Revell in running for Airfix

simtrac · Post by **simtrac** » 15 Sep 2006, 15:34

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story_b ... =y955z3y7x

Post by **Garry Russell** » 15 Sep 2006, 16:50

It doesn't supprise me

It is the one thing I dread

I just hope it goes to somone else

Funny thing how Airfix's demise is big news when it has happened several times before with no comment

This time it's not even Airfix but Heller that has pulled them down,

The sooner it gets back to Britain the better...and certainly I wouldn't want it to go to a US company....even under it's European disguise.

If Revell bought it a lot of the Airfix kits would never again be seen but Revell would have bought up moulds that could compete with theirs.

Garry

simtrac · Post by **simtrac** » 15 Sep 2006, 17:38

It depends if they see a market for the old Airfix kits - and I don't think they will. As you say Garry, they may snap it up just to sit on any competition and nick the new stuff like the TSR2.

Not sitting in boardrooms I don't know all the facts, but my gut feeling is that someone like Hornby would give Airfix their best shot - look what they've done with Scalextric which by rights ought to have been dead years ago.

I think this time its big news because of the internet. When they went bust before, the only thing I noticed was those horrible boxes where they had a photo of a badly made up model sitting on a 'blueprint' - I certainly never realised they had gone under and been bought by Palitoy.

Post by **Garry Russell** » 15 Sep 2006, 17:54

I agree about Hornby

I well remember those badly made models.that was an early PC thing

The US market wanted a pic of the made up model on the box, but it couldn't be a very well made one as not everyone buying it could make it to such a high standard.

So it was one made up by an inexpeience person

I cringed when I saw the lovely atmospheric One-Eleven painting with a crude model with wrinkly wobbly decals :crying:

That box put me off

As a kid I used to have a wall covered in the cut out boxlids of Airfix kits.

The artwork was magnificent and some were issued as jigsaws later.

The whole package is an institution and those boxes inspired enthusiasm for the contents even to the point where it wasn't noticed that the kit in some cases was not brilliant.

Hornby I feel would be worthy as they will understand where Aifix comes from and are best getting back on 'track'.

A few years agao there was doubt that model railways could continue at all and the salvation was greeted with relief. I don't think anyone then could have thought for a minute that it could be sucessful......at best it was hoped it could pay it's way.

But they have done it and if Airfix did get taken on it would first get the most important thing it has lacked for years...stability.

Garry

Nigel H-J · Post by **Nigel H-J** » 15 Sep 2006, 18:53

When I was a young model maker having started with Airfix, I have to say that, in those days, when pocket money allowed, I much preferred Revell for the simple reason was that the models weren't small and clumsy. In those days you only ever gave a wide berth to anything with 'Made in Hong Kong on it'!!!!

I suppose yet it could fall in the way Triang did many years ago:

http://www.triang.org.uk/brief_history.htm

Then from that to this:

http://www.gandr-wrenn.co.uk/history.htm

History can make for sad reading at times!! :sad:

simtrac · Post by **simtrac** » 15 Sep 2006, 19:24

Whoever acquires Airfix has to recognise that it has had its day as a highstreet product - if they try to market it as such now the same thing will happen. For example - you still find Airfix kits in certain outlets such as Toys R Us, newsagents and chain stores - to my mind that is just a waste of marketing budget, distribution and general effort.

You don't find Tamiya anywhere except specialist shops or on the net.

Essentially the kits are now an enthusiasts/modellers/collectors product and ought to be marketed as such. Even if a new kit never appeared from Airfix again, those moulds are a potential goldmine. Ship the moulds to China (sorry, but that's business sense these days). Release a limited run of a few kits every year on a rotational basis and aim them at adult enthusiasts and collectors. Perhaps design new 'retro' packaging for each edition, limited edition decal runs etc etc - the pull for the collector will be irresistable. Hornby already do this to an extent with their limited 'Sport' range of Scalextric Cars.

Look at Corgi Toys and what happened to them. Lost their market. Bust in the 80's, a buyout and total reinvention of what they are about.

VC10 · Post by **VC10** » 16 Sep 2006, 14:21

simtrac wrote:Release a limited run of a few kits every year on a rotational basis and aim them at adult enthusiasts and collectors. Perhaps design new 'retro' packaging for each edition, limited edition decal runs etc etc -

I'd love to see the VC10 back in BOAC colours, together with the 707-436.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » 16 Sep 2006, 15:46

simtrac wrote:Look at Corgi Toys and what happened to them. Lost their market. Bust in the 80's, a buyout and total reinvention of what they are about.

Quite worryingly, Corgi isn't doing that well at all at the moment either, the annual report they released isn't pretty viewing.. :sad:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/ ... 06.htm#Key

A net loss income of Â£35 million... eek :shock:

Nick

Post by **Garry Russell** » 16 Sep 2006, 18:00

VC10 wrote:
simtrac wrote:Release a limited run of a few kits every year on a rotational basis and aim them at adult enthusiasts and collectors. Perhaps design new 'retro' packaging for each edition, limited edition decal runs etc etc -
I'd love to see the VC10 back in BOAC colours, together with the 707-436.

Exactly what they should do alond with RedSquar Vanguard and Comet in Red Square, BEA Airtour and The One-Eleven has quite a few choces of contemporary livey.

That would certainly appeal to a lot of propective buyers.

Garry

simtrac · Post by **simtrac** » 16 Sep 2006, 21:16

Actually as I wrote the word Corgi I felt uneasy ...

And back to Airfix - there is of course a dark side - they will never be as predominant ever again and there are a lot of kits that will just become extinct. Items like the 1/12 Coldstream Guardsman - while Humbrol had them, there was probably maybe a chance that sometime these would have been re-released.

But hey - who wants to build one of those? And don't even mention Anne Boleyn!

A BOAC VC-10 would be delicious though ...