Ultra-Limited Edition releases...is this the future?

[Wandy 1527]

Reading on the facebook pages of model shops, it seems that the forthcoming re-re-release of the Avante Black Special, together with the Mercedes C11 have already sold out and that lots of pre-orders are being cancelled by the shops, which will no doubt leave a lot of people cheesed off.

This happened with the recent 45th Anniversary Porsche and I thought that was a one-off. But it seems that Tamiya are now deliberately doing ultra-limited edition runs of certain models and therefore starving shops and their customers of the stuff that they want.

Is this is a deliberate tactic? Drum up some hype around the company in the same way that sneaker manufacturers like Nike & Adidas do? If so, then that is a very risky tactic IMO.

It seems that model manufacturers are taking more liberties with their customers and risking alienating them, by making their respective hobbies more elitist and aimed at collectors, rather than hobbyists.

It's not just the RC hobby either. Hornby recently brought out a re-release of the APT and the cost of it has got hobbyists up in arms. In their opinion the model railway hobby is becoming ever-more unattainable....nearly £600 for a model train that doesn't even come with track or controller.

https://uk.hornby.com/products/br-class-370-advanced-passenger-train-set-370-001-and-370-002-7-car-pack-era-7-r3874

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tVL3HBMAY8

Will being a Tamiya enthusiast end up being something for those who just want to show off expensive trinkets? This latest trend of crazy-limited releases has got me concerned, I won't lie.

[Badcrumble 4204]

Short answer - yes.

I've not cheked the Avante but the Merc has a model number starting 4***, indicating that it is a limited release.

The numbers coming into the UK are a small proportion of those produced

The retailers indicate to the distributor how many they want based on pre-orders the retailers have and the distributor distributes what they get to them.

But there is no guarantee that that the distributor will have enough to go round.

Sometimes, however, another batch gets through - I got lucky with the recent Porsche when Fusion were given two more after the inital allocation.

[Wandy 1527]

19 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

Short answer - yes.

I've not cheked the Avante but the Merc has a model number starting 4***, indicating that it is a limited release.

The numbers coming into the UK are a small proportion of those produced

The retailers indicate to the distributor how many they want based on pre-orders the retailers have and the distributor distributes what they get to them.

But there is no guarantee that that the distributor will have enough to go round.

Sometimes, however, another batch gets through - I got lucky with the recent Porsche when Fusion were given two more after the inital allocation.

But there have always been limited edition kits. The difference between then and now is that in previous times, if you put a pre-order in then you got a kit for certain. That doesn't appear to be the case now.

[sosidge 624]

49 minutes ago, Wandy said:

But there have always been limited edition kits. The difference between then and now is that in previous times, if you put a pre-order in then you got a kit for certain. That doesn't appear to be the case now.

Lots more middle aged men are buying re-releases now. Covid has opened the floodgates of bored hobbyists with plenty of money to burn.

You also have relatively more shops offering "pre-orders" with no idea how many kits they will be getting. E-commerce makes it much easier to do that. That means a lot of buyers will be disappointed. A handful of shops refuse to accept pre-orders for this reason.

[markbt73 5316]

It is frustrating. That "now or never" feeling takes a lot of the fun out of shopping for new kits. If you're trying to decide between two, you have to consider which one will still be around in a few months, or next year, or whenever. FOMO is a lousy marketing ploy.

But worse than the feeling of not being able to get one is the chilling effect it has for hobbyists who aren't interested in collecting NIB kits. You feel guilty about doing what you want with it if you do get one. Had I gotten my hands on one of those anniversary Porsches, I'd have built it, and run it, and at some point you'd have seen action photos of it getting sideways, maybe even airborne. But if you buy a kit for $300 and two months later it's selling on eBay for $600 because demand was so far ahead of supply, it gets a lot harder to open those blister packs. And so most of the really special kits, the ones that would be a lot more satisfying to crack into and build and run than a garden-variety TT02 or something, end up sitting in the boxes because they're too "valuable" to "ruin" by cracking them open.

I understand the "keep 'em wanting more" mentality, but at some point, if everything is a special edition... then nothing is. And if it comes down to "now or never," and I'm not ready... then you've lost a sale.

[Badcrumble 4204]

1 hour ago, Wandy said:

But there have always been limited edition kits. The difference between then and now is that in previous times, if you put a pre-order in then you got a kit for certain. That doesn't appear to be the case now.

I don’t know whether that is because there are less kits produced, less coming to the UK or more buyers. Based on my recent conversation with Fusion, it is most likely the uncertainty of the numbers coming to the UK.

 

[silvertriple 3557]

The fact is there is a lot of people that went back to the hobby during the lockdowns and after, and this generates a lot of demand. Tamiya may do exactly the same quantity as before, it would vanish very quickly due to the high demand... This is true for limited release and for models to be restored... And some people are just doing this for speculation purpose...

At the end, beside the speculators (for which I would definitely say bad thing), I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing:

• more demand means more opportunities of new models or re-releases
• more demand means less opportunities to get limited released models
• more demand means more opportunities to enjoy the hobby with tracks (as matter of fact, there is some rejuvenation in the clubs around, and if you speak to the teams, they would tell this is totally unexpected turn of events if you look back 3 or 4 years back)
• ...

And for the other thread that speaks about aging hobby, maybe not, taking into consideration the young people I see at the track when I go there...

 

[TWINSET 1793]

Pre-ordered Ltd Ed seems to be the way to go -  Hasbro are doing it with a lot of their Star Wars products now - Mandalorian Razor Crest pre-order/kickstarter type setup $350, now on eBay for $1000+  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255386083426?hash=item3b76326062:g:zPgAAOSws4RiCkjv
These were pretty much made to order through Hasbro Pulse https://hasbropulse.com/collections/haslab

 

There's a huge Rancor in the works and no doubt the new Obi Wan show will generate a few more toys

If Tamiya were really on the ball, they'd pre-release limited models, and make to order - The Hasbro Razor Crest was offered months ago to everyone who signed up for the Hasbro newsletter and was only sold to those people, so far...
Knocking out a few Special Editions with limited decal sheets or prepainted limited painted bodies would be easy enough, they only gotta add a few dollars to cover low-volume runs and they got it made

 

[GeeWings 2830]

I can’t believe I’m typing this, but…  crowd funded production runs would be a better option than the lottery and scalping we have now.

[whahooo 465]

I think it is the future......

 

Limited stuff sells very good AND you can calculate your investment into the product.

Pay 10.000 earn 60.000,-

 

[A-Baum 352]

3 minutes ago, GeeWings said:

I can’t believe I’m typing this, but…  crowd funded production runs would be a better option than the lottery and scalping we have now.

I think Tamiya would be doing themselves a real favor by actually interacting with their customers....us.  Talk to us. Find out what we want.  You can't tell me a crowdfunded King Cab re-re wouldn't be wildly successful.  Just for the life of me I don't understand all this secrecy and seemingly arbitrary decisions on what to re-re. More importantly, flat out ignoring what re-res the customers want to see.  I don't get that business model one bit. 

[silvertriple 3557]

52 minutes ago, A-Baum said:

I think Tamiya would be doing themselves a real favor by actually interacting with their customers....us.  Talk to us. Find out what we want.  You can't tell me a crowdfunded King Cab re-re wouldn't be wildly successful.  Just for the life of me I don't understand all this secrecy and seemingly arbitrary decisions on what to re-re. More importantly, flat out ignoring what re-res the customers want to see.  I don't get that business model one bit. 

I just doubt the population on TC and other forums is representative of the whole range of Tamiya customers... They seem to be first and foremost Japan based before anything else... (just look at their video in Japanese only, that is a key hint).

[GeeWings 2830]

26 minutes ago, A-Baum said:

I think Tamiya would be doing themselves a real favor by actually interacting with their customers....us.  Talk to us. Find out what we want.  You can't tell me a crowdfunded King Cab re-re wouldn't be wildly successful.  Just for the life of me I don't understand all this secrecy and seemingly arbitrary decisions on what to re-re. More importantly, flat out ignoring what re-res the customers want to see.  I don't get that business model one bit. 

Yes, I agree. Crowd funding works well in some instances because you only produce what’s wanted and, mostly, what’s already been paid for. It doesn’t really matter what user group or percentage of your customers you attract. It becomes a binary decision; have we sold enough to go to production?

Downside for them is that they need to deal with the international market directly and potentially upset distributors. Upside for customers is that they go to Tamiya direct and don’t have to deal with distributor issues  plus avoid scalps and general vacuum of information  

[Willy iine 18806]

@Wandy Which country are you located?  I ask because I've not even seen the pre-order announcements in the USA for the black edition re-re Avante yet.  

 

[moffman 5752]

Corgi classics did this years ago so its nothing new and it did indeed cheese off their loyal fanbase! I used to collect the corgi modern haulage range and even back then they weren't cheap (no idea why I collected them I drive one every day and can't wait to get out of it at the end of the week!) But the limited edition got smaller and smaller then they started to really limit them by you having to collect practically all the releases to be able to receive the strictly limited editions that's when I stopped and a load of like minded friends did aswell!......look at corgi now it's just a subsidiary under hornby! I'm not saying this is the reason it's no were near the company it was.......but????

[Saito2 6686]

Aside from the pandemic turning the world on its head with all its related issues (supply chain issues, bored folks getting back into the hobby, etc.), if Tamiya is truly going this route, then I'm out of playing that game. I like to carefully consider purchases and I'm too old to be falling for the old "gotta get it now or never!" panic buying this kind of marketing/production instills. Sucks the fun right out of it. I certainly don't enjoy an emotional roller coater when getting a model. It's like how Harley Davidsons were handled BITD when demand outstripped production. I hated that then and would hate this now. Look, here's my money. You are producing something I would like to purchase. If you want to play games, I'll take my money elsewhere. I don't need stress in a hobby. In the end, is life going to be truly any less fulfilling over the long haul if I miss out on obtaining a material possession? Nope. Things are neat to buy but they aren't the keys to happiness. Let the fools fight over the goods when the production run's cut short and they're going for 4-6 times original price on fleabay.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Right there with you. @Saito2...  I'm not going to play this game with limited releases.

[Wandy 1527]

14 hours ago, Willy iine said:

@Wandy Which country are you located?  I ask because I've not even seen the pre-order announcements in the USA for the black edition re-re Avante yet.  

 

I’m in the UK. I follow most of the RC shops in this country via their Facebook pages so I see when they make announcements about stuff.

Although I think l the pre-order and pay up front method would work well, I’d be amazed if Tamiya ever did it. They very likely would feel this to be below them as their stuff sells no matter what. And they would probably be correct, to be fair.

The pandemic has definitely played a part in stuff selling out more quickly than in normal times, but from what I can gather, Tamiya have been failing to issue what they promised to retailers over the last year or so. Whether that has been deliberate, or something out of their control I don’t know, but I know that retailers have been cheesed off with it happening.

The Avante BS is hardly a cheap kit so if all stock is being sold out before they even hit the shops, then that suggests to me that not many are being allocated by Tamiya.

[Willy iine 18806]

@Wandy Yeah, maybe the “limited” edition might have something to do with it too..  it could be that the whole point of having a limited edition car is exactly that.

Kind of like how special limited run 1:1 cars usually sell out in a few min.. 

[slydar 241]

I REALLY don't think they are intentionally limiting production. There is just way way more demand.

Coupled with production issues which are out of the factories control.

Apparently, due to staff and supply issues. PS-5 is basically at "availability to be advised" stage. I'm sure they're not intentionally limiting production of black paint to manipulate the market. 

I also don't think it's such a bad thing, you KNOW when a car comes out if it's a must have, and you buy it. And mostly, if you miss out you will probably get a 2nd chance. TF Evo's, my shop ordered 7, got one.

Since then, there's been another batch, and they now have 2 on the shelf that have been sitting there for weeks.

Also globally, it seems like certain markets get one model first, and then months later, the whole batch goes to another continent, sometimes frustrating, but means you get some warning.