Revell 2021 programme and releases

[Thomas V.]

9 hours ago, IT_Man said:

From what I hear from one vendor, Revell have circulated advice to retailers that prices are to increase again in 2022 (think from February onwards), by average of about 10% so may be good to get at the lower prices while you can!

they went 15% up this September, coupled with last year increase Revell will soon find themselves priced out of the market, at the same time both manufacturing process and quality control have been at their worst since early 90's, vote or influence with you wallet, that is the only message new age( extra extra profit ) menagements understand.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Thomas V.

[treker_ed]

Plastic is a complex hydrocarbon, ie it's made from oil. Have you seen the cost of crude oil at the moment.... Is it any wonder that anything manufactured from oil or one of its by-products such as plastic is having price increases! Any manufacturers or retailers not increasing their prices accordingly is likely to be going out of business very quickly as they just won't be able to afford to continue making stuff at a cost effective level.

[Supersonic26]

The really good Revell kits like the 1/72 WW2 bombers (B-17, Ju-88, He-177) are still quite a bit cheaper than comparable Airfix kits, at least around here.

 

I'm still pretty disappointed by Revell's lack of interesting new kits, as well as the quality of some of their newer offerings, but the pricing isn't the problem for me.

[IT_Man]

Big change for me since the early 2021 price rises was the paints, they've always been cheaper than Humbrol - but now they've gone miles past - now £2.19 for Humbrol vs £2.60+ for Revell. Was always billed as a great value alternative, but probably not so now!

[MarkoZG]

There is a plethora of different opinion on this one here, some well grounded, the other not. 

First and the most important thing why Revell is constantly raising prices is in drop of sales. This is surely bad move because they brought themselves in magic circle when the proposed cure worsens the situation even more and so on and on.

The fraction of raw material cost in the retail price of a plastic kit is incredibly small. The highest cost is the toll, followed by design and print (decals, instructions and boxing). Therefore, any increase in the price of oil doesn't justify the rate of Revell's product price increase.

Beside that, Revell has never been in the top class of kits producers and can't compete with Asian manufacturers in any term. It was always kind of "wide masses, people's producer" available mostly in big stores who sell everything. This approach brings many benefits as it reaches wider market than the one targeted only at specialized kit stores (web sale excluded) and takes more care of market future by attracting more population to the hobby. Going back to the Revell's price policy, these two are in direct contradiction.

Big sign of bad times is the share of new toolings in each announcement. 

In my opinion, Revell's current issue lays only in its management, nowhere else. 

 

[Shorty84]

11 hours ago, treker_ed said:

Plastic is a complex hydrocarbon, ie it's made from oil. Have you seen the cost of crude oil at the moment.... Is it any wonder that anything manufactured from oil or one of its by-products such as plastic is having price increases!

While this is an often read argument when there is talk about kit prices, the plastic raw material is a quite small part of the whole cost and rarely the reason for the mentioned price increases.

The big drivers are usually things like distribution and retailer markups.

 

But for the latest increases, you have to take into account the current economic situation. Distribution networks are severely disrupted and the price for everything within the whole supply chain has gone through the roof lately.

Prices for Shipping Containers (either to ship kit components or already complete packed kits) have quadrupled in the last months, and container space is as rare as ships to carry them. On the other hand a lot of container hubs were/are closed due to local Covid outbreaks which has created huge backlogs. This means ships are waiting for weeks to unload their cargo and this overwhelms the infrastructure in the docks and the warehouses. Couple this with the current lack of truck drivers to distribute the goods, you can imagine that the costs for companies to get products produced in India/China to the rest of the world have skyrocketed. There is even a shortage of paper for printing books right now (so books will get more expensive soon), so one can imagine that the cost for packing have increased massively too.

I fear this is only the beginning of it, as economists expect these problems to remain for the next months, so kit prices will be the least of our problems.

 

Cheers

Markus

 

[MarkoZG]

What does the ship containers situation have to do with German producer who produces most of its kits in Poland? Or did I miss something in the school?

We are talking about producer's prices here, not of distributors and end sellers.

Edited October 26, 2021 by MarkoZG

[MiG-Mech]

18 hours ago, treker_ed said:

Plastic is a complex hydrocarbon, ie it's made from oil. Have you seen the cost of crude oil at the moment.... Is it any wonder that anything manufactured from oil or one of its by-products such as plastic is having price increases! Any manufacturers or retailers not increasing their prices accordingly is likely to be going out of business very quickly as they just won't be able to afford to continue making stuff at a cost effective level.

How much oil is needed for one kit ?

[Shorty84]

7 hours ago, MarkoZG said:

We are talking about producer's prices here, not of distributors and end sellers.

That would be true if your suppliers raw materials would be solely produced and sourced in Europe. But I guess they will have to buy their raw materials (plastic granulate, paper for boxes, ...) and certain services from abroad too. And then the supplier is confronted with delays and/or massively increased costs and will adapt their prices for all their services accordingly. A lot of services and materials, even within Europe, therfore are subject to supply shortages and price increases due to international disruptions and interconnections. So everything along the whole chain gets more expensive for every supplier, regardless where he is physically located. This costs are forwarded to the producer and finally the customers.

 

Cheers

Markus

[GeejeeZ]

Funny: this comes as no surprise. I have wondered for years how on earth Revell could maintain their low prices.

Italeri prices went through the roof, and EE gets close to theft (I know: people still buy them...), so pricewise there still is no reason for me not to buy Revell kits.

I am dissapointed though at the lack of Revell new releases.

[Caerbannog]

I suppose the retail price rise has more to do with the new owner ship than with tooling, oil or shipping costs (which both count in too)...

Most will agree that Revell provided very nice kits for a very reasonable price in the past. From my point of view this is has completely changed the last year. Apart from the new ownership I suspect it has also to do with us. From my understanding the average kit builder is now much older than 20 years ago (I suppose 20 years older 🙂) - so his pocket money will be a tad higher now too? Maybe the number of plastic models sold per year has also reclined (not sure - looking at the home market only this will be true, but no idea about international sales).

Well the price rise as well as the new kits announced saves me from further increasing that already insane stash in my basement - so thanks for that Revell 🙂

Finally (not sounding too grumpy):

1. The given retail price is often heavily discounted at one point or the other, so with luck and patience one can get the desired kit a lot cheaper than announced.

2. Revell did a survey of which kits one would like to get some years back. The SR-71 was quite high on this list IIRC and as we know Revell release it the next weeks (one of the few new kits which is not completely uninteresting to me). Maybe the 2023 line up will be more interesting.

 

[Piotr Mikolajski]

16 hours ago, Shorty84 said:

While this is an often read argument when there is talk about kit prices, the plastic raw material is a quite small part of the whole cost and rarely the reason for the mentioned price increases.

 

To be precise - there are no strong bond between oil price and raw plastic price but raw plastic is significant cost in the kit so when its price raises, cost of the kit have to be recalculated. And prices for all components used to release kit in the box are constantly and substantially raising. In the 2020-2021 period prices for some stuff, including raw plastic, doubled or even tripled and still are rising.

 

16 hours ago, Shorty84 said:

Distribution networks are severely disrupted and the price for everything within the whole supply chain has gone through the roof lately.

 

Indeed. Transport from China is one big mess and prices raises. Some large companies to speed their cargo can pay twice the current price to get priority, so others have to wait... or pay more as well.

 

16 hours ago, Shorty84 said:

There is even a shortage of paper for printing books right now (so books will get more expensive soon), so one can imagine that the cost for packing have increased massively too.

 

Veeeeeeeeeeeeery true.

 

Prices of paper and print raised in the 2020-2021 as well. Just yesterday my friend, magazine publisher, called me with info that there is no paper available, even more expensive one. Some delays in releasing new kits are already caused by issues with instructions printing because you can't print when there are no paper. Fortunately toilet paper is not suitable for printing, otherwise this primary product would be unavailable too.

 

Cardboard for transport boxes? This year there were shortages of cardboard and I'm deadly serious. Yes, prices skyrocketed, in some companies tripled within a two months.

 

16 hours ago, Shorty84 said:

I fear this is only the beginning of it, as economists expect these problems to remain for the next months, so kit prices will be the least of our problems.

 

Revell, just like other manufacturers, has no choice. Sooner or later all will rise their prices. And we'll have to live with that.

 

14 hours ago, MarkoZG said:

What does the ship containers situation have to do with German producer who produces most of its kits in Poland? Or did I miss something in the school?

 

Raw plastic have to be imported to Poland, I don't know where Revell is buying it, they may import it from Asia. Cardboard have to be imported, usually from China. Paper can be Polish but can be imported from China as well.

 

14 hours ago, MarkoZG said:

We are talking about producer's prices here, not of distributors and end sellers.

 

Manufacturer has to pay for all that stuff before he pack his kits in the boxes. So yes, even German company manufacturing all their stuff in neighbour country is impacted by issues with delays and prices of transport from China. The charms of the global economy.

[Thomas V.]

-We are not speaking about latest announcement for 2022 or 15% of this September, after Hobbico and latest aquisition prices went up between 70-80% in the last 8 years in hikes of 15-20% yearly, that is all well before Corona and its consequences. 

Container prices went 10-12 times the amount of money, if it cost 900€ to ship Tamiya than today it costs 9000€, but there are  alternative ways like train that cost twice as before, and again well before Corona Far Eastern manufacturers went into overdrive( remember 2009, Dragon and Hasegawa and where are they now), almost all PRC manufacturers did the same, coupled with 40% overhead by some distributors, no surprise that everything aside from online retailers is slowely fading away.

Revell aside from tooling production to my knowledge gets everything from inside the EU, and styrene cost, as said before  are negligible, not saying that in 7-9 last years the costs did not go up, but nowhere near to validate such hikes, but to be more precise one 1/32nd scale prop fighter cost 19,99 €  in 2014, today its 39,99 depending on different VAT rates, at the same time production quality has fallen, and QC with it.

 

 

 

[Cammer625]

I suppose that’s why most of us don’t manufacture/wholesale/retail plastic model kits - we would sell them too cheap to make money 😬

 

I love these long explanations for something that the vast majority have no idea about.  It’s business, supply and demand etc etc. As I’ve said on other posts, what you are prepared to pay is up to you.  You might only use ‘disposable’ income, maybe you have to dig into ‘essential’ income but you ain’t gunna get modern, well engineered and well detailed kits for 99c at the supermarket.  Them days are long gone. And those modern, well engineered and well detailed kits back then pale into comparison with what we are being offered now.  I’m looking at you Frog/Novo/Revell/whatever other boxing Gladiator with the moulded in pilot.  Where I live everything increases in price every year (with a couple of exceptions but that is/was from heavily protected/subsided industries). And in ciggie dollars or tyre dollars (my sense of affordability) there are some pretty awesome kits out/coming.

It is what it is!

[Piotr Mikolajski]

,

Edited October 27, 2021 by Piotr Mikolajski
Double

[Piotr Mikolajski]

3 hours ago, Cammer625 said:

I suppose that’s why most of us don’t manufacture/wholesale/retail plastic model kits - we would sell them too cheap to make money 😬

 

When you start working with model manufacturers and you start to find out how many things have to be taken into account, how much the various stages of production cost (not to mention taxes), you would be surprised by two things.

The first is that with all these costs, kits are actually fairly cheap. Or rather: contrary to popular belief, manufacturers don't make as much money on them as you might think.

The second is how many people who talk about this business and what it should look like don't really have any idea about it.

 

But one thing you can be sure of - you wouldn't sell your models too cheaply 

[Julien]

Perhaps we need to get this thread back on track and talk about actual kits?