Airfix Classics Launched

[Albeback52]

22 minutes ago, shatters said:

Did Airfix not say that there would be no new ships or armour? Seems more than a coincidence that this range is nearly all ships and armour.

 

Phil

I don't recall any such specific quote but, in truth, I suspect there is little Airfix could add  to or improve over what is already available by way of armour and ship kits. They would be up against serious competition

 

Allan

[Rabbit Leader]

Picking the next range of potential Classic kits’ can’t be too hard I reckon. Here’s what to do. 

 

1. Work out what moulds are still usable.

2. Go to your favourite online auction website and search for said kit(s). 

3. Place a ‘watch’ on a number of items that you’ve shortlisted. 

4. See which ones have the most bids or go for silly money etc. 

 

Soon enough you should be able to work out what kits seem popular and have the best chance of sales success. I believe some of the old Motorbikes would do well and there’s been many classics already mentioned that have a good chance of recouping some money.  I agree with some classic British cars and I’ll throw my hat in for the ugly Skyvan and Beaver as well thanks. 

 

Cheers.. Dave

 

 

[fightersweep]

8 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

I believe some of the old Motorbikes would do well

 

Good point! I had forgotten about those. Were they old Kitmaster kits? I remember building the Aerial Arrow back in the early 80s....quite a fun build. Wanted to pick another one up recently and then decided against it when I saw the prices second hand. 

 

I got the big Honda Four for Christmas in 1980....that was a nice kit. Yep! Motorbikes on the list too please!

[Paul J]

One other thing, its quite timely for the Classic Airfix GB!!!

[The Tomohawk Kid]

1 hour ago, Rabbit Leader said:

3. Place a ‘watch’ on a number of items that you’ve shortlisted. 

4. See which ones have the most bids or go for silly money etc. 

 

 

 

Cheers.. Dave

 

 

I'm not sure thats a good business model as you only need two people to artificially inflate an price therefore it does not mean there is a ready market for any particular kit.

 

Thomo.

Edited May 15, 2018 by The Tomohawk Kid

[fightersweep]

....Does that mean I won't get my Boy Scout re-issue? 😭

[Rabbit Leader]

11 minutes ago, The Tomohawk Kid said:

I'm not sure thats a good business model as you only two people to artificially inflate prices and does not mean there is a ready market for any particular kit.

 

Thomo.

Point taken, so perhaps watch this kit over a number of auctions and see what happens. My comments are fairly generic in nature and are more to say that auction sites (like eBay) as well as poll listings may be good guides to check a particular kits popularity. 

 

Cheers.. Dave

[bootneck]

Or...  they could just check what moulds are still in a decent enough condition for re-release.

[VMA131Marine]

34 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

Good point! I had forgotten about those. Were they old Kitmaster kits? I remember building the Aerial Arrow back in the early 80s....quite a fun build. Wanted to pick another one up recently and then decided against it when I saw the prices second hand. 

 

I got the big Honda Four for Christmas in 1980....that was a nice kit. Yep! Motorbikes on the list too please!

The Honda 750 Four was a reissue of an MPC kit. It is currently available:

 

https://www.squadron.com/MPC-1-8-Honda-750-Four-Motorcycle-MPC827-p/mpc827.htm

[Giorgio N]

55 minutes ago, Albeback52 said:

I don't recall any such specific quote but, in truth, I suspect there is little Airfix could add  to or improve over what is already available by way of armour and ship kits. They would be up against serious competition

 

Allan

 

To be fair the same could be said for several aircrafts they have released. Did their Bf.109s improve on what was already available ? They didn't and the same applies to other kits.

At the same time though Airfix kits are more available than others in their main market and this alone means Airfix would get more sales than the competition even with a lower quality. Decent quality 1/72 tanks from Airfix could well capture a good enough chunk of the market to make these profiteable

 

55 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Picking the next range of potential Classic kits’ can’t be too hard I reckon. Here’s what to do. 

 

1. Work out what moulds are still usable.

2. Go to your favourite online auction website and search for said kit(s). 

3. Place a ‘watch’ on a number of items that you’ve shortlisted. 

4. See which ones have the most bids or go for silly money etc. 

 

Soon enough you should be able to work out what kits seem popular and have the best chance of sales success. I believe some of the old Motorbikes would do well and there’s been many classics already mentioned that have a good chance of recouping some money.  I agree with some classic British cars and I’ll throw my hat in for the ugly Skyvan and Beaver as well thanks. 

 

Cheers.. Dave

 

 

 

Using the collector market as a guide to reissue new kits is not a good idea for a number of reasons, most important of which are the numbers involved and the kind of features that make a kit get higher prices.

Collectors will pay the highest prices for the rarest kits, particularly if these come in the rarest boxes. Now even if a certain kit fetches very high prices this doesn't mean that there's a large enough market for this. Serious collectors will not be interested by a reissue as this has no value compared to the original boxes. At the same time modellers may or not be interested in such a subject... a subject that maybe is rare exactly because very few bought the kit when issued, leading to a small number of reissues.

The size of the potential market is also hard to assess if based only on auction sites... how many people bid on a certain kit ? Is this number an indication of the number of people who may buy the same kit in the shops ? We all mention Bassets and similar subjects but mind, if Airfix reissue one of these they will still incur in some cost even if the mould is already existing. If the kit is not guaranteed selling enough to recover these fixed costs, they will not issue it. It's not an accident that amongst the tanks announced in the classics range there are some very, very common subjects

[fightersweep]

Interesting and valid points there Giorgio.

 

Any aircraft releases could be a challenge then, as you rightly suggested earlier. There wouldn't be any point re-issuing say, the 1970s Spitfire Mk Ia, Bf-109E or P-51D when the main range has far better versions already. I imagine the Classic range would need those kits that are old moulds and still unique without modern equivalent toolings, and despite the wish lists for their old civilian types (me included) I imagine that we'll get the military aircraft.

 

I'm particularly interested in the "Modern Cars". These seem to be very rare, yet I wonder how many sold in the day. Did they sell so poorly that there are hardly any around now? Yet Airfix have been happy to re-issue the Ford Escort, Triumph Herald, MG and Viva several times. 

 

Either way, it's going to be fun watching the Classic Range develop.....sales permitting of course!

 

Steve

Edited May 15, 2018 by fightersweep

[VMA131Marine]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

To be fair the same could be said for several aircrafts they have released. Did their Bf.109s improve on what was already available ? They didn't and the same applies to other kits.

Depends which Bf 109s you are talking about. The 1/72 Bf 109G is quite horrible, but the E's are up there with the best available (Tamiya most likely). The 1/48 Bf 109E's are also very good in a market that does not have a 'definitive' kit of the mark (although there are some good ones - Tamiya, Eduard, Hasegawa)

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Jolly interesting move! I can see the 'Airfix Soldiers' being more for the Museum shop crowd where visitors buy a set for little Johnny but the ships are peculiar - that said not my field - I dont know whether there is a much of a range out there but surely their market research has indicated there is - Belfast presumably will sell well with IWM....

 

I remember the Opel Blitz, Bofors and FAMO to be pretty decent kits but the others pretty rubbish.... that said we dont know what quantities they have ordered so maybe because its plastic, box, shipping and no R&D or tooling there are minimal numbers of each to see how they go.

 

The B-26 made sense as its universally 'liked' as being pretty decent and is less than half the price of the Hasegawa one - I get that.... so

reading from above - it makes sense to release those that have no equivalent in the marketplace (yet) such as Skyvan, Bristol Freighter, Islander et seq with new decals or schemes.... to which I'd add...

 

Dominie, Puma, Gazelle, Basset, SAM2, Eagle Transporter, Pan Am Orion, SA Bulldog, Cherokee, Scout but not much else! (Oh and the 1/48 Bucc maybe..before Tanmodel get theirs out??.) Most others I can think of have been replaced by more modern tools or the base kits are pretty rubbish (ducks) 

 

All of those, unless I'm mistaken (and I frequently am) have no opposition in the marketplace...and the majority are small kits so cheap to produce especially without the tooling costs... of those I think only the Gazelle has been released in a red box....?

 

TT

[Kallisti]

The Eagle Transporter has already been re-released by the original manufacturer, MPC.

Vastly superior kits of the 2001 Orion have been released since then so no real value in releasing that.

[PhoenixII]

3 hours ago, fightersweep said:

....Does that mean I won't get my Boy Scout re-issue? 😭

NO! Then again......................maybe.................

[TEXANTOMCAT]

19 minutes ago, Kallisti said:

The Eagle Transporter has already been re-released by the original manufacturer, MPC.

Vastly superior kits of the 2001 Orion have been released since then so no real value in releasing that.

And it turns out I am mistaken...

 

[bootneck]

35 minutes ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

Dominie, Puma, Gazelle, Basset, SAM2, Eagle Transporter, Pan Am Orion, SA Bulldog, Cherokee, Scout but not much else!

My understanding is that the SAM2 mould was lost many years ago, hence the high prices in the marketplace.

 

Mike

[Rabbit Leader]

8 minutes ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

And it turns out I am mistaken...

 

Don’t worry champ - you’re not alone!! 

[The Tomohawk Kid]

1 hour ago, Kallisti said:

The Eagle Transporter has already been re-released by the original manufacturer, MPC.

Vastly superior kits of the 2001 Orion have been released since then so no real value in releasing that.

 

Correct.

 

To add to this the Eagle and Hawk 1999 kits were not Airfix originals, they originally bought in bagged shots from Fundemensions and added Airfix instructions and reboxed them. The Eagle was not even a good kit for the time. The Hwak on the other hand is a very good and I believe Round 2 have or are going to rerelease it as well as produced an all new 1/48 scale kit.

 

The Airix Orion III is simply rubbish and is a loose characterture of the filming miniature and it would be superflous release with the Moebius and Stargazer kits currently on the market.

 

Thomo.

Edited May 15, 2018 by The Tomohawk Kid

[The Tomohawk Kid]

1 hour ago, bootneck said:

My understanding is that the SAM2 mould was lost many years ago, hence the high prices in the marketplace.

 

Mike

Yes.

 

I was told that the mould was dropped and damaged beyond repair and disposed of many decades ago. There are a number of kits on the market that have supassed it anyway.

 

Thomo.

Edited May 15, 2018 by The Tomohawk Kid

[Paul J]

Looking back at the list, the ships beckon me. I must have built nearly all of them in my days way back. The ones currently listed tempt me even though I am an ardent aeroplane man. Others I recall and wonder if they will ever see daylight again are Daring, Campbeltown, Hotspur, Cossack, Victorious, Tiger, Leander, Huntsman(?) Fearless; for all the earlier ones then there are some of  the German ones like Scharnhorst, Graf Spee, Narvik class destroyer. The car ferry, Townsend Thoresen I think? Could go on for ages listing them all.

 

Then there are all the cars... wow!!!

[Kallisti]

1 hour ago, The Tomohawk Kid said:

 

I believe Round 2 have or are going to rerelease it as well as produced an all new 1/48 scale kit.

 

 

They are releasing a new tool of the Hawk Mk 9 later this year. Test shots have been built by a couple of people and it appeared at the big Japanese show last week. Estimates are for October, sadly too late to get one finished for Telford  The new one will be 1:72 and any plans on a 1:48 will depend on its sales. I'd be more interested in a 22" Laboratory Eagle

 

The Airfix/MPC Eagle is an abomination but back then it was the only thing available. The newer 22" Eagles from Round 2 are bloody marvellous!

Edited May 15, 2018 by Kallisti

[593jones]

It's a good idea by Airfix, as people on here have said, you will know what you are getting, so no nasty surprises!  If the figures are in hard plastic, then I can see myself buying several sets.

[JamesP]

It's the kits that had relatively short lifespans and now garner collectors prices that I'd like to see for us who actually want to build the dam things. I'm mainly thinking of the the car kits that didn't last beyond the period the actual vehicles were on the road. Cars have limited appeal and kits like the Vauxhall Viva and Victor are probably not worth the effort, but the Capri, Jaguar 420 and Mercedes 280 SL are still classic cars may still find a market.

[PhoenixII]

46 minutes ago, JamesP said:

.....................Cars have limited appeal and kits like the Vauxhall Viva and Victor are probably not worth the effort...................

'ere, you be careful, me Dad's first car was an HA Viva, mine was an HC..............