Chimpion

I really hope this is a misunderstanding. The word letzte in German can mean last or latest. Did you really mean alleletzte Jürgen?

My wife gave me a long pin with a big spherical plastic head on it. Works a treat as a stopper and in the event of a blockage can be rammed up and down to clear it.

Was he cursed with flatulence by any chance?

This makes up into a really nice model despite its age. I know what you mean about the figures, but they look good when painted.

I'm hoping the special announcement this year will be a 54mm kit of Harry Kane lifting the World Cup. I don't much care whether it's in the white and blue or red colour scheme.

The mind boggles....

There's also a third option - a spray can.

The model looks to be coming along very nicely, but that has to be the most bizarre choice of photobooth I've ever seen. Complete with full view of Mrs. Nuts' handbag.

Therein lies the real unspoken challenge. Customers like Allan give the volume which provides the economies of scale to pay for new tooling, but doesn't allow Airfix to make much (any?) profit. Customers willing to pay full price provide the profit, but tend to get upset when they find out they could have got the goods cheaper. Keeping both kinds of customers happy is a key challenge facing most retailers. I'm sure it's not an easy one to solve in Hornby's line of business - the CEO refers to this dilemma in his statement.

I don't know the answer, but then I'm not CEO of Hornby so it's not my job to know. Things like product mix might help, which is hard when money is short. If you release 25 kits, you don't care if a few don't sell. When you only release a few a year, you need them all to sell well. I don't doubt that the CEO is aware of the options he has. The fact that he doesn't hint at a solution might well be because he can't find one that is likely to work. As I said, I really hope I'm wrong. I think actually this may well be much more serious for Hornby than for Airfix. I can imagine plenty of people will pay £25 for a new tool model for the enjoyment of the build, even if it's not the subject they really wanted. Would many people pay £100 or more for a locomotive that doesn't inspire them?

It worries me that he sees the unpredictability of sales volumes as a given he has to live with. It's part of the CEO's job to find a solution to that problem. I see no real sign of that in his statement. CEOs are there to make upbeat statements. The truth is usually hidden in what isn't said. I hope I'm wrong.

That is truly astonishing. With the background detail I'm still not convinced you haven't just gone to the local farm and photographed a real one.

This strikes me as a strange move. They announced that part of the Hornby turn-around strategy was to reduce the range drastically, and now they are going to release old stuff to bring the range back to the previous size. It may well be exactly what they need, but the way they've presented it might give the impression of rudderless leadership. From a modeller's perspective a wider range and a clear distnction between classic and new tool is of course welcome.

It's interesting that none of the executive Rovers were released as an estate. Mercedes, BMW and Audi all sold plenty of estates but Rover and Jaguar never released one in the 70s, 80s or 90s. The Montego doesn't really count

Get the Revell Bentley - it's the same mould but with extra decals. I know because I have both in the stash!

About three months into the build I'm ready to assemble the wheels (I left them till late in the build), and now think I know why Heller suggest building them at the beginning. The car has five wheels but my still sealed bag of transparent and rubber parts only contains four tyres. Has anyone else got one of these kits they can check to see if the fifth tyre is just missing on mine or if they all have this fault? Does anyone know how good Heller are at supplying missing parts?

Consider what the possibilities were : 1) company finds no buyer and disappears. 2) bought out by another model company - the rationalization may not have been a great outcome either for the staff or for us in terms of choice and pricing. 3) company bought by a non-modelling company - could have been a good or bad outcome, isn't Airfix an indication that it might well not be a good thing. 4) management buy-out 5) private equity purchase. The last two options aren't so different from one another, as management would have needed funding, which would have come from.........private equity. I see the outcome as the best result that was possible under the circumstances. At the end of the day, if Revell have a profitable business model, they'll be kept going. If they haven't, they were doomed anyway.

How exactly would they asset strip? The main asset seems to be the stock of kits. More likely they want to focus the business on what will make money in the near-term and sell them on for a profit. That may or may not be good news in the long term. The only immediate danger is that they do what Phoenix did to Rover - profiting from the debt loaded on them without any concern for the business. Maybe that's what you meant by asset stripping.

Heller did a Princess in 1:43 scale.

You've finished that really well. How did you change it from 1:24 to 1:16?

They also have very good high street visibility in Germany and Austria, with an extensive range of kits and paints in every Müller store (kind of a cross between Boots and Woolworths). If the model side really is profitable, there is an opportunity for someone here.

The directors are legally obliged to prioritise shareholder value. If that is in conflict with providing a product or service, they're in the wrong business.

I always think it looks very similar to a Ferrari Daytona. Didn't Heller do a 1/43rd kit of it way back?

Love that French Taxi on the front cover - think I'll wait for them to do it in 1:24 though.

Surely it should be called KitCoin