I guess my question is whether this 'some folks buying a few re-pops made the better new tool kits possible" theory is an assumption we are all making or is it a fact? Did the MPC Eagle re-pop really sell that well? I passed on it the same way as robn1 did, but I scooped up the 1/48 kit the day it was in stock. I totally agree that re-pops are essentially "found money" but the down side is that it floods the market with crappier kits. Yes, there are casual modelers or impulse buyers who might not care, but wouldn't it be better for the hobby if those same buyers were getting simply a better model from jump? Wouldn't the process of building it be more enjoyable, the end product more pleasing, and therefore the entire modeling experience overall better? I guess I look back at my own frustrations as a young modeler building the MPC Falcon or star destroyer models and knowing instantly that "these don't look anything like what I see on screen and in pictures." Compare that to building ANY Bandai kit. They go together with precision, they are in mostly consistent scales, and they look like the filmming miniatures. It certainly serves R2's bottom line to push the narrative that we all need to buy lesser kits to get better kits, but R2 is going to make that better kit anyway if it thinks it can make money. Star Wars is not Space:1999. It's not like it's a mostly cult-appeal British TV show from the mid-70s that is really only still relevant because it had a few cool spaceship designs. It's Star Wars for heck sake.
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