Question about Studio 27

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Tiffoc
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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by Tiffoc »

jaymtford wrote:I think the 1/20 resin kit market is pretty dead these days. With the new BeeMax releases (and all the other plastic releases over the past hew years) I'm sure people have some decent size stashes to work through. Add to that the many 1/12 MFH releases and I would guess a lot of modelers don't have much budget left for 1/20th resin kits. I've noticed its been much harder to sell some of my 1/20 resin kits the past few years versus 4 or 5 years ago.
Although I hear what you're saying and to some degree you are correct... BUT... I'm in UK and my preferred scale for building is and always will be 1:20 for F1 and 1:24 for road and sports car racers Le mans etc. My preferred type of kit is Multi-Media Studio27, MFH and I'm warming to Alpha just lately, still to buy one, just waiting for my coffers to build up again. I tend to go on a spending purge to buy my kits... then hibernate while my coffers build up! Which brings me to buying... You said:
jaymtford wrote:I've noticed its been much harder to sell some of my 1/20 resin kits the past few years versus 4 or 5 years ago.
I used to buy kits in the USA quite regularly, in fact a lot, and yes I've purchased from you too... Trouble is I haven't bought a kit from the US of A or Canada for getting on for 15 years. Why??? Some sellers are taking the preverbial WE-WE, they're charging extortionate Postal costs to send out of the USA. Some WON'T even post out of the USA full stop. If a kit is for sale, say at GBP £150.00 the USA seller is charging nearly the same again to post to the UK and Europe, lets be kind and say GBP £100.00... some are even charging a further up to 20% if I choose to pay by PayPal... SUB Total GBP £250.00... then once in UK, I have to pay Customs, Inland Revenue, VAT Tax, Royal Mail handling charges etc etc etc. This has cost me what I've paid to the seller another GBP £250.00 plus maybe up to 20% ... SO!!!... we have a grand total of GBP £500.00 sometimes GBP £550.00 for a 150 pound sterling model kit. The same has happened to me from Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland (not in Euro). But it's not all negative there is a small band of American sellers who INCLUDE customs & import charges in the price, so I don't get slammed here in the UK. My Amercan freinds tell me that they don't get stung if they buy abroad...
But you're right what you say about the MFH 1:12 kits:
jaymtford wrote:Add to that the many 1/12 MFH releases and I would guess a lot of modelers don't have much budget left for 1/20th resin kits.
I have bought a few of these magnificent Museum quality kits and it HAS slowed up my 1:20 & 1:24 purchases, at 500 to 700 pounds a time, it slows many of us up, plus don't forget all the other items we need Paints, Glues, Detail Parts, Tools etc etc etc it all adds up... I'm living on my pension, and yes it can get tight, but I replenish my coffers selling kits I don't need and other items. Then there's my wifes Hobbies, Steiff Teddys don't come cheap either yer know... then there's her " Brams Stoker Dracula " film collection, film props, cinema film posters, model kits and toys... Then my " Hellraiser "" film collection and also my Ferrari Memorabilia/Paraphernalia collection :shock: :shock: :shock:
Everything slows up when I need a 1:12 MFH kit... we NEVER stop each other obtaining collection necessities... Another reason for my slow up on 1:20 1:24 is... I only build Ferrari model kits these days, I have done for just over 35 years, and then only in 1:20th & 1:24th. When resin kits first came out I was encaptured immediately. Then when MFH started I was fully converted, I bought as many of the Ferrari kits as they came out, nothing lasts forever and they gave up on 1:20 & 1:24 started doing 1:12 had to give it a go and got the Ferrari kits. Then Shock Horror Probe, Stop Press, they then gave up on Ferrari kits altogether. :cry: Now because I already have most of what they've produced, 1:20 (262), 1:24 (148), 1:12 (39), all Ferrari, Model Factory Hiro (114), Studio27 (70), Tamiya (84), others (181) my buying kits has slowed right up, I'm only buying the ones I haven't got now, on the rare occasions they come up for sale!!! So it's not because I necessarily, I don't want or can't afford or uninterested or gone off, that I'm not buying, it's a combination of reasons, but mostly I already have them...
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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by racingkars »

JamesB wrote:You see, Kars? that's what I meant! :D
With 70 years of F1 to pick from, the ariety of choice is soooo wide that everyone have their own "cup of tea" so it gets hard to identify a no brainer choice...
Of course, after no brainers come...... niche
Well they could do Ferrari again (sorry Iconmodeler) i am still missing some, or a Red Bull (what was the latest? RB8?), those could be no brainers i guess.
But hey, i even have hardly customers for those beautiful 1/24 DDP kits.
I guess we ARE getting extinct.
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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by stubeck »

1/20 and 1/24 is still my scale of choice. If nothing else I simply don't have the space for a larger model! I will say it did hurt a lot when I was in Japan and saw the 1/12 Eagle Weslake kit...but simply didn't have the budget for it at the time :( I don't see this changing much as 1/20 is a good size for me to build as well as a good budget price. I don't have as big of a backlog as some of you, but I'm at the point where I get ADD with the number I have, so normal buying of kits is a no go at this point.
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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by Tyrone »

They'd do alright re-releasing a few more of their older cars, a lot of people wouldn't have been into the hobby say 10 years ago, and would have missed their chances to get kits like brawn, 2008 McLaren etc, I've managed to track down most of what I'm after but I'm sure re-releases would fly off the shelves, even if they had to be 'unbranded' due to lisencing issues.
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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by lezdep »

racingkars wrote: I guess we ARE getting extinct.
I believe that's the main issue with our hobby. Market is shrinking rapidly.
racingkars wrote: Well they could do Ferrari again (sorry Iconmodeler) i am still missing some, or a Red Bull (what was the latest? RB8?), those could be no brainers i guess.
I am quite surprised there is no plastic Mercedes F1 car so far, beside W01 that did not win anything. Haven't they won 5 championships
in last 5 years ? Studio27 in fact released 4 Mercedes kits under different brand name and imho at lower quality. But why there is not
plastic kit is a mystery for me. For me it's one obvious no brainer.

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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by stubeck »

I know that Tamiya has found that only Ferrari's sell. The FW24 while a great kit didn't sell great which is why we didn't see any others for a while, and same I pressume with the RB6. The other big problem now is how complex the cars are. Its out of the novice's ability to build an SF70 for example, so a more complex scheme like the Mercedes is a harder sell I believe.
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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by JamesB »

stubeck wrote: The other big problem now is how complex the cars are. Its out of the novice's ability to build an SF70 for example, so a more complex scheme like the Mercedes is a harder sell I believe.
Thta is quiiiite important, I'd say.
Nevertheless, Beemax seems (or not? :roll: ) to be having good sales with 80's cars.
Go for 126C3, 156/85, FW07C-D, FW08, MP4/1, BT53 (I bet Beemax will), BT49, Tolemans (Senna's!), Renaults, all those would sell... :D

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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by stubeck »

You forgot the FW15C I want too! We saw the same thing with Fujimi for a bit as well with the F1 cars they sold in the early 2010s. Tamiya's level of engineering is always so much better though that I doubt we'll ever see another car like the Lotus 99 T for example with simple engineering.

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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by jjy »

daveyman wrote:1/20 is still my scale of choice. It's the best compromise of detail/size for me. Surely the thing is that there are less and less cars that NEED kitting now. What's left now are very niche items and, whilst interesting to a few people, would there be enough interest to turn a profit.
Majority of the kits released, whether plastic or MM, have been the major teams, ie. Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren, Williams. But even within this group there are still some holes in lineup. But sometimes the bit more obscure car with interesting designs or livery is appealing, ie. ARROWs, March or Osella, etc. Anyone else find appeal in some of the backmarkers?

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Re: Question about Studio 27

Post by jjy »

jaymtford wrote:I've noticed its been much harder to sell some of my 1/20 resin kits the past few years versus 4 or 5 years ago.
I used to buy kits in the USA quite regularly, in fact a lot, and yes I've purchased from you too... Trouble is I haven't bought a kit from the US of A or Canada for getting on for 15 years. Why??? Some sellers are taking the preverbial WE-WE, they're charging extortionate Postal costs to send out of the USA. Some WON'T even post out of the USA full stop. If a kit is for sale, say at GBP £150.00 the USA seller is charging nearly the same again to post to the UK and Europe, lets be kind and say GBP £100.00... some are even charging a further up to 20% if I choose to pay by PayPal... SUB Total GBP £250.00... then once in UK, I have to pay Customs, Inland Revenue, VAT Tax, Royal Mail handling charges etc etc etc. This has cost me what I've paid to the seller another GBP £250.00 plus maybe up to 20% ... SO!!!... we have a grand total of GBP £500.00 sometimes GBP £550.00 for a 150 pound sterling model kit. The same has happened to me from Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland (not in Euro). But it's not all negative there is a small band of American sellers who INCLUDE customs & import charges in the price, so I don't get slammed here in the UK. My Amercan freinds tell me that they don't get stung if they buy abroad...
But you're right what you say about the MFH 1:12 kits:

Unfortunately the cost of shipping from US is what it is. It's just that expensive to ship international from US. I once tried to ship a box of 6 baseball caps to HK (approximately 2lb). The cheapest ship rate was $45.00 USD. This way more than the value of content! That said you can understand why some US sellers don't want to ship overseas. Now if you sell through ebay you can bulk-ship through ebay and it can be reasonable.
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