Model hobby cost, when did they jump in price?, and why?

I started modeling again about ten years ago, and if you really wanna try sticker shock, try coming out of the styrene world into resin. Holy frijoles. A resin figure kit can easily set you back a hundred bucks, and then you need an airbrush, paints, a spray booth - you get the idea. Sometimes I get nostalgic for the days when I'd bring a model home, put it together, slap some enamel on it and call it built. But OCD forbids me to follow that course now.

well you guys gave pretty good description. I stop about 20+ years ago, and just pick up a few months ago. Back then you could buy them(Models) just about anywhere, and as I remember,sketchy at best LOL the prices then did not seem out of the ordinary. Now its not enough to take me away from the hobby, but it was more of curosty

LOL! I could really give a rats hiney about most of their model selection, but they have a reasonable amount of supplies, and lots of other stuff I can incorporate into projects. And occasionally I stumble across a good deal there like my 1/35 MH-60 or 1/48 PV-1 at 40% off or on clearance...

Lucky for me I don't have to even choose not to shop at Hobby Lobby...

Ah but the selection at Michaels or Hobby Lobby pales when compared to my local hobby shops... 40% off or not... those chain stores do not carry a fraction of what my two closest shops carry as far as variety and quantity of selection goes.

As far as kits being better than they used to be... yes and no ;)

Oh Yeah : G

And I forgot shipping the things too .That I believe is in marketing , But , I forgot . What ? ?  $175.00 per ten pallets full ? Oh Boy ! price adjustments ahead . Is that by rail or truck ? Which is cheaper and closer to markets for transport ?

I must say, Tanks. I can't vouch for all that detail, but thats a pretty darn good explanation IMO.

Oh and don't forget, 40% off at Michaels before you think about a real Hobby Shop.

I am going to help you understand " Grasshopper "

   Say I have a plastics company and want to get into hobby stuff . Okay let's say the choice is a P-51-D Mustang . Gosh there's plenty of technical info around .

    Now comes the talk with the board of directors . Okay what's the biggest cost in a model's coming to the market ? Is it Research , Marketing or just making the model .Well , let's see , I want to make a million or more of them if the market will support it .  

    Do I do a simplified version of High quality OR do I do a specifically engineered product that leaves the model builder with a product that requires no additions from the after market ? Oh , and keep the quality factor very high . that's a grand goal . Why ? Well , Molds aren't cheap to develop or manufacture .

     How a starting price of over a quarter million dollars ? That's layout , Milling and then will this be a two , three , four  part mold . Will it be a slide mold ? Higher cost there . Oh , the machine to put the mold on , isn't anything like we now have . Can ours be modified and at what cost ?

   Good then we have decided , If we do the all out version ( think Tamiya here ) then it will be $20.00 base price . Per unit  .Okay then we can retail it after taxes , freight and other charges at say $ 38,50 a pop . We will then see a return on the product perhaps in six months at five percent of the cost .

  Oh, don't forget to add in Suggested retail to the Hobby vendor and his Wholesale price point of 12 percent .And it goes on and on .

    Well the kit is out . How much ? How about $ 45.00 with tax . Uh-Oh , Forgot the printing and boxing cost of 76 cents per model ! Let's go the $48.00 and that way all is well and we won't go broke , but as far as the retail vendors they'll be fine . If not we'll sell it in the big box places . And still hit our profit goal .

     There is the thinking and doing . Maybe not all , but enough to give you an idea of how it's done and how the market is made and set for a product . The final proof is this . If the whole first run sells out and the reviews are such that demand increases , then the product will be marketable for probably a longtime . Therefore in production a long time too .

Because they are so much better than they used to be.

And I'm still looking for that Ace Combat Flanker Yellow Limited by Hasegawa. Now that's a short run production kit that carries a huge price tag. I'm not crazy about paying a high price for one either.

There are a couple of factors.  In addition to inflation itself, inflation rates can vary from country to country.  That may be reflected in exchange rates, which is certainly a factor in the price we pay in any one country, if the kit is an import.

Lastly, there has been an increase in size and complexity lately.  Just at the time that I personally am moving away from large scale, the hobby seems to be moving in the direction of larger scale, like more really complex 1:32 aircraft and 1:200 ships.  Further, these newer kits are more complex than older ones- there seems to be a race on parts count!

It has always been hard to compare kit prices to inflation rates.  Usually inflation rates are tied to fixed products, like a loaf of bread, a gallon of gas, or a pound of ground beef.  But model kits have, for better part of century, become increasingly better and more complex.  I can see this because some of the plastic models I built in the fifties are still available under different brand names but are the same kit.

For a look at what plastic airplane kits were like sixty years ago, buy one of the Testors racing planes like the Gee Bee or Mystery Ship.  1:48 kits, they had a simple pilot seat (and a pilot) but no other internal detail, engine was primitive, etc.

It's certainly true that kit prices took a long time to get where they are now. Inflation is a big part of it - but not the only one. There's no denying that the prices of plastic kits have gone up faster than inflation. All the points mentioned on this thread are, I think, valid.

The prices didn't just jump up overnight,it's been a steady increase over the years,just like everything else in life.How long were you out of the hobby ? 5-10-15-20 years,what else hasn't gone up in that time ? It's inflation,thats all.

Scale plastic modeling is a completely different hobby than it was thirty or forty years ago. It used to be seen as a hobby for kids, in which a few adults participated. Nowadays it's almost exclusively an adult hobby.

That has huge implications for the manufacturers. There simply aren't as many people buying kits as there used to be. When I was working in a hobby shop, in the late seventies, the unofficial word was that a company like Revell or Monogram set the price of a given kit so that the company would break even when it sold about 100,000 examples. I have no idea what the corresponding figure is now, but I doubt that any aircraft, armor, or ship kit sells in anywhere near such numbers. So the manufacturers raise the prices, so they can recoup their investments in a reasonable amount of time.

That, at least, is one factor. The others already mentioned in this thread certainly are part of the picture too.

One argument I don't buy is the one that says that, since polystyrene is a petroleum product, the price of kits is keyed to the price of oil. The styrene in a kit represents only a miniscule portion of what the manufacturer spends on the kit. A 1/48 aircraft may have a dime's worth of styrene in it. There's no way that a doubling of the price of oil can justify raising the price of a kit substantially.

The flip side of the coin is the tremendous improvement in the quality of kits in recent years. The typical kit (there are exceptions) of the seventies looks downright crude compared to what modelers take for granted today.

I used to buy quite a few kits - at least one every couple of weeks. When they cost $3.00 to $5.00, I could do that with no noticeable damage to my slim wallet. (I can remember when the most expensive plastic model on the U.S. market, the Revell 1/96-scale Cutty Sark, cost $10.00.) I can't afford to do that any more. When I see a new release, I ask three questions: do I want it, am I reasonably like to build it within the next year or so, and can I afford it. Usually, the answer to at least one of those questions is no. I suspect a lot of other modelers behave about like I do.

Yes i have discovered  The Model shows and the great deals i can get there. I also seen some of the shops have a section where they buy and sell used Models. I go to Hobby lobby at least once a week to window shop, Yep I look at eBay every night, Amazon to. I love building Military models and Tamyia has a awesome selection. Unfourntly Other then Hobby lobby selection, usually Tamyia is one of the higher price builds.

stikpusher

New batch of returning modelers coming back to the hobby... It can be a rude awakening thinking that your prices have not gone up much in the intervening years. And lets face it, the price of some new kits is quite up there. I paid less for some of my firearms than what some kits are costing nowadays.

Good Lord, you're right !  

OTOH.........modelers can always console themselves in knowing the price of current production kits aren't subject to the same factors that control the price of 5.56 x 45.......

One thing you might like to do is peruse E-Bay plus other online selling markets, and (if available) local model shows.  You can find some deals there.

New batch of returning modelers coming back to the hobby... It can be a rude awakening thinking that your prices have not gone up much in the intervening years. And lets face it, the price of some new kits is quite up there. I paid less for some of my firearms than what some kits are costing nowadays.

...I suppose its about time for the monthly, "cost of models these days" thread

Well, I certainly had sticker shock when I saw the price of new cars when my 20 year old car wore out.

Folks are right about Revell and AIRFIX, though.

Both companies have been introducing new kits at reasonable prices.

If you live in a large metro area, don't overlook IPMS swap meets.

I've been able to buy many kits I wanted years ago ( but couldn't afford at the time ) at really low prices.

Folks buy newer, very expensive kits and sell off their old kits.

I do not mind if a kit is 10 or 20 years old so long as it was a decent kit at the time of introduction.

Again. as Rob mentioned, internet access helps in assessing if a kit is worth the price asked.

Some of it is inflation, some of it is shorter production runs- the companies make fewer so the charge more on those to get their costs back, part of it is the new molding & CAD stuff. And of course on any imported kits there is the importers mark up cut. But then again, companies like Revell, Revell Germany, Airfix, and Eduard are able to produce a new tooled kit as good  as anything from the Far East for a more affordable price. Shop around for the best price on what you want.

I know exactly what you're saying Bill. I remember way back when during the 70s - 80s kits were under $10 at Kmart. Later in the 80s I discovered Hasegawa and Tamiya and those were running anywhere from $20 - $30 a kit depending on what you're looking for.

A lot has changed since I returned to this hobby 3 years ago after being away for 20 plus years. Is it bad? Absolutely not! I think it's awesome to see so many different kits from different manufacturers. Even Airfix has stepped up their game banging out great quality products.

PS -

I can't wait to build my Airfix 1/72 scale C-47 Skytrain...... LOL!

new importer for many of the Japanese and Far East kits; they have jacked the price up exponentially. Ordering from companies that specialize in shipping from China or Japan to the US is often so much cheaper.

Remember, Google is your friend. If you see a kit on the shelf at a store and don't do a quick internet search on your phone, then you're wasting a resource.