Just wondering why the price of reissued MPC Star Wars kits is higher than Bandai ones

Bandai kits are superior in all aspects except perhaps scale. They are usually small, but not always. If you price a 1/72 Mil falc from MPC (reboxed) and one from Bandai, Bandai is far more, but far better too. The prices reflect what modelers are willing to pay, nothing more. If we weren't collectively willing to pay those prices they would not sell and the prices would drop. The prices only reflect what the market will bare. We must hold ourselves to blame for high prices, we caused it. When people ask me what something is worth I tell them "whatever someone is willing to pay at that moment and nothing more". Prices in the market have little to do with quality (anymore) and nothing to do with cost to produce. The price matches the market, our willingness to pay. I personally think prices should reflect cost of production, but I'm funny that way.

BK

I understand the prices of vintage kits in vintage boxes, even those from the reissues in the 1990s, but the new releases of the old 1977-1984 MPC kits in new boxes are as much, if not more than the standard scale Bandai kits.

I remember picking up the older Return of the Jedi snap kits of the X-Wing, TIE Interceptor and B-Wing along with the Y-Wing in the 1990s for next to nothing.

The reissues of those kits are comparable in scale to the newer Revell of Germany and Bandai kits. I was fortunate to get both the Jengo Fett and Boba Fett versions of the 1/72 scale Slave 1 by Fine Molds (Boba's includes a white metal Han frozen in carbonite) back in the early 2000s and the old MPC kit reissued today costs more.

Revell of Germany has their kits' scales all over the place like MPC did. I do enjoy that Bandai and Fine Molds stuck to standard aircraft scales.

I agree. Having the scales all over the place is very frustrating when building and trying to put this with that. And because older kits were hard to find and the buying frenzy of the last few years, prices are up. Mostly due to people panic buying kits they want or think they won't be able to get later due to the shortages we saw in the past. Kits are overpriced and the consumer is to blame. But, at the same time this is what is driving the availablility of kits we want to see. Kind of a double edged sword.

Cost may be due to several factors.  For example,

Round 2 is based in the US (Indiana), Bandai is headquartered in Japan (Tokyo), and Revell in Germany (Bünde).  Generally, injection molding production costs in the US are extraordinarily high compared to production costs in Asia or Eastern Europe.  Many plastic kit producers will outsource some or all of their actual production to lower-cost locations such as Poland, China, India and the Philippines. The initial designs and packaging are usually made in the "home office".  But actual production is moved elsewhere.  Those who do move production to lower-cost locations may be able to sell at more competitive prices.

In some cases, as a cost-saving measure, some model companies in the West contract steel mold production from another company, say one in China, and as part of that contract, a set number of kits are produced from the mold.  Although the model company may retain copyright of models produced from the mold, the model company doesn't actually own the physical steel mold.  The contractor might, depending on the terms of the contract.

Most of the US-based injection-molded plastic model kit companies we grew up with have gone out of business or suffered major financial restructuring.  Round 2 often purchases steel molds from model companies no longer operating.  But some of those molds are not in usable condition.  In other words, they have deteriorated to the point that you can't actually make a model kit from the original steel mold.

There has been some discussion on other sites that explain that some of the "repopped" models offered by Round 2 are actually made from new steel molds designed by Round 2 from scans of the original models.  Steel molds require costly care and maintenance and will deteriorate over time, especially if stored improperly.  In some instances, the original molds bought by Round 2 from out-of-business companies were in such poor condition as to be unusable and unrestorable.  So, talented Round 2 designers reportedly scanned vintage models made years ago from the original, now useless molds in order to create new, usable steel molds from new designs based on the scans. 

Steel molds are breathtakingly expensive to produce, especially if cut in the US.  So even a "repopped" vintage model actually made from a new steel mold made in the US may be produced at the same cost or even more than an entirely new design made overseas.

Some Round 2 products may be comparatively expensive, but at least Round 2 is one of the few US-based plastic kit manufacturers still operating.

I appreciate what Round2 does, much like what Glencoe did in the 1990s; pushed out old, decrepit kits that were cleaned up and reissued with decals much superior than the originals.

Since many of the old MPC Star Wars kits have been in near continuous production since the 1980s, I didn't take into account that they might have been retooled since they've been in production up until AMT/Ertl vanished as a brand.

I even noticed that the originally Revell Batman Forever Batwing (Kilmer's movie) was released by Round2 but in an AMT logo box. AMT originally did Batman and Batman Returns, but Batman Forever was Revell and Batman and Robin were Revell-Monogram kits originally.

Bandai redid some of the Keaton Batman kits which were very nice.

Also, don't forget the cost of licensing the right to produce and sell the models.  If Round 2 had to re-up the licensing they're no longer dealing with Lucas.  I personally don't know what legal rights Round 2 have when it comes to selling those models, but if they had to renegotiate contracts you can bet they had to pay more for that privilege.  That is another part of the cost gets passed down to the consumer.