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Model companies - who makes what?

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  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Upstate NY
Posted by Build22 on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 3:36 PM
Upnorth,

Thanks for the info. I definetly knew of the Italeri & Testor - tie. There's alot of the Testor/Italeri kits still floating around. Not only that, if you go to the Italeri website and click on the subcategory for distributors in the USA - it is Testors. Now Testors has definetly pulled back on stuff with their name on it. I don't think they produce a new armor model.

I don't think ESCI is making plastic kit anymore, either.

I'm just trying to find out what 's what so I know what I'm buying.


Jim [IMG]
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Canada / Czech Republic
Posted by upnorth on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 11:59 AM
Here's what I know:

Italeri and Testors have had a close association for years and do trade molds with each other. Additionally, Italeri is reboxing a load of old Esci kits lately, they've also been known to rebox Bilek and Zvezda kits, usually in the case of Bilek and Zvezda kits its clearly marked on the Italeri box what the kit origins are. As for the relations between Dragon and Italeri, if you ever see the 1/72 Sukhoi SU-24 Fencer aircraft kits in the Dragon packaging, they do originate from lesser known Italeri molds.

Revell Germany does sometimes exchange molds with the parent Revell Monogram, RG also holds most of the old Matchbox molds as well. They also have some old Frog molds.

Airfix and Heller are another long standing association, both being owned by the Humbrol company. Quite often you will see molds being exchanged between the two companys. It my understanding that when Airfix wanted to make some kits to mark the anniversary of the Falklands War, they got their hands on some Heller molds of a 1/48 Dassault Super Etendard to represent the Argentine aircraft that sank the HMS Shefield. Its to my understanding that Airfix's "new" 1/48 SAAB Viggen is just a reboxing of Esci's old molds.

As for AMT, they seem to have largely gotten out of the plastic kit business, but some of their molds have shown up in AMTech kits. They did have an association with Esci for a while, but thes days it appears as though Italeri has the lion's share of the old Esci molds.
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Upstate NY
Posted by Build22 on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 7:05 AM
Thank for the replies,

Sherman Freak - thanks for the info. - I had no idea Italeri & Dragon were that closely related. You're right - I've only observed this as related to armor. Now Academy & Minicraft are together - I think minicraft brings a lot of aircraft/naval to that combo. The question is, does distribute mean handle or made with & to what extent.

J-Hulk -thanks as well - Does Tamiya put their name on the Italeri box?

Thanks guys I appreciate the input. I'm slowly putting this puzzle together.
I'm just trying to find out what I'm actually buying. Some of those combos can be good & some not as good.

Jim [IMG]
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Tochigi, Japan
Posted by J-Hulk on Monday, July 14, 2003 11:30 PM
Here's the story here in Japan:
Tamiya distrubutes Italeri. I don't believe they ever collaborated with Nitto.
Hasegawa distributes Dragon and Revell-Monogram.
In all cases imported kits are never presented as "Tamiya" or "Hasegawa" kits, but are clearly labeled as Italeri, Dragon, or Revell-Monogram.

There does appear to be some kind of collaboration between Tamiya, Aoshima and some other company in the 1/700 waterline ship model biz, but I'm not a waterline modeler and don't know much about it.
~Brian
  • Member since
    January 2003
Posted by shermanfreak on Monday, July 14, 2003 10:58 PM
Dragon and Italeri have a very close working relationship with each other. Italeri distributes for Dragon in Europe and I believe vice versa. Also some Italeri product has been incorporated into some Dragon kits such as their M4A3 E8 kits. Not too sure what happens on the aircraft side of things.
Happy Modelling and God Bless Robert
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Upstate NY
Model companies - who makes what?
Posted by Build22 on Monday, July 14, 2003 4:21 PM
Now I know years back some model companies "covered" other companies' models. For example Italeri made models for Testor. I even saw a model w/Tamiya & Italeri together.

Now I know :

Academy & Minicraft are together - in some fashion
ESCI is combined w/AMT-Ertyl
Tamiya at one time was with Nitto (I think)
Now Nitto is called - Blue Tank
Revell and Monogram are together some how
Revell - Germany - does armor

Up until now - I thought DML - Dragon - Shanghai Dragon were
all the same.



However, I happen to go to Italeri's web site & Dragon was listed on it as well.


Does anyone know - are they making sets for Italeri - were they bought - is Italeri making sets for Dragon?Can anybody shed some light on that ? Is my logic correct on the upper half? Are there some gaps I left out?
Jim [IMG]
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