Hasegawa

[Grizly]

As far as I can tell, 1/32 Hasegawa kits are as scarce as hens' teeth on our local hobby shops and on line yet when I look on the Hasegawa web site there are 16 listed as "On sale now". I've written the Canadian distributor listed and got no reply. Anybody able to shed some light on the (apparent) issue? 

[scvrobeson]

What will they produce then? The Scifi manga stuff?

 

 

 

Matt 

[Tony T]

Hasegawa have a 1/32 Mitsubishi A6M5A Zero Koh Junyo listed for release this year — another boxing of their recent new tool Zero 52 release. I bought the first boxing a few years ago and it's a nice kit.  But the other stuff is getting scarcer, even the antique Nakajima Hayabusa. I seriously doubt these kits won't be re-released, in time, but the outlook appears bleak for new tools. 

 

There's lots available or coming out from ICM, Revell, Zoukei-Mura and Special Hobby, as well as old but not that old Trumpeter and Tamiya models.  What I'm waiting to hear about is who has got hold of the defunct Kitty Hawk Mirage 2000C tooling and when are they releasing it?  I'd settle for a copy in blue or pink plastic complete with action figures if necessary. 

 

Tony

[thierry laurent]

They just announced the re-release of the Fw-190D9.

[barkhorn]

It is not a matter of Hasegawa's decision to leave the business, but of the demand for products (mainly on the domestic market) significantly exceeding their production capabilities - despite appearances, Hasegawa is a fairly small company. This, coupled with the rather poor supply chain outside Japan in general and weird decisions of some distributors (example: some time ago I've been told that the collapsing company that imported Hasegawa to Spain chose to import only 1/72 aircraft kits. Why? No idea, but apparently such decisions didn't help them...), is a good reason for them to focus on products that are mainly intended for their local market, such as the (fairly new) range of resin girl figures etc. If these, or the 1/20 scale furniture for "dolls", sell and are obviously easier to develop than a quality aircraft kit, then why would they bother with the latter?

[Gerhard]

Interesting. A certain supplier in Japan announced that it has halted all business with Canada. Wonder whats afoot?

[Neo]

Udisco was a huge imported for most models in Quebec, and maybe some other parts of Canada, they went out of business couple years back. Finding stuff has benn near impossible in quebec now, including Humbrol paint

[Rick Griewski]

The online prices are high. I attended a car large enthusiast show during November 2021.  A big vendor had a larger number of 1/32 “previously owned” aircraft kits including Hasegawa at good prices.  These of course were sourced from no longer needed kit stashes.  

[Dave Williams]

Hasegawa has seemingly abandoned the 1/32 market.  Look at the list of 1/32 kits over at Hobby Search.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/115/0/1?Make=Hasegawa

 

Their “newest” kits are Nov. 2021, Aug 2020, and Sept 2018.  The first two are just versions of their new tool Zero 52, while the other is an ICM rebox. Also, everything is listed as sold out.

 

Compare that to 1/48.  Many more kit releases between now and Sept 2018, and some still in stock.  However, almost everything is still just a rebox/ variant of an existing mold.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/1389/0/1?Make=Hasegawa

 

Look at Hasegawa’s new releases on their web page.  It’s mostly cars, anime girl figures, and some anime/sci-fi stuff.

 

http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/gsite/top/

 

Whatever the reason, I don’t think Hasegawa has anything for aircraft modelers, especially in 1/32 scale, and I don’t see that changing.

[Tony T]

I was seriously thinking of switching to 1/24 classic cars, trucks and large scale women. However, the Tunnan, Hurricane, Val and Yak are sufficient distraction. 

 

Tony 

 

 

[Pup7309]

That’s a shame they really had a rep as good as Tamiya in the 90’s and 00’s for quality. There is a lot of competition from Eastern Europe now as well as others. We might see their kits turn up in other places- think 1/48 Typhoon and 1/32 p-40 to eduard and 1/48 Veltro to Italieri

[rigor]

Maybe someone will pick up the moulds 

[Dave Williams]

6 minutes ago, rigor said:

Maybe someone will pick up the moulds 

Has Hasegawa ever sold their molds to anyone?  Besides, there’s no indication they are out of business as they are still releasing kits, including new stuff, just not in our scale/area of interest.

[BloorwestSiR]

They've got a new Regult coming out next month. I'm looking forward to that kit. 

 

Meantime, I recall reading that when Hobbico went under they owed a sizable amount to Hasegawa as they were their US distributor and that the loss really hurt them financially.

 

Carl

[thierry laurent]

I'm sorry to conclude that Asia as a whole is not anymore a driver in our market! Japan, China or Korea producers look to be out of the loop since the demise of KH. Hopefully Eastern Europe took the lead.