- The Airfix Tribute Forum -

[Beaufighter]

At the risk of initiating a series of rants, are there any kits out there that are notably overpriced for what they are, in the view of forumers? And are there any useful lessons for Airfix, in terms of offerings or pricing, from a discussion of this kind?

I will start the ball rolling with a couple of examples that have caught my eye recently.

Exhibit One is the Tamiya 1/700 HMS Repulse. Astonishingly, this old, waterline kit is offered in Modelzone at £36. Airfix does larger ships, in a larger scale, with a full hull, for less than a third of that price. And before anyone says "Ah, but the Tamiya is better,", no it ain't because it still needs photo-etch, same as the Airfix!

This is admittedly the grossest example, but you don't have to look far for others. Tamiya's Prince of Wales is £19.99 on Amazon. Typical Amazon price for a series 4 Airfix kit: £11. Airfix's 1/600 KGV is an excellent kit and like the Repulse is bigger and full hull too.

I've handled both of these so it's possible to comment. Are there any other examples, among aircraft for example? Is this just an exchange-rate phenomenon, or is there something else going on? If shipheads are really prepared to fork over £35 for a Repulse then maybe a retooled Bismarck is a flier after all - Airfix could sell it for £40! How much state-of-the-art technology would that enable?
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[tempestfan]

At the risk of coming under heavy Flak:
- IMHO many of the Trumpeter kits are overpriced.

- The same goes for a lot of Hasegawa kits. Not long ago I saw a ltd. reissue of the (basically sound, but) ancient T-Bird for € 20. And in the Mossi thread, there was a shocking price of 40 or even 50 quid quoted for the He 111, albeit with balloon fender. For that price I could buy a lot of Matchbox 111s on ebay and have as much trenches   The Revell reboxings are around 25 € if I'm not mistaken, and they will come under the same import duty I believe, so the price must be inflated elsewhere. Same for the B-25s.

- Some Italeri kits are ridiculously expensive, I remember a list price of 15 € for their F-5E and IIRC 20 € for the F-8 - this is the not-so-grand Esci kit which itself is heavily based on the Hasegawa one. Italeri and Hasegawa share the same importer in Germany, so this is where a bit of the inflation may arise.

- Some Airfix kits are overpriced due to their inflexible Series/price system. While a lot of Plastic, I feel the Sunderland is no longer at home in S.6 as well as the (upseries'ed) Halifax, the same goes for the B-29 in S.7. For the latter, the Academy alternative would be cheaper, I suspect.
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Oh if I could just find the time to build ONE MORE model...

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Dragon 1/72 Panzer IV Ausf F1!  

FWIW & All the best
Sgt.S
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"The Monkeys Are Going To The Stars!"

[Flash Flash]

I never pay more than £10 for a 1/72 unless its a heavy bomber.
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[Sgt.Squarehead]

That's pretty much how I feel about it.....I paid about the same for my 1/72 Comets, but they are resin kits from a small independent UK company (that I had nagged for five years to make the model).  

FWIW & All the best
Sgt.S
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[feanor]

Ayup All...

Airfix Starter kits... especially the Iranian F5.
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[Beaufighter]

Feanor

Fenwicks in Brent Cross shopping mall are doing starter set F5s (Corgi era) for £5.50.

I couldn't help buying one just the other day. It just fell into my hand, and at the same time, the money fell out of my wallet. Honestly.  

Bargains can be had!

£16 for a 1/72 tank is astounding. Can anyone top that??
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[feanor]

[Sgt.Squarehead]

[johnwalker]

That Lewis Hamilton thing Airfix put out this time last year.

John
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[Sgt.Squarehead]

Hmmm.....There is that!  

All the best
Sgt.S
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[lufbramatt]

some 1/24th tamiya car kits are expensive too- the 911GT1 was around £19 and the ferrari Enzo was £27.

although i have to say i paid that price for both of them and didnt regret it, they make up into fantastic models and the build experience is really nice- time spent filling and sanding other ktis can be spent adding extra details as the kit is so good. On the enzo especially some of the moulding is some of the nicest ive ever seen, and knowing how much injection moulding tools cost, you can see where your money is going.

but they were both newly tooled kits when i bought them, so youre getting state of the art kits. i do think re-releases of old kits with maybe some new decals or weapons and charging the same price as a new tool kit is taking the pee a bit though.

[dancho]

I would like to second tempestfan's comment about Hasegawa.  Their prices are just out of line and I am choosing Revell or Academy over Hasegawa due to the price difference.  EIGHTY BUCKS for a 1/72 anything is too much, IMHO (this is the price of the Hasegawa B-24).  FORTY BUCKS for a 1/72 F-4D?????  Say what????
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[Ratch]

£74.99 for this  



by Mach2  

need I say more        
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[Brews]

There is a fine line between what you might consider constructive criticism and sniping. I'm staying out of this ...

... except to say that if you think something is overpriced, then don't pay that price for it!
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[BAC]

I've seen 'Anigrand' 1.144 scale aircraft for ridiculusly high prices.

I'm sure I saw a 1.144 Nimrod for more than double the Airfix 1.72 (quadrouple now that ModelZone have reduced the prices!)

I think they are overpriced and I will never be buying that brand, even if they might do a subject I might have an interest in.
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[Beaufighter]

I agree sniping isn't helpful but the idea isn't just to snipe, it's to identify any subjects where the price looks high to us as a group of enthusiasts, and hence by implication what a reasonable price for this stuff is.

If Tamiya can sell 1/700 KGVs for £20 and Repulses for £36, while Airfix are charging £11 for their 1/600 full-hull equally-in-need-of-PE equivalent, who's missing a trick? The punters forking over the £36? Or Airfix, for not noticing that it's possible to charge £36 for a well-tooled ship kit?

We don't know the price of the Lusty yet. But we do know Amazon are showing the Revell 1/350 Bismarck at £70, and the Lusty at £50. One of these prices is wrong. So: is the Revell kit overpriced, or are Airfix in fact selling tenners for a fiver?
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[skipperjjt]

I personally think that ,yes there are overpriced kits ,but at the moment with our currency so poor in the exchange rates,and  shipping costs so high, kits from abroad are going to be a lot more expensive.I agree with  Brews  if you are  not happy vote with your wallet and don't buy.
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"always going forward,still cann't find reverse"

[Paula & Dan]

[Tripehound]

To echo P & D's observation, it's not the manufacturer who sets the retail price, especially for imports.

A while ago I wanted to buy a kit from overseas. At that time the manufacturers had no facility for taking payment online, and no UK importers.

After a few weeks the company emailed me with two pieces of news – they now could accept Paypal payments, and they had just appointed some UK distributors. For an easy life I checked out the latter – all of whom were asking more than twice as much, in Sterling, as the mfr was in Euros.

Furthermore, the email stated:

‘starting from March my distributors want me to do this: if any retail customer wants to buy directly from me, he pays 50% more for kit.’

To their credit they let me off this as I'd enquired beforehand, and p&p came to far less than 50% of the kit value.

Does anyone else think that's a bit of a nerve on the part of the importers, or am I just not getting the economics?
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