My hobby is scale ship models, and I've been at it for more than fifty years.  I won my first Dremel Moto-Tool as a prize in a contest in 1972, and I've had at least one Dremel product in my workshop ever since - rotary tools, attachments, a table saw, a scroll saw, etc., etc.  I consider myself a Dremel fan.

Dremel rotary tools are first-rate products.  I do, however, have one major reservation about them.  Dremel professes to regard model builders as one of its target markets; if that's the case, the designers and marketers need to be aware of one big, overarching weakness from which the Moto-Tool suffers in the eyes of the modeler.  Moto-Tools turn too fast.  

The truth of the matter is that, for the purposes of the model builder working in wood and plastic, high speed is practically irrelevant.  What matters is precision and accuracy.  High speed, in many cases, is in fact a liability.  At 5,000 rpm a Moto-Tool can drill a clean hole with a #75 drill bit in a piece of hardwood if the bit is brand new and perfectly sharp.  If the bit is even slightly dull, it will burn the wood at that speed.  And even if the bit is new, it's likely to melt styrene plastic (an increasingly popular material among modern modelers). 

That Moto-Tool I won those many years ago was a single-speed model, and I practically drooled over it when I opened the box.  When I got it home and tried using it, though, I discovered that it was practically worthless for my purposes.  I then went to the hobby shop and, for the vast sum of about $15.00, bought a Dremel "Tabletop Speed Control."  What a difference!  With the tool plugged into the speed control, I could dial the speed down, literally, to zero.  Then I could put the drill bit (or grinding tip, or router bit, or whatever) exactly where I wanted it on the workpiece and gradually ramp up the speed to whatever was appropriate to the job.  Here's an example of the work I did with its help:  http://www.hmsvictoryscalemodels.be/JohnTilleyHancock/index.html

I've still got two of those Tabletop Speed Controls; they're more than thirty years old now, and they still work perfectly.  That's a good thing, because Dremel no longer makes that product.  And the lowest speeds on the Moto-Tool models with built-in speed controls are too fast. 

A few years ago I bought (from the Woodcraft woodworker supply company) a small rotary tool made by a German company called We-Cheer:  http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=141061&FamilyID=3736 .  It's the closest thing I've found yet to an ideal rotary tool for modelers.  It's slightly fatter than a carpenter's pencil, has a thin, flexible cord running out the back, and accepts Dremel chucks.  It has no speed control built in, but it works beautifully with my old Dremel Tabletop Speed Control.  It doesn't have the robust, confidence-inspiring build quality of Dremel tools; time will tell how long it lasts.  But I find myself reaching for the litte We-Cheer more frequently than the Moto-Tool that's hanging alongside it.   

It seems that whenever Dremel introduces a new rotary tool the promotional literature concentrates the new product's high speed and high torque.  Whenever I read such literature I emit a loud sigh and think to myself, "I wonder if they'll ever get the message."  I understand that in many applications those are indeed important characteristics; I'm not suggesting that any of the existing Dremel rotary tools be discontinued.  But if the company wants to appeal to model builders, it needs to consider designing a rotary tool for them.  Such a tool would:

Be as small and light as possible - preferably lighter than the smallest of the current battery-powered models.

Have a speed range from zero to 1,000 rpm or thereabouts.

Have a thin, flexible cord (or be powered by batteries).

Have ball bearings (or extremely well-machined sleeve bearings).

Have a switch/speed adjustment control located within reach of the index finger.

Cost less than $50.00.

I suspect that if Dremel produced such a product, just about every ship, aircraft, railroad, and car modeling enthusiast would want one.

Thanks for reading.