Global Scale Modeller

Some of these look really nice!

Main thing I noticed were the figures.
IF .. Tamiya were using their own figures, theyve come on leaps and bounds.

It all looks much sharper and like Barry said the figure are very expressive. Maybe the other companies have made them realize 40yr old kits just don't do it any more. Great for us modelers but ,I hope the price doesn't go crazy though cause the high US dollar is killing me.

made them realize 40yr old kits just don't do it any more

I thought Dragon and their Gen2 figures would really push Tamiya into a big figures update. Whats happened to Dragon ? by the way.
They were coming out with kits and figures every month .. mostly German , but has something gone wrong at Dragon ?

New tamiya kits look great. Would love to see them make the lmp1 car in kit form. Seeing as Toyota a jap company won lemans I thought there would have been a good chance.

Barry from what I have heard regarding dragon there is several reasons for them not done no so well.
First they purchased the rights to make model kits of the Star Wars franchise but as yet nothing has been put out so sale making me wonder what went wrong.
Second the exchange rates have been very rough on the prices. Most standard dragon kits are now starting at £60, which also leads in to the third problem. All the new kits have no metal parts like the older kits and are now £20 to £30 more expensive than buying an older dragon kits. They have lost that edge. Fourth the market is now full of very high quality German armour kits with full interior and doing all the kits they use to heavily rely on selling plus a load more. Now dragon have announced they will be selling a full interior panzer 3 and 4 in the near future but again how will the price be on them if a standard kit is £60 are they going to price it at £100. It would not sell plus meng or ryefield will just go and release one at half the cost. I see dragon having a very hard future if things don’t change for them

Timplastic wrote: Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:05 am New tamiya kits look great. Would love to see them make the lmp1 car in kit form. Seeing as Toyota a jap company won lemans I thought there would have been a good chance.

Barry from what I have heard regarding dragon there is several reasons for them not done no so well.
First they purchased the rights to make model kits of the Star Wars franchise but as yet nothing has been put out so sale making me wonder what went wrong.
Second the exchange rates have been very rough on the prices. Most standard dragon kits are now starting at £60, which also leads in to the third problem. All the new kits have no metal parts like the older kits and are now £20 to £30 more expensive than buying an older dragon kits. They have lost that edge. Fourth the market is now full of very high quality German armor

I agree with you and just to back up what you are saying. I haven't bought a new Dragon kit for I don't know how long now. I have been buying up second hand ones. I have bought new Hobbyboss, Ryefield ,Meng and Takom. even thought the exchange rate is killing me.

barrythornton wrote: Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:48 am

made them realize 40yr old kits just don't do it any more

I thought Dragon and their Gen2 figures would really push Tamiya into a big figures update. Whats happened to Dragon ? by the way.
They were coming out with kits and figures every month .. mostly German , but has something gone wrong at Dragon ?

kits with full interior and doing all the kits they use to heavily rely on selling plus a load more. Now dragon have announced they will be selling a full interior panzer 3 and 4 in the near future but again how will the price be on them if a standard kit is £60 are they going to price it at £100. It would not sell plus meng or ryefield will just go and release one at half the cost. I see dragon having a very hard future if things don’t change for them

I

made them realize 40yr old kits just don't do it any more

I thought Dragon and their Gen2 figures would really push Tamiya into a big figures update. Whats happened to Dragon ? by the way.
They were coming out with kits and figures every month .. mostly German , but has something gone wrong at Dragon ?
[/quote]

Dragon I think has lost their way, They initially made huge inroads into the market share of others by providing popular kits with all the bells and whistles...it was like Xmas. Then they used existing sprues to make variants with little additional cost, maybe a new extra sprue and then they started cost cutting by removing the special items. Which is where we are now and does Dragon have a ongoing vision...I don't think so. Maybe they didn't think or envisage this moment, but the companies who struck out bravely to bring us new subjects and more complete kits are now robbing Dragon of market share. Even companies such as ICM are doing better now and are attracting more customers. Tamiya is doing a revamp after stagnating with many kits approaching 40yrs old, because it has to or perish. It is imperative for Tamiya to hold on to that very valuable reputation it has earn't. Dragon should heed this or risk a downward spiral. Airfix I think would be another who has suffered a somewhat similar affair although I know little about them except they seem to have gained a rep for bad fitting kits. I know the latest ones are better, but the rep is still to be overcome on a world wide level. That is my perceptions they maybe be very well wrong, but if I think that then it's a sure thing someone else thinks along similar lines and that's what has to be over come

That new spitfire does look nice, though that said the current Tamiya mk1 spitfire is a really nice kit even if it is 25 years old.
On the downside the decals still look like paving slabs.

I see dragon having a very hard future if things don’t change for them

I`m not a Dragon fanboy, but its a bit sad, I thought they were really taking things forward at one point with the new slide mold techniques and Gen2 figures etc. its the only way to see progression when everyone else has to step it up.
Airfix are kind of like a company you buy with your heart and not your head, surely theyre not even owned by the same people as in the past.
I hope Tamiya are at the start of some new chapter though, but its a massive deal for any company to re-tool all their vintage lines.

Tamiya is doing fine, and their older kits are really well priced for their age, at least mostly. I doubt they're going to just jump out and completely re-tool all their original models. Unfortunately these days new Tamiya kits tend to cost the same as Dragon kits did in their heyday but they don't come with any of the bells and whistles, you have to buy them separately as "detail ups", which is just sad, it's not "detail up" as much as it's "basic requirements" such as engine deck grills and the like.