ACADEMY

[Radish]

Not sure if this is old news but Academy kits are apparantly being no longer imported to the UK due to their high cost.
This came from a VERY high source in IPMS(UK).
The same happened to Hasegawa once before, during a previous recession due to the exchange rate.

[Aircav]

Samething happened to Fujimi too

[nev]

Well, there was a rumour about this on Britmodeller a while ago, but it was never officially confirmed.  Would explain why my Raptor has been on order with the LHS since January and still not turned up...

[lancer]

shame if it is actually truem, but it won't affect me as I rarely buy Acasemy kits.

[nev]

FECK ME!!  I've just been to HLJ to check out the price of the 1/48 Raptor - a reasonable £39.78.  Shipping?  An eye gouging £27.35!!!!!!

Total price = £67.13   *faints*

[Shasper]

Should've went on EB . . . My dad scored a couple of 'em from the Academy store for less than retail for one kit!


Or so he saids . . .

Shas

[jcf]

It can't be based on the exchange rate between the UK and South Korea, as the Pound has gained against the Won over the last two years.

April 2, 2007   1 GBP =  1,854.4 Won
April 2, 2008   1 GBP =  1,931.7 Won
April 2, 2009   1 GBP =  1,953.4 Won

Lucky Model in Hong Kong list a price of ₤26.83 with shipping of ₤19.36 for a total of ₤46.19.

http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=AC%2012212

Jon

[pyro-manic]

It's probably converted through Dollars or Euros first, or something stupid like that, depending on the importer/distributor.

[PR19_Kit]

It's probably converted through Dollars or Euros first, or something stupid like that, depending on the importer/distributor.

Yeah, everyone in the 'business chain' has to have their pound of flesh of course.

In this case it's OUR flesh too. Of course with prices that high and no-one actually importing the stuff there won't be any sales, and 10% of nothing is nothing. Corporate Greed does NOT Rule OK in this instance...... 

[NARSES2]

It's probably converted through Dollars or Euros first, or something stupid like that, depending on the importer/distributor.

Thats right the export price will be either US Dollar (probably) or Euro (possibly) based. Very few countries outside of those two zones base export prices on their domestic currency. We certainly didn't in BS/Corus/Tata. Strangely that meant a strong pound was bad (imports cheaper in £ terms) and a weak one better (imports more expensive) in terms of the domestic market - 55% of our business.

[Aircav]

The rumour is that it seems the head of Academy imports in the UK has jumped ship to Pocketbond..................

[B777LR]

Academy is cheap as dirt in Denmark. Can really not understand why they are no longer imported to the UK

[Mike Wren]

The rumour is that it seems the head of Academy imports in the UK has jumped ship to Pocketbond..................

Stan Alton who worked for Toyway (Academy importers) has moved to Pocketbond. It may be that Toyway are to concentrate on the various toy ranges that they do, rather than kits?

[Geoff]

My LHS have not heard anything about this.

[Martin H]

so we may see a change in uk importer at some point