Airfix

[Weaver]

I've not bought a new Airfix kit for some time now. Speaking as a customer, they simply aren't producing what I want to buy. No matter how many Spitfires they sell, will it matter a damn if they are losing custom from people who are sick of the same old, same old and, are turning to other manufacturers who are a bit more adventurous and imaginative?

Well I've bought a fair few of their new tools, in both 1/72 & 1/48, and have been impressed with them. I honestly don't understand this peculiarly British trait of of having to criticise everything of our own that is even remotely succesfull.    Don't people realise that without Airfix we wouldn't have a domestic "major" producer.

As for this "special announcement". Sure it has no interest for me whatsovever, but has it cost much ? Probably absolutely "B" all. It's purely an existing kit, issued with a few "extras" that might otherwise have been done by an aftermarket company. Their cost is probably minimal given the proliferation of 3D items available on the market nowadays. The "fanfare" was aimed at an existing subscription base and was timed for a specific event.

I really do think some people will only be happy when Hornby/Airfix (and remember Airfix are the junior partner in this) go bust yet again and we are left wiith no domestic injection moulded production company.

I'll put my Moderators hat back on now.

As have I, when they've made something I a) want and b) can afford. Their new-tool quality is excellent and praiseworthy.

One of the advantages of the social media age for companies is supposed to be the ability to get immediate, unfiltered feedback from their customers. If a significant percentage of Airfix customers are telling them that £130, 2-foot span models are too big and too expensive for them, then that should be getting fed back to their decision makers and allowing them to tailor their output to what their customers want. This should be GOOD for the company and ensure their success, not undermine it.

I don't think this is an example of the (admittedly real) British tendency to talk down our own. I think it's more a matter of ordinary British modellers, who have a strong emotional link to Airfix and have stood by them for decades, feeling increasingly frustrated and abandoned by their current policy of playing it safe with subject matter and focusing on the top end of the market. For many people, loyalty to a brand does not mean being a mindless cheerleader for anything and everything they do, it means telling them when they're getting it wrong so that they can get it right in future.

[PR19_Kit]

................. it means telling them when they're getting it wrong so that they can get it right in future.

So long as they actually read, mark, learn and inwardly digest...........................

[zenrat]

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a Stolly.  I've not tried any of their new tool 1/35 stuff yet.
Mind you, I was also looking forward to the Rotodyne...

[Spey_Phantom]

yet another bloody spitfire, and its not even my scale 

[Weaver]

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a Stolly.  I've not tried any of their new tool 1/35 stuff yet.
Mind you, I was also looking forward to the Rotodyne...

See that's another point of legitimate frustration. They've demonstrated before now that it's financially viable to do a Vintage Classics re-release with new-tooled clear parts. Everybody was hoping they'd do that with the Belvedere's irredeemably wrong glass or the Rotodyne's rear doors, and if they'd done it, everyone would be full of praise for their efforts. Some of these old kits could be massively improved for a fraction of the expenditure on an all-new tooling, but instead they just keep knocking them out, warts and all.