Harry P.

And why should they? Model cars are way more popular in Japan than they are here. Japanese kit manufacturers are going to cater to their own domestic market, just as our manufacturers cater to our domestic market.

I see companies selling the data, consumers plugging the data into their printers and outputting the kits themselves. There's no more technological skill needed to do that than to download a photo from google and print it. The 3-D/RP technology already exists... now it's just a matter of time before the price goes down and "consumer" printers become available. Remember when VCRs first came out? They were very expensive. In a few years they got so cheap that it was literally cheaper to buy a new one than to get a broken one fixed. Same will happen with RP printers; they'll soon be as common a consumer item as digital cameras or iPads are now.

And "New Coke"...

I'd bet that a lot of the research model companies do is not necessarily "formal" market research where they sit people in a room and directly gather opinions. I think a lot of it is done "on the street" at model shows and contests, by monitoring web sites and model forums, and just in general keeping their ears open for any and all customer feedback. It's true that Moebius, for example, didn't spend a few million on "research" before they decided to pull the trigger on the Hudson. But there are ways to gather market research other than the "traditional" way.

I doubt that it was the accountants who ran GM into the ground. But the bottom line in any business decision is always money. Whenever any talk of producing any product starts up, question #1 is "Are there enough potential sales out there for us to make a profit on this thing?" Now, a big multi-billion dollar outfit like GM has a certain amount of flexibility. They can produce a car and actually sell it at a per unit loss... if that car creates enough interest in the brand to actually drive customers to buy some other car from them. That's why carmakers produce "halo cars." But a model kit manufacturer deals in much smaller numbers and a much smaller customer base... they don't have the luxury of juggling numbers like that. They can't release a flop of a kit too many times, or they're in big trouble.

Great point. The way model car kits are marketed today has changed, and the business model for the manufacturer has changed too. No more "one huge hit covers the cost of a few other kits" mentality. Now every kit released has to stand on its own.

"Milking the last drop out of their tooling dollars" falls under the "Our Accountants Tell Us That's a Smart Business Decision" category.

From what I've heard and read, any and all reissues that can be manufactured with existing, usable ex-Johan tooling have already been done. In other words... there is no backlog of potential Johan reissues, because the tooling is either too incomplete, too badly damaged to make it financially viable to bring it back... or it's just flat out gone.

Imaginary meeting between model kit manufacturer's top-level execs: Exec A: Hey, you know all of our research and feedback from consumers is telling us that there's this huge demand for an all-new pickup kit out there. I mean, everyone wants one! Exec B: Yeah, I'm telling you... there is such a huge demand for a new pickup kit that if we produce one we'll be practically guaranteed a monster hit! I mean, come on! The people are frantic for a new pickup kit. All of our best information tells us that a new pickup kit would be a runaway best-seller. Exec C: I agree. Based on all of our best information, a new pickup kit would be a big money maker for us. It's a can't miss opportunity. We'd be crazy to pass this up! Head Honcho: Nah. I pass. Sure a new pickup kit would be a big seller, we all know that. But you know what? We already make enough money as is. Do you think that scenario is likely to play out among the kit manufacturers?

I can't tell you exactly why a particular subject gets the ok to be produced. It's a combination of several things... research, consumer feedback, probably also a bit of gut feeling or educated guess as to what would or would not sell. But the bottom line driving every decision is money. Every business is in business to make money. If a kitmaker thinks that releasing a particular subject will be profitable, they'll release it. Now, their instincts may be wrong... there's no guarantee that a given subject will sell well enough to pay back the investment. But you can bet that any model kit released was done so with the expectation that it would be profitable to do so. I still say that if the kitmakers felt that a new model pickup would be profitable to do, they'd do it! Why would any reasonable business exec not put out a kit that they were convinced would sell well? It seems to me that the lack of new pickup kits reflects the kit manufacturer's belief that it just wouldn't make economic sense to release any. Because if they saw $$$ to be made there, they'd do it!

Oh yeah. I have no desire to move to a state (California) that's in even worse financial shape than Illinois is. I'm thinking northern New Mexico... maybe even Wyoming, Idaho... something like that. No big city, I've had enough "big city" to last me a lifetime. A small town without all of the crime, corruption and traffic that we have here. Taos comes to mind. Something like that.

I have a feeling that they'll be fitting Rich Daley for an orange jumpsuit one day...

There may be a renaissance of plastic kits going on at the moment (I'm not so sure that there actually is one going on, but for the sake of argument let's say there is)... Where it gets really tricky is just a few years from now. Today the average modeler has no way to create his own kit. Acquiring the machinery and equipment needed to produce an injection-molded kit is completely out of the question... even a large modeling club doesn't have even close to the $$$ it would take to do that. And resin casting complete kits, while possible, is also too expensive and labor-intensive to make sense for the average modeler looking to only make something for himself to get involved in. But very soon the 3-D rapid prototyping technology is going to be so common that they'll be selling 3-D printers at Walmart for a hundred bucks. You'll see... it's not that far away. And with the continued evolution and refinement of RP technology, maybe the model kit manufacturers will look at selling models in a whole new way: No more factories filled with huge mega-buck injection-molding machines, no more expensive tooling to cut, no more boxes to fill and ship. Maybe they do a scan of a given car and sell the data on their website at their "download center," the same way we now can buy songs. No more tooling costs means more money to pay for the technology needed to scan more subjetcs, and thereby offer a far wider selection of subjects. Imagine being able to go to Revell's site (or anyone else)... clicking on the "Download Center" icon, picking out which model(s) you want... and with the click of a mouse you instantly download the data for the kit you want. Then just plug the data into your desktop 3-D printer and output your own model... in whatever scale you want! That scenario is coming soon. It's inevitable. But as cool as that sounds, there are going to be problems the kit sellers are going to have to solve. How do they stop someone from buying a particular model's "data-pak" and then that someone just giving it to all their friends, just like we all share music and video files? Or what's to stop someone from buying a particular kit's "data-pak" and then offering to sell copies to others? The music industry had to deal with the digital age. In some ways they're still working on it. The availability of music in digital form for anyone with a computer to be able to just go and get it for free forced the music industry to re-invent itself as far as how their product is made available. The model companies are going to be facing the same problems very soon.

Last week on "This Old House" they showed exactly that. They printed out a 3-D model of the latest project house they're working on, completely detailed, all interior colors and details in place. It's pretty amazing. Check this out. It was output from a 3-D printer as is! No assembly... this is how it came out of the printer!

Scale Auto used to do a yearly poll of "most wanted" kit subjects, and a Hudson was either near to or at the top of that "most wanted" list for years. If there ever was a particular kit that there was a strong and definite demand for, it was a Hudson. Why someone didn't come out with one years ago, I can't say. But Moebius answered a demand that they knew was out there. No sane businessman would invest in producing a particular kit if they didn't feel there was enough demand to recover their costs and make a profit. To do that is business suicide.

Well, there are three possible explanations. A, all of the brains running the model companies are totally clueless and are completely oblivious to this massive groundswell of thousands and thousands of model builders who are foaming at the mouth, fists full of $$$, demanding a new 1/2 ton pickup kit. B, the kit manufacturers know about the huge pent-up demand for new pickup kits, they know a new pickup kit would sell like hotcakes, and they know they can make a profit by releasing such a kit... but they just won't do it. C, they don't feel the demand is strong enough to make investing in such a kit profitable, therefore they aren't doing it. Again... common sense tells me that answer C is probably the closest one to being correct.

So are you saying that the guys who get paid to do the research in order to make the decision of which kits to produce are somehow blind to this huge demand for 1/2 ton pickups? They just "don't get it?" Or... another possibility here... their research and marketing tells them that the demand for a new kit of a 1/2 ton pickup isn't strong enough to justify the costs involved in producing one, and that's why they're not bringing out new 1/2 ton pickup kits. Hmmmm.... I'd have to go with B.

The model building demographic has shifted. Model cars used to be a kid's hobby, with a few adults thrown in the mix. Today it's the exact opposite; it's an adult hobby with a few kids thrown in the mix. The story of how and why that happened has been told here many times, so no need to rehash that. But the point is, model kit manufacturers have realized that their target market is no longer kids with a few bucks of allowance money to spend on a model. Now their average customer is a 40+ year old guy, and the manufacturers obviously now have to aim their products to please a customer base that's very different from what it used to be. Does that leave kids "out in the cold?" Well, to some extent, yes. Because if the kit manufacturers want to make a profit (and they DO), they have to meet the expectations and desires of the adult modeler. Does that mean there will never be another donk or tuner or some other "kid-specific" kit released? No... but the greater emphasis these days is on the "serious" adult modeler. The market has changed.

No, not yet. They're still tweaking it, it's not ready for tooling yet.

Moebius was only showing the Hudsons (current kit and upcoming convertible). Galaxie isn't there (at least I didn't see them).

Looks like this one stumped you guys! Only three of you got it! It's a 1990 Puma AMV from Brazil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma_GTB Who got it: trogdor MikeMc Junkman

I just got back from it. There have already been several reports posted here, so no need for me to rehash what's already been said.

Well, I've never lived anywhere else. I'm seriously thinking ti's time to head west...

Guys, let's keep this thread on topic, please. If anyone wants to know what wheels are available and from whom for other, unrelated projects, you should start up a new topic under the "Wanted" section or the "Resin" section... or even in the general Trucks section... but let's keep this particular topic on topic.

A $90,000 electric car based on 30-year old engineering and design is the answer to a question that nobody asked...