Mike Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Fellow Czech companies MPM & AZ haven't been getting along very well over the years, and there as been animosity between them and their respective supporters as a result. We might not have felt it quite so much over this side of Europe, but I had heard of it before, so it's likely some of you guys have too. Well... they had a chat recently, and have decided that life is too short to bear grudges, especially over a hobby (granted it's also a business for them). They have released a press statement over on Czech model site ModelWeb, which you can read here. We at Britmodeller are very pleased to hear it, and hope the fences stay mended. Thanks for Homebee for the notification. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger331 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Good to hear……Let's hope this starts a trend, particularly with one or two of the smaller Far Eastern companies that appear to have followed the same acrimonious path up to now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upnorth Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I had been wondering about a thawing of tensions between the two camps for a while now. AZ kits started showing up on the shelves of my local MPM shop at some point last year and have been given gradually more shelf space to the very respectable representation they have on the shelves now. This can really only be good news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlamgat9 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 What was the feud about?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 What was the feud about??Does it matter now they have made up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edge Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 What was the feud about?? I'd not heard about their spat. My guess is that AZ wanted the first & last word whilst MPM held the middle ground. Sorry I'll get me coat! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfv Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Have to admit that I had not been aware of any issues between the two producers, but any cooperation between AZ & MPM can only be a good thing for the modelling community at large. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Good news indeed it can only be good for the future of the hobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 'respective supporters' What are they, football teams? I'm sorry, the whole thing just sounds faintly ridiculous, and so very Eastern European - don't they have enough to fight over in that area of the world? Duck season. Wabbit season. Duck season! Wabbit season!! DUCK season!!! ... etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 I'm sorry Rob, but these things happen across the world, so on behalf of the Eastern Europeans, I'd beg to differ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Well I for one will be sleeping safer in my bed tonight! Will an international stabilisation force be deployed? Unbelievable grown up people running reputable companies you could,nt make it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moggy Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Excellent. This kind of thing just poisons what's a relaxing politics-free hobby (or should be!) Back to modelling - Let's hear it for the Czech: rejuvenated the hobby, make very interesting subjects we otherwise would never see in IM, LOADS of resin and etched sets to spice up our models AND pump these out at warp 9-rate! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Can't be anything as bad as the great FROG V Airfix massacre of 1965. There was blood on the carpet after that one. Not to mention the Revell - 'Monogram standoff of 1970. I believe nuclear weapons were deployed on that occasion (1/72 of course). In the end, Revell stood down their B-52s in response to Revell's withdrawal of their Snarks. Model wars - not good. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 I'm sorry Rob, but these things happen across the world, so on behalf of the Eastern Europeans, I'd beg to differ (serious question) Do they really? I must not move in the right circles, I've never heard of anything like it. And I'm still none the wiser as to what the MPM/AZ issue is/was/might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upnorth Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 (edited) (serious question) Do they really? I must not move in the right circles, I've never heard of anything like it. And I'm still none the wiser as to what the MPM/AZ issue is/was/might be. If I had to guess, I'd say the MPM/AZ animosity came from the fact that MPM is a very large player on the Czech modeling landscape with a lot of influence. They have several banners of their own to release products under plus a chain of MPM brand shops around the country. They also have deals with non MPM brands in the Czech Republic to market those products through MPM shops. I think AZ, and Legato who they descended from, may have been one of the outsiders on the Czech scene (Pavla and Sword are other examples) and may have held out on making deals with MPM to the ire of the latter. If I think about the availability of products from Czech manufacturers on the shelves of my local MPM shop, AZ kits have only been there for a year or so. If I wanted AZ kits before that, I had to go to the non MPM shop in town or order online. A very telling thing is the availability of Hannants' Xtrakit models, which are typically tooled and molded by MPM or Sword, in the MPM shop. You will not find a Sword tooled Xtrakit model on MPM shop shelves. If you want the Scimitar, Canberra, Swift or other Sword tooled Xtrakit item, you'll need to go elsewhere. Suffice it to say, the Czech model manufacturing landscape is a particularly politicized and fractious one. It's good to see a couple of old enemies make amends in it. Edited January 25, 2015 by upnorth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 (edited) (serious question) Do they really? I must not move in the right circles, I've never heard of anything like it. And I'm still none the wiser as to what the MPM/AZ issue is/was/might be. While I don't know anything about the reasons of the MPM/AZ feud, I'm with Mike on this: these things happen all around the world and all across the industry. What for us is a hobby, for them is a business and whenever business is involved it's guaranteed that there will be frictions of some kind between companies that are competing in the same market. The only difference is that in other areas there are no forums or blogs where these frictions are vented, but I can assure you that if you ask anyone in any industrial sector they'll have at least a couple of stories of this kind to tell... of course I have at least a couple myself ! Edited January 25, 2015 by Giorgio N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IGKent Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Good news! Now they'll be to work more effectively all together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Can only be good news? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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