Model Manufacturers Don't Pay Attention (Rant)

I remember in the early '80s when the History Makers series was released, they were retailing for just about what collectors' prices were bringing back then. I think Monogram's re-release system back then was similar as well. Why pay collectors' rates for a new one when you could by the original for the same price?

Count DeM> I just checked an ebay item I have been watching for the past week. It

you really think a few guys in a modeling group in a prt of the net no one has ever heard of have a voice? or that revell actually looks at ebay. the re-released all that historical shit....where? in europe. can WE get american space vehicle kits? the mofo's are clueless......

IIRC, it's been pretty well established that in the model business, the big bucks are in the car market. Cut the molds for one kit of the Lunch Bucket Car Company's Model 324 and then you buy 850 different decal sets to put on it. Presto!! You now have 850 car kits for the price of just one mold. Oh sure, you change the color of the plastic now and then but molding kits is boring work. The plant workers need variety too.

On the other hand, the Oh My God aircraft company produces the RS-87 Invisiplane. The US government buys 4 dozen. At most, you've got 48 different aircraft models that can be built.

It's all math and money. But mostly money.

Ed R.

Check in at Hobby Heavens message board or up coming releases from the Big 3 (yep 3, Lindberg is baaacckkkk!) in the auto kit department.

-- Chuck Ryan Springfield OH

When they do release an oldie it disappears off the market in almost no Time. I managed to get a 50th anniversary Revell Jupiter C - most of the big mail order places didn't carry it, and the places that did sold out really fast. Isn't the first time. The Old Monogram space taxi re-release went the same way. There's a messge there but I'm afraid they don't get it. Many of us tried through emails etc to get Revell to re-release the XSL-01 Moon rocket, and the early space station kit - never happened. I'd buy multiples of each - not to mention a few more of the 50th anniversary kits if they were still available. Val Kraut

And on top of that, speaking for the car modelers, when they rerelease an oldie you get no idea what's in the kit; does the repop include the custom options? which ones? weirdly enough, sometimes you get more than what is described as being in the kit, which can't possibly make good marketing sense. It seems as if sticking some illustrators airbrush sketch of his impression of somebody's buldup on the box is supposed to be enough to make us all go buy it, and when we don't that's just evidence that the market for plastic is dead.

I wouldn't gripe about getting more than is advertised. That's preferable to getting less. Most of this seems to be because the Chinese use the entire mould. They wouldn't necessarily know what parts are truly needed to complete the model. On the plus side you could get most of the original Ala Kart which seems to have been better than the new kit. I've heard of people using both kits to make something like the original model.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.