Glue sniffing meant a lot to me age 12, that whole miniaturized parallel universe thing. Having started with Airfix aged 8, I progressed to the far superior Tamiya. Didn't have much experience with the American kits. Customizing with bullet holes, dents, and general patina was my speciality. BP(photo courtesy from Motorparade)
UPDATE:
OK Who knew the American popular culture expression 'jumping the shark', originates from a melodramatic Happy Days scene in which Fonzie jumps over a tank of sharks on water skis. It is now used (according to Wikipedia) to denote the moment when a television series [or anything?] loses its credibility due to predictable repetition or contrived extensions of its theme, usually as a result of the writers being unable to maintain its quality indefinitely.