'home market only' kit releases

[TsrJoe]

... over a number of years iv come across kits intended for distribution within a particular country or region and not avaliable elsewhere.

some im aware of are ...

Heller ; Greece, Finland

Airfix ; USA. (US.Airfix) Australia, Sweden?

Frog ; South Africa?

Revell ; Finland, Mexico

over the past year or so iv managed to pick up Revell Finland examples of their Buffalo, Curtiss Hawk, and Hurricane kits, all with excellent decal sheets (in conjunction with IPMS. Finland) another example is a Heller Finland issue of the Fouga Magister (i noticed the box also showing the Saab Safir and Morane as also being avaliable but not come across those as yet

an colleague picked up a Heller Greece Spitfire with greek markings and boxing (im not sure what others were issued with home market markings tho)

any others that come to mind?

cheers, Joe

[Mossie]

Several of the Japanese manufacturers make kits that are only available in Japan & some for the US market too.  The animie ranges come to mind, where there is a limited market outside Japan.  Part of the reason we have HLJ & others that specialise in Japanese products.  On a similar line, I think Revell kits are marketed as Tamiya, to fit in with import laws?

[NARSES2]

I think it's Italeri kits that get marketed by Tamiya in Japan Mossie ?

I was suprised when I went into a hobby shop in rural Oahu and discovered a boxing of the Hasegawa Beaufighter I'd not seen in the UK  It came home with me

[Spey_Phantom]

i remeber when i first bought the Heller 1/72 Mirage IIIE/R/5BA kit, there was a picture of a spanish Mirage on the box, but a few years back, they replaced it with artwork of a Belgian Migage 5BA, i dont know if thats the same in other countries 

[Mossie]

I think it's Italeri kits that get marketed by Tamiya in Japan Mossie ?

You might well be right Chris.

[Sauragnmon]

I HATE that there are so many low-run groups that market only in Japan... they wind up producing stuff I'd bloody flaming kill to get my grubby little paws on, and I'll never bloody get them because they don't market outside Japan.  ARGH!!!!!!

Makes me think I'll contact a guy I know in Japan who's had some good dealings with me in the past, see if he gets around and if he can pick up some such items for me...

[B777LR]

There is an obscure Danish manufacturer that does KZ aircraft, as well as the SAAB T-17. They are only sold in Denmark and Sweden (or so i've been told). Never seen the kits myself...

[upnorth]

I believe there was a special edition of Revell Germany's 1/144 E-2C Hawkeye that was sold exclusively in Japan and came witha special decal sheet to do the JASDF 50th anniversary scheme.

[ChernayaAkula]

<...>
over the past year or so iv managed to pick up Revell Finland examples of their Buffalo, Curtiss Hawk, and Hurricane kits, all with excellent decal sheets (in conjunction with IPMS. Finland) another example is a Heller Finland issue of the Fouga Magister (i noticed the box also showing the Saab Safir and Morane as also being avaliable but not come across those as yet
<...>

There was also a special Finnish release of the 1/72 J-35 Draken by Revell. I got mine from HOBBY LINK JAPAN (still available). Pretty nice decals with markings for two camoed Drakens, one with big and one with small roundels.

[Tojo633]

All
One classic example comes to mind and that is the Airfix Avro 504 in Quantas markings.

I think whereas US Airfix kits had different boxart and possibly markings, Japanese Airfix kits may have retained their artwork and decals, sure I have seen a Japanese issue AW Seahawk.
Quite sure many of the Tamiya kits are Italeri in origin, FwTa183 is AMtech of course but with the Kettencraftrad and pilot figure pity about the decals, one would have thought with the price they charge for them they could have added a more appropriate decal sheet of their own rather than the Fw190 decals you get.
Came upon this site as you do wandering about the web, shows various boxart images etc, enjoy.

http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/kits/index.htm

Cheers
Sandy

[B777LR]

All
One classic example comes to mind and that is the Airfix Avro 504 in Quantas markings.

It is actually Qantas, not Quantas

[RotorheadTX]

Italeri has done several to-market specials; a Bell 412 in Carabinieri markings and a Sikorsky HSS-1 (H-34) in Italian Navy markings come to mind (they also released an HSS-1 in Japanese markings through Tamiya). They have done fixed-wing specials too, I just don't know what they are off the top of my head.

[anthonyp]

These home-market only kits make me glad there's this interweb thing and Evil-bay, as well as other online hobby shops 

[TsrJoe]

oohh id never seen the Aussie Qantas Avro 504 kit before, def not one iv hidden away in the stash!

ones i do have tucked away for eventual building are the US. Airfix Braniff Concorde, Blue Angels Hercules, Air Force One 747 and US. Mosquito
recently aquired when in Finland were Heller Suomi Fouga Magister, Morane 406 and Saab Safir all in Finnish boxings and decals

[The Wooksta!]

There's a a lot of Hasegawa and Aoshima kits that are intended for the Japanese market only - the jet Shinden and Fw Ta 152H respectively spring to mind.  Mind, I think the Ta 152s (as there were three separate toolings) were Japanese only as the distructions were in Japanese only.

Revell did a Sweden only release of the Heller Vampire.  I have one somewhere.

Heller reboxed a lot of their Luftwaffe stuff in the late 80s for the German market.  I bought the Bf 108 when I was in Germany in 1990.