Please Explain This To Me

[Evilbert]

It has been about 20+ years since I built a scale model. A lot has changed since then for sure. So here is my thing. I served in the Navy and 4 of those years was on board the U.S.S. Wasp LHD-1. Well, my wife out at Hobby Lobby one evening and saw the 1/350 Trumpeter USS Wasp kit and she bought it for me since it was on clearance. She got it for $150 which was $100 off the normal price. Any way, My goal here is to build out the ship, and then build out larger scale models of all the other vehicles and aircraft that we carried on the ship.

While trying to find the various aircraft and vehicles, I have noticed that perhaps I returned to the hobby a number of years too late. Most of the kits I want are no longer in production/discontinued and simply difficult to find. One such item was the Dragon M1A2 SEP kit (which I did finally get), but my point is that they tend to continuously make certain kits like the f-14 tomcat, the Sherman tank, Panzer, etc. But when it comes to others like the CH-53 Super Sea Stallion (academy #12209), or the LCAC (Trumpeter #7302), for example. I could see if maybe everyone made the same kit; like the f-14, panzer, etc - but come on manufacturers. You may a great high quality kit, keep making it.

Why do they stop? I mean the M1A2 SEP is a highly sought after kit even today. There are other kits as well that are still sought after and are discontinued.

Maybe someone can explain it to me from a manufacturer's perspective.

 

[spud]

i would presume it has something to do with how well they sell if they don't meet there quota then i guess they stop it and then everyone wants one.

i was after 2 tamiya kits outta production for a while, I did find one and Tamiya are re-releasing the second next month i think.

Keep a look on ebay something you want will show up there sooner or later

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Kits come and go in and out of production all the time.

Most companies have a schedule as to what kits are being manufactured at what time....as they obviously don't have an injection machine for each mold they have in inventory.

A company may decide that they think they can sell 10000 copies of kit X in say 3yrs, so they manufacture 10000 copies, and schedule a re-release of the kit in 3yrs time. If it happens that they sell out of the 10000 copies in 18months instead of 3 yrs....then that kit is out of production until it gets re-manufactured again in 3yrs, and normally they can't slip it back in the schedule before hand as other kits they want to manufacturer are usually on a tight deadline.

Flip side of that, if at the end of 3 yrs the company still has 5000 odd kits left of the initial 10000 kit run...then likely they will decide not to re-manufacture it, and the molds stay in storage.

Something that is a perennial good seller will make it into the manufacturing rotation more frequently then something that doesn't sell well at all, and add to that, that all companies are always coming up with new molds of new kits, adds to the manufacturing schedule, and thus the other kits don't get through rotation as fast.

I know for a fact that the CH-53 is OOP, as someone else on here was looking for one, and I ended up selling them the one I had in my stash, since I knew I wouldn't be building it anytime soon, if ever.

 

[Gundamhead]

The same reason anything manufactured isn't always manufactured.

Supply and demand.

Sure you may want a kit of that kit after 20 year hiatus. But will 20,000 other people too?

If a kit is sitting long on a shelf it cost the store money and hasn't given any return. $60-$100 kits tend to sit while $20-$40 kits sell much faster.

Lets' say a company has a catalog of 200 different kits. That does not mean they will have 200 presses running 200 molds. More like 4 presses depending on sales and new molds.

Comparing it to F-14s and Shermans is a bit off too, cause do you have any idea how many variations of decals and models of those two there are compared to a M1A2 or Seat Stallion? LOTS. So of course they are going to produce more.

Anyway, that's the whys explained.

The what can you do's is easy.

Model forums all have a for sale/wanted section. Excellent source for like minded folk. Model shows have a dealer room. Fantastic deals and like minded folk in the flesh. There's hundreds of online stores to check. And finally there's Ebay.