In regards to some messages appeared in forums that involved to HLJ and Mr.Scott Hard, I received an answer from our friend and supported Scott to be distributed in forums. I apologize if this is out of place, and thanks to moderators to let us to post this here.
Mario Covalski
Editor
http://www.modelersite.com



Mario,

This is my official response. Please feel free to post it anywhere
you want.

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Running HLJ keeps me busy, and unfortunately I don't have a lot of
time these days for reading or posting in modeling forums (quite
ironic, considering as that's the medium I used to start HLJ way, way
back in 1995...)

But when somebody calls me out by name and then posts a pack of lies
about me, my business and the industry (in a forum that's run by a
model company, no less!), well, I get a little testy and feel like
making comments.

The post in question appeared two days ago on Dragon/DML's "Mighty
Dragon Fan Club" in the "Armor Club" section. Posting to this forum
is restricted to a very small group, apparently. The poster calls
himself "blogger-Scott" and this is what he had to say:

> Why nervous? Here's why.
>
> Yoshi,
>
> In case you didn't know, the person who posts as YOKOTA is Scott
> from HLJ, the mail order arm of wholesaler Irisawa, and whose group
> also recently acquired interest in troubled Tristar Japan.
>
> The reason for his outburst about "Smart Kit" (he normally posts
> with a calm demeanor to hide his affiliations) is that DML's
> announcement of their Pz.II Ausf.C DAK may have affected his group's
> interests.
>
> HLJ used to export a lot of Tristar models globally, but with a
> decline in sales of Tristar, they need to rely heavily on selling
> Tamiya items such as the Pz.II overseas to turn a profit. So when
> DML announced their own Pz.II, the competition means a loss of a
> chunk of their business. This is the main reason he was so
> confrontational in his post regarding DML's announcement. Reading
> his post again, it seems like he's grasping at straws right now.
>
> I fully expect more outbursts like this from Scott in the future
> (the other one, not me ;-O), now that he's finally lost his cool."


First, allow me state categorically that almost everything in this
post is false. It's either intentional lies or the ramblings of
somebody who knows nothing about what they speak. Let's take a look:

1) I have never posted to the Dragon boards as "YOKOTA" or under any
other name. When I do post to fora, I always use my real name.

2) HLJ is not part of Irisawa. We don't own anybody, and nobody owns
any part of us. Irisawa (a large Tokyo hobby distributor) also does
not own any part of Tristar Japan.

3) In order to "turn a profit," we're told we have to rely on Tamiya
and other brands due to the "decline in sales of Tristar." Will all
due respect to the fine team over at Tristar, our sales of their
products made up a whopping 0.08% of HLJ's revenue over the last year
(Dragon/DML only amounted to about 0.6%). Their products are about as
central to our profits as say sales of "Spicy Guacamole" Pringles are
to the profits of Proctor & Gamble.

4) This part is particularly amusing: DML's Pz.II "may have affected
(my) group's interests," he says. Presumably HLJ is going to lose
sales as modelers abandon the Tamiya Pz.II and move to Dragon/DML. An
odd notion indeed, considering that HLJ also carries virtually
everything that Dragon/DML releases!

While "trolls" and other ignoramuses are a part of life on Internet
boards, it's very unusual to see a board so heavily controlled by a
single company willing to allow such near-libel to be posted. The
biggest question of all is why Dragon/DML doesn't realize that the
mindless posts they're allowing there by "blogger-Scott", "blogger-
Hiroshi" and their ilk are harming Dragon/DML's image in the minds of
thinking modelers around the Internet.



---
Scott T. Hards
President
HobbyLink Japan (www.hlj.com)

yet another reason for me to be disgusted with Dragon/DML.

I am starting to think about boycotting their product altogether, despite the quality.

there are enough other kits to build to last me a lifetime already anyway.

Mario, thanks for posting this. I also mailed Scott (Hards) yesterday - just in case he HADN'T seen the 'rant' from 'Blogger-Scott'...

I have had the privilege of meeting Scott at a couple of the Nuremberg trade-fairs and frankly he's NOT the kind of person who deserves this kind of treatment - particularly when it comes from someone who, not having much in the way of 'cojones', decides to hide in the shadows using the psedonymn 'Blogger-Scott' - yeah, clever touch that. Using this handle the rumors were circulating that it was Scott Hards who has been making those personalized attacks on MDFC's 'Forum' - anyone with half a brain would of course realize it wasn't...

Stomach-churning...

Here are the two messages, judge for yourselves:

1) Yesterday:




2) This Morning:

I would venture a guess and state that about 99% of the modelers who have access to the MDFC realize that Noodle Boy is a shill and that since the "Noodle Boy" concept has just about run his course, they've decided to replace the Asian shill with one that is more western sounding. Regardless, it's the same shill behind the keyboard.

I completely agree. I've had the feeling for a few weeks now, that with 'Blogger Scott' now intervening (in a particularly pitiful cross-talk routine with the other one) that it could (to those of limited imagination) be a little more 'credible'.

Yep, it's still the same crap, but it's more 'insidious' crap...

Yes, the dialog between Noodle Boy and Blogger Scott seems manufactured and trite. Again, I believe both are one and the same. The attempt to make it look like there is a "discussion" going on in the forum is rather transparent.

It’s a pity that a company like DML that do produce some very good kits would allow their name and web site to be involved in a situation like this, if accurate it reflects very badly on DML.

Oh it's accurate. These two messages were cut and pasted from their Forum...

I can confirm that those are two messages from Noodle Boy's blogger forum at Dragon's site. Plus only Dragon staff personnel can post to that forum. Vodnik (Pawel) has a blogger forum there as well. He stated that he had to email his blog and the Dragon staff personnel posted it in his name. Other than Noodle Boy, no other blogger continues to post messages there. The other bloggers have long since realized that dribble that comes out of that site.

I find it incredible that any company would permit an individual's personal agenda to appear on their own 'in-house' forum. I think in the interests of fairness its perhaps better to give DML the 'benefit of the doubt' - at least for the moment....