Phirewriter

I guess if the Jones's weren't such a bunch of jerks I might feel differently. As stated I stopped going to Dennis's store and the north 76th store was run by Scott who wasn't much better. Cool junkyard or not, I have a problem handing my hard earned money to them. I've known Alex Geiger and his family (Milwaukee's original Hobbytown, now Model Empire) for many years and he's always been great to deal with. I have been able to find most everything I need hobbywise there or at Greenfield.

The 1962 Olds from Johan was also a 4 door hardtop. Nice kit but really difficult to find. I have a nicely built one I picked up at the Toledo show 20 some years ago and have never come across another.

After many years of observation in the hobby industry it really seems that the car modelers are most guilty of hygiene issues. We have as many if not more military hobbyist's come into the store and they are rarely hygienically challenged. As a automotive modeler it is kind of embarrassing.

As a kid I loved Lindberg kits (though not this series so much) I wish Round2 would reissue some those cool hot rod kits. Even though many were 1/32 or other odd scales. As a kid I had fun assembling them and many are actually pretty cool designs.

Can't wait for this one! I have most of my kits from my youth, however this one disappeared at some point. This kit has some great memories for me as it's one of the first models that ended up with a decent paint job due to my father's help with spraying it. He was a model builder too and was always willing to show me stuff if he felt I was up to it.

Lack of hygene is not restricted to just shows. As a manager at the soon to be defunct Greenfield News And Hobby I have to deal with people every day that should be spending money on soap instead of kits! One of our cashiers has a can of Lysol behind the counter that she will spray as some of these stink bombs are leaving. And why is it that people with breath that's worse than a bag of dead snakes have to talk to you 2 inches away from your face, keep backing up and they will continue to move up on you. Yikes!!! Some people really have a lack of regard for personal space.

The owners of Happy Hobby actually accused us (GNH) of torching the National Ave location! Never mind all the building code violations and the general dirty, disorganized conditions in the store. I had it on good authority that they were close to having the building condemned due to all the violations and the general state of disrepair of the structure. And yes they are a really weird bunch, the family owns a couple of other businesses. They are all run in pretty much the same odd way. They seem to have not been socialized very well during their formative years.

Actually our closing has nothing to do with online shopping or anything else for that matter. The owners simply wanted to retire - PERIOD! One of Milwaukee's oldest and best art supply stores (Artist and Display) is also closing this spring. Their reasons are exactly the same, they are a very successful business, however the owners are getting older just want to retire and enjoy life. With no family to take over the business they just pulled the plug and that's that!!

One of the more ridiculous things that I've seen at Happy Hobby is their kit pricing (to address one of the quotes above) For instance, after they would attend iHobby or simply see any kits listed as discontinued, they would a least double the price. One day a kit is $22.99, go in the next day suddenly it's $44.99!! Never-mind there might still be a years worth of inventory in the distribution pipeline. I haven't been to any of their stores for many years now, but when I used to stop in that's generally what I noticed. Just to give you an idea of how goofy they are, and I'm speaking about Dennis at the Burleigh store in particular. He actually kicked me out for basically just shopping. After asking if I was buying anything, I responded no, not right now I'm just looking. His response: "if you're not buying anything just GET OUT, your wasting my time" That was the last time I ever set foot in a Jones family operation. It is amazing, given their attitude towards customers much less all their other offbeat business practices, they have survived as long as they have. I'm sure any modelers on this forum from the Milwaukee area have some tale to tell about Happy Hobby, I've certainly heard plenty from my customers! Anyway, as it stands right now Greenfield will be operating as usual until February 1st After that we will be going into liquidation until the end of March or until we are cleaned out of most of our inventory, which ever comes first.

Unfortunately the owners have decided to retire and although the business had been for sale over 2 years they couldn't find a buyer. The owners have 3 daughters, none of whom wanted to take over and run it. Some of the employees have been there over 25 years or more and are really affected by this. It has also come to my attention that long time Milwaukee store(s) Happy Hobby is also closing their doors after many years. (No great loss there however) That leaves Model Empire as one of the last independent stores in the Milwaukee area. I have worked for GNH during their transition from the Cudahy location to the Greenfield store many years ago. Three years ago I was hired back as part of the management team and currently run their art department, including teaching airbrush and art classes. In addition I have been running the slot car department, web site and Facebook page. Oh well on to new adventures! If you find yourself in the S/E Wisconsin area, give Model Empire a visit. Alex has a really great store with lots of automotive kits and a great slot car selection with all scales of cars and track.

Agreed, I have numerous kits in my collection that are there for nothing more than the box art. Why else would anyone in their right mind actually make an effort to buy Palmer kits? (some of the cooler boxes from the 60's/early 70's, despite the contents) There are plenty of bad, cheesy kits out there that have some of the best artwork. Not only do I enjoy the art but it is somewhat of a time machine for me when I descend into the styrene cavern. I still buy for subject matter on kits that I will/would/might build regardless of the box art.

The kit lineage for Coyote actually starts with the MPC "J" Car, a GT40 development car that Shelby Team driver Ken Miles was killed in while testing. The kit was then modified into the Mark IV and was available as a double kit with the clear trailer and as a stand alone kit. The Mark IV was re-released sometime in the mid 70's and then changed to the Coyote. As to whether it can go back depends on if the body tooling was saved or permanently changed (more that likely given MPC's track record) I would post pictures but do not work with a photo hosting service at this time, sorry.

As stated in my above post, the Chevelle has been permanently changed in to the Modified Stocker. Unless Round2 would see a high demand for this kit and deem it profitable to tool up a new body, glass, etc... (highly doubtful) We will probably never see the Chevelle released as anything other than the Modified.

It would be nice to see the Nova wagon kits out again, however..... Just as the Chevelle has be changed into the Modified Stocker, the Nova wagon was cut up into the Bossanova drag car that was reissued by the model king a number of years ago. It's to bad some of these combo kits can't be re-issued, those are some of my favorite releases from the 60's, both in subject and box art.

I agree! As in life often those that know the least yell the loudest! At this stage in life and with my current building habits, I am just glad to get many of these subjects. I had pointed out in a post a while back to one those detractors that I have yet to see a "perfect kit" I am a kit whore (can I say that here?) and have thousands in my collection dating back to the early 50's - haven't seen a perfect one yet. Some better that others for sure, but I am happy with all of them to one degree or another otherwise I wouldn't have purchased them. So Dave, (and any one else in the industry if you are reading this) keep up the good work and ignore the peanut gallery! And... a big THANKS for all your efforts!!!!!

I would love to see kits of these! Unfortunately although Ford will run through the 2015 season, after that - they're done. Nissan, Volvo and Holden also have contracts to support teams through 2015. Mercedes Benz has shown interest, but has yet to commit. Sad to see Ford go after their long history in the series. I would however be interested in any kits done of these cars! They are more like WTCC cars with V8's stuffed in them.

Thanks for the breakdown Tom. This is an excellent explanation for my point of "not cast in stone or fluid equation"

True! And the model companies (or any company that produces consumer goods) have a marketing department (or work with one) that works with accounting, that works with manufacturing (includes labor, materials, shipping, etc...) to determine the viability of a product. After a kit or parts or whatever is announced, a companies will look at pre-orders for an item and make a further determination to manufacture it. Regardless if there is tooling already done or not, there is always labor, materials and those wonderful licensing costs involved. As we have seen by the topics of announced but unreleased kits, often times a company that thought there would be a good market for a kit finds that pre-orders don't justify the cost to produce. That doesn't mean they wouldn't make money on that item. It's the percentage of how much profit vs cost and it may not be enough to take a chance on. As to percentage of mark up, etc... That is a fluid equation that's determined by the previous factors. Gerry is not too far off (60/40 is a bit closer but is not a fixed in stone equation) As stated the financials are the business's private matter. That being said companies are aware of what many are willing to pay for a particular offering. It's not a matter of sticking their finger in the wind and making a decision based off that.

And you have what experience in the industry? - or any business operation for that matter? Love offerings?! Really! As it's been pointed out by myself and the other posters that you are skewering, we do have the experience and contacts to shed some credible light on this. If it's not in line with your OPINIONS, I can't help that. As to the cost of the Moebius parts vs AMT's? There could be a number of factors. How the production line is managed, they could be sourced from a outside vendor, any number of things can contribute to the cost variances between companies. Every one does business differently, unless of course you believe there is an evil cabal between the model companies to steal all your money and your first born too.

I realize that comment was a bit tongue in cheek, however own your own business once and see how peoples perception of you change over night. You might be living in one room studio (after selling your house and cashing out stocks, etc...) and eating boxed mac and cheese for breakfast and ramen noodles for dinner (if your lucky) No matter how well your friends/relatives know your situation, suddenly your a million/billion/trillionaire! Just because you hang an open for business sign out there! People who don't know you as well will treat you worse. "You own a business" - why you're rich of course!!! And then try to get freebees and what ever else they can cause' you can afford it, right? Yes it's a bit extreme. But having been though business ownership, I've dealt with behavior like that to some degree or another. Point being, while Revell is owned by a "big" business (Tower Hobbies/GreatPlanes) and they're not big by alot of standards. Moebious and Round2 actually fall under "small business" Remember that before you start throwing stones at those "evil rich thieves" They're trying to make it, like a lot of other business out there. And we are not in a very business friendly climate these days.

What's not much more? Tower hobbies has the Willys kit list price @ $27.99. If you go by that and the $15.99 (full list) for the wheels that's still a $12.00 difference. How is that close? Even at their selling/sale price there is a $9.00 difference. I can assure you that there is more that a mere $.50 cost in the kit or the parts. Just licensing alone will wipe out most of if not all that amount alone. Take a look an the bottom or side of your latest purchase to see all the companies that have their hand out to be fed that money.

The $17 grand is a drop in the bucket for some post war Japanese tin toys. One needs to watch the tin robot collectors market for some truly jaw dropping prices for tin toys. The Masudaya Gang Of Five Toy Robots are a good example. One of the rarest recently sold for somewhere around $46,000 (yes thousand) and there are rarer bots than these! The example of electric guitars although not toy related in the strictest sense is an excellent example of prices reaching sometimes obscene levels in the last decade. What a person is willing to pay for a toy that has some kind of value to them, be it nostalgic, item d'art (as some consider these) or whatever is purely up to them. If they have it and want to spend it, more power to 'em!

Tom Geiger's point is spot on about handling costs. I've had this same discussion with scale slot car manufactures years ago (Scalextric, Carrera,etc...) They have the same issues as far as making certain parts available, such as body in white kits or simple replacement parts. There is a lot of cost in picking out parts, altering production processes and other concerns that make some items more or prohibitively costly to offer. The same is true for the kit industry (unfortunately) A manufacturer has to recoup their cost plus make a profit to remain viable, not being greedy. Remember also, after the parts or kit is made and packed it is shipped to a distributor who take their cut and then it's off to the retailer. At that point, however much (or little) the retailer (brick and mortar or e-tailer) are willing to make on that item determines the final price.

The Astro 1 got cut up to make the Stinger dragster. I believe there are photos on another post. Basicaly the Astro body with the rear cut off, no windows, trim and details wiped away and the majority of the underbody cut away, fitted to the Piranha dragster chassis. Not much left of the original kit!

A quick check of past R/M auction results shows one of the Grand Sport roadsters bid up around 5.5 Million, a far rarer car than this 57. Granted even if the provenance can be authenticated, it still is just a breathed on 57 Vette, not a hand built race care like any of the GS's. Those were also driven by the who's who of racing in the early 60's. Basically I don't understand the price even IF this is sale is for real.