Businesses must protect their trade name, trade mark, etc, or it could be lost. If they let their trade name or trade mark be used without compensation it can become part of the "public domain". This is why there is an added charge for the kits for the use of the company image (the car) and company logo (the horse symbol), and the name (Ferrari). Carrol Shelby, through his corporation Shelby America, sued every Cobra kit (1:1 scale) manufacturer and anyone else using his copyrighted ideas. These are his intelecual properties and if you want to use it , and effectively profit from it, then you have to pay for the privledge (royalties). I do believe WE have a legitimate beaf with companies like Lockheed who are paid by the U.S. government to develope a product, say the P-38 Lightning, because the product should belong to WE the taxpayers who paid for it. Civilian aircraft, say the Boeing 747, is another matter if no government funds were involved. There is another factor in the cost of kits equasion and that is the exchange rate between the U.S. Dollar and other currencies, as well as customs duties on the product being imported. Some countries manipulate the value of their currency so that they have a trade advantage. I agree that the prices of kits have become rediculous, but the royalty issue is only a small of this. The greater issue is that plastic is an oil based product and the price of oil is up.