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MS664

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Same story in miniatures

Games Workshop have announced an annual price rise (ie nowt to do with anything other than it is an annual event).

Pretty much 20% across the majority of the range.

They have discontinued metal figures replacing them with resin, and hiked the price to celebrate the event.

Furthermore for non-EU Countries with a few European contries and the USA, they have told on-line discount retailers that they will no longer be able to supply those markets. Australians are already paying more for GW products.

With regard to kits I am a tad concerned that the Hase prices will drag up the other kit prices, it is noticable to me that Airfix are edging upwards.

Italeri have re released the 1/72 Hellcat with FAA for a tenner!

Thank goodness for the stash!

:lol:

And thank Italeri for the Heinkel HE - 111Z, ME-321/232, SM81...!! I'm not particularly a W W 2 fan but, I like these because they are what I would call "slightly off beat" subjects. Splendid kits all of them & at bargain basement prices. I don't necessarily agree that the price of Hasegawa will force other prices up. Quite the reverse - I think it will encourage other manufacturers to produce similar subjects at far more reasonable prices. For example, the Revell Lancaster £14.99 compared to Hasegawa at £39 +!! . If sales of far eastern kits are ( as has been alluded to previously on this forum) dropping rapidly, I suggest the the manufacturers may be looking to their UK distributors & their mark ups. As I understand it, there is only 1 UK distributor for kits imported from the far east- perhaps someone can confirm/correct me? Seems they are operating a cosy monopoly here.

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I was just speculating Albe, rather than suggesting it will happen and hope you are correct. It would make more sense to try and not follow suit.

Last night following up something that was said about Games Workshop prices elsewhere, it appears that the price of plastic is more volatile than was suggested by GW themselves. Unless I have misunderstood. I don't know the exact type of plastic used to make styrene, as the report is a tad more technical than my poor brain can follow at 4:00am *

http://plasticker.de/preise/marktbericht2_...amp;quelle=bvse :banghead:

found this statement

the movement of prices of petrochemical products, especially propylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene, are caused by routine maintenance plan a few refineries in Singapore and South Korea. Meanwhile, ethylene prices began to fall as refineries operated on after undergoing routine maintenance. Ethylene supply, prices will fall, while PE, propylene, and PP remained high.

However, due to domestic supply problems, Japan is likely to deplete petrochemical products from various sources, including from the Middle East and Singapore. In normal conditions Japan is the State of export. With the present conditions they are forced to import from various sources. This can cause problems in the supply and demand so that prices would climb.

http://www.tukier.com/tsunami-in-japan-tri...-increases.html

If this is the case I don't understand why know one in the hobby industries have issued a statement, or if they have everyone must have missed it.

* or even at 10:45am

Edited by walrus
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Walrus -

GW have always ripped their customers off. I used to work in their retail arm between 1995-2000 and I thought the prices were bad enough then. They own the machines and factory where their stuff is made and they are the distributor for their own products. In fact they have just about the maximum possible control over their prices (raw materials being a notable exception) so they have direct control over their prices. Each year they put the prices up, soon only the well off middle classes will be able to afford to collect armies of GW products and play their games. I'm lucky as I got most of what I wanted when I worked there.

thanks

Mike

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Walrus -

GW have always ripped their customers off. I used to work in their retail arm between 1995-2000 and I thought the prices were bad enough then. They own the machines and factory where their stuff is made and they are the distributor for their own products. In fact they have just about the maximum possible control over their prices (raw materials being a notable exception) so they have direct control over their prices. Each year they put the prices up, soon only the well off middle classes will be able to afford to collect armies of GW products and play their games. I'm lucky as I got most of what I wanted when I worked there.

thanks

Mike

Mike,

As a kid growing up I loved Lord of the Rings and as a side from modelling aircraft I used to paint the Lord of the Rings miniatures and use them as (albeit expensive) toys to use to storm my castle. Even then I only had a few as the price of them meant my pocket money could never stretch to pay out for them, and despite wanting to go back and rekindle a boyhood hobby even today I cannot afford it. My pocket money meant that every Saturday when in town I could pick up a new cheap Airfix kit or the likes, but if I wanted new figures I had to wait for about a month, and as a kid with all the spare time it soon meant I just got hold of Kits instead. It is a shame, really, as you say they have the maximum control over the prices you would think they would make it so that it was available to all but also so that they kept a steady profit, meaning that they produced pocket money sets that were not metal as these were impossible to paint as a kid, instead perhaps smaller sets of troops etc. This would allow newcomers a step into the hobby (I know they do the paint sets with a few models but your next step after is a full kit). If they appealed to all more would be interested and they would keep the high profits from sales but keep a larger fanbase. By pushing up prices and pushing customers elsewhere I see it as an end or a decline to a hobby. And then we wonder why all the kids love the Xbox or Playstation.

Maybe if we look at a rise in prices we actually see less newcomers, I think it would be a shame to see such a hobby decline, both modelling and wargaming, as myself it taught my to have an eye for attention to detail and patience, the knowledge gained from just reading the little information bit about the kit on the box on the instructions insired me to read more and now I read Military History at University. In a way I owe where I am today becuase of affordable kits.

Who knows, eh. This is justmy opinion on it and am sure we could go on for hours about kit prices... Oh wait, looks like we all did already.

All the best,

Dan.

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Open question, are the kits listed all ones that people here are actively seeking to buy, or just a general unease about the prices in general?

I asked recently about F-18F Hornets and was advised that Hase are really the only worthwhile game in town. Since there's no way I can justify the cost, even on ebay's level, I kicked that potential project into touch. I imagine when I come to B/J/N Pahntoms and Tomcats it will be much the same story.

So there you go - I was looking for up to 6 kits. Now I'm not and I'm quite happily building more MiGs instead.

Andy

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Don't get me started on Games Workshop!

I was heavily into it 1991-95 (age 10-14) and in that time there were some pretty hefty price rises.

I took my nephew into a local GW in 2009 and was absolutely disgusted at the prices. Not only the miniatures, but also the rule books, army book, gaming paraphenalia... Absolutely disgusting.

I remember back in the early 90's you could get a box set with all the rule books, bits and pieces, and two basic armies - everything you needed to get started - for £30.

How they are still in business I really can't understand.

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By chance, I went to a wargames show last weekend - not that I'm a wargamer but I've visited shows off and on over the years mainly to have a browse round the stands selling books. I didn't bother with this one last year, because the previous time there hadn't been much there of interest to me and, on top of that, it had moved to a new and less convenient (for me, anyway) venue. The first surprise was that it cost a fiver to get in. OK, it's not exactly going to break the bank but I was expecting maybe £3, as I seem to recall it was just a couple of quid two years ago. There were a couple of vendors selling books, mostly secondhand. One had priced their stuff very reasonably, and I made a couple of purchases. The other was charging prices that, in many cases, were out of this world. I spent some time picking out books that I already have a copy of, just for the entertainment value of seeing how much they were asking for them - invariably a hell of a lot more than I paid for mine, in some cases not all that long ago. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything there! Am I going to go back next year and pay £5 (or more) to get through the door, on top of a rail fare that's already £17.50, if I'm only getting access to one stall where I'm likely to find anything I'm prepared to buy? Probably not.

It's the same with kit prices. There have already been plenty of examples given in this thread, so I'll just say, I agree. We can debate the reasons, not all of which are within the vendors' or the manufacturers' control, but the bottom line is that I can now very rarely justify a purchase. My pay is frozen, the price of everything else is spiralling upwards and I have a large stash. Under the circumstances, I'm not going to pay (for example) the best part of a tenner for an Italeri kit that was around a fiver not so very long ago, unless I have a very specific reason for wanting it. I'll make some inroads into the stash instead and spend some of the money saved on paint, etc. - which is also going up in price.

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Games workshop

They have just changed all there kits from metal to resin and claiming it a breakthrough in gaming or highest quality miniatures the world has ever seen - Citadel Finecast. No doubt the prices are going up as well.

More like welcome to the big boys club. Some cracking figures but the prices for 30mm figures is just too high.

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Kit prices here in Canada are no better. On a recent jaunt to the local shop, a Hasegawa F-18C was marked for $100Cdn. All it is a rebox of the original molding with a "newer" decal sheet. Airfix is very scarce over here. Any Harrier I have have come direct from the UK. The Revell Hawk in 1/32 has not even hit the shelves yet and I just got mine two weeks ago from Lucky Models on a Preoreder.

Cheers,

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Kit prices here in Canada are no better. On a recent jaunt to the local shop, a Hasegawa F-18C was marked for $100Cdn. All it is a rebox of the original molding with a "newer" decal sheet. Airfix is very scarce over here. Any Harrier I have have come direct from the UK. The Revell Hawk in 1/32 has not even hit the shelves yet and I just got mine two weeks ago from Lucky Models on a Preoreder.

Cheers,

Actually the kit prices aren't that bad... maybe that's your particular area. I generally see a 20% markup from MSRP. For Canadians its much cheaper to just buy Japanese kits from HLJ. You run the risk of getting a customs charge, but in reality its not that high. The kit you're looking at will probably be below $70 dollars Canadian (probably around $65)... maybe 80 if customs gets you.... but I've had that happen to me only twice in 15+ buys.

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Just reading this thread and after a break of 20 plus years from modelling, i initially thought the prices seemed a bit steep.

I was buying kits for a couple quid back then! But looking at th quality and detail some kits seem fairly priced.

Got a Tamiya Mustang 1:48 from my local shop for £16 and it looks like a nice kit. Hasegawa kits on the other hand do seem very expensive.

Prices will go up because people want to buy kits, I do, but I will be selective and only buy Hasegawa when I think its worth it.

How do you stop companies hiking prices, dont buy the kits, but then the hobby is suffering. And in the end we loose.

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Dan

Im lucky to have left a long time before Lord of the Rings, WH40k is my thing with GW. I don't mind the fantasy side of GW but the Sci Fi stuff always caught my imagination, that was way back in 89. Back then we had to go to Manchester or Liverpool GW to get our stuff until they opened my future main place of work, ie GW Chester!. When I started I spent £30 and got 60 Space Marine and 2 Land Raider tanks. The same kinda number of models would set you back around £180 now, however the new models are much better.

Which Uni do you go to? I wanted to do Military History but my English isn't good enough for university level education, I can't write essays to save my life!

I agree with you entirely, I had to justify the high costs to kid's parent's when I worked there. It's getting harder and harder to justify the costs and I think you're right, it will put a lot of potential hobbyists off starting to collect them and I know it will drive existing hobbyists into other wargames or hobbies. We are seeing the evidence of a similar thing with the price of Hasegawa kits, whereby the high kit prices are putting people off buying them and they are spending their money on other kits.

thanks

Mike

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I asked recently about F-18F Hornets and was advised that Hase are really the only worthwhile game in town. Since there's no way I can justify the cost, even on ebay's level, I kicked that potential project into touch. I imagine when I come to B/J/N Pahntoms and Tomcats it will be much the same story.

So there you go - I was looking for up to 6 kits. Now I'm not and I'm quite happily building more MiGs instead.

Andy

If you're building 1/48 then the Revell Super Bug is very good and costs a fraction of the price of a Hasegawa kit (£20 vs £70+).

Oh, and it also comes with weapons!

Edited by Bobski
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Actually the kit prices aren't that bad... maybe that's your particular area. I generally see a 20% markup from MSRP. For Canadians its much cheaper to just buy Japanese kits from HLJ. You run the risk of getting a customs charge, but in reality its not that high. The kit you're looking at will probably be below $70 dollars Canadian (probably around $65)... maybe 80 if customs gets you.... but I've had that happen to me only twice in 15+ buys.

Neu - what particular area of Canada are you in? I personally would not inflate the prices to make it sound bad. I have dealt with HLJ for some items but when it comes to regular items I still try to support locally, but not when prices reach beyond the $100 for a 1/48 kit I won't buy it here. There is other alternatives to buying - club meets, shows, and the dreaded Evilbay :evil_laugh:

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I was at the Hendon model show and I got some Hase kits at rock bottom prices. The Bf 109G Hartmann combo, the old boxing, just £8. New boxing is over £30. Seriously guys, just hoard £100-200 and go to a show and stock up on a year's worth of kits :)

Or get 'em from Japan/Hong Kong.

Either way at least your money isn't going to the f*cking distributor from hell that we have here in the UK.

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Neu - what particular area of Canada are you in? I personally would not inflate the prices to make it sound bad. I have dealt with HLJ for some items but when it comes to regular items I still try to support locally, but not when prices reach beyond the $100 for a 1/48 kit I won't buy it here. There is other alternatives to buying - club meets, shows, and the dreaded Evilbay :evil_laugh:

The West coast... I didn't think you were inflating them but suggesting that it might your LHS. I think for most items I tend to buy locally. In reality I find its cheaper to get the majority of my kits from the store. That is not the case however for speciality items, like resin kits and parts, as well as Hasegawa and Fujimi kits.

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I was at the Hendon model show and I got some Hase kits at rock bottom prices. The Bf 109G Hartmann combo, the old boxing, just £8. New boxing is over £30. Seriously guys, just hoard £100-200 and go to a show and stock up on a year's worth of kits :)

Same here ! I buy most of my kits at modelling shows where between the second hand kit stalls and the special prices made by retailers it's always possible to buy a lot of interesting stuff for cheap ! My latest hase kit was the 1/72 RF-4E bought for 15 euro last year at a model show. A few months before I bought the Black Knights history box of the 1/72 tomcat for 20 at another show... the 1/48 tomcats sold for 40 euro and these were all kits bought new from retailers attending the show, not second hand kits.

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Hi

A couple of weels ago I got the Hasegawa 1/32 Stuka 87-G at my LHS for £35.

Boy was I surprised when I found a certain UK supplier selling the same kit for £72 plus postage.

My LHS had had it for 2 years and were selling it at the price it first came in at.

How can the supplier justify a 100% increase I donot understand.

Brian L

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Kit prices here in Canada are no better. On a recent jaunt to the local shop, a Hasegawa F-18C was marked for $100Cdn. All it is a rebox of the original molding with a "newer" decal sheet. Airfix is very scarce over here. Any Harrier I have have come direct from the UK. The Revell Hawk in 1/32 has not even hit the shelves yet and I just got mine two weeks ago from Lucky Models on a Preoreder.

Cheers,

I have just spent a week in Canada (Ontario) and visited a couple of museums which sold a selection of kits and compared to UK prices I thought that they were more expensive. One that made me look was the re-issued Italeri 1/72nd Piesecki H-21 'Flying Banana' helo at $55 CAN, the exchange rate is 1.49 $CAN to the £. Even the humble Revellogram 1/48th F-4C/D Phantom in Michaels weighs in at $33 CAN whereas I am used to seeing it at £18 maximum. There were some Airfix 1\48th Canberras in the sale bin also reduced to $56 CAN!! SWMBO said we had no spare space in our luggage so all academic anyway ;)

Michael

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If you're building 1/48 then the Revell Super Bug is very good and costs a fraction of the price of a Hasegawa kit (£20 vs £70+).

Oh, and it also comes with weapons!

Good to know, and that £50 saving will cover a lot of AM.

Law of unintended consequences that is - supporting the industry as a whole by making the one box solution economically unviable.

Andy

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I think sometimes it comes down to having to settle for second best. If you really want a 1/48 F-18E and you can't afford the Hasegawa kit, you pretty much will have to settle for the "slightly less good" Revell kit, warts and all. Because of financial concerns, I've had to do something like this for quite awhile. Even on eBay, prices for the Hasegawa kits have gotten out of hand. I think the same goes for the "legacy" Hornet kits… :deadhorse:

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It's the same with kit prices. There have already been plenty of examples given in this thread, so I'll just say, I agree. We can debate the reasons, not all of which are within the vendors' or the manufacturers' control, but the bottom line is that I can now very rarely justify a purchase. My pay is frozen, the price of everything else is spiralling upwards and I have a large stash. Under the circumstances, I'm not going to pay (for example) the best part of a tenner for an Italeri kit that was around a fiver not so very long ago, unless I have a very specific reason for wanting it. I'll make some inroads into the stash instead and spend some of the money saved on paint, etc. - which is also going up in price.

I can relate to these thoughts, from time to time I see new or reissued kits that I may want, but faced with the higher prices and having a surplus of kits in the stash I end up leaving them on the shelves or unordered from the web site. Also, I signed the pledge of no new kit purchases for 2011... :analintruder:

Cheers,

ggc

Edited by CPNGROATS
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By chance, I went to a wargames show last weekend - not that I'm a wargamer but I've visited shows off and on over the years mainly to have a browse round the stands selling books. I didn't bother with this one last year, because the previous time there hadn't been much there of interest to me and, on top of that, it had moved to a new and less convenient (for me, anyway) venue. The first surprise was that it cost a fiver to get in. OK, it's not exactly going to break the bank but I was expecting maybe £3, as I seem to recall it was just a couple of quid two years ago. There were a couple of vendors selling books, mostly secondhand. One had priced their stuff very reasonably, and I made a couple of purchases. The other was charging prices that, in many cases, were out of this world. I spent some time picking out books that I already have a copy of, just for the entertainment value of seeing how much they were asking for them - invariably a hell of a lot more than I paid for mine, in some cases not all that long ago. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything there! Am I going to go back next year and pay £5 (or more) to get through the door, on top of a rail fare that's already £17.50, if I'm only getting access to one stall where I'm likely to find anything I'm prepared to buy? Probably not.

It's the same with kit prices. There have already been plenty of examples given in this thread, so I'll just say, I agree. We can debate the reasons, not all of which are within the vendors' or the manufacturers' control, but the bottom line is that I can now very rarely justify a purchase. My pay is frozen, the price of everything else is spiralling upwards and I have a large stash. Under the circumstances, I'm not going to pay (for example) the best part of a tenner for an Italeri kit that was around a fiver not so very long ago, unless I have a very specific reason for wanting it. I'll make some inroads into the stash instead and spend some of the money saved on paint, etc. - which is also going up in price.

Yep!! I can certainly relate to your second paragraph. Not only is my pay frozen, I only work part time so , my budget is a tad limited. I don't have a huge stash but,I try to get the most out of them. I certainly don't mind paying £17 - £20 for a Revell (Ex Hasegawa by the way!) F4 Phantom or, Revell 1/48 F/A18D but, I refuse point blank to be ripped off by Hasegawa et al to the tune of 3 - 4 times the price for a kit which is not 3 - times as nice!! I'm content with a basic kit at a low price. To get more mileage out of some of my stash, I've branched out into the "what if" field. Largely because of the largely uninspiring & unimaginative new kit releases that are on offer. I make exception for the forthcoming Airfix Valiant and Revell's Halifax & Airbus A-400. Endless F-16s, Spitfires & Mustangs simply induce yawn factor 10! :lol:

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If you're building 1/48 then the Revell Super Bug is very good and costs a fraction of the price of a Hasegawa kit (£20 vs £70+).

Oh, and it also comes with weapons!

Seconded, it was one of those kits that got written off at box-glance level, when some of the finished examples ended up looking really top hole.

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