Italeri catalogue 2023 - novelties, reissues etc. - and Platz boxings

[Homebee]

I suppose we'll soon see - at the Nuremberg Toy Fair - the Italeri's Preview 2023 folder. So it's time to open a new dedicated thread.

After 2022 (link), here are the first aviation reissues for 2023. 

Source: https://nowosci.plastikowe.pl/aktualnosci/zapowiedzi-italeri-styczen-2023/

Expected aircraft kit releases for January 2023

 

- 1/48 - ref. 2827 - Northrop F-5E Tiger II - ESCI reissue

 

 

- 1/72 - ref. 1466 - Junkers Ju 87G-2 - reissue

 

 

V.P.

 

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Homebee

[IT_Man]

Appears there's also a reboxing of their AC-119 K, due February.

 

https://www.models2u.co.uk/contents/en-uk/p18030_AC-119-K-Stinger.html

 

Hopefully less than the offerings on Ebay last time I looked!

[Sturmovik]

@Homebee are you sure the Ju 87G is in 1:72? I don't recall Italeri issuing one in that scale, only the B and D. Could it be the 1:48 version?

[IT_Man]

1 hour ago, Sturmovik said:

@Homebee are you sure the Ju 87G is in 1:72? I don't recall Italeri issuing one in that scale, only the B and D. Could it be the 1:48 version?

Definitely 1/72 looking at the code number. They're into the 28xx numbers in 1/48 and 14xx in 1/72.

 

Guessing it's this one:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/italeri-1221-ju-87-g2-kanonenvogel--132247

[Piotr Mikolajski]

1 hour ago, Sturmovik said:

@Homebee are you sure the Ju 87G is in 1:72?

 

Info about Italeri releases, published on my site, are from newsletter sent to Italeri distributors. That's why there is info about Super Decals inside - Ju 87 will have Luftwaffe markings only, F-5E will have markings from USA, Brazil and Iran.

 

This number is correct, newer (4-digit) ranges are even broader: starting from 1000 towards 1500 for 1/72 and starting from 2600 towards 2900 for 1/48 kits. Reissues with new decals have new catalogue numbers but to add some more mess Italeri sometimes reissues old kits with numbers from their old 3-digit ranges. Of course some of kits released with 4-digit numbers are old enough to be released years ago with 3-digit numbers.

 

Yes, I need to drink something too.

[klr]

2 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

@Homebee are you sure the Ju 87G is in 1:72? I don't recall Italeri issuing one in that scale, only the B and D. Could it be the 1:48 version?

It's a kosher 1/72 kit. I have it in the stash for 20 years or more. It was a revised tooling of the D-series* kit from 1996, which I did build upon a time.

 

*According to Italeri, a D-5, but I could never make up my mind which sub-variant it really was. Maybe the references are clearer 20 years on.

[Piotr Mikolajski]

6 hours ago, klr said:

*According to Italeri, a D-5, but I could never make up my mind which sub-variant it really was. Maybe the references are clearer 20 years on.

 

This is easy to verify. Earlier versions of the Ju 87D (up to D-5) had a 13.8 m wingspan (about 192 mm in 1/72). From the Ju 87D-5 onwards, the wingspan was increased to 15 m (208 mm in 1/72).
In the case of the G version, the G-1 was built on the basis of the earlier D, the G-2 was built on the basis of the later D. The difference of these roughly 16 mm in 1/72 scale is noticeable.

[klr]

7 hours ago, Piotr Mikolajski said:

 

This is easy to verify. Earlier versions of the Ju 87D (up to D-5) had a 13.8 m wingspan (about 192 mm in 1/72). From the Ju 87D-5 onwards, the wingspan was increased to 15 m (208 mm in 1/72).
In the case of the G version, the G-1 was built on the basis of the earlier D, the G-2 was built on the basis of the later D. The difference of these roughly 16 mm in 1/72 scale is noticeable.

I had to recheck my notes from 2001. It was clearly a long-span version, making it a D-5 or later. D-5 is what it says on the front box cover. But the kit has an option of exhaust flame dampers for one of the three subjects, which the instructions refer to as a D-8. At the time, my references said that only the D-7 was a night bomber, and that the D-8 was a "simplified" day bomber, which would not have had flame dampers fitted.  My two standard references were a hardback book on WW II Luftwaffe aircraft published in the mid-1990s, and another book on Axis aircraft published in the mid-1980s. However, modern references (all from 2000 or later) say that both the D-7 and D-8 were long-span night bomber versions, differing only in which version they were converted from. So Italeri was right, according to modern references.

 

This would not be the first time that something I read when I was younger has since proven to be incorrect, but that's another story.

Edited January 18, 2023 by klr

[Giorgio N]

Aaaahhhh, finally ! New year and new round of reissues from Italeri... take one of your own older kits or an Esci mould, or when you really feel it go to some Japanese or Korean company and buy a few bagged sprues... then add a new box and a new decal sheet. No, not a simple new decal sheet, a super decal sheet ! Stick the words super decals on the box and here it is, a brand new 30-40 year old kit for the modellers of today.

 

Mind, nothing against reissuing good kits from the past, everybody do it so why can't Italeri (who however have also reissued some much less good kits from the past). It's only that I'd like to see some more real new tool from Italeri. 2023 should bring the previously announced 1/72 AMX and 1/32 MC.202 kits, fingers crossed for these !

Do I expect anything else ? Not really, apart from more reissues. Who knows, Italeri may surprise me... I'll believe when I see it though ! In the meantime I've already shown enough optimism by selling my 1/32 21st Century Macchi with the aftermarket sets I had gathered over time, all in anticipation of the issue of their 1/32 MC.202... let's hope I've done the right thing !

[ABeck]

"  Who knows, Italeri may surprise me... I'll believe when I see it....."  the 1/32 Alpha Jet, first boxing in British and Canadian markings......

[CharlieGolf2009]

A week before Christmas I sent them a message via their FB page, regarding the delay in releasing the AMX, HH-101 and CH-53E in 1/72. They answered me a few days later, saying they were working on it, and that more info would be released very soon. 

 

That can mean something or nothing at all, so for the time being I'm (still) going to keep my hopes up. 

[Giorgio N]

11 minutes ago, CharlieGolf2009 said:

A week before Christmas I sent them a message via their FB page, regarding the delay in releasing the AMX, HH-101 and CH-53E in 1/72. They answered me a few days later, saying they were working on it, and that more info would be released very soon. 

 

That can mean something or nothing at all, so for the time being I'm (still) going to keep my hopes up. 

 

Rumors here were that both the AMX and the MC.202 would have been issued in 2023 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Aeronatica Militare. I guess they will try to respect this date. Don't know about the other subjects

[ElectroSoldier]

They will be reissuing the 1:32 Tornado GR.4 with pilot figures.

[Piotr Mikolajski]

8 hours ago, CharlieGolf2009 said:

That can mean something or nothing at all, so for the time being I'm (still) going to keep my hopes up. 

 

The list of kits announced by Italeri and still unreleased to this day includes dozens of items. All we can do is be patient and not have great expectations.

[Robertone139]

I have no more expectations of Italeri, I am not even disappointed.

Mediocre or worse quality kits and nothing but reissues from other kitmakers lately.

 

I hope they read this post.

[JFM148]

I have REAL expectations not only from Italeri, but from other brands as well.   Everybody has great expectations from Tamiya every single year and almost nothing happens, so why not have that tolerance/patience towards other brands?

 

Reissues are not aimed to experienced/veteran modellers.  They are aimed at super market buyers.

 

1 hour ago, Robertone139 said:

Mediocre or worse quality kits and nothing but reissues from other kitmakers lately.

Just wondering what is "good quality" and  What's wrong with reissues?  Thanks in advance for your answer.

[alt-92]

19 hours ago, Piotr Mikolajski said:

All we can do is be patient and not have great expectations.

^^

 

After all, they did finally come through on the NF-5 re-issue  took a while though.

 

[IT_Man]

Is there any other manufacturer who gets such negative vibes?

 

Do sometimes wonder whether some people think the hobby would be better off without Italeri (for the record it wouldn't).

[MarkoZG]

25 minutes ago, IT_Man said:

Is there any other manufacturer who gets such negative vibes?

 

Do sometimes wonder whether some people think the hobby would be better off without Italeri (for the record it wouldn't).

 

There are many that could either. And please have in mind that Italeri today is not the same as before. Like many big players from the past, today only name remains and everything else is the "life on old glory" under modern day prices. 

[JFM148]

If somebody is looking for a high tech kit with large PE sheets, small boxes protecting finely done 3D pieces inside a huge box with at least 20 sprues full with hundreds of part, with perfect decal sheets, etc. (small market demand). Look somewhere else.  Italeri, Revell, Airfix, Heller and even KP/AZ or Mach 2 are focused on other markets for the not so demanding modeller ready to fix kit issues and with certain modelling skills and with certain taste for obscure subjects or vintage kits. 

 

Two VERY different markets indeed.

 

We should embrace there are still some small/medium modelling companies providing (late or not in their new releases) kits like 1/32 Tornadoes and 1/48 F-35B's and obscure/vintage subjects.

 

Perfect or not, we should be thankful those companies exist.   I was really excited with Airfix Vintage release of the Auster Antarctic in 1/72, really happy to see a new 1/32 Hurricane from Revell, and a really interesting 1/72 Hawkeye from Heller.  I am patiently waiting for the 1/72 AMX to be released this year (fingers crossed with a smile in my face).

 

 

 

[IanHx]

13 hours ago, IT_Man said:

Is there any other manufacturer who gets such negative vibes?

 

Do sometimes wonder whether some people think the hobby would be better off without Italeri (for the record it wouldn't).

 

Back in the late 80s/early 90s, Italeri were the manufacturer that got me back into modelling, primarily because they made kits of the subjects I wanted to build, at an easily affordable price  ( and comprised a good proportion of the kits in  Beatties ).

 

So there was most definately a place for Italeri back then. And still is.... although these day the value for money proposition has diminished somewhat.  Sometimes we forget that its fun to build a kit that you can just throw together, instead of having to glue each individual segment of the afterburner nozzle !

Edited January 20, 2023 by IanHx

[Giorgio N]

14 hours ago, IT_Man said:

Is there any other manufacturer who gets such negative vibes?

 

Do sometimes wonder whether some people think the hobby would be better off without Italeri (for the record it wouldn't).

 

Nobody wants Italeri to shut down, far from it ! However the negative vibes don't come out of hatred or anything, it's somethine they have brought on themselves for a number of reasons...

 

 

9 hours ago, JFM148 said:

If somebody is looking for a high tech kit with large PE sheets, small boxes protecting finely done 3D pieces inside a huge box with at least 20 sprues full with hundreds of part, with perfect decal sheets, etc. (small market demand). Look somewhere else.  Italeri, Revell, Airfix, Heller and even KP/AZ or Mach 2 are focused on other markets for the not so demanding modeller ready to fix kit issues and with certain modelling skills and with certain taste for obscure subjects or vintage kits. 

 

Two VERY different markets indeed.

 

We should embrace there are still some small/medium modelling companies providing (late or not in their new releases) kits like 1/32 Tornadoes and 1/48 F-35B's and obscure/vintage subjects.

 

Perfect or not, we should be thankful those companies exist.   I was really excited with Airfix Vintage release of the Auster Antarctic in 1/72, really happy to see a new 1/32 Hurricane from Revell, and a really interesting 1/72 Hawkeye from Heller.  I am patiently waiting for the 1/72 AMX to be released this year (fingers crossed with a smile in my face).

 

 

 

 

And this is not one of the reasons ! Sorry but nobody ever expected Italeri to compete with the companies that make extremely finely detailed kits with hundred of pieces and all kind of PE/resin goodies. Italeri has always been and will always be a "mainstream" manufacturer in the same way as Airfix or Revell. And this is something they used to excel at, as witnessed in the quote below:

 

1 hour ago, IanHx said:

 

Back in the late 80s/early 90s, Italeri were the manufacturer that got me back into modelling, primarily because they made kits of the subjects I wanted to build, at an easily affordable price  ( and comprised a good proportion of the kits in  Beatties ).

 

So there was most definately a place for Italeri back then. And still is.... although these day the value for money proposition has diminished somewhat.  Sometimes we forget that its fun to build a kit that you can just throw together, instead of having to glue each individual segment of the afterburner nozzle !

 

Exactly ! In those years Italeri had a wide catalogue with quite diverse subjects. Each year they added a few new kits to their lines, with both "classics" sure to sell well and less common subjects (like their helicopters).

Only very few of their kits in those years could compete with the kind of stuff that Hasegawa was starting to issue but this was not much of a problem as Italeri kits were way cheaper and in any case compared well quality-wise with what all the others were producing at the time. I rememeber well those years, I eagerly waited for the new Italeri catalogue to arrive at the local shop to watch in anticipation at what I could have bought over the following months and while I did not have a stash (ah the good old days), models made from Italeri kits made for a large part of my model aircraft fleet.

 

Now move on to the 21st Century and what have we seen ? Italeri new tools have been few and far apart. Their prices have risen steeply, particularly for the new tools, with some kits that can now compete directly with the Japanese kits. Quality on the other hand has for a long time remained the same or even worsened, so much that there have been Italeri kits of this century that have been worse than kits from the same company issued 20 years earlier. And I'm not talking accuracy here (I know that someone would have replied that most modellers are not rivet counters and bla bla bla...), I'm talking about quality of the plastic parts and fit.

In the meantime Italeri have started to rely heavily on reboxes, particularly after having acquired the former Esci moulds. Mind, nothing against reboxes in general from my side, everybody is doing it and companies like Revell have always done this. However there's rebox and rebox... I can understand reboxing a '70s kit of a less common subject for which a new tool may not make commercial sense. Fine, I understand that a new BR.20 may be not viable from a mainstream manufacturer so the old one with newer decals is better than nothing. I can understand reboxing kits that while old can still more than hold their own against the competition (Esci Harriers for example), modellers are afterall happy to see them again. I can understand reboxing kits of companies that don't have a good European distribution, it makes certain kits available for more acceptable prices (Platz, Fujimi).

There are however limits to what a company should be happy with.... just as an example (and I could make many), Italeri did their 1/72 Tomcat in the late '80s. Was it the best Tomcat around ? No. Was it acceptable for its days? Yes, was fine considering the competition and the price. It's a kit that must have sold great as it's constantly been in Italeri's catalogue til very recently... and was then replaced by.. The Esci kit ! That was considered worse than the Italeri one even when first issued. Oh but wait, this has recessed panel lines, something that Italeri proudly announced when they first reissued this kit. I got the original Italeri kit as a B'day present immediately after was released and I was happy with that kit, fit was ok and detail looked good. Anyone who bought the "new" Italeri kit in 2020 however would have found a bunch of pretty rough plastic parts that fit terribly, leading to something remotely resembling a Tomcat. Oh, but this has recessed panel lines... well, not all of them as for some strange reason some are raised.

But then of course, most modellers don't want a thousand tiny parts in a kit that costs £50-60. But do they want a rubbish kit that costs almost £30 ? Really, nobody here is saying that Italeri should compete with Fine Molds or GWH here, but at least they should be able to compete with Revell or the modern Airfix tools and it's something they have mostly not achieved. Same when they have issued high-end kits (and they have done a few), they may have done a good job but the prices have often been criticised for being "Tamiya money for less than Tamiya quality".

 

See the difference between Italeri in its glory days and Italeri today ? Of course I know that the market has changed, I know that today 1/48 and 1/32 kits attract more people and those who build in this scale may prefer more sophisticated kits like the ones that Italeri have started offering with the 1/32 F-104. I also realize that aircraft kits are not the only Italeri product and that they invested in other areas as well (their trucks seem to be well received). I also realize that the days of 10 new 1/72 aircraft tools a year from a single company are never coming back again. Last but not least, I fully undesrtand how producing in Italy today would lead to higher prices compared to the past, I really do, I have an Italian VAT number myself so I know well the level of fixed costs and so on. The matter remains however that Italeri have IMHO long lost their position compared to other manufacturers and can't match the quality or price or value for money that other companies can offer.

 

So to go back to the original question: Do sometimes wonder whether some people think the hobby would be better off without Italeri

The answer is that no, people don't think the hobby would be better without Italeri ! Many however think that the hobby would be better if Italeri managed to return to be a company capable of having a positive impact as they used to be. On the contrary, too often in the last 20 years Italeri have, at least when it comes to aircraft kits, have become almost irrelevant. I really hope that they can turn the trend, the more companies on the market the better.

 

P.S. said all of that, the fact that Italeri is currently owned by the same family that cofounded the company 60 years ago must mean that they sure do something right....

[klr]

Italeri could still have a renaissance. After all, Airfix was largely in the doldrums from the early 1980s until the late noughties - over 25 years. There were some years during that time when I bought very few Airfix kits (three in 1986, just the one in 2003), and most of what I did buy was reissues of old kits, or reboxes, usually from Heller. Sounds familiar?

 

But ... much of the Italeri back-catalogue (including ESCI molds) dates from the mid-1970s to the mid-noughties. Airfix had to modernise its catalogue with new and replacement toolings, because it had so little from the early 1980s onwards - see above. The view within Italeri might be that it doesn't have to do this yet, but eventually it will have to, if it wants to remain a prominent manufacturer.

 

I'm not sure if still being owned by the founding family is a good thing. It might be contributing to a lack of ambition and direction, although that's just pure conjecture on my part. The history of business is littered with examples where bringing in "outsiders" has led to disaster.

[Robertone139]

Nobody wants Italeri to go, we always need a negative marketing example for other companies to avoid.

I have nothing against Italeri products (well maybe their 1/72 horrible F-35B is an exception), what irks me and many others is their habit (for the last ten years or so) to announce kits that never see the light, announcements that sometimes spur the release of related aftermarket products that become unusable.

This may be only related to the field of airplane kits though.

Other disappointments are the release of high quality kits of Italian subjects (naval in this case) by companies, even small that can see the niche and reap the profits of Italeri's managerial incompetence.

Why do we need to see Trumpeter, Hobby Boss, Takom and the likes release interest subjects and subvariants of Italian armor and naval subjects.

I don't think that Takom has more resources, even financial than Italeri, unless Italeri's corporate headquarters work the same as Italy's former Flag carrier.

[Giorgio N]

53 minutes ago, Robertone139 said:

Nobody wants Italeri to go, we always need a negative marketing example for other companies to avoid.

I have nothing against Italeri products (well maybe their 1/72 horrible F-35B is an exception), what irks me and many others is their habit (for the last ten years or so) to announce kits that never see the light, announcements that sometimes spur the release of related aftermarket products that become unusable.

This may be only related to the field of airplane kits though.

Other disappointments are the release of high quality kits of Italian subjects (naval in this case) by companies, even small that can see the niche and reap the profits of Italeri's managerial incompetence.

Why do we need to see Trumpeter, Hobby Boss, Takom and the likes release interest subjects and subvariants of Italian armor and naval subjects.

I don't think that Takom has more resources, even financial than Italeri, unless Italeri's corporate headquarters work the same as Italy's former Flag carrier.

 

The matter regarding the various Italian subjects from Chinese companies is simple: how many copies do Takom and the likes need to recover the tooling costs and make a profit ? And how many do Italeri need ?

In a different thread running at this same moment there's talk of Kinetic issuing a relatively little known subject with an expectation of selling 4-5,000 units and so recovering the development costs. Can Italeri do the same or do they need a higher number ? If they need a higher number then clearly subjects that can expect to sell in that range will be no-limit for Italeri and this is rumoured to be a reason why a number of often requested subjects have never been kitted by the company.

I often hear similar comments regarding the various Italian WW2 fighters issued by the likes of Sword and Special Hobby: yes, Italeri could have made them but these were from companies that expected to sell at best 3,000 units per issue with tooling costs that could be easily recovered with part of those 3,000 units. A company like Italeri (but the same can be said for others) would never touch a 1/72 WW2 fighter that would only sell around 3,000 pieces, makes no financial sense