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1/48 - Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird by Revell - released - upgrade sets by Hypersonic Models & ResKit - LASRE conv. set by BAM Models


Homebee

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14 hours ago, Alan P said:

 

 

Edit: I reserved a kit with Jumblies in Norwich for just a £5 deposit with a sale price of £71.95, top tip @LorenSharp 😉

Thanks for the link Alan, that's the cheapest I've seen so far pre-order or not, so I ordered,. God help me, I've got an old Testors Sr-71 that I want to convert to the original A-12 Oxcart with the engine and engine compartment opened If this comes with the engine, that saves me from printing one out. I have a feeling as builds go for me, 2022 may be the year of the Blackbird . With what I have stashed and Revell's offering that would put me over the line to do one of each type along with the YF-12A. Looks like I'm gonna need bigger shelving..:crying: Amazing how I can order and ship cheaper from the U.K than I can from my own country. and get it usually in the same amount of time. Go figure.

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On 4/27/2021 at 8:13 AM, Harry Callahan said:

Revell to make their SR-71 as expensive as a F-14 Tomcat from Tamiya

Bigger plane. I don't see a problem here?

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I flogged my Italeri Blackbird a couple of weeks back and got 70 quid for it. Assuming the Revell kit has at least some improvements on the Italeri one and that it will definitely have usable decals, I'd say the price appears a fair market value.

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15 hours ago, Alan P said:

I reserved a kit with Jumblies in Norwich for just a £5 deposit with a sale price of £71.95, top tip @LorenSharp 😉

 

Whoops, finger slipped - Thanks for the tip Alan and Loren :)

 

I was wanting to order the Hypersonic one, but the Revell has a set price and a set delivery date and I know I can actually get it into the country, so.... 

 

I look forward to the kit turning up regardless and I'm sure any 'issues' that are found will be nought. They certainly will be to me and most us anyway. I might even be sad enough to take it for the two and half hour drive to Duxford for some 'mini me' photos! 🤣

 

Cheers,

 WV908

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I'm about 30 min from the NASM at Dulles Intl. I hope they lift restrictions soon and reopen the museum. I all kinds of books but seeing one up close is wayyyy better. I wish my dad was still around so I could pick his brain on the engine.

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1 minute ago, Mike said:

I like SR-71s.  I like model kits.  I like 1:48 scale.  it's a no-brainer really :)

Mike , You are a  Renaissance Man. A true Gentleman and a Scholar and there are very few of us left:pilot:

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  • Homebee changed the title to 1/48 - Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird by Revell - 3D renders - release October 2021

It comes out at approx 2 1/2 feet long, having just measured my Testors one. I think it's a good price, and if it is an improvement on Testors, then it's a bonus.

The only real problem I had was the decals, so it got an Afterburner set.

 

Everyone enjoy it. Grab yourselves a can of Halfords Gloss Black, and another of Games Workshop Matt varnish, and you're good to go.

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I am amazed about the comments saying this is too expensive. Gobsmacked even.

 

We all have our set modelling budget - some can afford £20 a month, others can happily splash out on an HPH Monstrosity at £500+ 

 

You can't deny that a 1/48 Blackbird will be big and £75-ish for a big 1/48 kit is about right. People happily chuck nearly that amount at old Hasegawa Phantoms so I don't see why a 1/48 Blackbird is being criticised for having this price at all.

 

A quick look on eBay shows that the old Testors kit is still going for £90-£110. It's mad. 

 

Cheers,

  WV908

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That works out to about $104 US. Given that I paid about 10% more than that for my Tamiya 1/48 F-14A, I'm OK with the price as long as the kit is to a high standard of detail but not over engineered and builds relatively easily.

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7 minutes ago, Beermonster1958 said:

Why would you, if I may quote you, be amazed, gobsmacked even at people commenting the kit is too expensive for them?

It's surely a true reflection of their spending limitations and, every bit as valid as a comment saying its a reasonable price and, good value.

 

John.

 

Firstly I must apologise as I did not intend for my post to be read that way. 

 

I am not amazed / gobsmacked that people are saying a kit is too expensive for them, far from it even. There is plenty that is too expensive for me. I would love to have a 1/32 Viggen for instance (regardless of medium) - am I going to pay £220 for one? No chance.

 

In the norm, those who do say a kit is too expensive for them will just say 'nice kit, too much for me so I'll leave it' and that's that. 

 

What we seem to have here though is people actively complaining at the price (before even seeing full cads or any plastic), and it's as if they expect that because it is Revell it SHOULD be cheaper.

 

£75 already is cheap for a kit of this size and detail and it's this mid-range, to be honest lower than I expected price that I am gobsmacked people are complaining about.

 

We have come to expect large aircraft in 1/48 to be £100+ now and we are about to see a Phantom (about half the size of the SR-71) hit the market for £90.

 

 

Cheers,

  WV908

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Apparently Revell prices are going up across the board again on 1st August, so RRP for this going up to £90! Not sure whether pre orders will be honoured at lower rates so maybe worth checking.

 

Blaming freight prices and material costs/availability.

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And I am amazed how many people take things at face value, one would think that each and every modeller/collector would like

product with fair price/quality ratio. Fair to both manufacturer and final buyer.

While not direct comparison, since SR 71 has unique shape and size-Revell He 219A-0/2 in 1/32 and A-400M in 1/72, both are app.60 euros RRP, in both cases due to subjects complexity tooling costs are far higher than for SR-71, in fact taking tooling costs into account Blackbird is relatively simple tooling, due to mentioned shape and size.

There is only one variable that can push price of SR-71 comparable to other models of its size ( there are none from Revell ), and that are production

rights-trademark from LM, but even that sum cannot push the price to 90 euros.

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21 minutes ago, Thomas V. said:

While not direct comparison, since SR 71 has unique shape and size-Revell He 219A-0/2 in 1/32 and A-400M in 1/72, both are app.60 euros RRP, in both cases due to subjects complexity tooling costs are far higher than for SR-71, in fact taking tooling costs into account Blackbird is relatively simple tooling, due to mentioned shape and size.

 

The SR-71 is far from a simple shape and is not a simple tooling exercise, especially where the engines, intakes and nose are concerned. There are multiple variants such as twin sticker and drone carrier and a good handful of different sensor noses, which I expect Revell to have tooled up for.

 

Our resident Blackbird expert @JeffreyK of Hypersonic is designing his own kit so knows how complex it is to design, even with his own 3D scans of the example at Duxford. I hope to get one eventually, if I can actually get one into the country after this Brexit debacle, then I will have the Hypersonic one for myself and I'll build the Revell one for my Dad.

 

I also wouldn't use either of the kits mentioned in comparison as tooling costs were significantly cheaper when they were done.

 

Cheers,

  WV908

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So its more expensive and complex to tool SR-71 to A-400M complete with its interior...

One also has to distingush design phase from actual tooling production, capturing proper shape can indeed be difficult task, but that goes for any more complex shape, and most aircraft are full of those.

Today to produce plastic kit has never been cheaper, with prices linked from CAD to actual tool production being slashed by as much as 100% from even five years ago, highly sophisticated software being at the forefront of radical price cuts.

Every manufacturer can price its models to its liking, its for those buying to send a message, if that message is that it is ok to boost prices by 80% in less than 6 years , tomorrow expect even more.

Its complex topic with many variables, but when speaking about Revell, prices have been skyrocketing with diminishing QC, while I am also pleased to see their Blackbird-not so for the wanted price, and that goes for lot of new kits, where neither size nor quality relate to asking prices.

 

 

 

 

 

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29 minutes ago, Thomas V. said:

with prices linked from CAD to actual tool production being slashed by as much as 100% from even five years ago

 

Prices slashed by 100% mean that this production is free. I have to tell the companies I work with about this. Apparently they do not know this and are paying about the same as they were paying 5 years ago. Only the quality and level of detail are improving.

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8 hours ago, Thomas V. said:

So its more expensive and complex to tool SR-71 to A-400M complete with

 

One also has to distinguish design phase from actual tooling production, capturing proper shape can indeed be difficult task, but that goes for any more complex shape, and most aircraft are full of those.

Today to produce plastic kit has never been cheaper, with prices linked from CAD to actual tool production being slashed by as much as 100% from even five years ago, highly sophisticated software being at the forefront of radical price cuts.

 

So, I find fault with most of what you have written, but I would mainly like to discuss the points above. 

 

Is it more expensive and complex to tool an SR-71 compared to an A400? No. If you were tooling them during the same time period and to the same standard the A400 would probably be more expensive.

 

The A400 kit was tooled in 2010/2011. At that time there were only the prototypes and possibly the pre-prod airframes in existence so it's not going to be terribly accurate to a production machine. It will have been made to a tight budget to get it out the door quickly and both detail and accuracy will have been compromised. Look how bare the payload bay is for example. 

 

'Today to produce a plastic kit has never been cheaper' 

 

What? Wages have gone up, production costs have gone up, design costs have gone up. 

 

Let's assume by 100% reduction in cost you are getting factors mixed up. Something may go up by 100% in cost but when it is reduced by that same monetary amount it then becomes a 50% reduction, so I'll go with that.

 

Have design and production costs reduced by 50% over the past five years? No. Not. At. All. 

 

Have you seen the cost of the licences for that design software? You can take the wages of a design office full of highly qualified, suitably paid Cad engineers and effectively add on another equivalent full wage to cover the licence cost for that office for that year. It renews every year so you have to pay it again and again. That's just for the design software itself. The cost of everything else prior to tooling adds up and tooling costs now eclipse those of 20 and even 10 years ago. 

 

I'll say it again. Please don't use the Revell A400 as a benchmark or comparison for a 2021 tooled, full fat SR-71.

 

Lastly, can we please stop bashing Revell over the price? It's getting silly when even the kit itself is still vapourware.

 

Cheers,

  WV908

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On 29/04/2021 at 08:56, Beermonster1958 said:

Well, they must think its a good idea to pitch the retail price at a level sufficient to recover their R&D, tooling, raw material costs etc and, turn a decent profit.

 

Good point. People often forget that R&D is a huge cost, it's not just the price of production and packaging that needs to be reclaimed. And also, the SR71 will never sell many copies, both due to the size and price, but also because it is not as popular as other more mainstream subjects. So you end up with fewer kits sold to get all your monies back, which of course means a higher price for each kit.

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1 hour ago, Eivind Lunde said:

And also, the SR71 will never sell many copies, both due to the size and price, but also because it is not as popular as other more mainstream subjects. So you end up with fewer kits sold to get all your monies back, which of course means a higher price for each kit.

It makes no sense to me to go to the trouble and the expense if you know you're not going to sell that many kits. Also, I can't imagine Revell producing this kit if they didn't feel the airplane is popular enough to warrant the effort. Will it sell as well as ME-109, Spitfire and Mustang kits? Not likely, if the RFI builds I've seen here are any indication. Nevertheless, I'm confident the kit will sell well enough to allow Revell a nice return on their investment, assuming of course the kit is well designed and well received by modelers. 

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17 hours ago, Homebee said:

 

Nice looking J58's and, I'm guessing, a stand to display the jet and its engines. More please Revell.

 

I'm buying even if it's moulded in black plastic, but please let it be grey.

 

Tony

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I expect that despite the price they will sell very well and the vast majority will make a great contribution to insulating homes. Then after a few years they’ll be popping up here and there on an auction site for slightly more than the original rrp.

 

Revell certainly know what they’re doing from experience as it’s in similar territory to their B-1B.

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7 hours ago, SAT69 said:

It makes no sense to me to go to the trouble and the expense if you know you're not going to sell that many kits. Also, I can't imagine Revell producing this kit if they didn't feel the airplane is popular enough to warrant the effort. Will it sell as well as ME-109, Spitfire and Mustang kits? Not likely, if the RFI builds I've seen here are any indication. Nevertheless, I'm confident the kit will sell well enough to allow Revell a nice return on their investment, assuming of course the kit is well designed and well received by modelers. 

I guess I should have written that differently. Of course Revell wouldn't release it if they didn't think they'd make money on it, but R&D and projected sales plays a part in the unit price, and I am sure that some of it in this case is because it won't be a big seller. But these molds are in use for many years, and over time I'm sure they will make a tidy profit, perhaps even lower the price to stimulate more sales when they have recouped the initial cost.

That said, this is only a guess on my part. I will certainly buy one if it is a good kit, but life has taught me again and again that I am usually in the minority when it comes to the subjects that interest me.

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