Airfix no more

That was the point I was hoping to make (badly, perhaps): Airfix once had a very good eye for market opportunities like that, but it's an awful long time ago that they lost it. Hornby seem to be more clued up on such matters now. That could make an //enormous// difference (esp. with the remake of the Dambusters upcoming: big tie-in opportunities there...)

Because a remake of The Dam Busters has such a huge potential market outside of the UK?

If Enzo was here he could tell you exactly what Airfix should be making.

(kim)

Source Lancaster kits from /wherever/ in China, rebox. It's not a big investment. The Dambusters film is being produced by Peter Jackson (LotR, King Kong) and is a big-money job. The financers for it are obviously expecting it to play big outside .uk.

It was an example, anyway. Long-term I'd expect that westernising/diluting/"dumbing down" the .jp otuku anime-kit-scene might be the biggest market. That seems to be the scene de le spod du jour, just as Spitfires and train-sets were once.

What worries me is that Hornby seem to be reproducing my old North York Moors-inspired layout, building-for-building. If the Horseshoes pub from Levisham ever appears in their range, it will confirm it....

I haven't looked up which real NER buildings (if any) Hornby has copied, but I noticed their NER Goods Shed

has a canopy over the door, which ISTR is now missing from the "obvious" prototype at Aidens^H^H Hogsmea^H^H Goathland, which I assume inspired most of the family of NER designs.

Isn't the thing Hornby call a covered coal shed, actually for lime?

Are some of them a little, erm, unsuitable for aunts to give nephews for Christmas as they would an aeroplane kit, IYSWIM? Or are they just the ones I've noticed and remembered....

It's a whole scene that I treasure my ignorance of, but I know it's there. Suitable boxing and marketing might take care of the aunt problem, though given that these days aunts are likely to be in their late 30 to early

40s and have had their own adventures, maybe it's not a problem after all...

Airfix had a fairly large range of model cars in 1/32nd scale, which is coincidentally the same scale as Scalextric and the aforementioned Hornby car kits. The Airfix cars are all from pretty ancient toos, but most are nevertheless quite decent kits. Most have made periodic returns to production, albeit usually in mis-matched baoxed sets - poor marketing. Cheers, Bill.

"Arthur Figgis" wrote

I thought the one at Goathland was for coal, and was covered in this way to avoid coal dust fallout from reaching the passengers on the adjacent platform.

John.

At one time they made a rival system to Scalextric.

(kim)

Until Hasegawa (Japan) recently introduced a range of 1/72nd Lancasters, the best available kit was that produced by Airfix since 1980. It remains a decent and accurate kit, available with the parts to produce the Dambuster raid aircraft. Most of the decent (and very expensive) Chinese designed kits are already widely available from general model shops in the UK, Trumpeter is the name which comes to mind. There are other Chinese manufacturers producing very poor knock-off copies of western designed kits. Airfix HAVE embraced the movie market recently. Towards the end of last year a 1/12th scale Austin A35 van was released with appropriate Wallace and Gromit figures, all part of the movie tie-in. They have previously produced other W&G models. Cheers, Bill.

Here's the link:-

I know, I've had various pieces over the years. None of these models have seen the light of day for a long time, but the static car tooling is still in existence, Cheers, Bill.

If you've ever built the 1/32nd scale Triumph Herald you'll understand why it was the best town car ever produced. The factory which builds the London taxis was only a few hundred yards away which I think was more than a coincidence. There was a very strong influence there.

(kim)

I spend my "professional" life supplying parts for Triumph Heralds, I probably understand them a little too well :-) Cheers, Bill.

kim smirked:

1/48 Spitfire Mk 24... with extra parts to build a Seafire FR47! Oh... hang on... they've already done that! :-D They should just keep on making 'em, together with F-4s, F-16s and Hunters!

And... if they decided to go back into railway modelling, they could always make a Claughton!!!! :-D

I lived next to the factory that built them. Spare parts quite often used to "fall of the back of a lorry" :o)

(kim)

kim smirked:

I feel that Airfix falls between two stools. Their kits are usually not detailed enough to satisfy the enthusiasts, while at the same time they are too difficult for the youngsters to build. A recent example of this is the

1/48 Spitfire IX. Although the profile of the kit is somewhat better than the competing Hasegawa kit, the detail is quite clunky and the surface detailing is very crude in comparison. However, there are a large number of parts in the kit (including for some unknown reason the awful wing from the earlier Vc kit) which youngsters will certainly find to be a challenge.

It's a shame, because some of the Airfix kits are very good indeed. 1/48 Spitfire Mk24, 1/72 TSR2, 1/48 Buccaneer... On the other hand, some of the kits that they still churn out are totally unsuited to youngsters and many enthusiasts would consider them to be not worth the hassle. The 1/72 Fiat G91 for instance... what a shame that it's the only game in town.

The moulds are owned by Heller in France. "Airfix" is just a marketing operation these days like so many other famous British companies.

(kim)

The way I read it, the moulds are owned by Airfix but production was subbed out to Heller. It's the collapse of Heller that has lead to the difficulties at Airfix, who now have to get their property back from the receivers, or whoever is now administering Heller.

MBQ