new release availability, how can this be true?

[jbwelda]

i recently went into my LHS and asked about the releases coming from the new AMT and was informed that a good number of them have been out pretty much on schedule but he (the LHS owner) didnt have any in stock. when i asked him how come, he said that they immediately sell out and become unavailable from his distributor. sometimes in a matter of a couple of days. then they become unobtainium unless and until a second run is made and gotten into the distribution channel. i believe he said same was true with revell to some extent but particularly with the "new" AMT.

So whats going on here? a "limited" run of 5000 pieces (im guessing) sells out within a couple days of coming out? why are they limiting the production run if there is such a demand? is there such a demand what with the much vaulted "dying" of the genre (model kit building i mean, presumably because all the youth are glued to their ipod or iphones or whatever)? if you could sell double your run right away, wouldnt you do it?

He also said they are leasing the molds from AMT, is that true? if its true are the terms of such leases that you do X number and then youre done? does that save tooling wear or something?

just curious because so often these "limited" run things make no sense to me. if you want to sell your product, get it out there where people can buy it. appealing to "collector" mentality, if thats what this is, doesnt work until 20 years after the sale, people!

Edited February 15, 2009 by jbwelda

[Eshaver]

I don't think it's supposed to make sense . Heck the Governmwnt does the sa,e thing I'ts called "Policy" ask the three stoges , Palosi, Reed and Obama ! Ed Shaver

[Casey]

  jbwelda said:

i recently went into my LHS and asked about the releases coming from the new AMT and was informed that a good number of them have been out pretty much on schedule but he (the LHS owner) didnt have any in stock. when i asked him how come, he said that they immediately sell out and become unavailable from his distributor. sometimes in a matter of a couple of days. then they become unobtainium unless and until a second run is made and gotten into the distribution channel. i believe he said same was true with revell to some extent but particularly with the "new" AMT.

So whats going on here? a "limited" run of 5000 pieces (im guessing) sells out within a couple days of coming out? why are they limiting the production run if there is such a demand? is there such a demand what with the much vaulted "dying" of the genre (model kit building i mean, presumably because all the youth are glued to their ipod or iphones or whatever)? if you could sell double your run right away, wouldnt you do it?

He also said they are leasing the molds from AMT, is that true? if its true are the terms of such leases that you do X number and then youre done? does that save tooling wear or something?

just curious because so often these "limited" run things make no sense to me. if you want to sell your product, get it out there where people can buy it. appealing to "collector" mentality, if thats what this is, doesnt work until 20 years after the sale, people!

Model King is leasing some of the AMT/MPC tooling and selling the subsequent kits as limited releases, producing only a certain number of kits. I assume this is because they know from experience that a certain number of kits (say 5000 for this discussion) will sell to distributors and they will sell all of the kits they produce. Better to produce a few less and sell them all than to produce too many and have them sitting in the wharehouse. That's just smart business, IMO. They've been leasing tools and releasing limited edition kits for almost (maybe more than?) twenty years. I bought both the 1/16th Revell Jungle Jim Vega funny car kit they released in the early '90s, so they have experience on thier side.

As far as regular releases by AMT/RC2, I honestly don't pay much attention as I don't care for the feel and look of most of the AMT/MPC kits, so I can't comment. My LHSs seem to have a great selection of all kits, both current and out of production, so maybe there's something your LHS owner is leaving out of the story? I don't know.

I did talk with the owner of an independent five and dime type store I have shopped at for years, and he did confirm that he know has to buy from one distributor (Hobbico) when ordering Revell kits and that he stocked up all he could before the price increases went into effect- I confirmed that looking at the cases upon cases of Revell kits he had in the basement. This store did have LOTS of current and recent AMT kits on the shelves, though, so I don't think there's a widespread problem at this point.

I shop at Michael's and Hobby Lobby, too, and HL always has current releases on the shelves, but most are Revell kits, which is fine with me. Michael's doesn't stock new releases as they come out (like any good hobby shop does), but they do have a decent selection of mostly Revell kits, with a handfull of AMT kits on the shelves. Maybe it's a LHS vs. Mass retailer deal? I don't really know, but there are lots of options for buying kits, even if your LHS can't stock them, for whatever reason.

Edited February 15, 2009 by Casey

[Aaronw]

That doesn't sound right, I thought Round 2 was doing much larger runs to lower the per kit cost. The Model King and Stevens runs were small which raised the cost.

[Jairus]

Management of AMT is Round 2 Corp and they have a 5 year lease of all AMT molds and artwork. There are currently no limits to the number of kits they can produce. The limits are set by the management based on prior sales figures. If you think they should produce more kits than send them an email: Round 2 Corp.

All others including Model King are dealing directly with Round 2 Corp and no lease is involved. Just money!

[jbwelda]

maybe i should clarify: i dont mean model king and i dont mean RC2, i mean this round two outfit who is advertising the new AMT releases. i understand that model king is an independent corp and probably doesnt have money to burn producing more kits than they can sell, and from what ive seen their releases stay on the shelves or at least this same LHS has a lot of model king on the shelf.

what i mean is for instance this new, what is it, 60 or 61 fairlane (sorry, the LHS guy had a list but ive not got it handy, but i think you guys know the recent releases i mean) and coming in the future the munster coach/dragula, double dragster kit, etc that he warns are going to come and go just as quickly.

really my question is, whats the point? i mean if you know for sure 5k copies will disappear overnight, and on top of that some X thousand may sell as well until the market gets saturated, and then you would think you could sell the remainder over the course of the next year, why would you not just do 10k? wouldnt the savings in tool set up etc more than cover some storage while you shill the kits?

maybe this thread should be moved to rants and raves?

and ed, the people in there now arent up to three stooges level at all; those roles are safely in the hands of bush, cheny and rice for some time to come. until the trials start, that is.

[jbwelda]

btw jairus, thanks, that makes sense.

[Casey]

Ok, I see what you're talking about now- these kits, correct?: http://www.shopatron.com/index/642.0.41935.0.0.0.0

[jbwelda]

yeah those are the ones i was thinking of, minus that 500 run ihobby kit.

but i assume those are for sale and in stock, so maybe its just a matter of the distributor that my LHS uses?

[Rob Hall]

I've had no problem getting the Autoworld (Round2) kit issues that I was interested in (70 Super Bee, 60 Starliner, etc).....via my favorite online vendors and ebay sellers.

[Art Anderson]

  jbwelda said:

maybe i should clarify: i dont mean model king and i dont mean RC2, i mean this round two outfit who is advertising the new AMT releases. i understand that model king is an independent corp and probably doesnt have money to burn producing more kits than they can sell, and from what ive seen their releases stay on the shelves or at least this same LHS has a lot of model king on the shelf.

what i mean is for instance this new, what is it, 60 or 61 fairlane (sorry, the LHS guy had a list but ive not got it handy, but i think you guys know the recent releases i mean) and coming in the future the munster coach/dragula, double dragster kit, etc that he warns are going to come and go just as quickly.

really my question is, whats the point? i mean if you know for sure 5k copies will disappear overnight, and on top of that some X thousand may sell as well until the market gets saturated, and then you would think you could sell the remainder over the course of the next year, why would you not just do 10k? wouldnt the savings in tool set up etc more than cover some storage while you shill the kits?

maybe this thread should be moved to rants and raves?

and ed, the people in there now arent up to three stooges level at all; those roles are safely in the hands of bush, cheny and rice for some time to come. until the trials start, that is.

The "Key Word" here, for any hobby shop is "Pre-Order", which apparently the shop you questioned didn't do.

Art

[jbwelda]

>The "Key Word" here, for any hobby shop is "Pre-Order", which apparently the shop you questioned didn't do.

well, in fact, thats exactly what he did, and many of those who asked him to preorder for them (and hence got priority when the kits arrived) got theirs. but then there were no more. thats my point. making just enough to satisify preorders (and seemingly not even that in many cases) seems an odd way of doing business. but like i said, maybe its just the distributor he is using (great planes i believe)