Trumpeter models... why so much $$???

I have not yet built anything by trumpeter. Or had the opportunity to check one out in person. But I have noticed that they cost anywhere from 3x-5x the cost of other kits the same scale. Any input appreciated..Are they really that much better?

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff
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Thank the importer.....

Reply to
Al Superczynski

Way more parts, multi-media costs? Most of the newer ones include resin, etched, and metal as well as plastic. And then there's the fact that they are larger aircraft (like those F-105's) in the larger scale -

1/32. And so far, they've only managed to produce three aircraft kits in 1/32 that I've waffled over - the Mig-3, P-40, and Mig-19...and even I bought the Mig-19 after seeing it (the 1/32 jet kits in particular have shown successive improvement, IMHO - I think I have them all...). So demand for the subjects is there - and they are filling it. And we keep paying.

You can make the same arguements about the Academy F/A-18C kit - huge kit, huge parts count, huge demand...huge price tag (and I've since spent more than the kit on etch). But as usual, if you don't have to have one RIGHT NOW, the price comes down.

If you want to shop around and try one for starters, I'd recommend the Mig-19 or Mig-21...the Mig-21 is really nice. The Mig-21 will get you a moderate size model with all of the best Trumpeter has to offer. (And Eduard has some great etch available for both...) Both of these kits are very impressive.

If you'd prefer a WWII subject, go for the Wildcat. IMO, the Wildcat is a better kit than the Corsair and can be had a bit cheaper (I have both

- the Corsair is going to require a few "corrections", but is still WAY better than the Revell one) and the P-38 (while being the most expensive) is their best to date.

Reply to
Rufus

You got into the game at the wrong time. Five years ago they were quiet affordable and you got your dollar/value. Now, the price of oil is up and along with it the price of everything else. Still Trumpeter makes a pretty good kit( if you aren't a rivet counter) and its price is still competetive. Mike IPMS

Reply to
Mike Keown

Possibly the discovery by ex-Communists and folks living under Communist rule where the noose has loosened that Capitalism is lots of fun. :-)

Provides something other than rice and water, too.

Chin:Finally coming out from under a billion member Survivors show.

Tom

Reply to
Maiesm72

The carrier kits seem a step above others and at a reasonible comparttive price. In some cases though they seem to have a total lack of common sense. Ejector pin markings on the outside surface. Tail gear retracts - the others don't. Provisions for moving surfaces that the push rods sieze in place, and in my case plus some others lack of support for missing parts by the distributor. And a lack of appreciation of why you don't want to wait forever for the missing parts. One set of car kits shipped with totally unacceptabele chrome parts. At times they seem superb at other times like a keystone cops production. My image of the Red Chinese production and quality control capabilities has not exactly improved due to Trumpeter's performance. As of now I've bought my last from them until my opinion or their consistency improves.

Val Kraut

Reply to
Val Kraut

I have yet to see any reductions in Trumpeter kit costs but maybe I haven't seen every kit they have.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Reply to
Bill Banaszak

Bill Banaszak wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net:

This is my take:

First on the large kits, I do not like the metal and photo etch hinges. It seems needlessly complicated.

1/24 kits. Most seem overpriced. While they are nice, there are existing kits by Airfix and Bandai of much of Trumpeter's line. The A6M2 is cool as is the Rufe, but again, that's a lot of money by maybe a third. The Spitfire floatplane is a bad idea. That will not sell very much. And the Mustang, why another damn D!? Learn from AM, give us the P-51 through C and A-36. Talk about reusing molds. 5 American and 3 British versions from one basic set of molds. Plus all those beautiful camo schemes. Plus I think a lot more people are shy about doing NMF. Camo is a bit more forgiving. Sure as hell gives me a better reason to buy more than one. PS Keep the clear fuselage parts and sell it to me cheaper.

1/32 - Same bitch on metal and PE hinges. The jets were high by 20%. The P-40 (and duh on the decals! Hello! McFly! Remember the AVG? Great now I have to spend a few more bucks on decals. How many more impulse sales would there be with a screaming Flying Tiger on the boxtop.) and the F4F are almost there. $50 retail, $40 discounted. At about $30 I'll go. The Corsair and Lightning are way to high, the Corsair should not be that far above the others. The P-38 could be higher, there is more plastic, but still $120 MSRP. Not hardly. All the Chicom stuff is cute if you go that way, but some seems silly. A YAK-18? Huh? And $150 MSRP for an SU-27? You'd think they would be selling bunches of them on thier domestic market, I'll bet serious money the locals don't have that kinda scratch.

And what's worse while I'm sure folks would like to blame Stevens have a look at HLJ. What savings?

For 1/48 - (shrugs shoulder) The SM-79 at $50 MSRP $40 discounted. Is it as a good a kit as the AM B-25s? From some of the reviews there are issues. And the gunners cockpit should have been opened. (I admit I bought it, but I have a weakness for good planes from belligerents). The estimated $100 for the Condor and the $60 for the Wellington are absurd.

The 1/144 Mavis is OK. a little high but a significant improvement over the exisitng 1/144 kits. Yeah I know there are issues but what kit doesn't have them?

FWIW, if any of the kits are good enough that I want one I'll simply wait for the clearance sales or pick one up secondhand. It ain't like I don't have enough to keep me busy.

Basically I think much of there stuff is significantly overpriced and are most likely keeping themselves out of the impule purchase category with thier choices. I hope there are enough enthusiasts to keep them going.

Just one man's opinion.

Reply to
Gray Ghost

Early on I believe that the kits (1/32 A-10"s) were a little high but not that unreasonable. I did not buy them at full retail but was lucky to get them when they were heavily discounted by Model Expo.

When we modelers started tripping over each other to get Trumpeter kits that made them take notice of just how much disposable income modeler's have. Then they tested the waters with bigger markup on each kit and they still sold kits. On the other hand if they did not sell I am sure some Capitalist Chinese investors would make sure their product was moving instead of languishing in warehouses. So IMO Trumpeter kits will stay expensive as long as they sell. If no one bought them you can bet they probably would retail for at least 50% less than what they currently do.

Revell Germany just put out a huge U-Boat and my local brick and mortar shop had them for 41.00! They also put out beautiful 1/72 kits of the German BV222 and JU290. 25.00 each at the store! Revell Germany will be getting my dough, not Trumpeter. I can only wait and see if HobbyCraft will re-box some of these and drop the price. Or when the huge markup eventually drives Trumpeter out of business (re: Trimaster) I can only hope Revell Germany obtains the molds and releases these kits for what they should really sell for!

So to sum it up, I blame the modeling community for the cost of Trumpeter kits. Price em in the stratosphere and they sell then that is what we can expect. Personally I do not buy Trumpeter, but I would if I could afford too. So for now I have to be content with my Revell 1/32 kits I have acquired over the years and I wll build my Monogram 1/48 Thud's.

Cheers, Max Bryant

Reply to
Max Bryant

The Laws of Economics.

  1. The plastic models market is quite inelastic. That is if you are impressed enough to want that model you'll pay whatever price it carries so long as you don't have to forego your groceries money.

  1. The limited production kits priced between >0 to 00 is a sustainable business proposition. An equivalent injection plastic kit just below this limited production model pricing will find buyers. So charge what the market will bear.

  2. When I said the market is inelastic it means that pricing the model cheaper will not increase sales to any extent. Remember those

boxes and sold for ~ $5 to $10. I think they sell as many now as they did then. Hobbyists buy because they are hobbyists, not because the kit is cheap.

  1. Back to argument para 2 above. A 0 Trumpeter Essex won't sell any more kits even if they price it at . is still not impulse buying.
  2. There is reasonable competition in the popular scales plastic models market. We are fortunate here in that there is still some restraint on pricing, set by the lead model manufacturers. Tamiya was/is the gold standard. The mainland Chinese manufacturers now lead the market but pricing is still set by Tamiya. The mainland Chinese are still laughing all the way to the bank because their startup costs are still way below Japan's. But that doesn't mean they won't sell for what the market will bear. Darn quick learners.
Reply to
KLM

I have 2 £80 trump kits on the way from TW i think for less than the price of 1 from a UK shop. The shipping was about £22 alone so in effect the kits i bought were less that 1/3 UK price.

Reply to
JULIAN HALES

Looking at all the members in my clubs, there would be little shared opinion as to what is worth what. Some have bookcases full of $60-80 books and trunks of photoetch and aftermarket parts where others primarily buy just kits. Some modelers won't buy resin kits as they are "too expensive" yet have hundreds of unbuilt plastic kits whcu certainly weren't cheap. Some dump a huge amount into each kit with aftermarket stuff and others build OOTB and spend relatively little. Some of the biggest spenders I know actually build the least. There is no one right way to enjoy this hobby.

Price in models often has little to do with quality (note the word "often" and not "always"). We get some new kits that are relative bargains so its not unreasonable some would not be. Like anything else, there are some favorite subjects I'll pay more for. The Trumpeter P-40 isn't a bargan in the sense as some of the recent Hasegawa/Revell releases, but its still far cheaper than the resin B/C that is out there and is light years ahead of the ancient 1/32 Mono/Revell E. Yeah, I've seen some staggering masterpieces based on this old kit but after taking a look at the bare sprues, these are a testomony to the builder and not the base kit! Trumpeter tanks seem reasonably priced. The Mig jets have fallen in price quite a bit since they came out. Those with a Hobby Lobby nearby can get many of the Trumper planes for 1/2 off during sales...

If one doesn't like 'em or think they are outrageously overpriced, simply don't buy 'em, but they may be just right for someone else.

Tom

Reply to
Tom H

All the above is valid. Its buisness. If you want it you will buy it. Its when quality slips below the sticker price is when the controversy of : " Is this really worth it...?" rears it ugly head. So far, in my limited experinse, Trumpeter has stayed in step. If they get hungry(greedy) you might see a drop in sales and then price vs. quality will level out. Again it's just buisness. Model planes or motorcycle tires its all the same. Mike IPMS

Reply to
Mike Keown

Well guys, it isn't 1953 anymore and AURORA F6F Hellcats are no longer $0.69 ?

Live with it.

TEN years from now, kits will cost more. The Revell Germany 1/72 Type VIIC U-Boat from which we could all build the real U-571 will be $150.00 instead of $49.00 as it is at Brookhurst Hobbies today and we will all say, "remember the good old and gone days?"

If you are a builder, you pay the kit price and then you spend 100 hours building a museum quality model after which you display it, sell it or have it published in Fine Scale Modeler, or you pay the price, phantasize about building the model and hope it is worth $10.00 more than you paid for it 5 years later when you try to sell it at a model show.

The companies that make the model kits are run buy guys just like us who have figured out that "wanting" is better than "having" and "buying" it more important than "building". You don't think women are smart enough to have figured that ouy. do you? They collect Bennie Babbies and Barby Dolls and Ginny Dools and they think what they buy is valuable. :-) My wife does. :-)

I have more models than I can build in 50 years, unless I leave my wife and start building 5 models/day and quite my day job. Bet there are a bunch more like me. 50+ year old kids. God I love it!

I'd pay $150.00+ for a solid wood Strombecker kit of a B-29. Why?, because I could recapture the childhood moment when my Dad built one for me and it hung from the ceiling lamp in my room in 1952.

So stop bitching about kit prices. You are either a model builder or a hopless model collector. Either way, we are all damned.

Jim Klein Hpeless Model Collector and 50+year old kid

Reply to
West Coast Engineering

I have to disagree with part of this. I've got more than few unbuilt kits in my basement, and in general when I saw a subject I liked I bought it.

The SM79 is a particular favorite. yet after my experiences with the F4U-4, I passed on it. The F4U-4 kit was poorly designed and implemented - and the support from Stevens sucked. The reviews on the SM-79 was also bad. I can pass on them for now. That is market reality, and after the rush for flashy new subjects I have to believe the market will normalize out.

Val Kraut

Reply to
Val Kraut

What I have noticed when I checked current kit prices against inflation is a much broader RANGE of current prices. Low priced kits are very much in line with inflation. However, there are plastic kits (including resin) that are much more expensive in real dollars than kits sold forty or fifty years ago.

In the early days (fifties and sixties) almost all kits were intended for mass market, and detail in kit and price reflected this. Scale modeling matured, many practicioners were adults who could afford more expensive kits but wanted high quality and lots of detail. Smaller cottage industry sprang up to cater to these buyers. This same situation continues today. RM snaptites are aimed at youth, to be sold in toy and craft stores. Resin kits for serious modelers, sold in hobby shops or via mail order, higher prices and quality.

Today's situati>

Reply to
Don Stauffer

Simple answer is NO, but things are not always that simple. Trumpeter kits are new toolings and therefor pricy, the have photo etchings which also raises the price. Tamiya large scale kits are pricy too. The new Hasegawa (And Revell) Messershhmitt and Focke Wulf series are very nice kits too, but have a little fewer parts and no PE. If I had the choice I would opt for kits like those, but the Trumpeter Corsair is better in many way than the 30 - 35 years old Revell offering, and here in Denmark the Revell kits sells at 280 - 210 danish kroner (25 - 30 US $) and the Trumpeter Wildcats cost 320 DKK (45 US $) and the Corsair 430DKK (60 US $) so the difference is more like 1½ to 2 times the other prices and they are that much better, but definately not faultless or easy kits to build.

Reply to
Claus Gustafsen

Around here, they aren't any more expensive than kits from other brands; in fact, they are mostly cheaper. I guess you're just having to pay more for imported stuff over there than we do here. At least, now you know what it feels like... ;-)

Reply to
machf

You could always switch to Trumpeter 1/35th scale armor kits. In the US, they are cheaper than the newest Dragon and Tamiya kits, comparable in cost to Italeri, and the new ones are generally quite nice (they screwed op the first release of the Challenger 2, but to their credit, they went back and retooled the kit). Where they have gone head to head with Dragon on the huge artillery kits, theirs are more expensive but offer significantly more detail than the Dragon versions. As for pricing, they either assume that the aircraft and ship market will bear the higher prices, or perhaps they just anticipate moving fewer units of those kits and raise prices accordingly to cover their tooling costs. Gerald Owens

Reply to
GERYO

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