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1/48 - Grumman F-14A/B & D Tomcat by AvantGarde Model Kits (AMK) - F-14D released


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1 hour ago, chrisov said:

Saw this last night on FB. Now up to 945$ of the 40K wanted.

Still not sure I fully understand this. Eg.

Do the prices included shipping? I know they say ships worldwide but....

Do you get money back if total not reached?

Who is getting the money?

Do I need a tee shirt.

Hopefully Hannants or someone will get on board and make it easier for the UK market at least.

Heres hoping that it will eventually appear at an affordable price.

Good luck AMK.

 

 

IndieGoGo is a well known crowd funding website. Unlike Kickstarter which is all-or-nothing funding - you have to raise all the funds that you set as your goal in order to receive them - IndieGoGo has a Flexible Goal option. This means that you will receive all the funds that are pledged even if you don't meet your goal. So if AMK does not reach the $40k funding goal they will still receive all the money that is pledged. AMK is still obligated to deliver the Perks it is offering. However the delivery is estimated to be December 2017. That means if the full funding is not reached, or AMK doesn't get 5,000 pre-orders from all the distributors and the IndieGoGo Campaign then there will be a delay in delivery of the kits.

 

The price includes shipping.

No you don't get your money back if the $40,000 goal is not reached. However you will eventually get the kit.

AMK is getting the money.

I know Hannants does offer the kit for Pre-Order, but they may not get any kits. Here in the USA Sprue Brothers MAY take pre-orders, but Sprue Brothers wants guarantees that the kit will be released in December before it will take pre-orders. Catch-22 ordering from them.

If you want to order from overseas then Hobby Easy has them for pre-order. The price of the kit plus shipping to the USA will be about $65. (Tamiya's F-14 is about $91 plus shipping at some online retailers.) I paid over $100 for Eduard's Danger Zone boxing of the Hobby Boss F-14A (which I'm building right now).

 

 AMK's F-14 is very affordable and it includes full sets of weapons (bombs, sidewinders, sparrows, phoenix) , drop tanks, TARPS pod, and a Sniper pod. :party:

 

I've decided to get my F-14 from the IndieGoGo pre-order campaign and now I have to decide which package I want. Do I get 2 kits with a t-shirt and  a hat for $125, or just one kit with a t-shirt? T-shirts and hats can cost about $20 each if sold alone! :idea: I have 14 days to decide!

 

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On 2017-5-11 at 10:14, iSteve said:

I think that's where I'll be getting mine. Only catch is you have to pay in full to get the pre-order. Still, it's a great price and you have until May 31 to place your order to get the 20% discounted price.

Hobby Easy's pre-order deadline with 20% discount extended to June 15.

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Hi Masinissa

Thanks for the explanation.

Still not 100% my cup of tea but will think further. Unfortunately we also have to factor in Royal Mail and HMRC possibly adding  to the cost.

As you say still some time to decide.

Cheers 

Chris

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1 hour ago, hairystick said:

It would be nice to know how many have been pre-ordered now and what the release status is.

My guess is that there won't be any update until June 15th which corresponds to the end of the Indiegogo sales.

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I'm not in the market for one of these kits however just reading about pre-orders, possible discounts, crowd funding!! - those lads at Tamiya must be having a jolly good laugh over all this. For every month this 'potential' kit is delayed a few thousand Tamiya F-14's are sold worldwide. My recommendation is to get this kit out as soon as possible. Die hard Tomcat fans will buy more than one 1/48 F-14 kit, however a number of others will just buy one - and have probably already done so by now. 

 

AMK I wish you all the best, however this kit launch is as painful as watching a marathon screening of the Sharknado movies. 

 

Cheees.. Dave 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi guys,

 

I was wondering if AMK actually commented on that pre-order thing results ? I heard they did not meet the expected order numbers (5'000 ?) to allow for a late 2017 release but do not quote me on this.

 

They want to attract sales but do they actually communicate at some point ? Their last Facebook message dates back to 9th August but nothing related to the Tomcat.

 

Their change in communication strategy is disturbing to say the least.

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Nothing has been said, at all, AFAIK.  On the plus side, they haven't SAID that the pre-order thing failed, so I guess there's a chance they pulled it off and the kit will be out this year.

 

But it's really unlikely that they sold 5000 kits and are keeping everyone in the dark for some kind of surprise reveal at the end of the year.  People usually celebrate their successes and bury their failures; the fact that they haven't said anything is a pretty good signal that the pre-order scheme was a failure, and the kit will be out (maybe) next year.  That's a guess, but I think it's the most plausible guess based on AMK's actions.

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Regarding crowd funding in modelling: I think it's a pity their Indiegogo campaign wasn't as successful as it could have been. I often thought crowd funding would work well in the modelling business -but then again maybe they should have gone for another platform.

 

Also 40K is a rather high number for this goal. They didn't adequately explain why specifically they needed that amount of money -perhaps that put some people off. I know it was essentially presented as a pre-order, but they must have needed the money early for some reason. After all indiegogo is seen as an investment market not an online shop.

 

Has a plastic scale kit company ever been successful in this? Or is AMK the first to try crowd funding? I can't find any online in any case.

 

Jay

 

Edited by Mountain goat
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This may be the next to watch (hopefully not fail):

Regarding companies like AMK I'm on the fence whether I accept a crowd funding campaign. I consider this way to raise money to be suitable for (very small) companies trying something new, or start ups.

If Tamiya, Revell etc. would try this, I certainly would not put my money behind it.

On AMKs camping I added thru pre-ordering. And I'm still not sure if this was a good idea...

 

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On 8/14/2017 at 3:04 AM, Mountain goat said:

Regarding crowd funding in modelling: I think it's a pity their Indiegogo campaign wasn't as successful as it could have been.

 

What makes you think it could have been more successful?

 

Quote

Also 40K is a rather high number for this goal. They didn't adequately explain why specifically they needed that amount of money -perhaps that put some people off. I know it was essentially presented as a pre-order, but they must have needed the money early for some reason.

No, $40K isn't a high number.  It's only about 800 kits at the direct sale price.  They were hoping to raise more than $125 000 from pre-orders - 5000 kits at a wholesale of $25+.

 

And, while AMK weren't explicit in the reason why, it was pretty easy to read between the lines.  'AMK' is not the factory's main business.  It's a sideline that was developed to bring in revenue when their plastic manufacturing plant had spare capacity, between manufacturing electric toothbrush housings, or pens, or TV bezels.  They now have paying customers filling up their calendar, so in order to deploy the resources needed to work on the F-14, they would have to turn down guaranteed income.  Whereas tooling their own product represents substantial risk: if it doesn't meet sales expectations, it will cost them money.  At which point, it's a simple business decision: if they can make more money working on the F-14, they will work on the F-14; if they can make more working on other projects, they'll work on other projects.  

 

Which is where the 5000 kits come in.  That number will have been calculated based on projected revenue - revenue required divided by wholesale price equals the number of kits they need to sell.  If they could guarantee the sale of 5000 kits, they'd make enough money to make it worthwhile dropping factory customers.  If they couldn't guarantee the sale of 5000 kits, then it made better sense to keep the factory customers and just push the F-14 back until they have spare time.

 

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2 hours ago, ICMF said:

No, $40K isn't a high number.  It's only about 800 kits at the direct sale price.  They were hoping to raise more than $125 000 from pre-orders - 5000 kits at a wholesale of $25+.

 

And, while AMK weren't explicit in the reason why, it was pretty easy to read between the lines.  

 

From the standpoint of the manufacturer, sure, I agree. But I was writing from the standpoint of a consumer and contributor to other crowd funding projects for a good time -and yes perhaps also from experience in setting campaigns up in my former line of work - but mostly from the standpoint as a backer.

 

One thing campaigns should never do is expect potential backers to take the time or to be able to read between the lines of the proposal. Only brands/ creators with huge social media popularity get to get away with that (eg. huge gaming projects). The reason for any amount asked, even if the goal is only 10 dollars, should be as explicit as possible. You say 40K isn't a high number: well, that may be, but it depends for what it's needed isn't it? I couldn't definitively know as a potential supporter because it wasn't explained. And I still don't get why they chose that amount, if 125K was actually needed. Also what is going to happen if the money isn't raised? I could go into more detail but it's not the right forum for that.

 

Not criticising the company by the way -we all know their superb reputation (have Delfins of theirs -and the Kfir looks great indeed), also I would have contributed to the campaign if I'd seen it soon enough. But no, as a campaign I don't think it was as effective as it could have been. My 2 cents.

 

Jay

Edited by Mountain goat
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OK, I know this has caused some ruckus. I personally apologise for the issues caused and we have learned from the experience.

 

The Tomcat F-14D is underway and we are working extremely hard to get this released by December of this year 2017. I desperately want this to happen so we have refused other work to concentrate on this.

 

As we said in Malaysia, this is a 100% focus for us and we have prioritised this over everything else. Still cannot make any promises (learning learning) but December 2017 is absolutely what we work towards.

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2 hours ago, Martin @ AMK Hobby said:

OK, I know this has caused some ruckus. I personally apologise for the issues caused and we have learned from the experience.

 

The Tomcat F-14D is underway and we are working extremely hard to get this released by December of this year 2017. I desperately want this to happen so we have refused other work to concentrate on this.

 

As we said in Malaysia, this is a 100% focus for us and we have prioritised this over everything else. Still cannot make any promises (learning learning) but December 2017 is absolutely what we work towards.

Hi Martin

 

can you clarify, if this is released for December or soon thereafter will it be for general release OR just for those that tried to place orders to reach the go ahead number, I have got confused over all this in this thread as I am sure others have.

 

cheers Ali

 

 

 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Ali62 said:

Hi Martin

 

can you clarify, if this is released for December or soon thereafter will it be for general release OR just for those that tried to place orders to reach the go ahead number, I have got confused over all this in this thread as I am sure others have.

 

cheers Ali

 

 

 

 

 

There was the Pre-order price which was $65. If 5000 pre-orders were made then they would get the kit made and ready for a December 2017 release date.

 

So the kit would be released at that time to everyone. Those that pre-ordered the kit got a discount. The kit was $65 and pre-ordering included Free Shipping. 

 

AMK is now saying they have made the F-14 a priority and are working hard to get the kit popped out and released in December. I did pony up money on their IndieGoGo page. For me it's no worries since I have a number of kits to work on. However I would like to see AMK be successful because they will get savaged on the internet by commentators who really have never had an interest in purchasing the kit. They just like to gossip while sitting in their rockers.

 

I have skin in the game and I'm looking forward to getting a really nice AMK F-14D.

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I think we just need Martin to confirm how the kit sales will be done moving forward, as it is still not clear, and I do not want to have to keep on guessing if we wil or will not be able to obtain the kit.

As with the 1/72 Kfir on the other thread, we currently do not know how or where to purchase the kits in the UK. 

We all have purchased kits before from Hannants and the like in the UK, but as of now it is all pretty vague for the future and for the current Kfir release, which many of us seem to want.

I to with others are wanting to buy, support, and want  AMK to succeed, as the line up is and always has been good, we just need to know exactly how and where to purchase.

 

So I think it is now up to Martin to respond, so we know exactly what the score is.

 

Ali

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Hi everyone.

 

We are working towards a December 2017 release. Those who paid in advance and bought their preorders at the cheaper incentivised price will be shipped in the first productions run probably around the end of November all being well. General release will be December and shipping to Distributors follow those ordered directly on Indigogo.

Once Distributors have the kits they will prioritise those who preordered.

All other sales will be fulfilled after preorders are fulfilled for obvious reasons.

 

Now, that said, we are committed to doing this and getting it right but things happen. All things being well and equal the process should be as above.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

For those requesting kits in the UK, a large distributor has our AMK kits in shipping now.

 

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Hi Martin

 

Ok that is great as now the record is set straight, and I and many others can at east be assured that we will be able to get the Tomcat as it becomes available. I just did not have the funds available for the pre-orders when they were happening and at the time it did not seem as any retailer was set up to do the deal.

It is also good to know that the kits are now in hand / progress for the UK.

Do you have any idea how far away the delivery is for the Kfir? 

 

cheers Ali

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Thanks for the patience everyone.

 

Ali,

I promise you’ll get an AMK Tomcat!
Hannants collected the Kfirs some weeks ago and so they should be well on the way. I don’t know where exactly but as you probably know the container ship takes an age.

They have loads ordered and a restock of most of our kits.

I cannot give numbers or types of course as that’s client information but rest assured that there will be AMK kits in the UK soon.

 

Chris,

Thank you for your kindness.

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