keyser

7 Lego sets sold per second per Lego They made 381 million tires in 2010 Company profit was $1.44 Billion in '13. More profitable than Mattel. 10 years ago, the company was near death. New blood/builders are essential, If my customer base was dying off, I'd do far more than cater to the 15-20 years they had left. I'd aim to get kids and the second generation of same. Ask how many here still have flip phones, not smart phones. Big gap with Lego audience, and kids game with same patience as they build. Many do both. If model companies sold to 1/10 of 1% of same market, they'd make 220,000 kits, sell 25 kits/hr, and make 381,000 tires. Gross sales $5,500,000.at $25/kit. Don't change a thing. That extra customer base and $ will just spoil the business.

+1000 Steve's boat stuff is the only stuff I know of for detailing. Jet drive, seats, and the full package of interior stuff is awesome.

Great home! Live there in health and happiness!

Cheaper to take digital copy to Kinko's and have them print it. Never tried though, all my digital stuff, journals are just fine as is. Home network has 14 nodes and shares everything, photos, digital media, all of it. Once you switch, you'll never go back. 30 years of CAR scanned, collection sold. Searchable in seconds. From my phone, wherever.

Some of those awesome wheels I'e seen in your posts in long past too would be welcome. BRM's, gasburners, any of them. I'd be in for a motor or 2. Anybody do a Scooby WRX? Can't find old post about it.

Minty '63 Raysoncraft Ski-Drag boat, period built with trailer. Very complete, needs cleanup, paint correction and reassembly. Packed in bags, bubble wrapped, and cheap. Mr. Tim Boyd hasn't cornered all of these but I've now got enough for 2 with and 2 without sponsons, including a new-in-box one from my wife. Every time I look at Tim's boat Fotki, I get cranked up. Someone should restore/reverse-engineer this hull, far nicer than Hemi-Hydro IMO, uses tons of bits from the Hull Raiser (itself a nice boat). Thanks for the great builds all these years.

Frame and floorpan pics have no significant holes, lots of surface scale though. A/C car too. Body is fiberglass. (I forget that sometiimes) Hemmings photo from '66 has Halibrands on black car similar to kit.

All it needs is brakes and a nice R5.

Seems like it's Hobbico? Hasegawa uses Hobbico for customer service. Hobbico owns RM, yes? I've been trying to get clear sprue for Hasegawa SR-71 that was a short shot on all 3 canopy parts. Given as a gift to me by wife to build during chemo in Feb. No parts despite pics of short shot, and lame responses. BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH kit wasn't cheap, if it was, or buildable, I'd give it away. I sent pic on first contact, and they wanted proof of purchase. No parts yet.

Awesome stuff Tim. Lots for everyone. Thx.

+1 on tires, Bluestreaks from R2 or RM welcome. Just saw Tower price on '15 Mustang. $9.95. That's cheap. Whole kit done well, seamlessly. Hopefully out in stores, parts depts. before 1:1 hits showrooms.

What's baffling is there is a shortbed chassis tool, a longbed chassis tool, a 71-72 cab, plus jillions of people that'd let R2 reverse engineer a 67-8 and a 69-70 cab/interior. And there's GMC cab/interior floating around too. With a weird longbox stepside and the shortbed step bed. New tool would be awesome, but I'd think a lot could be done on the cheap to crank out dumploads of 2 in ones. Add new tooled 6, and perhaps new SB/BB from elsewhere (duplicate tool from 66 Nova, or wherever?) Wouldn't be Moebius level, but it's mostly there. Certainly cheaper than ground up new tool. PS Just saw Bill's post- Agreed, which is why compelling box art for the shelf is crucial. If you don't build it, at least make the buyer look at it. +1 on sales. Greatest kit in world irrelevant unless it sells. Lots of cynical thrown together kits sell like crazy-DOH Charger most pointedly.

Tim, I think the '15 Mustang promo giveaway and timing is the best, fastest launch I've seen in over a decade. Ford gets it, they I'm sure helped push this thru, (Gee, if only someone used to work there ). RM piggybacks hype like '60's. Really, model into space? Cool. Shades of NASA. Aspirational marketing indeed. Plus it's a really nice replica. I am stumped why the '10 Raptor is coming out when hard protos are first testing. That market needs new, not 4 yo product. Yes they;ll have current gen, but new Al- pickup should be groundbreaker. The well-timed snaps should be a money machine, and with careful tooling, can share lots of bits with a glue kit. Ages ago I mentioned getting kits into dealer waiting areas. BMW, MB, etc. all have heavy merchandising, and some great deals on DC cars. A Mustang and Raptor '15-16 is what puts it into customer hands to aspire to a 1:1, and sells a kit. We don't need to make modelers of everyone. Just sell kits (business case) to generate $ for other kits. Just like most of us, having a kit in hand also can grab new blood for the hobby, which is desperately needed for it's survival long-term (which is irrelevant to many here it seems #getoffmylawn). 2.5 F150's per minute pays for a LOT of Raptor development. Should do the same in scale.

What I want is irrelevant. I'd really like nothing more than 10-fold success for all. Just really think business needs to expand. Then more for everyone. Love the A coupe on Deuce bits idea, new 33-34 3-w. Lots of young guys like rods, my kids do. But a huge group of potential buyers don't know or care. Can still sell them kits of something else. To pay for kits for the more esoteric builders. The 34 Tudor got panned, the 5w too. I remember how fired up I was when they announced a 1/25 34 3-w in '74. Then opened the box. Oh well. At least I was unclear to many. Won't happen again.

Tom, those mid 60 Valiants are cool. Nice 66 on Bay last year, 7-800 iirc. Blue-grey. The 66 resin looks nice too.

There's lots of kits of cars never done before, some even done correctly. Same modelers buy or not, or complain too expensive/didn't do base model/wiper motor wrong/....(See Lind. 61 Imp, Olds; RM Nova/LX; Ertl 34 3-W, ad nauseum) New buyers/market needed. Once the boomers/retirees die, market is miniscule. Just tried to show huge untapped market to sell a few kits to interested people without huge risks. Done bloviating. You can keep going on about Tucker. Maybe Romney at Nash too. Captivating for new modelers under 25. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I'll keep watching same meh kits not sell and Ooooooh a new kit of a 4 year old whatever. Good thing I have enough resin and kits to last me years. A 33-34 3-w would be welcome. As would a 33-34 Woody. Here's something I mentioned. A newfangled Tucker for them whippersnappers

Quoted for sad truth. We'd all have bloody flip-phones still, and paper maps. #getoffmylawn Boomers that did well are retiring, those that didn't aren't doing swimmingly, or are pushing out farther. Perhaps renaissance of content, but sales drives profits, and allows expansion. Pushes don't play. Access to kits as impulse, new conquest retail sales limited by 650 HL stores, and 1300 Michaels/Aarons stores. 2k sales points brick and mortar, smattering of LHS, sporadic WM presence, 175 HTUSA and intarweb sales. Michaels usually doesn't have squat, to be blunt. HL better, but not much. And the 'bay, but will hear usual gripes of it isn't safe to buy, yadayada. Tim, Ken, some others understand the retail shift needed here too. Round 2 has definitely broadened the movie/collector tie ins, and Moebius has done well on boomer content. Ford understands retail shift, marketing to kids/families. But need lots more to sustain, grow, and not just (shudder) "kick the can down the road". I've read in many threads, and in real time, that many of us are buying less, selling more, even you, Tom. It's true. So better kits, fewer sales, increasing overhead, narrowed margins, and aging customer base. Needs a renaissance like bowling has had. Hipster bowling allies with hobby shops and a bottle shop/deli? (Funny thread that was). When is last time you saw kids in HL for purchases, not just tortured trips with parent for school project supplies? Um, never? Need to make a kit or 2 part of kids lives, not their primary hobby (wishful), just a taste, to a large audience. Record industry has changed marketing too. Youtube clips expose audience, create demand. Gaming creates interest, and demand for cars. In game purchases are actually more expensive than a kit is, so virtual model car costs more than a real model car. Perceived bargain to start. Now in the 20 years the 55-57 pickups available, how many have correct cabs vs sloping window line? 57's have correct flat sill. 55's don't, best I can tell. Haven't bought one in a few, but I've used 57 cabs for correcting my 55/56's. Or Modelhaus' small window cab now OOP but awesome. Round 2 should fix that globally, permanently. And merge the 2 kits for stepside or Cameo built either with stock or custom parts. 55 would be a build 1 of 8 that way. 55/56 Cameo; 55/56 stepside, 55/56 rodded Cameo; 55/56 rodded stepside. Probably could sell a few more that way, never have seen 56 mentioned IIRC. 58-59 conversion would be nice easy bump for kit. But they're saturated. Geez, Spurs/Portland series is sad.

Actually, when many of the big sellers were tooled, they were current, or close. I like them, my kids like some, but not a universal appeal. As an old market pleaser, awesome. For injecting lots of new capital, I'd not pick rods. No idea how Stacey 32 did, but show cancelled. People wanted stock version of 49 Woody, pitched a fit about shared Cad mill. Haven't bought 50 Olds, 57 Ford, or anything Moebius. Bodystyles boring/ugly to me. Ranchero, I'm in. 88 convert, I'm in. 300's, sure, but had both 55 and 56 in resin. The return manufacturing cars nobody cares about is relative. RM got sold in last couple years, Round 2 is a newest iteration, Lindberg is a tool catalog. Glencoe Revell, Monogram, MPC, AMT all were competitors in mid 60's. Just briefly mulling, since then there has been about 5 ownership changes of Revell, 4 Monogram, ~5 MPC, ~6 AMT. Lindberg rose, fell, rose again, fell. Galaxie, Acc Min, American Satco, I'm hopeful for current stewardship, but is this really a legacy of win? Need to find new markets and make product relevant to people that currently don't give a BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH about it. Sell to new segments, expand customer base without losing product ID. Porsche sells 2.5 ton trucks and 4 doors now, more than their sportscars combined. We lust after the sports-cars. Ford sells 2.5 F150's a minute, 24/7/365. They sell about 1 Raptor per hour. We lust after the Raptor. Until someone hangs it out and says try it, it'll never change. Multinational business is not for dilettantes or hobbyists. Or fearful flat-earthers and xenophobes. Evolve or die (with all respect to the creationists here, who limit their longevity clinging to their belief, ironically ) <-joke. Plz note: I do like the straight-8 rear radiator stuff I've seen at Goodguys and Lone Star Roundup. But it ain't enough to revitalize an industry. And 50 yo have less and less time, and later and later retirements. Lots of 50-60yo were dumped into unemployment or "under-retirement" in last 7-8 years, so disposable income isn't what it was, or what was expected.

I think crossover is possible, more as something to try, than dumping gaming for kits. A desk trinket in 3D. Something to go with coffee mug, merchandising. Ferrari makes more $ off merchandising than off the cars. Graphics (stickers implies little kids) can be made for 2D game cars, and other than a few famous ones in the games, are all over map. It's the cars. They're driving cars, not playing a game. Augmented reality. I crossed back to gaming, and it's surprising what I used from racing 1:1, and modeling. It was and is a novelty. Will be so conversely. Good thing is, the driven in the game seem to be driven across platforms, and it takes some creativity to win/do well. Easier to sell/teach to intellectually curious. Not all gamers are slugs. Great way to learn new tracks for driving schools and track days too. The real reason I started. I also got my 10yo to go from gaming to karting. He does Lego too, which is huge. Skills crossed, he had hard time transitioning to wheel and G-loads, but had fastest lap and won by end of 1st heat. Get kids interested, and you'll get a shot. Agreed that this is spitballing, but considering that every model company has been flipped a couple times, industry needs to find new market. Need product ASAP, piggyback off other's huge ad budgets, and keep churning. A 2010 Raptor in 2014 is 4 years late. Ford only sold 8k in 2010, but it was the buzz. Of 950000 F150's. Not even 1%. Profits probably double per unit. Nobody wants iPhone 4S case when iPhone 6 is imminent. Dealing with unnecessary purchase, all about wants, aspirations. Not needs. #new today #newthisweek #2014 CEO job is to: a) Provide value to shareholders. Period. That means making return on investment. $20/kit profit on 15000 kits, or $10/kit profit on 150000 kits. b ) Need to open new markets. Sell to people that haven't bought from you. Cayenne and Panamera for example. Saved the company, make more money for Porsche than the sportscars do. Few buyers pop a 911, but love their ugly lumps. 911 buyers, however, buy the new stuff too. They didn't cannibalize sales. Selling kits to 0.1% of Need for Speed, or Forza, or whatever players? That's about 150-200 Million games sold from inception. Gross numbers, but close enough. If you look at the 300k people on the one leaderboard as a nutball fringe, that is 0.2% of total number of games. Pretty small slice. Now sell 1/2 that many people 1 kit. That is 150000 kits. $10/kit net is $1.5M. In a sliver of a completely untouched market, probably with ZERO sales. c)Build reputation of company with quality, ease of use, and service. Accuracy, ease to build and or detail further, and problem resolution. I've got a Hasegawa SR71 with short shot glass I was given to build while getting chemo. I sent pic of short shot to Hasagawa (?Hobbico?), told them it was gift. Acted like I was trying to rip them off. Still no glass from February. I'll throw it in trash and never buy Hasegawa again for the BS. Parents don't want to screw with this, nor do kids. Company has seconds to "surprise and delight", and instill desire for more, or at least enthusiasm for product. This also includes not alienating current customers. Like denying issues with kit proportions, or vinyl roof, or cowl, or.... d)Expand production efficiencies. Will short-run tooling work? Can 3D printing be used for some parts, prototyping? If kit sells in greater numbers, can more permanent tools be pulled off short-run tooling (no idea what's possible, not toolmaker, but I've heard alloy molds cheaper than other metals?) So CEO is really needed to steer company to a market, to compete hopefully unopposed, to grow business, and to make profits to get further investment. See: AAPL, GOOGL, F. (For bad examples, see BBY, Penney's, KM, Woolworth, Radio Shack, LHS, and the multiply sold model manufacturers. Ooops.) Better to sell 50k kits of Ultima GTR, KTM Cross-bow, or Ariel Atom, than 500 kits of Duel Dart. Real numbers nice. Short run stuff seems to be 5000 kits? 10k kits? Don't know what volumes Dave B did on his runs. Dukes Charger supposedly biggest seller ever?

Agreed flatties, early Hemis are hot...to market segment that a) has money; b)knows what they are; c)can indulge a 1:1 build. Kids would rather see Skyline motor than flattie, or JDM twincam whatever. Really irrelevant as long as it goes. The big market isn't looking for a flattie with trick heads. They want a cool looking car with nice engine shroud, and a 3D chunk to put by the Vid console or desk to think about. Living on a tablet, phone, or video is 2D world. Nice to have a 3D rep of video fantasy. Think of it like our posters. We got kits to add dimension to dreams. Moebius has great niche, seems bigger than expected. Well done. 300's I had in resin, Hudson's, cars announced more meh. 60's Ford trucks hot, should f/u with 66-77 Bronco. So I'm target market, but filled that hole long ago mostly. Hope they do well, and they seem to pick their subjects well. Still, not a 75-100k unit run methinks. Forgot about pickups- Ask vendors, the 50 Chev, 55-57 Chevs are either thick on the ground, or saleproof. The 60-65 Chev's from AMT/RM are OK sellers, but I don't see any shortage of cheap ones at shows. 61-63 F100's pull $ usually, I love the things. But not getting looked at daily in a vid game. Exposure creates demand. Seeing trucks on auction broadcasts helps that. Just don't think that is a deep well to drill. Far better than any 30's-40's car though. Album art has lots of 50's and 60's pickups too. Wait, that exposure thing again. Let culture advertise it for you, then stick it in front of the audience.

I like them. But completely irrelevant to profit. OOOOOOH a new Terraplane kit!! An Essex sedan!!! WOW. Unless you're 45+, live on HAMB/Goodguys shows, these cars, Mopars of that age are dead. Plymouth? Ever watch Jay-walking? People can't name President, yet recognize dead brand. Rod sounds kewl, but not going to sell kits. 3D printing for this niche. Games are $20-50. In game stuff is $10-20. Console is $500. Wheels/controllers $2-500. Shoes? $120-200. Money is there for many. Phone cases? $15-20 each. Daughter has 5-10 of them, you do math. And they don't fit new phones. New phone screen? $200. Repeat repair? $99. Look at what sells in HUGE volumes. Then tap tiny percent of it which is huge. Job market tough now, lots of kids mid 20's have some money, more time, and live on vid games. Look at numbers of kids moving in with parents after college. Life very different than ours. And young fathers in late 20's can do snaps with kids as diversion. Dating isn't going to change, but the 50yo is not a volume market. Guys in 20's usually arent in posiition to buy 1:1's. That's an aspirational market.

Jeff, kids that can drive and chase girls don't buy kits. Just like tons of guys here, we had kits 8-14yo or so, then money went elsewhere. My kit buying stopped from 15 until 25-26 maybe? But I think kids in these games are loyal, and there's a hell of a lot more of them than there are airbrush-owning MCM-reading swap-meet-going guys here. Guys here buy kits on clearance at HL, with coupons, on-line, or in dying LHS. Radio Shack is dead. BBY is dying. Remember record stores? Magazine stands other than airports? Go where market is, rapid prototyping, and even use more disposable tooling if something doesn't sell? No idea how it works, but DC manufacturers get stuff out fast. Licensed, made, shipped. Welly has had 918 DC out for ages, hard to find. I found plastic RC 1/24 918 at Tuesday Morning that is presentable. 6 months ago. No kit even hinted at. P1? Nada. 458 Speciale? Zip. http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/07/next-ford-raptor-spotted-wearing-aluminum-skin/ <-2015 Raptor prototype in camo This. Start NOW. Snap fine, if sells, do colored detail kit, maybe pre-built promos at same time as snap. It'll pay for irrelevant stuff people here think may sell upwards of 3 kits (bought on sale with coupon). Nice thing is that gamers are fiercely loyal to brand. They complain, but that is the "board skewed reality" we see here. But the cars are there, and it's pre-done, readily available massive market research on huge market. One leaderboard on 1 version of 1 track in Forza has 300k people on it. And the car that's fastest for that track is used by 75% of those people. No kit or DC. 10% take rate on that would be 30000 kits. WAG of $10/kit net is $300000. So tooling paid for mostly. If there is cheaper tooling/3D printing, even better. If tool sells, cut better tool, or revise based on issues/production problems, etc. All from a tiny percentage of a game. But it HAS to be current. 8-14, and mid-20's-30's are age targets. Not the tiny nutball segment here. Self included.

I think it's an untapped market. Having your favorite NFS/Forza car on shelf to look at 3-D is tangible. Millions play game. 2% take rate on a kit is a huge number. The business case is the market. Find market, then what they're interested in, then market leads. Understanding the manual dexterity set- these kids develop pretty great skills when they want to. Patience and attention span? Really? Ever played any of these games? Series racing requires patience for traffic, car setup, and strategy. Games are quite amazing. It isn't the crash and boom, it's quite realistic. I spent time fiddling aero, camber, and caster to try to get numbers lower on Indy lap. I bought game for kids, never had game console before. I've raced 1:1 a lot in past, and setup is same. Tweak, test, tweak, test. Same patience needed for building. It wont wean kids off games, but it WILL sell kits, and get some kids interested. Looking at the leaderboards in these games and puling profiles, you can look at kids other games. Serial buyers of similar/earlier versions of games. Also usually have moto, soccer, some shoot'em up, but the kids good at car games do cars. You can see what cars are hot at various circuits. They have photo contests, history of cars on sites. We have Forza 5, and it's quite amazing. The info flows fast. Why do you thing magazines are dying? I haven't renewed stuff, as it's ancient before it hits mailbox. Autoblog, HAMB, Youtube all have info and vid before magazines. Why would anyone wait >>1yr after announced to get a model of whatever? It's old by then. The all new '13 Camaro when the '15 is out? The Raptor coming in 6 months when I saw prototype pics of the alloy bodied truck online yesterday? Really? I like Raptor, my daughter wants it or a Stroppe Bronco as first car. But kids don't want a 5yo Raptor, they want NEW one. I was stoked when the '15 Mustang appeared before car. HYPE. Sell on wave of new car stuff, have kit ready for the new car release PR. Use maker's ads/web press to sell. But no Vette, no C7R, nada. Latest and greatest. Kids don't care 5 window. Forza put '40 Deluxe, '57 Chevy in game last week. Colossal MEH on boards. Nobody cares. Wonder how many here know what an Ariel Atom, Radical, or Ultima is? To sell kits, manufacturers need to. And start work on deals/kit as soon as first bubbles appear on camo'ed prototypes, or on blogs. Media watch, and gaming watch. Lotus Cortina came out in same car pack last week, popular in a race series. Kit? no. Diecast? no. 10 cars came out in Forza, and the Hemi Dart, new BMW DTM car are the most popular. Kits of both out, actually. BMW kit great, but fiddly. Still, can sell one and it sits on shelf just like ours do. We don't need business case for car. We need to tag along off juggernaut. Fortunes made off apps, cell phone cases, etc. But new comes out constantly. Kit companies give us "the all new iPhone 4S case" when iPhone 6 is 5-6 months out. Fix that, and your business case makes itself.

Gee, I wonder if there's some massively successful video game kids play that has huge lists of cars in it? Maybe a company could look at that and see what huge numbers of people are "buying and driving" in those games. If only there was such a thing.... Maybe even on several different game platforms? Or even turned into a movie? Hmmmmmm. Escort Mk 1 was in F&F recently, and between rally cars, commuters, and hot versions, 4-5 versions easy, and It'd sell here because of the movie recognition. Mk 2 similarly, but only in Forza. BMW E9 CSL/CS. Outstanding street car, and better race car. Extant kits poor save for rare Marui 3.5 Maybe a Tarantino film car series with Mangusta, etc. Could include Eelco/Moon/Cal Custom barefoot pedal in each kit (semi-inside joke). Owners of many ugly Valiants and Styleline Rancheros shouldn't diss Volares...wait, no go ahead, they're ugly too. Sorry Tom, couldn't resist. But I'd ask for a Monteverdi Sierra wagon, thanks. After googlage, 3 sold

Yes please. Lotus Cortina and the AMG Rot Sau too.