Small Scale Military Headquarters

just read the latest bad cat blog &it certainly does;nt bode well for any new releases.it states that they tried to put together a new aircraft but mfg;s put it out of the realm of possabilities due to financial requirements. i think it would be true regardless what scale would be involved. perhaps rob is right about getting out of the china market and trying korea or mexico. certainly looks like it going to be dry around here for along time to come with the state of global comodity prices.
regards&later SCUDRUNNER

I was hopeful for this but I think BCA would have bit off more than they can chew with 3K F-104s. Oh well, hopefully someone will bring them to us some day.

I have been saying this for years, get out of China!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know of a new Roto plastic company that will be operating here in South Dakota…any one interested ?????

They say they can make high quality molds real cheap.... cheaper then the way 21st, bbi AT does it. And the deatil is out of sight!!!!!!!!!!

I will be point man for this…..

You know, I have some older Kenner Star Wars vehicles (from the POTF series from the mid 1990s, right after they started making the figures again) and they were made in Mexico, so that country is always a possibility. It would probably wind up costing more as I expect the average Mexican worker makes a little more than the Chinese one, but then NAFTA would be working in our favor

or we could go to former eastern bloc countries..or former soviet states...lol

I was hoping Badcat's new mystery plane would be a BBI 1/32 Ritchie F-4.
I guess that leaves Hobby Master's 1/72 Ritchie F-4 and the on-again/off-again 21st Century 1/18 Ritchie F-4.

I guess there's still hope BBI will do a repaint of its 1/32 F-4J and release a Cunningham F-4J "Showtime".

Plenty of countries in Eastern Europe and South America would be more than willing to produce this sort of stuff. Quality would probably go up as well with workers who weren't under the watchful eye of their friendly CHICOM party members all day. However I can imagine that China would not be too happy to lose it's lucrative position as the worlds top manufacturer of plastic junk.

Oddly BCA has pulled their cancelation announcement on their blog. Wonder why? Did BCMatt decide it was too hush hush to post for his competitors or did he change his mind about funding BBI F-104s?

Hmmm. Mike, are you out there? Drop us a line and give us the goods!

Its got to cost a lot for a on line retailer to fund one of these. BadCat is pretty small when you think about what it takes, as far as things drying up, of course they will slow down and of course its going to cost a litlle more. But I dont think one could say this puts 21st anywhere near in the same position as badcat.

That being said it looks like Unimax may not be doing so well. Their new releases are all delayed and looks like some where cancled??? The metal costs compared to plastic????

i will assemble them for free if I get to keep every 20th one

Rowsdower wrote:Plenty of countries in Eastern Europe and South America would be more than willing to produce this sort of stuff. Quality would probably go up as well with workers who weren't under the watchful eye of their friendly CHICOM party members all day. However I can imagine that China would not be too happy to lose it's lucrative position as the worlds top manufacturer of plastic junk.

I agree and I would be happy if our models were produced for example in Poland . The obstacle would be only the Dollar/Zloty rate. Zloty is so strong that the export from Poland anywhere is absolutely not profitable. But maybe...

Wieslaw wrote:

Rowsdower wrote:Plenty of countries in Eastern Europe and South America would be more than willing to produce this sort of stuff. Quality would probably go up as well with workers who weren't under the watchful eye of their friendly CHICOM party members all day. However I can imagine that China would not be too happy to lose it's lucrative position as the worlds top manufacturer of plastic junk.

I agree and I would be happy if our models were produced for example in Poland . The obstacle would be only the Dollar/Zloty rate. Zloty is so strong that the export from Poland anywhere is absolutely not profitable. But maybe...

Rail to Western Port cities..germany, holland, france..etc.
as long as the quality is there..Poles, chicoms, Cossaks I can care less who makes them...I'm paying a price now for DML(Dragon Models) but as long as they continue to blast FOV to hell in quality then I don't mind.

Hmmmm... I just believe (correct me if I'm completely wrong, I'm just a kid with my own views) that if most things were made here, we'd have a stronger economy. Because we'd have more jobs, higher quality items, quite possibly cheaper items due to increased competition, and thinking about it, we wouldn't have to worry about other countries' politics. Think about if China decided to boycott the US one day. Highly unlikely, we're a huge buyer. But we'd be screwed until we could startup our own factories. It would take time, but it would be a worthy investment, would it not? Mexico is also a fantastic alternative. It would create many jobs for our Mexican friends, and not to mention they're really close, so it would be cheap to bring any products in, and especially if something was wrong with a product, it could be taken care of easier.

I'm talking all kinds of products, though. The only problem is Mexico would become polluted, and they would have to tear down the beautiful jungles and farmland eventually.

Like I said, I'm just stating my views, I'm no economy buff, but this is what I think. Correct me if I'm wrong in any way.

It is all about COGS (cost of goods sold) determine mainly by:

Direct Labor: Wages and benefits
Overhead: Indirect labor, bonuses, energy costs, administrative costs, taxes, depreciation, equipment repair, etc.
Material: cost of raw materials and packaging
Shipping: getting your goods to the customer

How do different countries figure into this?

Labor: Cheap labor and lack of benefits can be of great value. Think of our union employees that make $60K/year. Add benefits and retirement and this can easily top $110K/year.

Overhead: Cheap energy, regulatory costs and taxes are much cheaper overseas. In America we must adhere to regulatory requirements put out by the EPA and OSHA, follow regulatory laws like SOX and pay taxes causing huge outlays to overhead. If your energy plants can belch pollutants, you can dump wastes into the stream behind your plants and not worry about little things like safety it is much cheaper to run a business.

Material costs: In the US we must either ship raw materials from across the oceans or pay for high labor and overhead on goods made in the states. Overseas factories can save of raw material costs and their shipping.

This is pretty simplistic but accurate all the same.

Think of it this way: if we want toys made in the USA we must either pay through the nose for them or subject our employees to poverty and pollute our country and laws to match. Or wait until the dollar falls so far that we are no longer a G8 country!