Revell 2022 releases

[Foxbat]

20 hours ago, IanC said:

It's a shame the old Matchbox 1/76 armour kits now seem to be over 20 quid a pop! Nostalgia is getting very expensive..🙁

Most of them are £8.99 but a couple (the Puma, Sherman Firefly and Wespe this year) are also released as 'My First Diorama' gift sets with glue and paints and it's those versions which are over £20.  That said, the Churchill AVRE and Renault FT-17/Char B1 are in the same bracket now, but they were always a couple of steps dearer.

 

Andy

[IanC]

5 minutes ago, Foxbat said:

Most of them are £8.99 but a couple (the Puma, Sherman Firefly and Wespe this year) are also released as 'My First Diorama' gift sets with glue and paints and it's those versions which are over £20.  That said, the Churchill AVRE and Renault FT-17/Char B1 are in the same bracket now, but they were always a couple of steps dearer.

 

Andy

 

Yes, but are they still being offered as such? It seems Revell now intend to only bring them out as 'diorama' sets with the glue and paint. So if they do the Pz III or the Panther again, which would be great, I'm assuming they'll be at the much higher price. I could be wrong - hope I am! 🙂

[Blue Monday]

It's good to see the 1/144 Chinook being released again.

 

BM.

[Silverkite]

it will be 10 more years till they re-release the K100 once again

 

Luigi

[dbostream]

Looks like a lot has been removed from the list compared to when I looked at it a couple of days ago.

[lasermonkey]

3 minutes ago, Beermonster1958 said:

Down from three pages to two?🙄🤔

Just when you thought you couldn’t be more underwhelmed! 😄

[feoffee2]

Hopefully they make some more announcements when they release it on there own website. I was hoping for a few more matchbox releases. 

 

[JWM]

nothing really new....  Or - could it be announced later? 

[modelldoc]

It's the old procedure from Revell.

 

News for the first month (January to March) comes as news in the autumn.

The complete list for all news for 2022 they will publish on the 1th of January at midnight.

It's a little bit old fashion in this times today.

 

modelldoc

[spruecutter96]

On 11/2/2021 at 9:19 PM, Beermonster1958 said:

does anyone else notice what seems to be a quite steep increase in general pricing? Not a complaint, merely an observation.

With the current global situation, that is pretty much inevitable, I'm afraid. We're in a situation where the cost of virtually everything is due to increase significantly. 

 

To give an illustration, in 2015, the cost of sending a 40-feet, Chinese shipping-container to anywhere on the planet was about £3,000. Today, doing the same would cost £18,000 - £20,000. That is an increase that will inevitably be passed on to the customers. 

 

Chris. 

[Thomas V.]

While there can be debate regarding this latest COVID related rise ( taking into account that majority ( aside from tooling production ) of proactivity is again EU sourced.

-no shipping from xy Far Eastern country( aside from few toolings that are of Korean origin )

Problem lies in consecutive rises from Hobbico takeover till today, or way way before C19, and with latest increase prices being 70-100% more expensive than 8 years ago, and as said before, production quality (QC included) dropped sharply at the same time.

Revell does still have one of the best retail networks, both in the USA and in throughout EU, but even with such advantage things don't look good in the long term.

Revell kits sold outstandingly well due to almost perfect quality/ price ratio, that is not the case since 2013( due to Hobbico's policy of dumping prices in the USA and compensating in the EU).

Edited November 7, 2021 by Thomas V.

[Sturmovik]

5 hours ago, Thomas V. said:

QC included) dropped sharply at the same time.

Would you be kind enough to tell me about the type of QC issues are you talking about? I've built a few Revell kits, and none of them had issues.

[Thomas V.]

Primary being flash, in the last few years lots of Revell kits have lots of flash, now given how almost all Revell tools are made from very high quality steel moulds( that can last very long time) its due to either non proper storage thus maintenance, or even lack of repair when needed, or lack of knowledge by machine operator.

Others being air pockets on transparent parts, warping and sink marks, mostly due to improper pressure and or improper cooling time-joys of outsourcing.

[dbostream]

Sink marks have been the biggest issue I have seen lately, both on the new E-Type Coupe and 911 Coupe. Also the E-Type was badly packaged making the hood not fit the body anymore. Thankfully Revell's customer service is very good and quickly sent me a new hood and body that fit nicely.

Edited November 7, 2021 by dbostream

[troschi]

I also noticed the rise in prices and simultaneously a more and more less interesting new releases range year-by-year .
You may have also recognized that decal sheets and options are getting smaller. Only a couple of years ago, product development said that they always want to offer at least two different paint schemes/operator options (esp. for aircraft). Nevertheless, there were also complaints from them about rising decal printing costs with the two Italian printing companies (who supposedly dictate the prices like in a cartel). Result: Decal options are reduced and the complexity of sheets and schemes as well. Apart from any special paint releases, I have the impression that this could be seen in the complete (at least in the aircraft) range.

Apart from that: A lot of ordinary toy retailers cancelled plastic modeling products in general from their selling ranges in Germany (which is the major market for RoG). Also the biggest "classic" department store chain reduced its Revell shelf space (if not abolished at all). That what happened to model trains earlier in Germany seems to take place for plastic modeling as well. Model making diappears (or has already disappeared) from high streets here.

My (admittedly simple) thought is that they simply try to compensate the not-so-high-anymore number of sold kits (and maybe also rising costs) with repeated increases in price. I also had the impression with Italeri before.
The aforementioned price/value ratio was also a result of the strategy to serve the broad masses on the also aforementioned wide retail basis. I strongly have the impression and made also the experience while talking to product development employees in the past that there was a shift in that what they consider to be the target group. Whereas in earlier times, young people below 25 years of age and early beginners were the most important group, nowadays they seem to have the older, more professional, more picky, more generous (re-entry) modeler in mind. They are able and willing to invest more money into that hobby and take it more seriously. Nevertheless, it is questionnable if Revell will be able to fulfill the demands of this group, especially if the overall quality decreases and is not always competitive anymore.

 

It seems to me that Revell/Hobbico somehow struggles with the insight that at least their plastic modeling range does not have any chance to compete with other (digital) leisure items in the market of under 20-year-olds. This may be different with R/C products but from my experience Revell and their owners see themselves as a part of the toy sector and the field of modeling (either static or R/C) being a part of it. Maybe this classification is economically correct whereas we as a part of a still heterogeneous group of customers will come to a different conclusion. Or would you consider your hobby to be toy-construction? Other competing, well established companies specialized in plastic modeling and put all their efforts in that.  They do not try to open up new fields of product ranges and experimental market trials like Revell did the last decades (also even before Hobbico came into play).

 

Just my 2cents 

Edited November 7, 2021 by troschi

[Ben Hartmann]

Looks like the 1/48 Display Typhoon has been pulled off of Hannants 

[IT_Man]

Wonder if they jumped the gun with the announcements? Recall them listing everything before, including a pair of Extra 300s in 1/32 which never saw the light of day!

[Supersonic26]

1 hour ago, Beermonster1958 said:

No, I'm not fond of commemorative or, display schemes in general.

 

Really annoying with Revell's overall very decent jet kits in the last years. You usually only get one or two decal options and many of them are those striking display schemes. I get that they are interesting, but it feels like the ratio of display/non-display is way too heavily skewed.

[IT_Man]

On 07/11/2021 at 19:25, Ben Hartmann said:

Looks like the 1/48 Display Typhoon has been pulled off of Hannants 

 

Apparently it's still on the 2022 price list but as its released after January to April (see Modelldoc post), presume Revell have asked them to take it down. Its still listed in other places.

[Andre B]

Wonder how much those kits with glue, paints and brushes makes the day for Revell. There are many of them and in most cases I find them overprised and expensive...

 

/André 

[Giorgio N]

2 hours ago, Supersonic26 said:

Really annoying with Revell's overall very decent jet kits in the last years. You usually only get one or two decal options and many of them are those striking display schemes. I get that they are interesting, but it feels like the ratio of display/non-display is way too heavily skewed.

 

As Revell keeps doing it, I guess that the reason is that these special schemes sell ! That in the end is the most important thing for the manufacturer.

I agree though that it would be nice to have one standard scheme in the box together with the shiny display scheme.. yes, there are aftermarket decals around but having at least the standard stencils in the box would be a huge help

[upnorth]

On 11/5/2021 at 1:58 PM, Blue Monday said:

It's good to see the 1/144 Chinook being released again.

 

BM.

 

I agree completely!

 

It's nice little kit that's been going for silly money for the past few years. It will be nice to have it back in shops and available at reasonable amounts.

[Tim R-T-C]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

 

As Revell keeps doing it, I guess that the reason is that these special schemes sell ! That in the end is the most important thing for the manufacturer.

I agree though that it would be nice to have one standard scheme in the box together with the shiny display scheme.. yes, there are aftermarket decals around but having at least the standard stencils in the box would be a huge help

 

Yes I recently got the Bronze Tiger Typhoon kit and it would have been very easy to include a couple of markings for use on a plain scheme. Unfortunately Revell in 144th almost always just provide a single scheme.

 

The crazy thing is that some of these display schemes have incredibly complex decal sheets that must have taken an age to develop, but were provided with black and white instructions covering 10 different paints that made them utterly incomprehensible!

 

36 minutes ago, upnorth said:

 

I agree completely!

 

It's nice little kit that's been going for silly money for the past few years. It will be nice to have it back in shops and available at reasonable amounts.

 

Hopefully this is a sign that they are revisiting their older 144th scale productions and may re-pop their SA330 as well at some point as that is a lovely little kit with dozens of potential schemes for the aftermarket producers.

Ditto the F-5E, early Tornados and Alpha Jets that are currently only available for inflated prices on eBay.

[Tim R-T-C]

3 hours ago, Andre B said:

Wonder how much those kits with glue, paints and brushes makes the day for Revell. There are many of them and in most cases I find them overprised and expensive...

 

/André 

 

I find many toy shops in the UK only stock kits in these 'starter sets' (which in some cases seem very cruel for the poor beginner trying to paint a metallic scheme with a tiny brush and paint pot!) and they usually sell them at list price, hence they often seem expensive compared to the kit on its own which are often discounted by online hobby retailers.

[Ben Hartmann]

11 hours ago, IT_Man said:

 

Apparently it's still on the 2022 price list but as its released after January to April (see Modelldoc post), presume Revell have asked them to take it down. Its still listed in other places.

Well good news and good news for Hannants. Their own Xtradecal set to fit those with previous releases will guarantee to sell, but they’ll lose on the preorders of which they won’t make much profit from. So its a win-win?