience set up and catch the guy in the act, then give him a year in prison for every boxcar that could be found with the same tag on it. Daily prison work would be scrubbing grafitti off boxcars at the local train yard. Then everybody wins.

Personally if I were doing modern layouts, I'd leave the grafitti off the cars. If realisim is so important, why not go through the whole layout and tag all the buildings, fences and billboards as well? Put in some figures selling crack in a alley. Play some hip hop music while you run your trains? Sorry if I'm getting carried away but I see this crap all over my town, not just on trains. These jerks can do hundreds of dollars of property damage every night with their "art" and I find nothing valuable about their message.

Then there is Kincaid. His early stuff was O.K. even though it all looks the same after awhile, and as a bit of an artist myself I don't feel out of place saying I've noted some proportion and balance issues on a few of his works. Main problem in my opinion is over commercialization of his art. I mean, enough already. What's it going to show up on next; toilet paper? (and don't you know he'd do it if the idea crossed his desk?) :)

On the other hand, he's probably richer than everyone in this group combined so he deserves credit for knowing how to milk art.

$29.49 for a grafitti covered miniature boxcar? Must be DCC.

~fd64

Reply to
flyingdragon64
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E-Bay collectors, the scourge of our time!

Although, I'd use the word "society", rather than "culture", to diminish the oxymoronic overtones.

Kincaid is to art as Jerry Falwell (or better yet, Billy James Hargis, noted bisexual bible college president and predator) is to spirituality.

Reply to
Steve Caple

Steve Caple spake thus:

Who was it who did the character "Billy Sol Hargis"? Remember that?

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Yeah, but no - I remember the bit, but not who did it. Billy Sol Estes must have been the milkman in the neighborhood where Tom DeLay was bon.

The very Rev. Hargis boffing students of both sexes was a great match up for Billy Sol Estes.

Reply to
Steve Caple

That would have ben Don Imus. ( a former RR brakeman, IIRC)

Reply to
Franz T

At least no one has mentioned the Kincaid decorated trains that are available by subscription...ooops!

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How long before someones posts a question about how much this is worth?

Reply to
Ken Rice

lol, I've seen hobos and "Kilroy was here" on quite a few layouts :)

I suppose my view of graffiti is somewhat skewed. A friend of mine used to spray paint everything when we were kids. He has since gone legit, and turned his artistic expressions into a successful advertising business, painting murals for local companies, among other things. And he's never touched a gun or illicit drug in his life.

Reply to
Drew

But therein lies the main difference... the people paying him "want" him to paint the things. I don't think railroads, municipalities or private homeowners want their personal property spraypainted, no matter how it looks.

dlm

Reply to
Dan Merkel

I agree. Regardless of my interest, most graffiti is vandalism, and illegal.

Reply to
Drew

And most of it is actively ugly. But then that Kincaid graffiti'd train set is actively stupid.

Reply to
Steve Caple

Steve=A0Caple posted:

And God, I know I'm one. Sort of anyway. I just sold off my old Star Wars action figures. The only thing I really collect now are constructable sailing ships from a Pirate themed card game that's been on the market a couple years now. Unfortunately E-Bay is about the only way to complete a series.

I try to use appropriate words in rantings but since my average was a C+ in English classes in school, I do often misuse a word. I'll agree with your correction. :)

I also forgot to use my spellcheck >lol, I've seen hobos and "Kilroy was here"

Good point. In fact, now I must defend my view because I don't mind those type of inclusions. I guess it has to do with the era. Hobos to my knowledge had a moral structure to a degree in their societies. I'm barely old enough to remember seeing a hobo pass by once in awhile sitting in an open boxcar while we waited for a train to go by at a crossing. My parents however have told me stories about when they lived near a railroad yard and often a hobo, hat in hand, would knock on their door to ask if he could do any chores around the yard in exchange for some food.

Other memories were things like Red Skelton's character of hobo, a kid's show broadcast from L.A. called and hosted by "Hobo Kelly", a few other TV shows and movies ("Emperor of the North" of course), and especially on Halloween: of the home made costumes, hobos always seemed to be the most popular, knapsack on a stick and all.

I guess they were a nuisance in many ways but not seen in the same bad light as todays taggers who seem to be marking up things just to be marking up things. Hobos didn't appear to seek to vandalize property. Their markings on trains from what I could tell were mostly to pass messages along to other hobos or let others know they were in the area or had passed through. I never saw anything permanent like paint used but rather chalk, and most names or messages were small in size. There's probably a website or book out there that covers their history and ways. Anybody have any hobo stories? Are my memories about how it was everywhere or was there a darker side?

Good to hear. I guess not 100% of them are bad at heart. :)

~fd64

Reply to
flyingdragon64

"Daily prison work would be scrubbing grafitti off boxcars at the local train yard. Then everybody wins."

I'm not sure if I ran a railroad I'd want these people on my property in a position where they can learn firsthand how things operated securitywise. Sounds like an invitation for trouble down the road.

Might not be a 'win' situation for the railroads.

Eric

Reply to
newyorkcentralfan

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