Bandai release schedule

Dedalus5550 · May 23, 2015

astroboy said:
How is this any different than when fine molds had the license?

It might be an issue of how productive Bandai is. Revell or someone might have let the situation slide with FM because they were so slow in rolling out new kits (though I can't remember how long it took FM to get the first few kits after the X-wing), but others may see the writing on the wall. How many kits will Bandai have out by the end of the first year? More than FM ever had. Between kits, with FM operating like the CIA, discussions broke out several times that there would be no more, that FM loss the license, that this kit or that was the last ever. Remember the MF fetching $600 the first time it was off the market for a while? Someone's sitting around thinking, we should have said something about FM kits being virtually available everywhere--we really got to stop Bandai. Can't blame them.

And then all of this is premature until people start seeing they can't order them. What would that look like? You can't see the kits listed in the non-Asian language versions of the website? When you put in your shipping address? A later e-mail that your order was cancelled? And I'm actually serious--what would be the sign that you can't order the kits?
Mike Todd

astroboy · May 23, 2015

Perhaps the real difference here is between Lucasfilm and Disney. I'm sure they both handle their licensees differently

edge10 · May 23, 2015

I'm sure HLJ will have an announcement on their main page (if not a permanent banner), if this comes to pass.

It would be nice if Revell could just compete but when you only put in a half effort, you may look to protectionism in a vain hope to boost sales.

woobit · May 23, 2015

Video games are easy to region lock, model kits not so much

Dedalus5550 · May 23, 2015

edge10 said:
I'm sure HLJ will have an announcement on their main page (if not a permanent banner), if this comes to pass.

It would be nice if Revell could just compete but when you only put in a half effort, you may look to protectionism in a vain hope to boost sales.

Hear, Hear. One problem with these licenses is whoever has it will have "the best" kits available--even if they are among the worst models. Fine Molds and Bandai have shown that the "best" can actually be darn good. (Not perfect, but darn good.) Revell needs to get the hint that we want darn good and actual common scales (even if we disagree on actual size, we can be okay with things that are pretty darn close--Revell doesn't even try, as I recall).

I posted this same idea on SSM, but it could be the fact that Revell will apparently be selling kits from the FM molds. They have a much better reason, therefor, to keep Bandai stuff in Asia. That could be why this seems like such a shift from when FM kits were (kinda) available anywhere.
Mike Todd

TazMan2000 · May 23, 2015

Dedalus5550 said:
First, I don't really see why it matters if the word came from the owner of the SSM store....Mike Todd

Perhaps I am being too cynial, however, this is the first I have heard of Bandai thinking about this, and when this kind of comment comes from a company that does compete with other online vendors, I immediately think the comment is suspect. If it came from anyone else (and it might have, I just didn't read it anywhere before) of course I would take it as a more credible threat. But then again, they are more privy to information disseminated though retailer channels. (Yes, I know, I'm fip-flopping...I just don't believe everything I read on the net). Of course, everyone here should monitor any future developments just so that we don't get blindsided with an export restriction.
That being said, I am a customer and member of Starship Modeler, and will continue to be in the future. The owners are good and honest people. But I'm sure they're feeling the pinch as well during these challenging economic times, and of course, as interest in this hobby slowly wanes.

TazMan2000

TazMan2000 · May 23, 2015

DanielB said:
Maybe if Revell didn't make such crap Star Wars kits, we'd be more interested in theirs. They don't even put half as much effort as Bandai into accuracy.

I agree. But I'm wondering if that is their business model. Prepainted, snap-together kits. Perhaps they are catering to what they think that their customerbase wants...immediate (or near immediate) gratification. Spend a few minutes putting it together, with no paint or glue fumes. Scale to conform to the box size. Admire you work (or mostly their work) in a few minutes, rather than spending a few days to a few weeks (or more) gluing, filling, painting and weathering a regular kit.
That panel is in the wrong place? That greeble doesn't look like the one on the studio model? Let's face it...we're a dying breed. I'm glad there is a forum such as this were people with varying degrees of experience can share information and learn from each other and keep this hobby alive.

TazMan2000

astroboy · May 23, 2015

I love the fact that Revell will be re-releasing the fine molds models in North America. That's a really great opportunity for some inexpensive x-wing squadrons

Sluis Van Shipyards · May 23, 2015

TazMan2000 said:
Perhaps I am being too cynial, however, this is the first I have heard of Bandai thinking about this, and when this kind of comment comes from a company that does compete with other online vendors, I immediately think the comment is suspect. If it came from anyone else (and it might have, I just didn't read it anywhere before) of course I would take it as a more credible threat. But then again, they are more privy to information disseminated though retailer channels. (Yes, I know, I'm fip-flopping...I just don't believe everything I read on the net). Of course, everyone here should monitor any future developments just so that we don't get blindsided with an export restriction.
That being said, I am a customer and member of Starship Modeler, and will continue to be in the future. The owners are good and honest people. But I'm sure they're feeling the pinch as well during these challenging economic times, and of course, as interest in this hobby slowly wanes.

TazMan2000

It really doesn't matter is Onezero (SSM owner) said it or not. It would apply to Hobby Link Japan and any other exporters as well. To me, as someone at SSM pointed out, it doesn't make sense because Bandai has already paid for their share of license fees for the kit. The distributor buys from Bandai, so Disney already has their money once it goes to HLJ or wherever. The only thing that makes sense is if Revell, or whoever has the US license, complained about it cutting into their sales. That's a bad argument for them if Disney or Lucasfilm ever checks in the online modeling forums though. They'd see we don't like, or buy, what Revell US has put out.

DarkKnight · May 23, 2015

why wont they make the Y and Vaders tie in proper 1/48 scale?

Jaitea · May 25, 2015

The SpeederBike & Trooper have their profile pics up on the Bandai site,.........oh........lovely

http://bandai-hobby.net/sw/products/ch/ch05.html

Can't wait

J

Yorkie Fett · May 25, 2015

They're really banging these out now- very nice.

I believe the old MPC Speeder bike was 1/11 scale (yep, that's what I've read), so this presumably will be pretty much the same size?

- - - Updated - - -

*Hope they remember to add the greeblies on the TD.

Dedalus5550 · May 25, 2015

astroboy said:
I love the fact that Revell will be re-releasing the fine molds models in North America. That's a really great opportunity for some inexpensive x-wing squadrons

What's "inexpensive"? I've got a few squadrons worth of FM X-wings and didn't sell (while I sold off most of my stash) because they were fetching only $20 on ebay. How cheap do think they can get?

TazMan2000 · May 25, 2015

Yorkie Fett said:
They're really banging these out now- very nice.

I believe the old MPC Speeder bike was 1/11 scale (yep, that's what I've read), so this presumably will be pretty much the same size?

- - - Updated - - -
*Hope they remember to add the greeblies on the TD.

I'm not sure what the "life size" length was, but the MPC ERTL Speeder Bike was 29.2 cm long (almost a foot) and this Bandai is 18cm (found off of Hobby Search). Wookiepedia has the 74-Z speeder bike at 3, 4.5 or/and 4.7 metres in length depending on what model (civilian or military...or reference they are using). But if the Bandai one is 18cm at 1/12 scale, that would make it 2.16metres (just over 7 feet) long. Rather short, I would say. Maybe someone can chime in if they have the correct length.

TazMan2000

astroboy · May 25, 2015

Dedalus5550 said:
What's "inexpensive"? I've got a few squadrons worth of FM X-wings and didn't sell (while I sold off most of my stash) because they were fetching only $20 on ebay. How cheap do think they can get?

I'm talking about going down to your local hobby shop and buying them without shipping.

Given the practices of Revell, they may be able to bring down the 1/72 falcon down quite a bit.

Hell, the fine molds 1/144 falcon is over $100 at the shop near me.

Yorkie Fett · May 25, 2015

TazMan2000 said:
I'm not sure what the "life size" length was, but the MPC ERTL Speeder Bike was 29.2 cm long (almost a foot) and this Bandai is 18cm (found off of Hobby Search). Wookiepedia has the 74-Z speeder bike at 3, 4.5 or/and 4.7 metres in length depending on what model (civilian or military...or reference they are using). But if the Bandai one is 18cm at 1/12 scale, that would make it 2.16metres (just over 7 feet) long. Rather short, I would say. Maybe someone can chime in if they have the correct length.

TazMan2000

Looking at the build up, it seems to say the length is 28cm and height 15.3cm.
That would mean it's pretty spot on with scales when compared to the MPC.

Dedalus5550 · May 25, 2015

astroboy said:
I'm talking about going down to your local hobby shop and buying them without shipping.

Given the practices of Revell, they may be able to bring down the 1/72 falcon down quite a bit.

Hell, the fine molds 1/144 falcon is over $100 at the shop near me.

I asked because you specifically said a squadron of X-wings. Everyone's hoping to get a FM Falcon at a good deal, but it would be hard to beat the going rate for FM 72nd scale X-wings.
Mike Todd

Jaitea · May 25, 2015

Hopefully this will ease everyones worries about the rumour of Bandai stopping HLJ selling outside Japan

Brian from HLJ sad this on SSM this morning

Moonlight SY-3 said:
TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan said:

FWIW, I asked Brian at HLJ this weekend about this drama and he said he has not heard anything from Bandai about not selling their kits outside of Japan. I bet he's lurking on this thread. This may change, but HLJ has not been notified of any new policies.

Click to expand...

Always lurking, yes! Watch out, folks!

Just to be clear about this, it's entirely possible that Disney may require Bandai to not sell overseas (outside of Japan) due to licensing issues, but this would not affect HLJ's ability to get the products, since HLJ purchases inside Japan. HLJ can get anything that's available in the Japanese market. So no worries, really!

Ahhh,......relax

J

TazMan2000 · May 26, 2015

All excited over nothing. One person's ramblings don't make it true. Much like the SD release,

TazMan2000

Hunk a Junk · May 26, 2015

With the speeder bike, I wish Bandai had gone the extra step to include an optional Luke or Leia figure in Endor camo as an addition or alternative to the Scout Trooper. Even though the kit looks great, I recently put time and effort into getting the AMT kit up to snuff and don't really need another one on the shelf. Had there been a Luke or Leia option, however, I'd be all over it.

Bandai release schedule

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