COMMENTCOMMENTCOMMENT
T
he cost of the hobby
seems to rear its head
on forums and social
media with the tedious
inevitability of an
unloved season. A new kit gets
announced and the commentary
usually gets sidetracked onto
the retail cost with some people
feeling they are being priced out
of the hobby etc...
Here’s the thing - it’s a
business, it’s not a service to
modellers.
Plastic kit manufacture these
days is an expensive business
and despite the frequency of new
kits being release now, the market
is a fraction of what it was back
in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Pricing isn’t done on a whim. Kit
companies have to turn a profi t
and so they have to balance
the mix of manufacturing costs
and overheads with expected
market returns and set a price
accordingly. Usually, the peak
sales are within the fi rst months or
year of the release before sales
settle down and the accountants
get to see whether a product
is self-suffi cient to carry on
production. Sales ticking over?
It stays. Sales dropping off? It
gets retired for the meantime and
something new takes its place.
Sometimes you’ll see
comments to the effect that “I
can’t understand why company
X is dropping that kit, do theynot want to make money?!!!”. It’s
actually a self-answering remark- yes they do, that’s why they’re
dropping it. But this is a digression
away from how kit prices are set
which goes back to the above
of (A) not on a whim and (B) to
recover costs.
In many respects the
enthusiast end has help make
the metaphorical bed they now
have to sleep in - for years they’ve
demanded more accuracy, more
detail, better fi t etc... which is fi ne,
but all costs money.
For starters there are the
research costs. The days of
pulling a set of plans from Aircraft
of the Fighting Powers have long
gone, even if some of the progeny
are still plying their trade in 2018.
Gathering research material,
visiting museums and collections
all costs money. From personal
experience I remember what
should have been a simple - and
prearranged - research trip to
an establishment turning into
an emergency meeting of board
members and curators who were
deciding whether to charge the
full commercial access fee of
thousands of pounds for a job that
was barely going to pay a couple
of hundred quid for just a few
simple photos and measurements.
After waiting around for an hour,
they eventually acquiesced, but
it was a foretaste of a change
in culture and climate. Decades
previously companies and
museums would be falling over
themselves wanting to assist, but
a more corporate environment
was now starting to monetise
every opportunity and to some
extent you could understand
that, but in other areas it made
simple requests a journey through
a chain of offi cialdom where
everyone wants their say.
This has become more
noticeable in the area of licensing,
which admittedly isn’t a new thing
but tended to be more the purview
of car manufacturers. Again,
years ago a kit company would
contact an aircraft manufacturer
and their request passed down
the line because PR departments
didn’t want to deal with something
outside their scope of interest
or understanding. The technical
departments of places like
Hawker Siddeley were only too
glad to get involved because so
many of the people working in
the design aspects were keen
modellers anyway and could see
the PR value of having a kit of
their subjects out there ahead of
their competitors. Free publicity
all for the sake of some drawings
and photos!
In recent years though,
licensing has extended not only
into the aircraft and military side
of things, but also for historical
subject matter - time was a
P-51 was a P-51, but now it’s aP-51 Mustang™ because North
American were acquired by
Rockwell who were consumed by
Boeing who now issue licenses.
And licences cost money, and
those costs have to be absorbed
into and refl ected by the eventual
wholesale/retail price.
Recent advances like Lidar
mean that the basic shape of
a subject can be captured with
more accuracy than ever before
but, as has been mentioned in
a previous Comment, it’s not a
case that it does all the work and
all the designer has to do it press
a button marked “make kit”. And
Lidar is costly - very costly - not
only in the hire of the equipment
but in the time it takes to set up
and record and pay a museum or
collection for the their time and
access.
Then there are the designers,
skilled, qualifi ed people who take
all the measurements and data
and create the CAD for the kit.
Kits have budgets and schedules
that have to be met. The longer
it takes to get a kit out there, the
more the R&D costs pile on, the
more pressures this puts on the
eventual shop price.
Decals have to be researched,
drawn and printed - the days of a
sheet pushing more than a dozen
items have long gone because
standards and expectations are
much higher these days, and that
adds to the costs. There is thenTHE PRICE IS
(ALMOST) RIGHT
Written by Jonathan Mock10 MODEL AIRPLANE INTERNATIONAL - June 2018COMMENT 155.indd 2 04/05/2018 14: