I suspect the price will come down a bit. Things are still up in the air and this $100 price may well be a feeler or be a bit of a fake to make the 'actual' $89 price not look so bad. Certainly prices are going to be higher in future and i suspect that the price we are seeing will be close to the norm, but for new molds. You can't really price a repaint lower than a new model. All planes of similar size will be the same price, so that's one reason we're seeing $100 for this mustang repaint. It's sort of setting the bar.
I think the $85-$90 price level is more realistic and justifiable. But time will tell. There will be fewer of these new items made and perhaps there are enough collectors willing to spend lots of doe on 1/18 items.
It will inevitably alienate a percentage of the established fan based, many of whom came into this hobby from $40 WM planes. But there's not much to be done about that. These new items are not going to be produced in anywhere near the numbers, the older ones were.
That said, when AT joined 1/18 there planes didn't cost a heck of a lot more than 21c planes and were just as good. And they didn't have the mass production numbers through WM that 21c did.
So, i think there is an 'inflation mentality' going on here. While we live in a time of stagnation and deflation in most areas, for some odd reason, toy prices have sky rocketed. Oil prices are part of it, but they are nowhere near what they were and are not likely to return to those levels for many years.
So higher plastic and transport costs are not really the reason for these price spikes. The reason is that when the prices did temporarilty spike, sales probably didn't drop off much and everyone went 'hey, we can charge way more for these things than we thought'.
I seriously doubt the new KT will be anywhere near $140. I'll be surprised if it's over $90. For a bit more anyone can buy a 1/16 r/c tank that's bigger and very accurate. Lots of people have switched to 1/16 armour from 1/18 and will need to be lured back. High price tags won't do that.
Anyway, this will all sort itself out in the wash. Good to have AG toys around, that's for sure.
