Price of kits

[MS664]

I have just seen on a shop web site the price for the new release Hasegawa 1/48 Blue Angles Hornet is £76:99. Will we see this or similar kits cost over£100 before the end of the year?

Michael

[Gerard]

Michael,

Get an old boxing and aftermarket decals. Or get a different company's version.

I've already seen the Hasegawa F-22A at £ 75 in Model Zone, and it's only the start of May, too.

Of course, people won't be able to afford to buy several of these kits.

My personal limit is £ 40 at the moment, unless it's one that I really need, and there are no alternatives. I think that the Italeri / Kinetic E-2C Hawkeye will be the only kit to break that limit for me this year. And that's some time away, too.

I was looking back at some prices, and I paid £ 18 for a 1/48 Hasegawa F-16CJ just a few years ago. Now, their latest F-16's are around £ 45 to 50. I don't think that other prices have more than doubled in in 4 or 5 years, so why model kits.

I know about exchange rates / distributer / etc, but in the end, I just see the price label on the box in the shop, or on-line, and know that I can't / won't afford it.

Regards,

Gerard

[Paul J]

The price of kits here has been covered in depth before. Particularly Hasegawa so no real need to go over all this again. Hannants are showing for example, a new delivery of Hasegawa kits and among them is the Spitfire Mk VIII as a double kit for nearly £40.00 not forgetting p&p!! For me I'm voting by keeping my wallet closed to Hasegawa kits and only choosing more affordable kits as much as I'd like a few subjects from Hasegawa. Cheaper still I'm building from my stash and just buying aftermarket decals etc. where and when necessary.

[Paul Bradley]

The simple answer is - if you don't like the prices, don't buy them!

Go out and buy the abundant classics, such as old Airfixes, Frogs and Matchboxes - easily picked up at shows and so forth for a couple of quid. All the modelling fun; none of the wallet pain!

[Dad 10]

Hasegawa are taking the ssiq as usual.

They are good no mistake about it but as above, my wallet wont be giving them the satisfaction.

Wait for Revell to run it a half the price.

Richard McC

[Work In Progress]

yes, one of the benefits of this is that it gives 'new Airfix' a bit more headroom.

On the other hand, the great mystery to me is how come Revell Germany can knock out new big stuff so cheap. I suspect that someone some day is going to point out to them that they are losing money on it, a bit like Austin did on all the early Minis, and jack up the prices.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Hannants are showing for example, a new delivery of Hasegawa kits and among them is the Spitfire Mk VIII as a double kit for nearly £40.00

At first I thought that was a somewhat reasonable price for a double kit of the 1/48 Spitfire. Then I checked on the site and saw that it is in 1/72 !

No flipping way!

[andrewfl290]

It's not just model kits, I needed 2 tyres £110 each 18 months ago, same tyre today £156. Offered an alternative quality tyre for £110, strangely a Japanese brand

At these prices surely Hasegawa are going to see a considerable drop in sales.....or is it the importer being greedy?

Anyhow I really don't need any more at any price. Lol.

Andrew

[Giorgio N]

yes, one of the benefits of this is that it gives 'new Airfix' a bit more headroom.

On the other hand, the great mystery to me is how come Revell Germany can knock out new big stuff so cheap. I suspect that someone some day is going to point out to them that they are losing money on it, a bit like Austin did on all the early Minis, and jack up the prices.

Judging by the number of new kits they issue every year, I doubt strongly that Revell Germany is losing any money ! They just have the right system in place that allows a cheap production and an effective distribution.

Regarding the hasegawa kits, the answer is the same for anyone who can't buy an expensive new BMW or mercedes: change brand or go second hand ! I bought 2 hasegawa 1/72 spitfires recently for 5 euros, who cares if new they cost 3-4 times as much ?

[andym]

I have just seen on a shop web site the price for the new release Hasegawa 1/48 Blue Angles Hornet is £76:99. Will we see this or similar kits cost over£100 before the end of the year?

Michael

Well the Hasegawa list price is 5900JPY which is about £45.

[Gerard]

I agree that this is making Airfix more popular. Their improvement in quality is also helping them.

Their nice new 1/48 Sea Vixen at £ 40 is a perfect example of how to do a good kit at a good price.

Same with Revell Germany with their Typhoons and F/A-18E/F families.

And that's before we consider that the Typhoons come with their own weapons set, in effect.

Same for the updated Academy.

I'm saying Yes to Airfix, Academy, Revell and some Italeri, and No to Hasegawa and Tamiya.

Changing the decal sheet and adding £ 20 or £ 30 the price is not how to win customers.

Regards,

Gerard

[Toe]

Market forces will eventually prevail, so it may be likely that either prices will fall or remain static whilst other manufacturers will raise theirs or they will pull out of the market here, (depending on what the rest of Europe's prices are)

Hasegawa are nice kits, Phantoms are lovely but I'm not prepared to pay the prices at the moment so as said further up I'll either buy 2nd hand or just do without, to be honest it doesn't even worry me as there are cheaper manufacturers out there

[Albeback52]

If you think that's bad, how about £135 for the Tamiya 1/32 Spitfire XVIe Yes, that's right - £135!! That was quoted in a review in a well known UK modelling magazine. I really don't know where these stupid prices come from or how they can even possibly be justified but, I think that is for another forum. Other than a few bargains I picked up on ebay, I have not bought any 1/48 or 1/32 kits from ANY of the oriental manufacturers for several years now. They have simply priced themselves right out of my market.

I only work part time & my budget is very limited. I have a self imposed limit of £50 on any model purchase.

Of course, the smaller scales are not immune!! £42.99 for a Hasgawa Lancaster & £14.99 for a Revell kit!! I could go on. I am sure there are many reasons ( excuses?) for such OTT prices but, I cannot help wondering if companies like Hasegawa/Tamiya/Academy/Trumpeter will actually price themselves out of existence due to plummeting sales . This was the fear expressed to me by the manager in a local shop. despite heavy discounting ( there is only so far he can go & still make a profit), the kits are stubbornly refusing to sell. He has ordered far fewer &, I understand that massively declining sales ( due to high prices) have seen distributors importing far fewer kits.

As an aside, I recently obtained the Hobbycraft re-boxing of the Trumpeter 1/32 F-105 at a very reasonable £42.99. Nearly HALF the price of the original but, the same kit (with different decals!!).

Still, it's good to know that Messrs Airfix, Revell, Italeri can still produce high quality kits at bargain prices!!

[Nick Millman]

The price of kits here has been covered in depth before. Particularly Hasegawa so no real need to go over all this again. Hannants are showing for example, a new delivery of Hasegawa kits and among them is the Spitfire Mk VIII as a double kit for nearly £40.00 not forgetting p&p!! For me I'm voting by keeping my wallet closed to Hasegawa kits and only choosing more affordable kits as much as I'd like a few subjects from Hasegawa. Cheaper still I'm building from my stash and just buying aftermarket decals etc. where and when necessary.

The Spitfire VIII combo is selling at £18 with a discount at one Japanese retailer against the standard Japanese retail price of almost £23 and that is at current exchange rates. Postage about £6. So the problem seems to be the cumulative mark up in Britain approaching 100% rather than just Hasegawa's pricing policy. Presumably there is just one distributor who has cornered the market. If the Japanese manufacturers continue this archaic 1960's approach using exclusive distributors they probably will lose sales. The market needs to be opened up to more competition.

£9-11 for a single 1/72nd Spitfire still seems excessive but better than UK retail of £19!

Something is wrong when a consumer can buy a kit direct from a retailer in Japan including postage and it's still cheaper than over the counter in a UK model shop, bearing in mind those guys must get the kits at trade/wholesale prices.

[Gerard]

That price for a 1/32 single prop fighter is criminal.

The cost of the 1/24 Airfix Mosquito was £ 139 in Model Zone last week, which is a lot, but somewhat better value.

They had the Hasegawa 1/48 F-22A at £ 75. I got the Academy 1/48 F-22A for £ 40 elsewhere last weekend. I can't see the HA one being double the quality of the AC one.

MZ had various 1/48 Hasegawa SH-3 version, ** Starting ** at £ 60, and then going upwards.

Same with F-14 / F-18 kits that seem to just be swapped decals, and a BIG price increase.

I've seen one of their 1/72 F-16's advertised for what I paid for one of their 1/48 F-16CJ just 3 or 4 years ago.

Yet, they were selling their 1/48 F-16I at £ 33 just 2 years ago. So why are the F-16E/F now around £ 60 ?

Madness pricing, which explains why I've not seen anyone buy Hasegawa when I've been in there, but I've seen them got for Airfix / Revell / Academy. They don't even look up to the Hasegawa boxes.

Regards,

Gerard

[Master Zen]

I work a few blocks from the Holborn Modelzone and I have also never seen anyone buy Hasegawa except when they're on sale. Which really makes me wonder why they have an entire shelf stocked with Hase products at the detriment of other, cheaper, brands such as Academy, Italeri and Hobbyboss, let alone some of the Eastern European brands.

I also snickered the other day when I saw how they discretely lowered the price of the Dragon Meteor from £27.99 to £25.99. Looks like that one hasn't been their hottest seller!

Ultimately it is the distributor's fault, slightly more than it is Hasegawa's. I too saw what the Spit VIII combo box from a Japanese shop and thought it was decently priced. When I saw it at £38.99 at MZ I was flabbergasted. But that doesn't mean we should let Hase off the hook. In particular, this stupid tendency to rebox their old kits as combos is ridiculous to the extreme. Why should we be forced to buy TWO of the same kit when we only want to build one? It's stupid. Not that the combo idea is bad in itself: "thematic" combos are a good idea. Imagine a Gulf War 1 Tornado/Jaguar combo! I'm sure it would sell like hotcakes if it were decently priced. Unfortunately their only good one (in conceptual terms) has been the BoB combo which was marred by two crap kits costing 50% more than buying the much-superior Tamiya equivalents. Instead we get a flood of stupid Hornet combos from the same friggin' squadron. B-o-r-i-n-g.

[c.smith10]

If you must have hasegawa or tamiya kits then why not buy abroad? i just looked up the hasegawa F-22 at ericyymodel and with postage it comes to £38.45!! i've just ordere 30 tamiya kits from them, over here they would have cost me £70 before postage, from ericcy i got the for £45 inc post!

[Master Zen]

Looking at more of their combo sets...

Fw 190A-8 combo. Seriously, when Revell has an A-8 which costs nearly 1/4 of what Hase is charging your for theirs, what's the point? Why not release a combo box of their more harder-to-find variants like the A-4 or A-5?

AV-8B combo. Again, why? A GR.5 and GR.7 combo would have been nicer as they are also tough to track. The AV-8B is already among their permanent repertoire so no need to swindle us out of more £ for it.

Ki-27, Buffalo and F-20 Tigershark combos. Who builds ONE of these kits? Not many. Who builds TWO of them? Yeah, thought so.

A6M3 combo. Same beef as with the Fw 190. Why not a bit of variety, say, a A6M2 and a A6M5? Or maybe a Pearl Harbor combo? (Zero, P-40)

I really want to meet the guy who decides on which planes are going to get combo treatment and smack him

[Nick Millman]

Looking at more of their combo sets...

Fw 190A-8 combo. Seriously, when Revell has an A-8 which costs nearly 1/4 of what Hase is charging your for theirs, what's the point? Why not release a combo box of their more harder-to-find variants like the A-4 or A-5?

AV-8B combo. Again, why? A GR.5 and GR.7 combo would have been nicer as they are also tough to track. The AV-8B is already among their permanent repertoire so no need to swindle us out of more £ for it.

Ki-27, Buffalo and F-20 Tigershark combos. Who builds ONE of these kits? Not many. Who builds TWO of them? Yeah, thought so.

A6M3 combo. Same beef as with the Fw 190. Why not a bit of variety, say, a A6M2 and a A6M5? Or maybe a Pearl Harbor combo? (Zero, P-40)

I really want to meet the guy who decides on which planes are going to get combo treatment and smack him

I think it depends on individual interests. The Ki-27 combo allows both the Ki-27 variants Ko and Otsu to be built from the one box with very interesting and excellent markings not available elsewhere and the A6M3 combo actually contains kits for the Type 32 and Type 22 arguably more relevant in the unit orientated presentation than an A6M2 and A6M5. So there is actually variety in both presentations. Both these combos were popular in Japan. The price is more vexing than the selection but the upside is that the lack of popularity here leads to discounted kits - eventually.

[mrcooljules]

I work a few blocks from the Holborn Modelzone and I have also never seen anyone buy Hasegawa except when they're on sale. Which really makes me wonder why they have an entire shelf stocked with Hase products at the detriment of other, cheaper, brands such as Academy, Italeri and Hobbyboss, let alone some of the Eastern European brands.

I also snickered the other day when I saw how they discretely lowered the price of the Dragon Meteor from £27.99 to £25.99. Looks like that one hasn't been their hottest seller!

Ultimately it is the distributor's fault, slightly more than it is Hasegawa's. I too saw what the Spit VIII combo box from a Japanese shop and thought it was decently priced. When I saw it at £38.99 at MZ I was flabbergasted. But that doesn't mean we should let Hase off the hook. In particular, this stupid tendency to rebox their old kits as combos is ridiculous to the extreme. Why should we be forced to buy TWO of the same kit when we only want to build one? It's stupid. Not that the combo idea is bad in itself: "thematic" combos are a good idea. Imagine a Gulf War 1 Tornado/Jaguar combo! I'm sure it would sell like hotcakes if it were decently priced. Unfortunately their only good one (in conceptual terms) has been the BoB combo which was marred by two crap kits costing 50% more than buying the much-superior Tamiya equivalents. Instead we get a flood of stupid Hornet combos from the same friggin' squadron. B-o-r-i-n-g.

just look at the price of the Mig 17 and MIg21 combo....ouch, almost 30 quid for 2 very very old poor kits (i have lots of each in very old boxes so i know how poor they are)

[Albeback52]

The Spitfire VIII combo is selling at £18 with a discount at one Japanese retailer against the standard Japanese retail price of almost £23 and that is at current exchange rates. Postage about £6. So the problem seems to be the cumulative mark up in Britain approaching 100% rather than just Hasegawa's pricing policy. Presumably there is just one distributor who has cornered the market. If the Japanese manufacturers continue this archaic 1960's approach using exclusive distributors they probably will lose sales. The market needs to be opened up to more competition.

£9-11 for a single 1/72nd Spitfire still seems excessive but better than UK retail of £19!

Something is wrong when a consumer can buy a kit direct from a retailer in Japan including postage and it's still cheaper than over the counter in a UK model shop, bearing in mind those guys must get the kits at trade/wholesale prices.

That's a very valid point. One of my recent eBay purchases was a pair of Trumpeter 1/32 MiG 23 kits. I bought them direct from Hong Kong. The retailer offerred a postage discount because it was a multiple purchase. Total combined cost of the 2 kits + postage was just over £97.00. In other words, LESS than the cost of ONE of those kits in the UK.

The comment about the distributor(s) is also interesting. If that is the case, how are they able to get away with it? Surely, if sales of these kits plummet due to their outrageous prices will the distributors not end up putting themselves out of business? Perhaps we should all start ordering direct from overseas? If it is true that the distributors are operating some sort of cartel can retailers not order direct from overseas wholsalers & by pass UK distributors?

[mrcooljules]

That's a very valid point. One of my recent eBay purchases was a pair of Trumpeter 1/32 MiG 23 kits. I bought them direct from Hong Kong. The retailer offerred a postage discount because it was a multiple purchase. Total combined cost of the 2 kits + postage was just over £97.00. In other words, LESS than the cost of ONE of those kits in the UK.

The comment about the distributor(s) is also interesting. If that is the case, how are they able to get away with it? Surely, if sales of these kits plummet due to their outrageous prices will the distributors not end up putting themselves out of business? Perhaps we should all start ordering direct from overseas? If it is true that the distributors are operating some sort of cartel can retailers not order direct from overseas wholsalers & by pass UK distributors?

can you pm that person, im after a mig 23 in the near future and would love 2 at that price

[Albeback52]

can you pm that person, im after a mig 23 in the near future and would love 2 at that price

Lol!!

There's one on ebay right now at a " buy it now" price of £42.99 with postage to UK of £18.00. Kit is in China

[mrcooljules]

Lol!!

There's one on ebay right now at a " buy it now" price of £42.99 with postage to UK of £18.00. Kit is in China

is that the same seller? i have been watching that one for a while until i can afford it. i wouldnt mind combining postage then for another kit

[Master Zen]

Surely, if sales of these kits plummet due to their outrageous prices will the distributors not end up putting themselves out of business? Perhaps we should all start ordering direct from overseas? If it is true that the distributors are operating some sort of cartel can retailers not order direct from overseas wholsalers & by pass UK distributors?

Well, that's the classic assumption that businesses always know what's best. If that were true, there wouldn't be such thing as bankruptcies. Greed, inexperience, incompetence, all this things are present in the business world as well. Even under another logic, if you are greedily trying to extract 4 times the profit by overpricing a kit, you only need 1/4 of people to buy it. It's the same equilibrium, except that it is completely in detriment to the consumer. Seems that the Hase distributor is looking for exactly that.

Now the question is: is the UK distributor the same for Europe? Because kits are even pricier across the Channel...