Are kits getting more and more limited?

[seadude]

Just as the thread title says. Does it seem like model kits are getting more and more limited as far as how many are produced and available? Kinda seems like that to me from all the stuff I've been trying to find and buy in the last 2 years. Maybe decades ago, model kits were produced in the tens or hundreds of thousands. But for some reason, I am seeing more and more limited quantities now. And when I want something, I have to search all over the place on the Internet just to find a website that has what I want. Sometimes, I can't buy a new kit right away that just came out because I don't have the money yet. And when I am fully able to buy something a few months later, I find that the item is in limited quantities, out-of-stock, or something else, and it's getting harder to get what I want.

Anybody else feel like this or is it just me?

[dadlamassu]

I think the lack of availability is in part due to the change from rather basic "pocket money" kits for children and dads/grandads to make of yesteryear to the current more and more detailed kits aimed at adult modellers.  The companies making them and the shops selling them have a much more restricted clientelle purchasing models, stock costs money and space and there is cut price competition from on-line sellers etc.  When we had a LMS the owner said that any suppliers insisted on a £200 - £400 minimum order so he stopped stocking kits and could not afford to take special orders unless the order was a really large one.

I used to buy models in threes when my two boys were making them so all three of us could build at the same time.  Now I rarely buy a new kit or a "new tool release" as they are too difficult or fiddly for a 7-year-old.  As my stock of old Airfix and Matchbox/Revell runs out I rely on second hand kits bought at shows, e-bay and from various other modellers.

[Dizzyfugu]

I do not have the impression that the number of kits becomes limited. It's availability, and the range of options has become much braoder than, say, 30 or even 40 years ago.

dadlamassu already mentioned some retailer issues. "Then" you could find model kits (basically only Revell, Matchbox and sometimes Airfix) in almost every supermarket or grocer with a toy department. Additionally, the number of toy or hobby stores which carry them is dwindling, too. Today, in store availability has become much more limited - and many shops here in Germany only stock a limited range: it's primarily Revell that dominates, and it is in many cases the only brand, with a range of popular kit choices. If you want something "exotic", it is really hard to find a shop that carries what you look for - you have to go online, unless you are really lucky to have a decent shop nearby.

If you are online, the choice is vast. Just consider how small the world has become! And the open markets also opened channels for short run companies from Eastern Europe, which are IMHO a real enrichment for the hobby, despite steep price tags that will scare away beginners or young folk.

It's IMHO not less stuff, but more difficult to get hands on it.

[Thorvic]

Actually the whole demographic has changed they used to mass produced and stay in production until sales fell off and aimed at the toy market mostly for kids. Now we have a greater variety of manufacturers aiming kits at the adult market through more specialised retailers. Production runs are smaller often from a limited number of asian production facilities catering for a variety of customers. Modern warehousing methods also monitor sales so lines where sale4s are falling off are run down and sold off cheap to clear stocks.

Thus we have quite a broad variety of kits, but once OOP then can soon disappear, due to smaller targeted production runs, greater use of global on-line market and specialists who clear end of production lines from manufacturers and wholesalers so much harder to find what appeared to be pretty common kits.

[PR19_Kit]

What's a 'model shop'?

[seadude]

Maybe another reason kits are so hard to get a hold of is that people are buying multiple copies of the same kit. Makes me wonder just how many of X kit a person has to have? How many Me-262's of the same scale, kit #, and manufacturer does a person need in their huge stash in their basement or garage? How's about saving some model kits for the rest of us for crying out loud! 

[PR19_Kit]

I have 92 1/72 scale Spitfire kits of various Marks, that's a drop in the ocean compared to The Wooksta's Spitfire stash!

The problem is that Supermarine made SO many versions of them in the RW, let alone the Whiffed possibilities.

[Steel Penguin]

I also look at it from the wargamers view,  with the older "lead" figures  the moulds would go and the figure would vanish, if you wanted multiples you got them, there and then.
Im still trying to get 1:48 Challenger tanks ( Acadamy and kittec)  in sufficient numbers to do a company, plus support ( AAA, engineer, etc)  several years ago at the Cosford show (  if anyone knows the exact date don't worry I don't want to know how long ago  )  one of the traders had a big pile of the Kitech ones at 2 for £5,  what I should have done is blow the budget, there and then gonzo style....   but I ( foolishly) thought " there's loads of em around I can get em slowly"      as it is the ones I can get now are flashy as eck, and rarer and rarer,  the academy ones
have vanished ( I cant evan get them bulk, by walking up to the importers at Telford and going  " ive got a pile of cash, how much do I need to give you to get these ordered specially for me,"
giving them a pre order with cash up front...)
so when something comes out I want,  I get them in multiple, and then get a few more over time if I can.
I  can see it as an extension of the "just in time " mind set not wanting to have a large stock of unsold kits, not realising that steady sales are possible if you give the kit a chance to have them.
meh 
I think I still need more warrior kits ( I think its 10 to complete the company then I need the extras for forward obs,  AAA, AT, MLRS, Recon, Drone launcher etc etc)  I got N of them still unbuilt in the loft, and I think I still need a few more ( at least  )

[JasonW]

Maybe another reason kits are so hard to get a hold of is that people are buying multiple copies of the same kit. Makes me wonder just how many of X kit a person has to have? How many Me-262's of the same scale, kit #, and manufacturer does a person need in their huge stash in their basement or garage? How's about saving some model kits for the rest of us for crying out loud! 

I buy multiple of the same kits for a number of reasons. First, if there are parts in the kit that I plan to use to convert other aircraft in some way (cowling/engines/props/wing/canopies/weapons etc.). Additionally, in the world of whiffery it is often very helpful to have multiples if you plan to bash or do a certain aircraft in multiple nations markings etc.

If my game plan were to have a single representative model of a certain era/air force/manufacturer or aircraft type I could see only getting one of each model. It really depends on your building or whiffing plans. I especially find myself buying multiples of the Hobbyboss easy build kits and a lot of the new Airfix releases since they are so affordable and the quality is there especially for the prices. The Hobbyboss easy builds have the exterior detail that is nice and can often come in handy for using the wings/stabilizers/props etc. in other builds. 

I like having the flexibility of being able to do what I want when I want and not have to search the world over for a specific kit that I need for a plan I've cooked up and then having to fight somebody on eBay for it. I've been in the model building world for close to 25 years now (including working part time at a model shop for the last 15) and have been burned more times than I care to remember thinking that a kit would still be around when I want to build it or use it. I just buy it when I see it now. 

[The Rat]

Said it before, sayin' it again: MATCHBOX! I wish more companies would follow their example and make kits of aircraft that nobody else even thinks of.

But that would get in the way of yet another Bf-109. 

[Dizzyfugu]

The selling point of the Matchbox kits is/was that they were simple, but in most cases (well, the Alpha Jet maybe not... ) pretty good representations or the respective vehicle. That's a niche that's neglected these days, but it's the entry point for the hobby. And these kits are still popular, it seems.

[PR19_Kit]

But they did go where others feared to tread, as The Rat said.

I doubt anyone else would have done a Fairey Seafox, an NA T-2 Buckeye or a Supermarine Stranraer, at least at that period of modelling history. Nowadays it's a different kettle of fish of course, with the various Czech manufacturers bringing out every possible variant of almost every aircraft ever built. 

There's an en excellent web site about M'box stuff BTW, well worth a look if only to refresh your memory of weird coloured styrene and trench-like panel lines!

http://www.matchboxkits.org/

[upnorth]

Talk of Matchbox does remind me of an area where I see today's kits as limited and that's the aspect of workability.

These days, kits are so loaded with detail and bells and whistles that you have to spend so much time stripping stuff out of them before you can do what you really want to with them. The price some of them come at makes you think twice about such actions.

I cut my modeling teeth on Matchbox and late 70s and 80s Monogram kits. Matchbox was a cheap blank canvas you could take in any direction and Monogram of the day was a bit more expensive but a good balance of detail to overall effect. Monogram also engineered their kits to be relatively easy to cut up for conversions and the like.

These days, I applaud Eduard for their "Weekend Edition" kit  and "Overtrees" concepts. You get the basic plastic at a decent price and can do as you please from there without blowing so much more on PE, resin and unrequired decals if you don't want them.

These days, I find myself buying older kits with less to them when I can. I'm quite thankful the Smer reboxed some old Heller kits. Heller's 1/72 Tempest is still a great little kit that can be picked up for not so much and is really easy to work with.

[zenrat]

Agree with you upnorth.  The new style of Airfix engineering makes them more difficult to whiff as there is more thingos kicking around inside them to worry about.  On the car-door Hurricane I chose to try and modify the internal structure to work with the whiffing but there were times when it would have been easier to just gut the fuselage and put in an old style floor and seat.

Where are the Matchbox moulds?  It would be nice if someone did what Round 2 are doing with the old AMT & MPC 1/25 cars and repopped them with cleaned up moulds, reopened gates, restored parts and retro boxing.  Coloured plastic goes without saying.
I have fond memories of a 1/72 He111 and numerous 1/76 vehicles with those great bases.

[PR19_Kit]

Where are the Matchbox moulds?  It would be nice if someone did what Round 2 are doing with the old AMT & MPC 1/25 cars and repopped them with cleaned up moulds, reopened gates, restored parts and retro boxing.  Coloured plastic goes without saying.
I have fond memories of a 1/72 He111 and numerous 1/76 vehicles with those great bases.

Revell have many of them and are still re-popping them at intervals. The Meteor NF11-12-14 and the Canberra PR9 come immediately to mind (I wonder why?  ) but they don't appear to have all of them.