I happen to be a P-47 nut. I was in the local LHS yesterday and there was the Tamiya bubbletop in 1/48 waiting for me. I greedily snatched it off the shelf, ready to head for the register until… !!! $41.00 US retail!!!
I put it right back. Now, don’t get me wrong, I spent $130 bucks on other stuff, but why are these Tamiya kits so expensive? Is the price of Tamiya quality worth this? I say this because right across the aisle was the Tamiya King Tiger (porsche turret) armor kit, which obviously has a lot more content for the same $41 bucks!
$41.00!?!??[:0]
That’s one heck of a mark-up. The new Tamiya P-47 bubbletop sells for 2,500 here in Japan…that’s only about $22.75 USD.
Some sort of trade tariff, perhaps?
Is 5 bucks that big of a deal? My opinion is that the Tamiya is worth every cent. I would order it on line to save whatever I could, especially since you can spread the shipping over a few more items.
Think of it this way, there are a lot of people that will spend way more than 40 dollars at a bar in an evening…and what lasting good do you get from it? But for my skill level, it is very discouraging to have to spend a lot of time fixing things, when you could just start from a better kit. just my opinion, though.
I guess maybe it depends on the person. You have to do what makes you happy, that is the most important thing.
The Tamiya 1/48 Jugs are expensive but worth it IMHO. But if you want a 1/48 Jug that’s still a very nice kit for less money, look first at Hasegawa & second at Academy. Both build up into very good models, but there not in the same league as Tamiya.
the 1/48 tamiya clear me-262 sells for a mere $70 CDN at my LHS. ($52 US) thats the only I paid attnetion to because I got it (off of ebay for a mere 42 CDN [31 US])
The simple solution is don’t buy Tamiya! They’re overpriced (to charge what they do for tanks, and to only supply rubber band tracks is just taking the p***), they rot your modelling skills, and their decals are for c**p.
If enough people do this, Tamiya will notice that they are losing market share, and do something about it. They are too complacent, and have released almost nothing genuinely new in the last couple of years.
As far as the 1/48 P-47 is concerned, buy the Academy one. It’s very nearly as good as the Tamiya, and with the application of basic modelling skills, you can make it better than the Tamiya OOB. With the amount of money you save, you can buy some aftermarket decals, and stlll have cash left over.
Steve,
IMHO, the price of Tamiya kits is probably worth it…because they spend an enormous amount of time cutting their tooling - everything fits perfectly (very seldom will there be a problem), their kits are pretty well detailed, and it’s actually rather easy to make one of their kits into something you can be truly proud of.
This especially goes for those modelers who are beginners - I can remember making models 30 years ago, trying my hardest to make them look just like the pictures on the box - and often being disappointed with the result.
Tamiya has made it as easy as a manufacturer can to allow the builder to get a good result. How many times have you bought a kit of lesser quality, and struggled with fit problems, used lots of filler, and had to scratchbuild bits that should have been there in the first place, or had to re-engineer bits because they came out of the mold in poor condition? How many kits have you ever bought that were BETTER than a Tamiya kit?
I know they’re bloody expensive - but I buy them anyway.
I can see both sides of this discussion. I’ve put Tamiya kits back as well… at the same time with my underdeveloped skill it’s very tempting to buy them. There can be no doubt about the superior quality of the Tamiya kits… I just picked up the 1/72 scale P-47 Razorback and I was very impressed with some of the details that other model companies just haven’t been able to pin down. For example the pylons on this bird are very realistic… not just slabs of styrene with locator pins. I guess it’s just all about what someone will pay.
Yes, but compare the Revell Germany 1/72 P-47 with the Tamiya one. Tamiya mouldings very slightly better, though not so much that you could tell when you’ve built the model, Revell decals significantly better. Tamiya kit, in the UK at least, 2 1/2 - 3 times the price of the Revell one.
Must admit I looked at both the Tamiya & Hasegawa 1/72 Fw 190s in my LHS last month, but ended up buying the Revell kit.
Reason, the Tamiya was £10 ($18.00), while the the much older Haseagawa was £8 ($14.80), the Revell kit meanwhile came in at a mere £3.49 ($6.28), including Hagelkorn glide bomb.
The Revell kit may not be as simple a build as the Tamigawa kits, nor does it come with an open canopy like the Tamiya, but then the Academy kit does, and that is only £5.00 ($9.00)
I can’t deny the quality of the Tamiya kits, but their cost often denies me the chance of buying one.
Also the range is somewhat limited, and if you want to do some of the more interesting or obscure aircraft out there, you need to look to other manufacturers ranges, so you got to learn those modelling skills. After all who else but Revell would produce a 1/72 Blackburn Skua?
There is no doubt that Tamiya is the best. The question is, is that quality worth the price? I’m thinking that most people trying to get started in modeling would be put off by these prices. Thirty years ago I started building Aurora kits (terrible) because as a youngster with a paper route, that is what I could afford. I try to put myself in someone else’s shoes, walking into the LHS for the first time, and laying almost $50.00US on the table just for the model.
Does anyone think this is a problem?. Our hobby is fun, satisfying and healthy. To perpetuate it, there has to be value in the equation. We all understand that no matter how good the kits are, we gain experience and advance our skill by building (and buying) a lot of them. In the age of computer games, etc., I don’t see those young faces in the LHS anymore.
What really made me set that bubbletop back on the shelf? I felt it was too much for a 1/48th airplane. A Tamiya armor kit across the aisle with twice the complexity and features sells for the same price? Something isn’t right .
i find J-Hulk’s point to be the most pressing here.
how does the price nearly double from Japan to US?
is it tarriffs, importers, middlemen?
i don’t think it is Tamiya, because if their kits sold in the US for the price they do in Japan, they would really dominate the market.
i got almost all of my Tamiya kits online, either on eBay or on close-outs.
model-expo just blew out all their Tamiya plastic.
i got the Corsair spin prop for $17.50, Enzo for $23, new Williams for < 20, Kyofu spin prop for around 20.
so they can be had at ‘reasonable’ prices now & then.
I’m here in Oz, with the $$$$$$$$$$$, it’s the importing agents, who create the price structure of the Tamiya kits, it all floats and the exchange rates at the time of shipment.
We get kit prices here that are up and down like a Venietion Blind, from out Tamiya agent.
Tamiya doesn’t use an agent for distrubution in the States. They do it themselves via Tamiya America. Which makes me wonder if there is some sort of trade tariff placed on their imports by the US government (like the heavy tariffs on various US export products the US always complains about with Japan).
I feel that it’s important for those of you not living in Japan to understand that the opposite is the case here. Tamiya is quite reasonably priced, while imported kits from Revell/Monogram and Airfix are outrageous.
Trumpeter and Dragon, however, seem to be cheap everywhere!
There are no tarrifcs on plastic models kits imported into the US from counries with Most Favored Nation trade status. I believe that Japan is in this group, as is China, so it’s not the Gov’t (for a change). More likely the transport/retailers.
Simply put, Tamiya charges high prices because people will pay them. They are certainly smart enough to do the price vs volume curves and optimize their profit.
What is an object worth, anyway? The answer is that in a free market any given object is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. There are evidently enough people willing to pay the price for Tamiya quality, and in my experience Tamiya quality is definitely superior - so far. If people are willing to pay a higher price, Tamiya would be crazy to sell for less. I wouldn’t sell my car for $500 if someone was willing to pay $1000. (This gives you a hint about how I save enough money to afford Tamiya models… [:)]) Tamiya is no different.
They may not be perfect, but I have yet to have a Tamiya model with any flash or seriously warped parts. As someone else said, their molds are very well cut. As a modeler with barely average skills, I’ll take the best starting material I can get. On the other hand, I can buy a Monogram kit plus all detail sets for the same price, and sometimes I go that route.
The trouble I see with Tamiya is that they may be coasting on their good name and falling behind in new offerings. That business stragegy may be a good one for Tamiya, but for us the vacuum in new offerings will be filled by Trumpeter, Dragon, etc.
You made some good points there. You are certainly on target concerning the “free market”. I suppose our recent increase in gas prices is a perfect example of your point. Yes we will pay $2.00 a gallon, but, the overall effect on the economy and OPEC is negative. Certain people will be priced out of the product, and a negative chain reaction will result. I think the same analogy goes to the topic of these kit prices. Imagine the volume increase in sales for Tamiya with a modest price reduction. Even at less unit profit, VOLUME SALES increase market share - amortized tooling, engineering and R&D costs are paid off quicker resulting in GREATER PROFIT. Not to mention allowing a lot more entry level builders and first timers to enter and enjoy the hobby. What do you think?