Poll: the future of 1/18 and prices

[Tinman]

it's interesting because if the Black Hawk had never been released and just came out now, people would probably be diving on it (as they would for a Hind, as an example), even at this steep price. As it is it will most likely sell slowly but steadily....don't underestimate the sexiness of the window guns plus the additional appeal of the Bin Laden raid.

It's true, the miniguns did it for me. Way more interesting than the original Black Hawk release, which I had a couple of.

[pickelhaube]

My 2 bits is this.

1/18 scale is getting high. The price on the black Hawk is crazy but smart. The old one are selling for that so why not the new ones.

There will be lots of guys who wont bat an eye at paying the higher prices. They want it that bad.

I am sadly almost out of the collecting. I have almost everything thing that has been made. The reason I still get things are their modification values.

I need the piece if I am going to make a part for it.

Other than that I have not gotten anything for my personal collection for about a year now.

That is sad. As a matter of fact of have started to sell some of my duplicates.

Does anybody really need 19 1/6th scale Stuarts or 10 Atlantic Avengers ?

If the Black Hawk sells well then we will see more stuff.
This is BBI's way of testing the waters.

[aferguson]

i don't think they will sell too well at the asking price. It's true some will pay the price on ebay for the out of production blackhawks, but how many in a year? A few dozen people maybe.

BBI has probably made 2000 of these new ones, maybe more. They'll sell a few hundred but the rest will sit. It's not new enough nor high enough quality/accuracy/detail for the asking price.

I was keen on getting one of these until i saw the price. Now i'm not keen.

BBI is trying an experimental gouge that is going to fail i think. I'd pay it for a nice new Hind but not for a shakey retooled blackhawk.

[B17Fortress]

BBI is trying an experimental gouge that is going to fail i think. I'd pay it for a nice new Hind but not for a shakey retooled blackhawk.

If they released the Mi-24, what are the chances that BBI would expand into other Soviet-Afghanistan War era pieces? If they release some Mi-24Ds, T-72Ms, VDV squads, BMPs, Mi-8s, BTRs, ducks, and some afghans, I would shell out the cash until I go broke.

The WWII market seems oversaturated while the cold war, save Vietnam, has been overlooked. But then again there aren't too many consumers also interested in my above list so my dream line of products will never see the light of day .

[Tinman]

B17, I'd love to have the Soviet / Cold War pieces you mentioned, but I doubt we'll ever see those in 1/18. We're lucky that 21C put out some Vietnam items in 1/18. Wish they'd done even more with that line.

[rjvilla82]

i'm new to the hobby and so the latest price from bbi doesn't seem to be a shocker to me. but after reading everyone's posts on what prices were like back then, i'm like wow and i wish that i gotten into this long time ago. i guess the reason for these prices is that it's just the sign of the times.

[snake]

Welcome to the forum, rjvilla82.

And I can see your point about the current prices. Not out of line for what equivalent models go for on Ebay.

I was never able to take advantage of the Walmart "clearance" prices, but still found you got a heck of a lot of model for the prices three years ago. But if you are just starting out, be prepared to pay some pretty hefty prices for the harder to find ones.

[Jesse James]

Hasbro watches the "secondary market" on things, and it can sometimes become a factor in what they put out, but other times they ignore it because they know even though a handful of people are willing to plunk it down, that doesn't necessarilly equate that enough are willing to plunk down that much to make it.

It's all risk and reward, and at the current state of the global economy, toys are risky... Especially big ones that cost a lot to tool up, to product/ship... You have minimums you have to order to get to even a slightly above reasonable price... Will you have enough people willing to go that extra mile with their dollar? Especially right now?

[Jnewboy]

I will say this, everything is going up, some faster than others. I have to charge more for customs as the base models are becoming much more expensive, even buying used ones that are out of the box on eBay are going up.