Shakeup at Squadron

[RKic]

If this is to be believed, the clowns who ruined Squadron Mail Order may be out in the cold. I hope this means a return to form. Though investors are still involved, so probably not.

http://z15.invisionfree.com/72nd_Aircraft/index.php?showtopic=5839&st=0entry22223836

[Exhausted]

Can someone describe to me what's happened with Squadron? I only found out about it around 2010.

[RiderFan]

Umm that's interesting. I knew Janene Boughton when I worked at EA. I didn't know she had gone to squadron. Small world.

[KursadA]

Good riddance - they have not paying their vendors for a long time (I am one of those vendors). Hopefully whatever new management has taken over will show the decency to settle their debts.

[Johnopfor]

It's been a long while since I purchased anything from them, and for the same reason why others haven't.....they advertised sales without product. I have since then found other sources.

Good luck Squadron, you'll need it.

[Liberator24]

Links not working for me, but I would love to see it go back to what it was around the IPMS 2012 Nationals. Still wear that shirt with pride.

I shelled out over $700 dollars for their Black Friday two years ago. That was it....now, my money goes somewhere else.

-Jim

[famvburg]

I wonder how the MMD side of the business will be. Since I sell a few things at my airport I am set up to buy wholesale thru MMD. I call their site a "wish list", because I wish they had stuff in stock. Click on an item and everything is out of stock. That's the way Legacy Dist., IIRC, the wholesale side of VLS in the '90s was. I always wished they had as much in stock as they had in their catalogs. Anyway, back in the Fall of 1986 I visited Squadron in person, I can't remember the guy who ran it then but it was a great visit. I hope it works out for the whole outfit.

[Kurt H.]

It would be nice if they could recover. They are still the first place to get stuff from smaller European manufacturers, like Roden. They always seemed to have the oddball stuff from companies I never saw in hobby stores.

I always liked the Squadron flyer, even by the 2000s when the cut and paste / 2 color layout seemed dated, it was still effective in interesting me in kits I might not have considered before.

In the earlier part of the last decade, I was a frequent visitor to the the coming soon, and just arrived pages on the website. I seem to remember they would offer a pretty good discount on pre-orders. Does any one else remember the "bruce beamish" super special, with the admonition not to talk about it on RMS or HS ?

Lately, the over dependence on super sales was troubling. It eventually conditions customers to just wait for another sale. Last holiday season I was willing to take advantage of the spend $500, get 1/2 off, but I could not find enough in stock merchandise to come close being able to take advantage of the offer. I was going to buy some Trumpeter 1/32 monsters, but all the ones I wanted, and even 2nd choices were out of stock.

[Jay Chladek]

I've heard rumblings for some time, enough to know I didn't want to deal direct with them for at least a year (the shirt I got at one of the Nationals still remains unworn). Sure, I would buy a kit from MMD that my LHS got in, because I knew the money was going to the LHS. But hearing the story the manager of the LHS told about Squadron not stocking any new Airfix stuff or for that matter any restocks from Eduard pretty much reinforced my belief that they were circling the drain (Eduard, seriously? THAT'S BAD!). The curious thing will be to see if the damage that has been done is reverseable or if they permanently fragged any decent chance of coming back by burning so many bridges with the vendors.

Edited October 5, 2014 by Jay Chladek

[GEH737]

The Airfix problem (as told to me from a friend in Hobby Shop business, and in charge of ordering) - was Hornby changing their practices - trying to eliminate the "Middle Man" such as Squadron.

I've been ordering from them for over 30 years - never had a problem or issue. I hope they're able to solve their business model.