right, for once i'm going to just try and type something out rather than obsessively just check back through past issues so bear with any minor factual inaccuracies
i've been thinking about how to express myself on this subject.
i think i've got it :idea:
imagine you subscribe to a magazine called 'practical electronics'. i've been a bit of a dab hand with a soldering iron myself in the past so that's not too far fetched. there's features on all the latest stuff, which valves offer best value for money... where you can get the best variable resistors and so on and every month there's a circuit you can build up... a light-activated anti-burglar device, or a simple medium wave radio... actually, thinking about this, ISN'T there a magazine like this ? (see cheeky footnote :wink: )
you buy it, you read it, you build up the circuits and you store them all obsessively in date order in your bedroom with the poster of *that* tennis girl or a weeping clown or whatever takes your fancy.
one day there's a new feature... *THE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT*
does everything your poxy valves and capacitors do in a millionth of the time and at a fraction of the cost... new centre feature... buy transistor, plug in, the end.
cue hundreds of complaining letters.
but the magazine is called "practical electronics" not 'old fashioned electronics for dinosaurs stuck in the past' - the ICs stay.
is that a reasonable analogy ?
now, like i say, i ain't gonna check, and my production knowledge of 'late' VW buses is nil, but the T5 DEFINITELY didn't exist when vwc&c came out... dunno about the T4, but i don't remember them featuring in the early issues.
now i got called a 'snob' about this over on vzi, but why do they belong in the magazine ? apart from the two letters on the roundel ?
i must admit i'm not the biggest vw fan in the world... it's my wife's bus after all, but even i admit the type 2 has a quirky charm all of its own, what with the engine and the suspension and just the overall styling, which is why i guess they warrant magazines dedicated entirely to them, and why there's no equivalent ford thames or commer publication.
T4s and T5s share none of the type 2 lineage at all... apart from the badge... they're just the same as a mercedes or a ford or a renault or any other 'big' modern van.
i don't dislike them, but for me the thrill with electronics was always assembling the graphite rod, and winding the copper coils, and sourcing the components, soldering it up, and if you were lucky you'd connect a battery and out would come a crackly bob azurdia on radio merseyside... a few years ago i bought mrs councillor a digital radio for christmas... perfect sound quality, thousands of stations but it's just, well, dull isn't it ?
i *think* that's what i *think* is the problem with late buses in the magazines :?
footnote : maybe it went bust... too many transistor features :wink:
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as for stuff that isn't me ranting on and on and on i think nic is bang on... it IS a tiny niche market and we're very lucky to have one never mind two dedicated bus magazines.
i thought vwc&c might suffer when volksworld hopped aboard the bus bandwagon but i think it weathered the storm admirably... it definitely has more of a 'homemade' feel to it compared to the more 'polished' volksworld and i mean that in a nice way... i enjoy reading dave's editorials and overall it's just a 'cooler' publication... camper and bus tries a bit
too hard sometimes doesn't it, but as i said earlier in the thread i'll continue buying both and hopefully they'll both prosper enough to survive the launch of *ultra bus* :twisted:
aaaaand, families frying eggs apart, i enjoyed re-reading the feature about the blokes who drove the mille miglia course when i had the 'flu, whichever mag that was in, so there IS room for travel stuff... you can please some etc. etc.
