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Any Tamiya 1/32 rumours?


timvkampen

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The new F-51D is some food for thought, at least to me. New box, new instructions, new parts, new decals; why do all of that if the perception is that 1:32 doesn't sell well enough?

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4 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

The new F-51D is some food for thought, at least to me. New box, new instructions, new parts, new decals; why do all of that if the perception is that 1:32 doesn't sell well enough?

I don't think it's a sweeping rule that all 1/32 kits suffer from a lack of demand. There will always be certain kits that are deemed profitable, the trick is to spot them in the market.

 

Tamiya's F-51D had, at best, a pretty low marginal costs of production, as designing a new box, getting decals printed & adjusting the instruction are pretty easy & inexpensive to do. The only real investment, I'd imagine, was the re-tooled kit parts.

 

Plus, I don't think Tamiya - nor Wingnut Wings - play to the same rules. WNW especially, are famous for producing kits that Peter Jackson wants, that don't already exist. Whilst money is important, it's not the overriding consideration that it is for most other model companies, where a lack of profits leads to a fairly speedy demise.

 

I think well made 1/32 kits, if the subject is wisely chosen, will continue to do well. The likes of Tamiya will continue making 1/32, because they have built up a best-in-industry reputation, whilst WNW will churn out the relatively obscure 1/32 WWI kits for as long as Peter Jackson continues to provide guaranteed funding. 

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12 minutes ago, LSP_Ron said:

Tamiya knows that I have yet to complete the Mossie, Spit Mk IX and Zero that I've started,  so he's holding off on any new releases until those are complete.

 

I thought that was pretty nice of him.

 

 

Can you please hurry up then!?

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38 minutes ago, DeanKB said:

I think well made 1/32 kits, if the subject is wisely chosen, will continue to do well. The likes of Tamiya will continue making 1/32, because they have built up a best-in-industry reputation, whilst WNW will churn out the relatively obscure 1/32 WWI kits for as long as Peter Jackson continues to provide guaranteed funding. 

 

This is precisely what I'd though all along, and is the principal reason I've believed Tamiya is far from being out of the game at this time. I do absolutely believe we'll continue to see 1:32 aircraft kits from them, though I have no earthly idea what those may be (and neither does anyone else outside of Tamiya), nor when they will appear, I just fervently believe they will.

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1 minute ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

This is precisely what I'd though all along, and is the principal reason I've believed Tamiya is far from being out of the game at this time. I do absolutely believe we'll continue to see 1:32 aircraft kits from them, though I have no earthly idea what those may be (and neither does anyone else outside of Tamiya), nor when they will appear, I just fervently believe they will.

I concur.

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1 hour ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

I very seriously doubt that, very seriously. One only has to spend a few hours on any car modeling forum, to see that car modelers are absolutely clamoring for new quality kits, and the class that I mentioned earlier, are far and away the most popular of the lot, yet very few manufacturers seem willing to step up and do new kits of them. Revell did step up somewhat, and their early Ford roasters completely sold out, and sold out quick, prompting what appears to be a somewhat modified re-release, and that will undoubtedly sell out quickly too. The car modeling community is just loaded with folks that are ready to drop the cash for new kits, especially American Muscle and old coupes and whatnot.

And yet no mainstream manufacturers are willing to go there - If it was an untapped gold mine you'd think they'd be there in a flash. Moebius are probably the leaders in that field yet they sell less than 10,000 units per specific kit.

 

The problem that maufacturers face when using modelling forums as a guide to how desirable any specific subject might be is they're full of people claiming that such-and-such subject will fly off the shelves, but the reality is very different. The simple fact is that us hardcore modellers only make up a small percentage of people who actually buy models. Look at the Revell 1/48 Catalina. Everyone on the modelling forums said they wanted one, so Revell made one - and it was a commercial disaster, because it turned out that actually no-one wanted one.

Edited by vince14
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1 hour ago, vince14 said:

And yet no mainstream manufacturers are willing to go there - If it was an untapped gold mine you'd think they'd be there in a flash. Moebius are probably the leaders in that field yet they sell less than 10,000 units per specific kit.

 

The problem that maufacturers face when using modelling forums as a guide to how desirable any specific subject might be is they're full of people claiming that such-and-such subject will fly off the shelves, but the reality is very different. The simple fact is that us hardcore modellers only make up a small percentage of people who actually buy models. Look at the Revell 1/48 Catalina. Everyone on the modelling forums said they wanted one, so Revell made one - and it was a commercial disaster, because it turned out that actually no-one wanted one.

 

From what I've seen, Moebius does indeed do some good detailing, but again their choice of subject matter is way out in left field. A '61 Pontiac Ventura? No small wonder they don't sell a lot of those.

 

I actually bought the PBY, and think it's a great kit, but yes, I understand it was not a stellar seller.

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Honestly, if I were a manufacturer, I'd go out of my way to avoid taking recommendations from model obsessives like us.

 

We are unrepresentative. We must be in a very small niche, equivalent to 1% of the entire modelling market. Why listen?

 

Not only are we unrepresentative, we are also atypical. We are not the average customer.

 

We "invest" proportionally more in buying kits than most every other human that's ever lived, so our benchmark of an "affordable" kit is unrealistic and unrepresentative of the wider market.

 

We make a whole heap of noise & can dominate modelling with issues like: dodgy colour call-outs, or - horror of horrors - a mis-shaped part, wrong tyre type, when such issues are seen as either unimportant or don't even register for others.  

 

When kits have some fault, we tend to broadcast the fact to all & sundry, which pushes a relatively minor issue of limited importance to the top issue, when it's not.

 

So, don't ask us unless you are making a kit aimed at us - super expensive, super accurate, smallish run - like maybe WNW's Lanc's, or the flurry of B-17's

 

As usual, I have no proof whatsoever of any of his stuff, and I have been known to be wrong. A lot. Just ask my wife, she'll tell you.

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3 hours ago, LSP_K2 said:

The new F-51D is some food for thought, at least to me. New box, new instructions, new parts, new decals; why do all of that if the perception is that 1:32 doesn't sell well enough?

Because it’s a minimum cost / minimum risk way to bring in some revenue.   Certainly nothing compared to releasing a brand new kit.  

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7 hours ago, vince14 said:

And yet no mainstream manufacturers are willing to go there - If it was an untapped gold mine you'd think they'd be there in a flash. Moebius are probably the leaders in that field yet they sell less than 10,000 units per specific kit.

 

The problem that maufacturers face when using modelling forums as a guide to how desirable any specific subject might be is they're full of people claiming that such-and-such subject will fly off the shelves, but the reality is very different. The simple fact is that us hardcore modellers only make up a small percentage of people who actually buy models. Look at the Revell 1/48 Catalina. Everyone on the modelling forums said they wanted one, so Revell made one - and it was a commercial disaster, because it turned out that actually no-one wanted one.

 

Perhaps if they designed the PBY with a tail section that didn't look like it needed a nappy change, more people would have bought it.   I bought one and the fixed aftermarket tail as well, I'll get around to making it one day... 

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45 minutes ago, alaninaustria said:

I would be so happy if Tamiya scaled their new 1/48 scale P-38 E/F kit to 1/32 scale!!

That would keep me very happy for years to come!!

Cheers

Alan

Until you realise that Tamiya have made every non-Tamiya kit in your stash effectively obsolete, a la Dreadnought style.

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