Fujimi and Italeri cars in hobby shops now?

[SSNJim]

In the last month or so, the hobby shops around here have been getting a bunch of Italeri and Fujimi cars. They've always had the military kits, but only rarely the cars. There are two chains (one national, one local) that I'm seeing it at. Both these chains have had only AMT, Revell, Moebius and the occasional Tamiya up until recently.

Any ideas on why the sudden plethora of Fujimi/Italeri models? Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled. I'm just curious as to what is going on.

[stitchdup]

I'm purely guessing but maybe theres been some sort of deal between amt and italeri for distribution. The recent amt vw golf mk1 was the an esci/italeri tool which is my only reason for the guess

[The Junkman]

"Hobby shop"?  What is this "hobby shop" of which you speak?

Better than that what national chain?

[Rob Hall]

Maybe their US distributors have more inventory available now. 

[SSNJim]

2 hours ago, The Junkman said:

"Hobby shop"?  What is this "hobby shop" of which you speak?

Better than that what national chain?

There are a few left in the DC area. This one local chain, that once had 4 or 5 stores is down to two. All the other stores (chain and independent) in the DC Metro store are gone - there used to be quite a few. The national chain is Hobby Town USA; there's one about 50 miles from me. There's one more independent I haven't checked yet. It is very close to a bridge that is very heavily used as the gateway to the beaches in the summer, and it can be difficult to get to on the weekends.

[The Junkman]

1 hour ago, SSNJim said:

There are a few left in the DC area. This one local chain, that once had 4 or 5 stores is down to two. All the other stores (chain and independent) in the DC Metro store are gone - there used to be quite a few. The national chain is Hobby Town USA; there's one about 50 miles from me. There's one more independent I haven't checked yet. It is very close to a bridge that is very heavily used as the gateway to the beaches in the summer, and it can be difficult to get to on the weekends.

Ah, yes.  I vaguely recall these "hobby shops".  The closest one is 68 miles away and just cut their modeling section by about 2/3rds.  After that there's one in Berkeley about 110 miles away (Berkeley Ace Hardware) that moved to new location and removed about 80% of their previous modeling products.  And yet, somehow, I still am managing to accumulate "stuff".  Persistence is the key.

[Richard Bartrop]

Beats me.  The cars have always been available here.

[SSNJim]

Yeah, I don't know either. Just kind of odd they all of a sudden appeared in two unrelated chains. It could just be a glut of inventory, but I dunno.