First of all, LVTDOC welcome to the site!

I also have regular contact with David Harper and yes, VLS and (his own company) HardCorps are open to new ideas and properly considered suggestions. However,that doesn't even come close to resolving the problem. I have contact with two 'plastic' manufacturers - Masterbox and Tristar.Both of them although excellent manufacturers, are small compared to Academy, DML, Trumpeter or Tamiya.

Of the four, I would say that Trumpeter is the closest to the 'ideal' state of manufacturers. They are prepared to bring out different subjects which, IMHO, indicates some contact/market research with the consumer 'base' i.e. the peanut gallery such as ourselves....

Unless we, (as a site) can offer something that the 'big-boys' want they will either:

a) Completely ignore us

b) Be completely unaware of our existence.

Therefore, I see this as (sadly) an exercise in futility. We can with some luck (and personal contact) feed in to the smaller companies. Unless we get a real break, I don't think we'll be talking to DML or Tamiya anytime soon...Jim

I think a whole new area could be open to the big companies. If companies are reluctant to put out different armor kits, why not dabble into the realm of more dio products? Sure, they have the signs, sandbag sets etc, but why not start producing kits of buildings? I think that could open the floodgates. You have a ruined city house, all in styrene. MiniArt seem to be doing it, and I think that even with the vacuformed main sections, it will still be a great kit. Plus they probably would be more readily available to buy than AM ones.
Now that's what I would like to see...intead of new armor, lets see more dio pieces from the big boys!

Hi Jim,

LVTDOC is me (David Harper), I have been having so much trouble trying to log in with my original dharper I.D., that I tried to create a new one. The system would not let me use my original info. so I was forced to come up with a new I.D. and password (LVTDOC). But today I got an email from the site telling me that I need to change my info. again!!

I don't know why it shows me as being in the wrong state? I chose Missouri!

HHHEEELLLPPPPP!!

David Harper (aka LVTDOC)

I guess the LVT part was a little obvious...Jim :-)

.......and that's what I See!!!!

Me too, me too,
I am in a big favor of lists, written to companies for new models.

Komet

Yeah theres tons of new kits they could make, i'm in favour of buildings etc too ,thatd be ace!
vp warriors and the like are probably the best AM manufacturers around, for listening to what customers want, they always bring out something new and unsual on a very regular basis ,
most of the mainstream producers like tamyia though when they do have new kits available they always seem to be new race cars or such like ,i guess this reflects thier "home " markets though ,so cant blame them for producing what is going to be most profitable. if its not going to sell
then its stupid to spend all that set up money on it !
trouble is we know a lot of it will sell espcially to us guys ,but its getting them to listen to the microscopic voices like us ? i've been thinking about this most of today and
i really dont have a clue what to suggest

Just to had that some companies listen to their customers.

Pit-road, from Japan, regularly publish a whish-list with the most voted items. And they actualy make the most voted ships. Since they are a small manufacturer, they don't want to keep the entire stock of the latest "unwanted" 1/700 waterline model inside house!!!
I think that this is a very wise way of making good sellers and keep modelers hooked on their products!

Also listening to others ideas, sometimes makes that "ring-a-bell" and an entire new line appears and win!! (keep in mind the Revell type VII-C and all the after market products that keep on coming!!).

The market is made by the modelers!

Best regards to all,

Skipper

Essentially I see the problem as 'inputting' ,some of the companies put up a toyally spurious questionnaire and we all think that they are going to listen. Sadly this is often little more than a marketing exercise....

What we need,is a DIRECT LINE into these companies via personal contact/reccomendation/introduction or whatever....Jim

Hi Jim!

Yes you're right, but you need to get in thouch with them with something that they can see that will be transformed into money

If they saw a list of several hundred persons / users with the same target or subject, probably they would go forward and make it!!

In this post, you have a lot of different models on the wish list (the one's that I have wished for included)... so one of two options for this election is open:
- List is provided from the moderators (closed option);
- Anyone could make it's own wish list (open option).

Of course the second option, the open one, is the more realistic but tend to get a little dispersed...

(Back to Earth) - We just need a BIG LIST of subscribers for the same, or a few, projects and than we can go and knock on some doors!

Just my thoughts - no agressivity is ment

Skipper

Absolutley smack on Rui
thats it
we should maybe pick a model grouping like tank ? or armoured car
and then compile eoples wants lists
and the majority vote gets submitted to the big lads ?
i know i'm just wishing here really !
:-)

Thank you SteelDog..

But this is only Thinking before Reacting!

If we are going to produce a list (I'm including myself) of potencial good sellers we have to think of the following issues:
- Companies (with the exception of some Cottage Companies) are run by "financial people", not by modelers!
- So a profit is a must!
- Even if the "new model" is a Me-109, a P-51, Spitfire, Tiger, Sherman or a Prinz Eugen, if it sells go gor it!
- Re-tooling good sellers is also a profitable move!

So, in my opinion, the List produced must have:
- List (numbered, named, whatever method) of potential buyers;
- Accuracy: must be possible to make the most accurate model of the subject (no one want's an inaccurate modell, right?);
- The last point will produce more selling results, than a good advertisement campaign.

So, this is my opinion, no harm intended

Hope you're still awake :-)

Skipper

My 2 cents worth.................

1. It is realy quite simple why there is so much German. When one examines World War 2 the ETO was by far the biggest show. It started in 1939 and ended in middle of 45. It involed ALL the Eurpean countries from the far north to the medditeranean from the Atlanti to close to the Ural mountains. That is a lot of land mass occupied by a lot of people. As the Germans fought in every bit, it makes sense that this is what folks want to model. They did have a tremendous amount of variety in their material. Their tanks were considered the best, most fearsome and they had so many paint variations. OK the allies, well the russians mainly used a very plain jane tak the T-34 whcih wasrarely camoflaged ad there are just a few variains of it. The Brits the same the Americans used the Sherman and really, there were just a few major types that dominated. So, that is why we get so much of these kits As the man says, Tamiya and Dragon and all the others don't just sell in your little neck of the woods. I'm sure the Eastern Europeans want every variation of Russian tanks made, the Brits the same and the US the same. One thing they agree on is German. We all want German to go with our own countries stuff.

As to Pacific stuff, come on folks that was primarily a grunt war. The Japanese aircraft and naval vessels have been well represented and some key British and US stuff.

Oe thing that is picking up quite a bit is modern. With the war in Iraq going on there is worldwide interest picking up. More and more Abrams, Bradley, HUMVEE, Challenger kits are flowing. Probably see some better T-62 and T-72 kits eventually.

Like I said, it's a big world out there and supply and demand makes it turn. The sherman freaks are a small little group that wants every minor variety / variation, but probably most T-34 nuts could give a rats behind or Brit armor fanatics. They all will buy the German stuff though.

I love big ships and all I can say is thank God for Trumpeter. They are forging new territory and reaping big rewards. I'm sure Tamiya andAcademy have awakened by now so we might see some movement there

ALL rhetoric aside, I hope everybody gets wha they want. I think the model companies listen. I know monogram did. Fine Scale Modler did what do you want polls (still does) and a large amount of the 48th scale airraft have come out . So guys my advice is, KEEP VOTING you will be heard. But keep your demands realistic if you go for some super minor variation it is quite unlikely that many others will want it to there by your vote is lost in the translation

your right again Rui ( i'm still awake :-) ) i used to work in the scifi models industry and that company was taken over by "corporates" ,the pold management team who were all mad modellers left.! and no longer did we see fab new releases every few weeks , but re-hashing old and even older stuff all the time it got very tedious they were squeezing as much cash out of it at poss !
sad really i think blaster has a good point too though ,
i personally dont care for minor variants of the same thing over and over again fresh new subjects are always welcome!

They are listening some, we asked for one main scale, and look. Tamiya is doing a 1/48 for everything, so you can't say they are totally not listening.

Like Gary said why would they want to spend money on new molds, when we are buying the stuff they are making now.

The one true way to get a company to listen to you, is if the US were to change their tax laws to help out small business, would be to start our own model company. Invested,
Owned, and operated by Armorama members.
Then we could hear first hand, why, or why not a model will, or will not be made.

We are all pulling in the same direction, then!

Lets hope that the resulting list will give us some happiness

Skipper

my wife bought me a set of testors mil flat paints, bless her lil heart, and i filled out and mailed the testors questionairre card, and added what i would like to see, that was part of it, and i hoped to put in my 2 cents worth that way.

i do like the idea of a group request tho, and am willing to be a part of that....

reb

The trick is, not to ask for something joe average modeler would care about. I know that all the Sherman experts have a 100 variations or varieties they would like, but me as a joe average modeler can't tell a whole lot of difference btwn them. The same for Panther / Tiger tanks. Certain types of tanks and softskins have really been negected like the M-3 Grant / Lee and the WW 2 Brit stuff. On modern level the Russian stuff is woefully deficient and the French almost ignored. My complaint about softskins is the lack of at least 1 60- 80's tractor trailer combination. They could do an M-54 and have a separate fuel and cargo trailer kit. I don't think the aircraft field has been too neglected except in the larger scales, but I'm seeing more ad more of those kits coming out. The ship level is woefully inadequite, but Trumpeter has been making great strides with their large scale aircraft carriers so maybe we'll start seeing some new battleships and a cruiser or two come out. The more obscure you go the smaller the tallies and less likely the list would be taken ito consideration. So keep that in mind when you vote. If you want some panther tank that only one test model was produced a, or some Sherman that had 10 nuts per road wheel vs 9 you are just wasting an opportunity.