Heller news 2021

[fightersweep]

2 minutes ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

I think they would! But if they wanted to play it safe they could do a limited boxing of three or four in a pack say British Motoring Legends or something? 
 

 

 

I like your thinking! I'll take five sets please.

 

There really does need to be more kits of humble British classics in any scale. It would probably steer me away from building nothing but wingy things if there were. The Japanese seem to cater for their more humble motoring heritage, as do Heller I suppose, but us Brits have very little to choose from. Shame, as there are so many great possibilities.

[TEXANTOMCAT]

It’s the same with civilian light aircraft- if you want a 1/72 Cessna 172 you’re looking at the 50 year old Arii kit! 
 

TT

[Paul H]

7 hours ago, cherry268 said:

I'd definitely go for a Morris Minor and of all the cars that should be made that has to be one of the most popular, I would want a van and pick up in bright orange, FH Burgess colours.

But I'll stop there as this is a Heller thread    

 

39 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

There really does need to be more kits of humble British classics in any scale. It would probably steer me away from building nothing but wingy things if there were. The Japanese seem to cater for their more humble motoring heritage, as do Heller I suppose, but us Brits have very little to choose from. Shame, as there are so many great possibilities.

 

To avoid taking this thread off topic, I've started one in the car section to discuss UK cars that have not been kitted 🙂

 

[fightersweep]

Thanks Paul. I'll pop across and join in

[cherry268]

See you there

[Rabbit Leader]

Although I applaud the new owners for reviving many of these great Heller kits, I would just like to share my recent experiences about these new ‘Yellow boxes’. I have a new T-28 Fennec kit and the quality of parts and decals is not as good as the grey’ style boxes previously released. The plastic in my kit is a translucent blue / grey and seems quite thin. The decals in my kit are very disappointing. The reds are a dark shade of brown and the register is a little off. I am hoping that I’ve just received a dud set, so would be interested to hear from others who have purchased these new style Yellow boxes. If the decal quality has deteriorated, I suspect the new owners have switched decal manufacturing recently which would be a real shame. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Thomas V.]

12 hours ago, Beermonster1958 said:

Heller produced a number of  1/72 and, 1/48 aircraft  kits for which no competition exists in the same scale(s)

I already have the Nord Noratlas,Mirage IV (both scales) Dc-6,Boeing E-3,EC-121 Warning Star, 1/72 Boeing 707 and, the civil and military versions of the L - 749 Constellation.

Admittedly, I have not looked at the current range but, while these afore mentioned kits may be "obsolete" by today's standards they still (to my knowledge) have no competitors in the same scale. I suggest that the Heller kits may therefore have an assured market.

That said, I am delighted to see them back in business.

 I agree with you in  that there are a lot of kits produced by Heller that have indeed been surpassed. It will, as always be down to the modeller to choose. I just hope they have improved the quality of the decals though!! 😉😊

John

 

Aviation wise-good list, I will add Cl-215/415 to the before mentioned, but even taking into account those kits for which there is no competition yet, these kits are between 35-50 years old, adding to that 2/3 of the re-issued kits have long time ago been replaced by SH, Revell, Airfix and Hasegawa. Now my biggest beef is pricing, these kits under Glow2b ownership

have seen prices skyrocketing by 40-50%, in my view even before there was small market for them, with new pricing there are non sellers.

As for automotive and naval subjects, they do offer kits not tooled and most those likely never to be tooled again, but again non sellers under wanted prices.

To sum, coupled with that Glow2b has become informal Kinetic EU distributor and again prices went up by wide margin, I don't forsee great revival under their ownership,

I would like to be proven wrong, but again ownership provenance does not in my view offer great future, pricing structure for re-issued Kinetic, SH and RV kits being strong indicator.

 

[Max Headroom]

2 hours ago, janneman36 said:

Given the price I suspect Airfix....but still curious which decals will be in the box...

 

cheers, Jan

Would this be the first ‘new Airfix’ to be reboxed? If so, it’s nice to think the two brands are hooking up again.

 

Trevor

[Giorgio N]

2 hours ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

I think they would! But if they wanted to play it safe they could do a limited boxing of three or four in a pack say British Motoring Legends or something? 
 

 

 

If they include the Princess then the word Legends can't be used! 😁

[fightersweep]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

 

If they include the Princess then the word Legends can't be used! 😁

 

Fair point. Maybe they could include some figures, placards and an oil drum for a picket line diorama and celebrate the joys of the British 1970s car industry in a gift set? 

[TonyOD]

18 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

I have a new T-28 Fennec kit and the quality of parts and decals is not as good as the grey’ style boxes previously released. The plastic in my kit is a translucent blue / grey and seems quite thin. The decals in my kit are very disappointing. The reds are a dark shade of brown and the register is a little off.

Did we talk about this previously? I think I have a decal sheet from the same batch where some (but not all) of the reds are mucky brown. It's an odd one.

 

I do like the look of these yellow boxings though and there's some interesting stuff coming up. I'll now have an excuse to get a C-47, rebox or no. That Siebel/Martinet looks really interesting, and I like the look of the Liftmaster. I saw a write-up of some exhibition somewhere and it said on there that the Starfire is going to be re-released too.

 

I don't know why I'm so glued to the brand, when I put a pic of my stash (below) on one of the Facebook groups someone said I must be a glutton for punishment! (And also very good at Tetris!)

 

 

That trade thing is here, Nuremberg toy fair, page 18 for Heller. It was still in my history but I'm sure I must've seen it on BM.

 

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zZzujHLlGa8RbZd-eHyUGdtt8RE-qi-2/view 

 

 

[alt-92]

41 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

[Heller-only stash pic]

 

Good Lord.

[Botan]

46 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

That trade thing is here, Nuremberg toy fair, page 18 for Heller. It was still in my history but I'm sure I must've seen it on BM.

 

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zZzujHLlGa8RbZd-eHyUGdtt8RE-qi-2/view 

 

 

 

So Martinet is from Smer, C-47is from Airfix

[TonyOD]

21 minutes ago, Botan said:

So Martinet is from Smer, C-47is from Airfix

 

 

I wonder if Heller's boxing will offer French schemes for these aircraft. I'd love to see something like these:

 

 

 

 

[janneman36]

19 hours ago, Thomas V. said:

Aviation wise-good list, I will add Cl-215/415 to the before mentioned, but even taking into account those kits for which there is no competition yet, these kits are between 35-50 years old, adding to that 2/3 of the re-issued kits have long time ago been replaced by SH, Revell, Airfix and Hasegawa. Now my biggest beef is pricing, these kits under Glow2b ownership

have seen prices skyrocketing by 40-50%, in my view even before there was small market for them, with new pricing there are non sellers.

As for automotive and naval subjects, they do offer kits not tooled and most those likely never to be tooled again, but again non sellers under wanted prices.

To sum, coupled with that Glow2b has become informal Kinetic EU distributor and again prices went up by wide margin, I don't forsee great revival under their ownership,

I would like to be proven wrong, but again ownership provenance does not in my view offer great future, pricing structure for re-issued Kinetic, SH and RV kits being strong indicator.

 

I have been looking at the Heller site for pricing and even in the shops but I really think the pricing is pretty normal....those old Heller civil planes are mostly between 30 and 40 euro...(DC6, Constellation or B707).

But look for these on evilbay and the old boxing’s will cost you at least  twice as much and mostly with unusable decals..

For the moment you still have decent kit for a decent price I think...
Didn’t look at the rest of the range though 😉

 

cheers, Jan

[fightersweep]

2 hours ago, TonyOD said:

I don't know why I'm so glued to the brand, when I put a pic of my stash (below) on one of the Facebook groups someone said I must be a glutton for punishment! (And also very good at Tetris!)

 

Probably someone who only builds Tamiya kits. Can't say I've had any issues with any of the Heller kits I've built/are building. I've found the fit pretty good, and any possible problems are easily avoided with a bit of test fitting etc. Besides, I'm the sort of nut that doesn't want my kits to fall together anyway. I like a bit of work to do.

[TonyOD]

1 hour ago, janneman36 said:

But look for these on evilbay and the old boxing’s will cost you at least  twice as much and mostly with unusable decals..

 

That's very much a thing with Heller. I buy 'em to (eventually) build 'em and if I'm going to go for an OOB scheme I'm far more interested in one of the recent boxings where the decals have a fighting chance of being usable than in one of the old boxings (which is why it's doubly important for Heller's new owners to do a good job on the decals - why should I buy a new kit if I'm going to have to get new decals, I can just get an old second hand one). That said, some interesting subjects can only be found in an old box (Javelin, Draken, Jaguar, Zero, Farmer, Fishbed for example) so if I get them (which I have) I accept that I'm going to have to pay for some decent decals. I'd love to see some of these (and a few others like the Stuka) rereleased in the new yellow boxes. 

 

I'm a big fan of the Musée boxings, I have I think all of them except the Bloch 152* now and the decals are always superb.

 

* it's my birthday on Sunday - present to myself?

[TonyOD]

Just now, fightersweep said:

Probably someone who only builds Tamiya kits. Can't say I've had any issues with any of the Heller kits I've built/are building. I've found the fit pretty good, and any possible problems are easily avoided with a bit of test fitting etc. Besides, I'm the sort of nut that doesn't want my kits to fall together anyway. I like a bit of work to do.

 

I think we're the same kind of modeller! I kind of welcome a few issues just to give me something to get my head around, it's part of the fun. I haven't come across any problem with a Heller kit that's insurmountable. Just need to use a bit of imagination. 

[fightersweep]

1 minute ago, TonyOD said:

 

I think we're the same kind of modeller! I kind of welcome a few issues just to give me something to get my head around, it's part of the fun. I haven't come across any problem with a Heller kit that's insurmountable. Just need to use a bit of imagination. 

 

Glad it's not just me then. I've only built a few Tamiya kits, and I found the whole experience a bit clinical. Don't get me wrong. They are beautifully engineered kits, but I think I prefer my older kits. Like you, a few issues are welcomed and I like to add a little detail here and there myself. It's all part of the fun. I think my stash is mostly vintage kits now, although I do have the Tamiya 1/32 Spit XVIe to do but it looks so perfect in the box that I'm actually a bit scared to touch it. For some strange reason though, my man cave seems to have been inundated with Heller boxes. Haven't picked up any of the new yellow boxes yet. I see a couple of Safirs on my horizon. Nice to be able to get a few of those at a reasonable price once again. I hope eventually we get to see some more new tool wacky French subjects from Heller that got missed first time around.

[TonyOD]

6 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

Glad it's not just me then.

 

My experience of Japanese kits is limited. I did a Fujimi Phantom years ago that more or less built itself, it was beautifully engineered and practically fell together to make a really striking model. But I might as well just have bought a die-cast model, you know? Kits like that, they haven't got any soul.

 

I have a few of the new yellow boxes, they seem to be finding their way into retailers' stock now and one or twice I've ordered a kit and the yellow box has turned up instead of the older boxing on the website. I too would like to see Heller launch some new tools of interesting subjects, though I appreciate there's a fair bit of capital investment involved. That said, they're making a big deal of something called an "Estafette" that they're launching soon.

[fightersweep]

1 hour ago, TonyOD said:

That said, they're making a big deal of something called an "Estafette" that they're launching soon.

 

It's got four wheels, it's French and it's ugly. It'll probably sell by the Estafette load.

 

1 hour ago, TonyOD said:

I might as well just have bought a die-cast model, you know? Kits like that, they haven't got any soul.

 

That's exactly it! The conclusion I was groping around in the dark for. That's why I'm full on back into Heller at the moment. Their kits have just loads of character.

[PhantomBigStu]

Think its unlikely that c47 is the new airfix, but hopefully it should be, 39.99 is extortionate for the old italeri kit, and frankly beyond a joke if its the ancient airfix kit 

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Hobby boss?

 

TT

[PhantomBigStu]

4 minutes ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

Hobby boss?

 

TT

Would explain the high price 

[Max Headroom]

15 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

That's very much a thing with Heller. I buy 'em to (eventually) build 'em and if I'm going to go for an OOB scheme I'm far more interested in one of the recent boxings where the decals have a fighting chance of being usable than in one of the old boxings (which is why it's doubly important for Heller's new owners to do a good job on the decals - why should I buy a new kit if I'm going to have to get new decals, I can just get an old second hand one). That said, some interesting subjects can only be found in an old box (Javelin, Draken, Jaguar, Zero, Farmer, Fishbed for example) so if I get them (which I have) I accept that I'm going to have to pay for some decent decals. I'd love to see some of these (and a few others like the Stuka) rereleased in the new yellow boxes. 

 

I'm a big fan of the Musée boxings, I have I think all of them except the Bloch 152* now and the decals are always superb.

 

* it's my birthday on Sunday - present to myself?

Here you go!

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/324420014557?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=324420014557&targetid=1000478309230&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9046489&poi=&campaignid=10204071534&mkgroupid=107296322532&rlsatarget=pla-1000478309230&abcId=1145987&merchantid=9363284&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI84GzxJCg7gIV5IBQBh3-dwhfEAQYASABEgI_NvD_BwE

 

Trevor