niteowl7710

HobbyEasy in Hong Kong is showing a release date right before Christmas and a price around $36 for the kit, and $18 for the resin extras. Japanese vendors are showing January 2018 for delivery and prices in the mid-$50s for the kit and just shy of $30 for the resin The U.S. MSRP looks like it's gonna be $68+ for the kit and $40 for the resin - assuming you could even find the resin in the U.S., as I don't think I've seen a set "in the wild" that wasn't imported over to be resold.

I kind of wonder (I never partook in PB since I was on Fotki and Flickr) if this hadn't been coming for awhile. I mean sites routinely change their ToS, but nobody actually READS those updates. So prove PB hadn't been warning that 3rd party hot linking was only permitted on the most expensive plan for months in advance and when people predictably did nothing (since they didn't read the ToS changes) they went "draconian" and suspended all of the offending accounts. Sure you can argue that PB was started as a sharing site, but that was forever ago when 16MP cell phone cameras weren't even dreamed of, let alone real digital cameras having that type of resolution. Bigger images mean more bandwidth hits every time that photo is fed off the PB servers and eventually that costs real money. Combine that with decreased ad revenue, to say nothing of the outright loss of revenue from ad-blocking and they put their foot down in a way that seems outlandish and all of that. But when the thread that was ongoing about finding PB alternatives look how many were suggested by people that had in their ToS that 3rd party hot linking wasn't permitted, but the people who were suggesting the sites didn't even know they were violating those even though they used the suggested site.

Aoshima doesn't gate off their runners when they reissue kits, so it has most of the parts - except the over fenders and 14" wheels & tires - to build out the Grand Champions kit that Erik is showing.

Stopped at the last local model show of the year to throw some money around.

Wow it's discontinued already. That was FAST, like sold out in less than a week fast. Glad I grabbed one when I did because HLJ didn't take pre-orders for it like 1999 did, the only activated the link once they had them in stock. I had seen some mention on Japanese builder groups about it selling out of Hobby Shops in a a couple of days, but I didn't realize the production run was THAT small. There was a resin multimedia kit done of the SVX, I see it occasionally pop up time to time on Japan resale auctions, but I tend not to like that car in the $180-$200 for unseen resin kind of way.

Fujimi already makes a (granted basic and formerly motorized) Piazza, which they just reissued last month. There were a couple of factory "tuner" versions of the Gemini sold in Japan including one with a Lotus tuned suspension. Undoubtedly there's a 3dr hatch cooking in there for the Irmsher Turbo version, plus that was also raced in JTCC and plugs the missing link to being able to build any JTCC car from about 1988 to 1990. That 80s/90s Era of racing is super hot right now with the Beemax M3, EF3 Civic & AE92 Corolla Levin. Plus Hasegawa has reissue their 318i Touring car, the 3dr & Ferio Civic race cars and their AE101 Corolla Levin. Beemax has the Volvo coming any day now, with a early 90s Corona JTCC hot in it's heels. That doesn't even touch the Gr. B Rally cars or the fact that Beemax is prepping a rally version reissue of the M3 in early 2018. Heck Tamiya just this past week reissued the Subaru XT - which probably flew under the radar of anyone who doesn't take a daily swim in the deep end of the information pool.

It's all the impracticalities of having a second layer of distribution. Someday when I die and all of life's mysteries are revealed to me, someone will tell me why this wasn't just distributed as a Beemax kit through Aoshima, rather than this new company and distribution through Platz. It's like the Belkits Volkswagen Polos those have been out for months now, but Aoshima is only distributing them in Japan starting in December. The Beemax Volvos look like they might be ready to go this month in Hong Kong, but when shown at a hobby show today in Japan the Aoshima placard said early 2018. The guy from S.K. Decals and myself did a crash course of photo referencing once the M6 started to be distributed and the art work is done to make a supplement sheet for the 2016 Macau GT Rowe car. 98% of the decals are already in the kit for the #98 car we just had to add an associate sponsorship or two and make the new driver decals, and Macau GT specific number placards and windshield banner. Hopefully it'll go out to the printer with the Gr. A Sierras he's working on and be available before Chrsitmas. Then the focus will be to make the Macau GT AMG cars which were that Green Hell Mango color - Gravity Colors to the rescue!

Gemini. I-Mark was the name outside of Japan. Making a hatchback wouldn't be that big of a deal considering how modular Hasegawa makes it's new tooling. There's a racing version in there somewhere too as they competed in the Japanese Touring Car Championships.

Round2 will sell you one for $53.99, the MSRP is $63.95. But none of that until December. As per the usual with these videos, the items they show and their actual release date don't necessarily match the month they're featured for in the videos.

Here's what they're doing for the Jeep...

Civic's release date is 11/29.

I'm personally not a fan of the resin "detail" set because that huge front brush bumper jungle gym is all one piece which curbsides a full detail kit. As for popularity in Asia, there was an article I read a few months back that Bob Lutz and some other people had managed to figure out there were something like 28 H1 bodies in white (for a lack of a better term), along with corresponding chassis & interiors sitting around. So they were sourcing some engines out of GM, having them assembled and shipping them all to China for something like double what they sold for when they were in production as some amalgamation of letters and numbers since they can't legally call them Hummer H1s. They can't sell them in the U.S. because they wouldn't pass emissions.

2002 Turbonator has been released this morning, right on time. All the usual suspects in Japan have them in stock, so everybody should in theory get one on the initial round of pre-order filling.

I also don't think Meng is trying to have their finger on the pulse of the U.S. Market either. They're in H.K., not Iowa. They sold enough of those F-350 that they recently made a resin off-road set (similar to the H1 & upcoming Wrangler) for it a few months ago, which is a couple of years after the kit was released. It's a very Fujimi attitude. They make kits for China/Asia, and if they happen to sell them into the U.S., that's just icing on the cake. For awhile they didn't even have a distributor for the U.S. for the automotive kits - Squadron would import the Military stuff, but not the F-350 or H1 for some reason.

The domestic manufacturers (the one in Illinois in particular) also have a long memories of what didn't work, regardless as to the reasons of why. They also don't understand trends, and if they kinda, sorta do, they're often weird half-hearted adoptions of them. Frankly the fact the carried out the Foose line long enough to make new kits out of it was impressive in it's own right. Particularly if you look back to Revell's complete swing and misses in regards to the Lowriding, DONK, and Import Hot-Hatch trends. If you talk to industry people about pickup trucks they always point back to the implosion of that market in the late 1990s, which they seem to all forget had less to do with whether or not the subject matter was popular or unpopular, and everything to do with all of the Big 3 releasing essentially the exact same Ford F-150 kit at the same time, and then Revell followed it up with a Silverado that had one of the weirdest set of factory options I've ever seen. The market and the trend of 1:1 pick-ups had long since passed base trim, standard cab, 2WD trucks and into the the Quad Cab 4x4s and while Lindberg's F-150 was a 4x4 it was still a standard cab.

Too bad this kit never had the stock drivetrain included. It's the only one of the original mini-truck kits you can't build stock now that the MPC Datsun has been reissued in it's 1975 Annual format. Both the Courier and D50 Ram could be built stock under all of that weird 70s "Street Machine/Custom" nonsense, but the Monogram LUV has a SBC in it, which is obviously not a standard engine from Isuzu.

I don't dispute your point other than to say the reissues of 2017 are often times cheaper than the original kit cost was when originally produced. They seem to have figured out what their price point is on already paid for tooling and don't try to match it to current new run kits. Whereas Round2 and Revell will charge you effectively the same price (within a couple of bucks anyways) for both new tooling and reissues. I can certainly see how that's leaving a bad taste in people's mouths especially on the "ancient" Round2 stuff from the 60s and 70a that was paid for eons ago. It's like any other acquisition, sure Round2 had to pay for all of the tooling again and has to recoup their costs, but I would expect the biggest chunk of cost went to buying the names and trademarks of AMT, MPC, and to a lesser extent Polar Lights & Lindberg- rather than the actual physical assets.

The blog post is dated from October of 2016, so it's not new or a restock just the OP digging up some old cotent.

No argument from me on prices, as I have a huge stash as well. I grew up building AMT kits mostly (after the MPC merger) and so a lot of the stuff Round2 is doing is stuff I either already built, or still have a copy of from the Ertl days. But again for the casual guy shopping at Hobby Lobby, with the 40% off coupon that $31.95 kit clocks in under $20 before taxes. Our local plastic pusher who is more concerned with selling in volume has been pricing these new upcharged Round2 kits at $24, which is still less than the Moebius stuff is selling for...and about $2-3 over Revell. Anyone pricing those kits at the MSRP (remember the Stevens prices as we post them here are the suggest MSRP, not the cost) and trying to legitimately sell them for that much has their margins all out of whack and trying to pass through a nearly 100% mark-up from the wholesale distribution price. The one danger I see in the consistent creeping of U.S. prices is that they are reaching that tipping point where they are now as - or more - expensive than their Asian competitors. I'm looking at my HLJ order sheet here and all of the Hasegawa kits that are either new or modified (1st Gen Civic, 2002 Turbo) are current selling for less than $24. Aoshima modified reissues are selling for around $22, and the older tool already paid off stuff is around $18. The only kits that routinely cost more than a U.S. domestic kit - at online/LHS pricing - are Tamiya, and the niche manufacturers like Beemax, Belkits, Ebbro, etc. The rallying call of "Japanese kits are too expensive" is fading away every 6 months when Revell or Round2 kick the price up another $1...

Well for nearly $275 it better be.

I'm gonna guess in the case of the Edsel at least - that tooling was probably a loss. I mean it had the three variants, all of which came out within a year of one another back in the late 90s, and then it hasn't ever been reissued since then. I highly doubt they sold enough of those to pay off the tooling costs. You guys have to remember when Round2 or Revell is doing straight reissues of kits they're not for the .5 of 1% of the people who haunt this forum, it's for the rest of the people who buy whatever kits are on the LHS or Hobby Lobby shelves. In the case of the Edsel in particular it hasn't been on those shelves in 18 years. There's a good chance there's an entire large swath of modelers who may not even know it exists, as again your casual retail modeler isn't camping out on eBay or going to model shows either. The Lincoln hasn't been reissued since 2006 (a reissue I didn't even know happened myself), and the Fairlane was last out in 2003. That's 12 and 15 years respectively (since these are 1Q 2018 kits we're talking about) for those since they've been on a retail shelf as well. When the heck was the last time the Jeep Commando was out? Has it been since the 1980s? Believe me I'd like to see stuff that would strike me as "more interesting" as well, as I have an original Fairlane and Edsel, but I'm not the customer that Round2 is going after either.

I would presume people are assuming that because back in the beginning of this thread there was (I think Brett posted it) a comment from Ed Sexton saying they "fixed the nose on the body". While making a whole new tool would certainly be fixing it, I would also presume he would have just said - This kit is an all new tool, rather than them fixing something.

The last time it was issued was 1975, it was an annual kit that I believe got a '76 & '77 version as well. But that would be the last time it (although I could be wrong) it came as a 3n1 with all the stock parts.

It also depicts the rounded '95/'96 C pillar windows, whereas the kit is a '94 with the triangular ones.