Small Scale Military Headquarters

I just hung up with BBI and found to my disappointment that they are done making models for the collector market. They have decided to go a different direction and will also stop selling to small hobby stores. Yet another blow to our hobby! Not many left and with Merit suspending any future releases we may see the end of 1/18 scale pre built models. Terrible news

Whoa, Wait, What? Hold on...you said Merit has suspended any future releases? Does it mean no FW 190A?

Wow this is BIG news .

Yes what is the Merit news ? They are too far along on the Fw-190 project to cancel so what is their news ?

This news means one thing none of the big players will be doing the A-10 .

So ...........

Disappointing but not surprising. I think WalMart did more harm than good to 1:18 by their $40 aircraft, some of which sat on the shelves until they were marked down to half that or less. The artificial pricing forced other companies to think there is no market or profit to be made in 1:18 (or at least in 1:18 realistic military) and abandon any thoughts of the market. Or maybe in today's world buyers are more interested in superheroes and cartoon characters than in history.

This is awful news, but not completely unexpected. BBI was dumping their models at reduced prices starting a few months ago, so it was apparent that something was up.

Not sure what to make of the Merit announcement, though, unless AG can shed more light... I am hoping they finish and release their FW190 since they have come as far as they have and it would be very disappointing if they did not follow through. Still, a friend of mine at my local hobby store who deals with Merit as well as said he has not gotten any pre-release forms for the FW190 yet and has heard nothing from Merit...

That said, the 1:18 models never sold well or really caught on in a sense. 21c nearly went bankrupt only a couple years into the game and was temporarily saved by the Wal Mart deal, but that is what ultimately did them in. My friend noted above was a 21c dealer and even did some model building work with Roy Sutherland. He told me that it was Wal Mart that killed 21c because poor sales and many returns made it a financial loss for 21c. (I can see where excessive demands from Wal Mart caused 21c to cut corners, leading into the vicious cycle of poor quality products leading to poor sales and many returns...)

From my perspective as a consumer, it was clear that even in the "Glory Days" the 21c items didn't sell at Wal Mart and even with the small retailers. I remember pallet-loads of half tracks sitting around for months at one of my local Wal Marts and various 1/18th scale planes sat around at my local hobby store as well. We here on SSHQ and other related boards were really just a fringe market and never really representative of the entire consumer base.

May be time to grab an extra couple BBI items where you can still find them cheap in order to keep boxed...

This is Bloody Awful news , i can see the cost of these going through the roof soon.

Cheers
Studly

Bad news. Hang on to what you've got

cnq wrote:Bad news. Hang on to what you've got

I do agree with you.

.........so who here was going to do the 190 A conversion kit again..I think we need to talk.

Jay wrote:.........so who here was going to do the 190 A conversion kit again..I think we need to talk.

That was me but ...... and then they said .........six months to a year went by then ........this is what we get.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxwBU_wXU9M

pickelhaube wrote:

Jay wrote:.........so who here was going to do the 190 A conversion kit again..I think we need to talk.

That was me but ...... and then ......they said .........this is what we get.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxwBU_wXU9M

LMFAO Pickle.......Good One

I'm asking me if it was really a good way to choose to go on with big and bigger models. Only few people have anough place and money to collect and display all versions of the F/A-18, F-16... 21st crashed after the Avenger and F-14 release, they had the F-4 and the B-25 in project... The A-4 Skyhawk would have been a good choice, with a lot of versions, colours, and some foreign customers and the possibility to hang many planes as a double patrol flight, as it is possible with the Sabre, FW-190, ME-109 without so much place under the ceiling.

Where is the information regarding merit releases coming from? I am not seeing that info anywhere on the web. What specific statement or source are u referencing grenadier? Are u hijacked by a troll or is this confirmed info? Exactly what was said regarding the FW-190? By whom? I don't see that specifically stated in your post.

I'm not saying I don't believe you btw, I'm just looking for specifics.

Unfortunate indeed. But it does appear that the 1:18 market is small. Hopefully some sort of models can be continued via custom model makers.

teebird wrote:Where is the information regarding merit releases coming from? I am not seeing that info anywhere on the web. What specific statement or source are u referencing grenadier? Are u hijacked by a troll or is this confirmed info? Exactly what was said regarding the FW-190? By whom? I don't see that specifically stated in your post.

You won't see anything about an Fw 190 coming from Merit, positive or negative unless you look back a few years. There's been speculation, rumor and some prototype photos from others but absolutely nothing from the source since the all gray protoype pictures at the one show a while back. Says volumes. Pictures of prototypes mean nothing as the Skyraider or A-10 would attest. Heck, 21st C. even had box art for the B-25 and it never came to be.

I proposed the idea some time ago that the future of the FW 190 project would hinge on the financial success of the Harrier. Don't have any numbers but I'm just guessing it wasn't. Businesses don't just produce a product to make a handful of people happy without making a profit, especially massed produced imported items. Sounds like BBi as well has drawn the conclusion it isn't financially worth the effort since the market is so small with limited or no return.

After reading this post and after having a conversation with "teebird" on the subject, I was prompted to send an email to Merit international. I emailed back and forth with Joe at Merit International. Joe was curious as to where I heard this at first and replied that they had no plans on suspending any 1/18 scale releases. When specifically asked about the FW190A, Joe replied with an answer. Teebird suggested I post the reply so here it is.

"Hello sorry for the late reply just been busy, but yes we'll see the FW190 but the factory has not given us a release date as of yet. Thank you for the support."

I think this should ease some of the members concerns. Teebird thanks for prompting me to contact them.

Thanks for that bit of info rschaap, just wiping the sweat from my forehead now .

Cheers
Studly

Well I guess there's still hope. Maybe the Harrier was successful? Seems Merit is little more than a middleman broker/distributor in this deal. Otherwise I would think Merit would be telling the factory when to make the release, not the other way around. Starting to make sense now. At least they've finally said something, though apparently they control nothing.

It would be very interesting to know what the metric for success on the Harrier was/is. Just the packaging alone on the Harrier had to be quite an expense, let alone the model itself. I would imagine the sales to the distributor network probably dictated the production run somewhat. I have no idea how long that period was or typically is but it seems like there is just one run of product on these items unless sales are very robust. I personally found the harrier to be excellent, my prediction on the FW-A model is it will be really loved by myself and other FW lovers. It seems like it's reasonable to assume a price above $150 but below $200 based on the pre sale announced by the German retailer. Hopefully the $150 number is the mark. I personally think that anything in that range is a heck of a good price and I thought the Harrier was extremely reasonably priced. I applaud any new product from ANYONE at this point. I think it was great that rschaap got some relatively official confirmation that the FW is still in the works! Applause my friend!! If there is a window to buy a new product I suggest we all grab as many as possible right away when they finally come in! Hopefully our small group can be some of the first in line to buy in solid numbers when the FW190A models hit the shelves!!

Ok sorry have been very busy. I received the news on BBI direct form them when I went to call in an order. I buy direct from Merit and did NOT get that news from them. I called another distributor about picking up some BBi before they are all gone. My salesman informed me of the Merit news as they had a large pre order and were told it has been shelved for now. He also informed me that there will be no second runs of any of the Huey's or Harrier's.

Well is that good or bad news. It seems good

It seems bad if your sales person was referring to a large Pre order of FW-190A's that's cancelled/suspended by merit:(