yeah really! i havent built any hasegawa kits before, and that is for one reason and one reason only : they bust the budget ! what does hasegawa have that academy doesnt ? i usually build tamiya kits, but i am in no way opposed to any other brand, except for price considerations. im planning to get a cat kit in the somewhat distant future, so id like to know what i would be getting if i buy a hasegawa cat kit, and what i might be missing if i buy the academy cat kit? (hey, cat kit rhymes!)
not just for the cats, but in general hasegawa is very expensive, and academy is very reasonable (not cheap, but reasonable) . what accounts for this price difference ?
I don’t know how things are where you live, but here in Europe, Tamiya kits are more expensive than Hasegawa’s… Academy’s are much cheaper, granted, but rarely rival the quality of the big two Japanese manufacturers…
I haven’t built either kit, but in general Hasegawa kits have more detail, better fit of parts and better engineering than Academy kits. This isn’t the case for all their kits but on average Hasegawa are better kits. I’ve found that Hasegawa kits usually have better decals too.
For the money, Academy are very nice kits. Just not on the same level as most Hasegawa kits.
dominique - here in singapore in order of descending price we have special hobby (exorbidant) then hasewaga (unreasonably pricey) then tamiya (very expensive but good) followed by revell/monogram (blows hot/cold) airfix (also blows hot/cold) and academy always seems to be the cheapest !
no worries pingtang, you have helped the curiosity of this cat (geddit[;)]
from what i hear around in these forums, tamiya is a better engineered brand than hasegawa, yet tamiya is usually cheaper than hasegawa here ! the owner of the hobby shop near my place says that hasegawa is more expensive due to logistical costs involved in flying the kits from the inland factory out to the port in japan, but this doesnt make sense to me. any inputs?
Check out the article in an old issue of FSM from last year. They did a very useful kit round-up of all the F-14 kits available, I found it very useful.
The selling price of kits in any given country will depend on a number of factors. First there are the trade agreements between the country of origin and the country the kit is being imported into. Then there are customs duties that add to the cost. There can also be agreements between the manufacturer and the distributor in a specific country.
You can also have agreements between manufacturers, such as Testors and Fujimi or Revell/Monogram and Hasagawa. The agreements let one manufacturer “box” the kits of the other. This reduces the import duties and therefore the price of the kit. The kits come in in bags so that the decals, instructions, and box are needed to complete the kit. An incomplete product has much less import duties than a complete product in most countries.
Another factor is the exchange rate of the currency of the two countries involved.
As a final note there is the profit motive of the manufacturer, the distributor, the wholesaler, and the retailer.
As for the best kit of any given aircraft consider whether a less expensive kit is accurate, well detailed, fits together well, has good decals, and anything else you consider important. If you have to buy aftermarket parts and decals to make a good model, then the more expensive kit may actually be less expensive in the long run. Food for thought.
rangerj
In the U.S. (from what I’ve seen at a couple LHS and retail stores that carry models in San Diego), here’s the order by pricing (expensive to cheapest):
Tamiya
Hasegawa
Academy
Testors
Revell/Monogram
Tamiya and Hasegawa (from what I’ve built) are good quality kits. Good to excellent detail, few fit problems, and good decals.
When I was in Singapore (less than a year ago) I got some really good deals in the LHS (thanks to the exchange rate) on Academy and Hasegawa models.
Another aspect is the “feel” of the material. I don’t know about you guys, but handeling tha “Academy-plastic” I get the feeling of toughing some kind of cheap plastic toy. And I also have noticed that the Academy plastic doesn’t react to glue (I use revell Contacta Pro) like the others do.
The parts from Academy always seem a lot heavier and thicker than the others too, maybe it’s to compensate the softness of the plastic.
All other things being equal: Biggest cost driver is number of parts.
More parts = More enginering + more labor + more tooling = $$$$
Second cost driver is materials. The plastic itslef is actually quite cheap, but hasegawa includes photo-etched parts, vinyl tires, and metal wheels also.
Let’s make this even easier for ya Reggie. I built Academy’s Tomcat (we’re talking 1/48 kits, right?) 15 years ago when it first came out. If memory serves it was (one of) their first aircraft kit(s). At least in this country. Well, decent attempt but it shows. Fit is average at best (main fuselage to forward section has a step in it), but the shape of the forward section is just too fat. And the canopy could fit better too. It was cheap, at 1/4 of the price of the Hasegawa kit, but I wouldn’t buy one again.
filbert, the difficulty now isnt in persuasion, its in finding 60 singapore dollars (35 USD) . with my enzo about 3/4 done, and my 262 untouched, it would seem that i will only get the cat next year for the tomcat GB.
Reggie,
Can you pls provide some of the best (best mean, good deal and variety) hobby shop information in your city? Im going there next week to hunt for my fav. kits. Thanks !
I went to three hobby shops when I was in Singapore last year. One was listed in the back of FSM. Not bad but more expensive than the other two. One was located on the bottom floor of the Millenia Walk (located between the Conrad Centennial and Pan Pacific Hotels), the other I believe was on around the 3rd or 4th floor of either Lucky Plaza or Orchard Plaza, right on Orchard Road. The address was 277 Orchard Rd. #03-46. Have a safe and fun trip.