wdolson
Posts: 10398
Joined: 6/28/2006
From: Near Portland, OR
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Apollo11
Hi all,
You think they are more expensive now than what they wre 10-20 years ago?
It depends on how you look at it. You get more than you did 20 years ago and currencies have devaluated from inflation.
Ebay is a great leveler. If you shop carefully, you can get up to 50% off new kits there. The online kit retailers have good sales too. I only paid retail for a few kits in my collection. I got some for sweat equity by buying large collections and parting them out. I kept a few I wanted and ended up getting them for free in the end.
quote:
ORIGINAL: witpqs
I haven't put together any models since I was a kid, but in recent months/years I've heard about - what else - law suits over models. It seems that some of the companies and their corporate descendants that built the planes (and maybe other equipment too) that are being modeled have gone after the model makers claiming infringement on trademarks and the like. I know Grumman was involved, as were others. Apparently they were looking for serious money. Model makers had to make the choice of hiking prices quite a bit or not building any of those.
The big counter argument of course is that the public paid for the gear with tax money, etc. but who knows exactly what it would hinge on in court. Too bad.
So, without direct knowledge, I have to say they likely are much more expensive than they need to be, and way more than 20 years ago.
This situation is one of the most ridiculous lawsuits you can imagine. The big airplane makers have the money to legistlate the small guys out of business and that's what they will do if the small guys put up much of a fight. Tamiya is the biggest model maker in the world, but they are tiny compared to Boeing.
The model makers have two arguments on their side, but they are only using one. One argument is the one you state here, the military equipment was made with government money on government contracts, so the designs should be public domain. The other argument, which I haven't heard is that these companies sat on any rights they may have had when the first models were made and therefore anything that might have been protected is public domain. The trademark and copyright laws are very clear that to keep your rights, as owner, you need to vigorously pursue anybody who has violated their rights as soon as they become aware of it. If they don't the trademark or other material becomes public domain.
The aircraft makers only started making a fuss a couple of years ago, but the first kits plastic kits came out before World War II and before plastic, there were wood kits. Boeing can lay claim to rights to the 787 because it's new, but I don't even think they could lay claim to a model of a 747 since they didn't make a squawk when the first kit was released in 1969.
The aircraft companies claim that it's liability. If jr chokes on a prop for a B-17, they are afraid of getting sued. My SO is a lawyer and we've talked about this. If Boeing was included in such a lawsuit, they would be out of it in 15 minutes.
I think the real problem is that the aircraft makers are all run by bean counters now who are trying to milk every dime out of every avenue they can. Royalties on plastic models would only ammount to a tiny fraction of the profit on a single airplane, but they see it as some kind of magical revenue stream.
Models always were a fairly small market and it's even smaller today. A huge seller today sells 10,000 copies. Most are only a few thousand. The biggest seller of all time is the Star Trek Enterprise which sold about 1 million over 35 years.
Tamiya is the only company that has caved in so far. Their kits always were among the most expensive, but for the kits where they are paying royalties, the prices are $5 to $20 more. Their 1/32 F-16 kit is $175-$185 retail, depending on the version. I'm sure it's a nice kit, but I won't be buying one. I have read that if they weren't paying a royalty to Lockheed, it would have been around $150. Still pretty expensive, but still a difference of close to 15%.
Bill
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