I have been out of model making for 20 years and decided to get back into it. I have a bunch (100+ kits) of unbuilt older armor kits (mostly Tamiya, some Italeri and DML) that I purchased back in the 80’s. I was checking Tamiya’s website to see whets new and I noticed a big majority of the kits I have are discontinued. I was wondering why they were discontinued? Is it because the molds were worn out, a newer version was available, not a good seller, or ? Also should I build them or do they have any special value as they are discontinued and no longer available?
As far as old kit evaluation, it pays to do your homework. Some kits I remember building as a kid are going for over &300.00 now on Ebay. ie. Monogram’s Air Power" I bought back in the day with the money I got from returnable soda pop bottles. I can’t afford the $300 price tag it has on it now. That’s a lot of pop bottles !
They typically go in and out of production cycles depending on the manufacturer’s decisions. Some may have been supplanted by newer tools, or a competitor has a better kit. You can check places like ebay for values, but you’re probably safe to build them.
I also have a lot of stuff from the 80s but some get re popped by another company with new box art and decals. As far as why they get discontinued, who really knows? The big guys up in the Ivory Tower make weird decisions sometimes.
I remember the 1/48 Monogram F101 being dropped and prices on eBay going for up to $60 for one. Then years later they showed up at Hobby Lobby for $20 (less with the 40% coupon).
I do miss the 1/32 P-51D with the retracting landing gear by monogram.
Revells odd scale sky raider with all those moving parts.
I supposse the factories can only churn out so many kits at any one time. Every ones range expands and they siply can’t keep maiing the older kits when newer ones are coming on stream. As other have said, from tie to time older kits do come back into production. Most of those older kits can still be found on e-bay and the like, but there may be the odd one that has more value.
I’d go ahead and build them. Get your skills back up to snuff on kits you already have.
I had a bunch of old Glencoe kits of the classic Disney spaceships from the 50’s, that I was hoarding. I recently found that most of them were still available for about $15 and decided they were worthless as collectors items. I tried building a few, and found they were junk, and pitched them. You never know!
Shark-
I was thinking about this topic earlier today so I’m glad you brought it up.
The model that gets me wondering is this death machine:
Got that one in your stash?
T e d
What are you selling? PM me.
Heh… I remember seeing those back in my youth years. They tip over too easy if one tries to pop a wheelie. Not to mention those fat tires on a tricycle motorcycle cause a lot of mayhem and mishaps out in the fields.
I have never seen that kit before. I’d love to get my hands on one someday. Thanks for posting the kit photo.
In the case of Tamiya and DML, discontinued kits are usually a case of new better tooled moldings coming along. So they discontinue molding the other kit. They may have some collectors value depending upon the kit, but usually not that much, due to newer better kits now being available. In the case of the Italeri kits, they usually disocontinue a kit for awhile, then reintroduce it a few years later in a new box for a higher price with no changes.
I once owned a Honda ATV three wheeler years ago. Does that count? And yes compared to quads they were death machines.
I did another inventory yesterday because I knew I had a Tamiya Wirbelwind but didnt see it on the shelf. So I checked around and found a bag with a few more kits in it, including the missing Wirbelwind. I was shocked counting all my unbuilt kits I have a total of about 294. Plus I know I have a 1/350 Tamiya Yamato I can’t find and the count does not included several aircraft and fantasy kits I have.
There are as many reasons why the kit was discontinued as there are discontinued kits. Many are worth about what you paid for them, some might be worth more, most will not be worth what you paid back then.
I doubt there are any “valuable” old Italeri kits with the exception of a handful of old Peerless Max reboxes they did like the old Dodge WC ambulance. It is more hard to find and sometimes gets a nice price from someone who really wants it.
Many discontinued Tamiya kits were due to the original molds being retooled to update the model. For instance, the M1 Abrams was retooled into an M1A1 so the older 105 mm gunned kit has become hard to find. Same with the M2/3 Bradley. It was retooled into the M2A2 and retooled again into the M2A2ODS so the older version is more rare, but also more outdated.
Their WW2 German tanks were just outclassed by newer kits by themselves and other companies so the value wasn’t there. Why spend $30-40 on an old Tamiya kit when a more accurate, better detailed kit by another company can be bought for less?
For researching which kits have value, eBay can be your friend. Do a search of their site for completed auctions (ones that someone bought the kit) to see how much people paid including shipping. Don’t just check what they list for. You may have a few kits that are worth a lot and 95 that aren’t worth anything. And packaging is very important too. If it is valuable in one box, it might not have the same value in another.
Several years ago, I listed a bunch of the motorized off scale kits by Japanese companies like Tamiya, Nitto, etc. on eBay. I made nearly a thousand dollars for these kits I paid between $5-10 for. Buyers from Japan and the US were the heavy bidders.
Rob, thanks for the detailed reply. I just took a count of the unbuilt kits I have and the number is 295 (armor, waterline, 1/35 figures). I also have several aircraft and anime kits that I did not count.
Weird thing about kits, they can be sequential in kit number, but one has value and the other is clearance bin material. I’ve noticed that some kits that were virtually identical, except one was of a more current version and the other slightly less modern, like a Vietnam version vs. a Desert Storm version or late WW2 vs. Korean War can greatly differ in price.
For instance in current kits, the AFV Club M60A1 RISE/Passive kit is virtually identical to the M60A3TTS kit. The A3 goes for more. Same deal with the original Esci releases of their kits of the M60 tanks. Esci released three versions of their kit; the M60 ‘Blazer’, M60A1 and the M60A3. Within the first few years, the Blazer and A1 were found in closeout stores for $4.99. The A3 was hard to find and if you did, cost more than $30 for one.