Hello,

Wanted to know why the Tamiya kits are so much more expensive then almost any other kit out there? Is it because of there name? Don't get me wrong, I like Tamiya, they make decent kits, but Dragon, Trumpeter, Academy to name a few are very good as well and there kits are half the price. AND there figures are so much more better then Tamiya. Tamiya still has kits that are over 40 years old using the same old tooling and there still expensive. What gives??

And why wont Tamiya put out a good quality figure set like the other brands? If there so anal about detail, why dont they do the same with there figures?

Again, not bashing Tamiya. I have built several of there kits and I think there good. Just too darn pricey

I believe Tamiya's price adjustment is due to the fact that some of their kits come with pe and/or a metal barrel. They are trying to catch up to the other major manufacturers. This is good and bad news. Bad news: price increase. Good news: the kit includes pe and/or a metal barrel. So, we should still get shake and bake kits with greater accuracy.

Tamiya has always been an expensive brand for that reason I have not bought a new kit in a store. I always buy them second hand.
When Tamiya still was one of the leading brands on the market the price was somehow Justifiable but since about every other manufacturer in the past 10/15 years really picked up their pace and started popping up kits faster with new technologies and better moulding the price justification is not the case anymore.

It doesn't help much that they bring forth a new armor kit every few years and for years are re-re-re-re-rereleasing 40 year old kits with huge pricetags. Where other (newer) brands are coming out with 6,7,8 or more completely new tooled kits with metal barrels, PE, additional details for the same price or (very often) less.

So yeah they are probably very innovative in other branches of the scalemodelling Hobby but when it comes to Armor they are lumbering behind every other manufacturer. They do nice kits, They are probably one of the few that really make shake n bake kits. It is just a pitty that they are too expensive for what you get in most of their boxes.

I think it's way more prosaic. The Yen has been climbing compared to other world currencies recently, making the price of Japanese goods comparatively also more expensive. Add in shipping and duties, and the landed cost of a Tamiya kit is that much more expensive than a comparative Chinese kit.

We wingy thingy builders have been noticing that Hasegawa kits share a similar handicap. And it's not just confined to Hobby kits. Electronics, cars and everything else manufactured in Japan is more expensive these days.

Until the (so far fictional) day we get a global currency, this will continue to happen.

I think it is just a case of the state of the economy in Japan that raising the production costs and that in turn is forcing prices up through the supply chain.

I was going to say, have you seen Hasegawa pricing for 1/72 aircraft kits lately? $60!

Darren is right it's more a Japan vs. the rest of Asia for the most part. Their costs are higher so their prices are too. There is probably an exchange rate factor as well.

Jim

[quote]I was going to say, have you seen Hasegawa pricing for 1/72 aircraft kits lately? $60!quote]

$60...you should be so lucky, our local store lists the new Hasegawa 1/72 F/A-18 kits at $92 dollars

Idon't know what to make of it. However you can get $150 plus kit from Lucky Model under half w/ cheap shipping; while the same kit here in the US at or above cost.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

I take it no one pays that sort of money for a 1/72nd scale kit as I would not pay that for a 1/72nd scale B52 let alone an F18. I suspect that with this price structure one of two things will happen the kits will gather dust on the store shelf or prices will be forced down.

All the above applies, but in the UK, the importers, middlemen & retailers all take their cut.

Tamiya, Tasca, Trumpeter & Hasegawa are very expensive here, for what you get, to the point that it is CHEAPER to order from Luckymodel, HLJ, etc.

Bronco & Italeri are not expensive, relative to the above.

Come to think of it, why is it cheaper for a UK resident to buy AirFix and Revel of Germany from Luckymodel/HLJ?

Certainly the cost to produce a model in Japan vs. China is a major contributing factor. As the Japanese Middle Class seeks a higher and more sophisticated standard of living, the cost of Japanese products will continue to increase. It's been the same cycle here.

Now the Chinese have basically replaced the Japanese, and are the driving force in the hobby as to ever higher standards and new releases.

Tamiya relies on old re-releases to help fund the cost of new kits. Mr. Tamiya is a huge fan of 1/32 scale WW11 aircraft. Just look at the number of new releases in that category, compared to all the other categories they produce models of. The head designer of their once industry leading 1/20 scale F1 cars left to head up his own Chinese company to produce new and better F1 cars in that scale. Their 1st release is state of the art, solved many of the building complexity issues, and is only price @ $60 per kit !!

Tamiya, Hasegawa, and Fujimi are unfortunately antiquated companies, trying to do business like they use to in an ever changing economy. The end result is kits with outrageous prices like the 1/72 scale F18 from Hasegawa for $90. That's insane. And you want to know why it's a dying hobby with no younger people entering.

Joel

Amen!