Maybe it’s time for Tamiya to invest in a factory in the U.S. to get on the band wagon. It seems that other manufactures (Japanese) have done so to keep their profits in line plus I do think that shipping would be easier and customer service could be reorganized into a North-American field office to reduce action time just my thoughts.
tigerman
with you all the way there![:)]
basically you either adapt or ecome extinct…[B)]
tamiyasaurus anyone??[:0]
[:)][:)][:)]
Its time that someone recognized that there may well be a market for 1/48th armor. I for one look forward to eventually having a 1/48th Marder or just maybe at long last, a 1/48th 88 MM flak gun. I only hope the price doesn’t end up too high for my funding.
Ahhh…with Mr Tamiya, the prices of his 1/48 scale may be quite comparible with say Dragon’s 1/35 offerings. Hmmmm, bigger or smaller…
Ding!Ding!
Personally, I think that’s the most likely situation. I work for a manuf. company (admittedly, it’s not plastic kits), and I have a hard time believing that the cost to produce a 1/35 scale kit will be significantly different than a 1/48 scale kit. It’s just plastic for crying-out-loud (I can’t see how the labour can be of any significant difference)!! Most of the cost has to be in the development/tooling, marketing and distribution areas. If you don’t get over a magic ‘volume’ threshold, the profits disappear. Raising the prices of the kits likely has less to do with the per unit manufacturing cost, and more to do with an erroding market share. By creating an entirely new ‘market’, Tamiya is almost assured 100% share. Personally, I think it’s almost genious – they’re banking on taking some of the 1/35 market/builders with them, and also banking on pulling some of the 1/48 aircraft builders into the new armour scale. They’re rolling the dice on just how big this new market will be…
Murray
As far as pricing goes, the Tiger will be 1,800 yen (about $17 USD) and the Sherman will be 1,600 yen (about $15 USD) here in Japan. That’s about half the price of their latest 1/35 offerings.
The Tiger will be released this month here and in December overseas, while the Sherman will be released in December here and January overseas.
If the other 1/48 releases from Tamiya are any indication, there is a “slight” savings, but nothing dramatic. All of these prices are from one web site:
The Tamiya 1/48 Kettenkraftrad w/goliath $11.20
The Dragon 1/35 Kettenkraft w/puppchen $15.00
The Tamiya 1/48 Type 82 Kubelwagen $11.20
The Italeri 1/35 DAK Kubelwagen $12.95
The Dragon 1/35 DAK Kubelwagon w/figures $19.50
The Tamiya 1/48 Kubelwagen $10.85
The Dragon 1/35 Kubelwagen w/cold weather starter $16.45
Skybow is also releasing a couple of Tigers in 48th.
Review over on PMMS.
http://pmms.webace.com.au/newkitnews/newf.htm
Actually many 1/35 kits of Tamiya are already produced here but since the labor cost in China is still much much cheaper (by about 4-5 times) than the labor costs here, I still don’t see Tamiya’s price going to be more competitive than that of Dragon’s.
I think the main source of savings would be in the volume of plastic[:D] and cardboard required as research, mold preparation and factory operation cost would be about the same.
I’m betting that their 1/48 prices will not be substantially different than their current competitor’s 1/35 prices. It’s a much more diverse market and Tamiya will continue to offer 1/35 but won’t be rolling out anything new. This leaves the door open for Dragon, Academy, and Trumpeter to compete with each other for new 1/35 offerings and consequently, keep prices at their current levels. Tamiya on the other hand will have virtually 0 competition in the 1/48 arena and can set their prices as they wish and the market will bear. Time will tell but I seriously doubt they will be able to establish enough critical mass to make this worthwhile as a longterm deal. They’ve been outpriced and outcompeted in the 1/35 arena and trying to carve out a new empire in the 1/48 genre is very risky indeed. Genius or folly, it’s too early to tell.
I vote folly. First I think the market is limited and they are already getting initial competition from Skybow. Who will be next? I just don’t think the crossover with the AC guys (which is something they might be banking on) will pay off. You can only squeeze so much out of the modeler in terms of money, that I feel most current 1/35ers will stay the course consistent with their chosen scale. Now newbies and younger modelers might be the target group of mind, especially if they haven’t quite gotten into 1/35 yet. This would make them more suseptible to 1/48. IMHO