AMK 1/48 F-14!!!

[Sio]

On ‎2017‎年‎5‎月‎8‎日 at 7:26 AM, Jonathan_Lotton said:

I understand completely that things happen. However in September of 2016 the official FB page for AMK stated in a comment that "the plan was to release before Christmas".

 

Please don't try and hide in semantics or "well that's not the same as saying a release date".

 

It is okay to admit there were unavoidable and unexpected delays.

 

Ah........ Yes yes!

 

That was my plan. Maybe, Martin misunderstood too.

 

All of my plans had been postponed. We are still not a professional model company in controlling this shedule yet, still a small and quite new company.

 

This is why we are trying a way out to solve this problem.

[Sio]

On ‎2017‎年‎5‎月‎8‎日 at 6:14 PM, anj4de said:

Hello AMK

 

I have just tried to put in a pre-order with the previously mentioned German dealer...MBK. He does not accept pre-orders right now since an already paid for order for other goods from you is pending delivery since October2016! So what do we do now? Please advise...

 

thanks

Uwe

 

Wait for our next post in Facebook please.

[bushande]

Don't let yourself get dragged down Sio. I'm sure everything's going to be good. What's not good, is not finished yet, right?!

Edited May 9, 2017 by bushande

[Sio]

On ‎2017‎年‎5‎月‎8‎日 at 7:37 PM, bushande said:

Thanks a lot Sio for the reply and the explanations.

Just one little thing in order to better understand the pricing model:

If I pre order (and hence pay) now for the advertised incentive price, i.e. the lower retail price and AMK should not be able to score the desired 5000 pre-orders to start early production, i.e. switch to the traditional process and a later delivery in 2018; do I still get my pre ordered Tomcats for the lower price or do I have to expect an additional invoice and extra payment to meet the regular price?

 

Short: I preorder, pay the lower price, 5000 threshold is not met, slower production, later delivery for regular price - do I still get my pre ordered Tomcats for the incentive price (don't care if it is later - I'm not in a hurry but I admit, the incentive price sounds pretty good and tempts me to order more than just one or two)

 

Thanks in advance for the reply.

 

Ah.........

 

Our plan was, if we cannot achieve the 5000 pcs goal, we will return the money to modelers.

 

We also already get some responses from distributors, retuning money could be quite a headache for them.

 

So now, maybe we will leave the choice to modelers. Once they place an order but we cannot achieve the goal, they can choose to refund or  keep the order with this incentive price to wait a longer time.

 

We will announce this shortly in our Facebook.

[Sio]

On ‎2017‎年‎5‎月‎8‎日 at 8:05 PM, glorystomper said:

my business partner and i would be interested in becoming the distributor in Canada.. how do we go about making that happen?

 

Contact Martin at martin@amkhobby.com please.

[Sio]

20 hours ago, madmanrick said:

The way I see it, each of us has a personal choice to make, either pre-order the kit or don't. No one is forcing anyone to do something they aren't comfortable with. Denigrating AMK over this decision or any previous failure to make percieved release dates or in fact any other decision, surely will only make AMK become much more reticent to share information with their customers going forward. Again either order the kit or don't, but whatever you do quit yer complaining. Sheesh, you guys know how to steal joy with the best of 'em.

 

No worries!

 

I (probably the only one insists) will still share infromation with you, as I want to develop kits together with you, modelers and experts. If you don't have information from us, you cannot have your suggestion/opinions to us.

 

See next post please.

[Sio]

17 hours ago, ChesshireCat said:

personally, I hope that the folks that own AMK and their injection molding company keep bringing in huge contracts. That only means more money in their pockets and also allowing them to keep the price down to earth unlike some others (more than one). I paid a tick under $70 for the upgraded Mig 31 kit, and had this been a Tamigawa  (or Eduard) kit, it would have been double that at the minimum. Now they are saying $55.20 will put an F14D in my lap!! Almost too good to be true. That's almost $15 less than the Mig!!! I can live with this delivery date easily (I have way too many kits to build as it is).

 

Haha. Finally, you are the first one understand this!

 

You can see from the time and works we spent for deign and tooling, contents in the boxes compare to the price. In addition, we think, modeling is not just simply a hobby, but also kind of culture. We have to do something to maintain this culture.

 

So, we need your support, not only sales, but also experts providing us correct and accurate information for development and checking mistakes of our design. This is why we announce far too early our plans, and 3D design pictures. So that, you, modelers and experts, can help us to make good quality and accurate kits.

 

We will be still doing so in the future.

 

 

17 hours ago, ChesshireCat said:

A few complaints on here as usual, yet I see nothing on the other big forums (not allowed to discuss off brands I guess). That only means more for me I guess. On the otherhand, My LHS looked over my new Mig kit, and now want to stock them!  This tells me that Marten and a handful of other well placed people need to make a tour of the USA to establish a dealer network. We want the kit(s), but we can't get them! So Sio; your marketing concept can be called flawed in that area.

 

True! You are right! Martin may have to work hard a bit more then. Haha

 

17 hours ago, ChesshireCat said:

Another poster made the comment about a retooled 1/72 scale kit; DO IT!!!! There is a huge segment of modeling that prefers 1/72 just like some prefer 1/32 scale. Look at the response towards the new kits AMK has came out with in 1/72. They're all over them. Besides Fujimi Tomcats are getting hard to come by anymore. Few people on this board or any modeling forum have the slightest conception of what injection molding is. Sorry for calling you out, but it's the truth. I know just enough to get into big trouble. It's takes a lot of time and labor to get things right. So I'll just sit back and wait them out (besides I fish in the summer and fall).

 

gary

 

Yes! We will do so. Mainly, we will down scale from our 1/48 kits.

 

Check our next one, 1/72 Kfir, the contents and the price of the box.

[MoFo]

1 hour ago, f-16 said:

So, what does this mean? Are they gong to contact anyone about pre-orders? Does this mean they ARE going to have pre-orders?

 

It means they made the FB post before contacting their distribution network to get their feedback, iron out any potential problems, and get everyone on board for a simultaneous launch to improve the chances of succeeding.  So individual retailers have been left scrambling to put things into place on their own to capitalize on the sudden demand.

 

AMK have said that they'll roll out a pre-order system mid-month.  Specifically, since AMK is trying to push people to buy from their LHS and most of those aren't equipped to handle pre-orders, they'll be rolling out some kind of way for those people to place orders.  Presumably they will also have reached out to all their distributors and on-line retailers by that point as well.  

 

It's something that *should* have been done a week ago, before they made a public announcement, so that all the various distributors and retailers could get on board for a smooth launch.  But obviously that didn't happen.  So if there's a place where you *really* want to buy the kit (like Sprue Bros), and it's not listed yet, I'd probably give it some time.  It's not going to make any difference whether you order on the first day of the pre-order window or the last one.

 

[bikerider]

The "pre-order enough or a production run will not be done" thing has been the norm in model railroading for a few years now. The difference I see between my experiences there and with AMK here is that the model railroad companies had a ordering and distribution system in place with the suppliers, stores etc. Plus many do direct ordering from their website, and they don't announce a model until the ordering process is ready and established. It tends to work ok, usually. And its become so normal now that few complain anymore, for better or worse.

  I did get burned once where I ordered a limited run item from an on-line store (that I had dealt with many time previously over years) and after ordering the owner decided he didn't want to be in model trains anymore and took everybody's money and ran. To this day I've never found out what happened to him... but I was fortunate where the manufacturer of that item stepped up and as long as I could prove I ordered the item, they honoured my order. I did have to pay an extra $50 or so for that to happen.

But the whole experience turned me off that business model, and that was part of what led me to get bored / disappointed / frustrated in model trains and I shifted back to model planes. 

I don't like the pre-order business model, but I can partly understand why manufacturers have shifted to it. I won't be ordering an AMK F-14 - partly because of the ordering process announced - but also because I've got two Tamiya F-14s nearly done.... my Tomcat quota is done.  I would have bought an AMK F-14 had it reached market earlier.

 

[ChesshireCat]

3 hours ago, Sio said:

 

Haha. Finally, you are the first one understand this!

 

You can see from the time and works we spent for deign and tooling, contents in the boxes compare to the price. In addition, we think, modeling is not just simply a hobby, but also kind of culture. We have to do something to maintain this culture.

 

So, we need your support, not only sales, but also experts providing us correct and accurate information for development and checking mistakes of our design. This is why we announce far too early our plans, and 3D design pictures. So that, you, modelers and experts, can help us to make good quality and accurate kits.

 

We will be still doing so in the future.

 

 

 

True! You are right! Martin may have to work hard a bit more then. Haha

 

 

Yes! We will do so. Mainly, we will down scale from our 1/48 kits.

 

Check our next one, 1/72 Kfir, the contents and the price of the box.

Sio, and Marten;

 

I have an idea of the pain it takes to market something of the type. I went thru a period of making injection molded parts while holding tolerances in in arc seconds. Good way to loose the rest of your mind and hair. Just to stay ontop of the equipment is mind boggling. Then there is the cost of getting the item to market. The deeper your pockets the easier it is, but you soon learn your budget restricted no matter how much cash on hand the big guy has. By doing work for other folks you have the luxury of a steady cash flow. Most everyone here has zero concept of this advantage. I do, and I came out of a corporation with extremely deep pockets. Cash flow is king everywhere.

 

Most of us do not know about the size of the mold block verses the cash outlay. You want a 1/32 kit, and figure it'll be a similar price to a 1/48th kit. NOT! What the actual ratio is I don't know, but bet it 50% more. The size of the parts, no matter the scale is just as bad. A Tomcat is pretty big like the Mig. So the steady cash flow is reflecting on the AMK price tag verses some others.

gary  

[Mr Matt Foley]

15 hours ago, torchf4 said:

I'm with you bro!

 

After all the nice noises for almost 2 years (since they didn't actually promised anything according to some), now they're saying essentially they are too busy making money elsewhere and if we want the kit then we need to basically pony up and pay them up front like a corporate manufacturing client for an entire production run so that they will then consider slotting the kit into their schedule in Dec (show faith if that's the word), if there's not enough faith then it will happen as and when they have some slack time in the factory!

 

Hahaha thanks but no thanks! Really liked the Kfir but why get bother into if its only going to be a sideshow for the company? Supplementary income to pay the rent on slow days? At least don't put any timeframe on the releases or just say it up front all releases will happen at the discretion of the company!

 

Wow, you boys need to take a deep breath and go for a walk or something.

[B.Sin]

4 minutes ago, Mr Matt Foley said:

 

Wow, you boys need to take a deep breath and go for a walk or something.

Word

[Mr Matt Foley]

"Since our own factory has customers, and their orders should have the priority to be produced in the factory. What we did before, is to use the spare time in the factory to produce kits. That is why we were slow.

 

"Unfortunately", our factory was quite full the last whole year, and it seems customers' orders are still coming in. We don't see any available time of the factory to start production in the coming future. And, we want to release it before december, that is why we are trying this way. To guarantee our quality, we need 5-6 months to finish our production. That is why we set the deadline for preordering by the end of May."

 

Sounds like the time has come to search for investors and set up your own "factory" and fly the nest. AMK is losing money in the current situation and this certainly is not going to bode well in the future. As a matter of fact, finding investors in the West would probably be advised as would building said factory in the west. UK, USA, wherever, it will create jobs. I can't imagine the cost of production going to another factory i.e. competitor by having this business model. Either that happens or I would be concerned about AMK going under in the not so distant future.

[Mr Matt Foley]

8 hours ago, Sio said:

 

Ah.........

 

Our plan was, if we cannot achieve the 5000 pcs goal, we will return the money to modelers.

 

We also already get some responses from distributors, retuning money could be quite a headache for them.

 

So now, maybe we will leave the choice to modelers. Once they place an order but we cannot achieve the goal, they can choose to refund or  keep the order with this incentive price to wait a longer time.

 

We will announce this shortly in our Facebook.

 

Are the distributors offering payment to AMK in advance of production?

 

I'll wait for a Stateside distributor regardless. This is starting to remind me of a pyramid scheme.....

Edited May 9, 2017 by Mr Matt Foley

[Skull Leader]

Yeah, I can wait. We aren't hurting for good tomcat kits, so when the kit actually exists, I'll front the scheckels, not before.

[F4DPhantomII]

I'll wait for it and the reviews before I commit.$45 is a good price. But I have several Hasegawa,Academy and one excellent Tamiya kit to keep me busy.

[IAGeezer]

So. Has anyone seen the Distributors list yet?

[Berkut]

3 hours ago, IAGeezer said:

So. Has anyone seen the Distributors list yet?

Yes, now there is; https://nb-no.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/posts/797145350450294

[IAGeezer]

11 minutes ago, Berkut said:

Yes, now there is; https://nb-no.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/posts/797145350450294

 

Thank you Sir! Now to do some price checking. I pre ordered their MiG-31 from HobbyEasy, and it arrived - slowly.... but I had other kits to do while waiting.

[MoFo]

Quote

KOREA
D-Corporation
Contact: Mr. Doogi Howser
E-mail: s-doogi@hotmail.com

 

Srsly?

[dehowie]

So 55 pages of "wow how awesome is AMK", "The AMK kit will blow the Tamiya kit away" etc etc.

Then when it comes to putting your money where your mouth is and for a measly $45 and they are greeted with silence and people hunting or waiting for a beter price.

Pretty simple really you want your all singing and dancing F-14 put up or shut up.

Pre order purchasing is done in lots of industries to "guarrantee" to manufacturers that they have the capital to warrant a massive investment to ensure a project goes ahead.

$45 for a 1/48 Tomcat with two wings plus full weapons and guys are hunting around for better prices..

You guys cant be serious can you.

The Tamiya F-14A out of SB today is 92!!

So to save $5 you would risk the entire project goes down the tube.

The lovely Steel Beach F-14B conversion by itself is 35 bucks plus throw in a Tamiya F-14 plus some other bits to make a D and you staring at 100 plus without any weapons.

If you dont think 45 is a good price and are happy to see the kit go unproduced because there are not enough interested in seeing an F-14D from AMK in 48th you only have yourself to blame when it gets cancelled.

 

 

[Slartibartfast]

You misunderstand. If the pre-order amount is not reached, production is pushed into 2018. The kit WILL be produced, it's the timing that changes.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Slartibartfast

[Jonathan_Lotton]

It's not so much the price people are having issues with..it's potentially paying for something now (May 2017) that may not be in our hands until this time next year. 

I've not a single problem paying the asking price..I just don't like the "it'll be the slow boat" approach. 

[ytsejam87]

6 hours ago, Berkut said:

Yes, now there is; https://nb-no.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/posts/797145350450294

indeed, thank you Berkut.  

 

I see this as an opportunity to benefit from a vendor who produces an exemplary product and and opportunity to help that same vendor expand it's product line!

 

 

[ChesshireCat]

3 hours ago, Jonathan_Lotton said:

It's not so much the price people are having issues with..it's potentially paying for something now (May 2017) that may not be in our hands until this time next year. 

I've not a single problem paying the asking price..I just don't like the "it'll be the slow boat" approach. 

still didn't read the entire post from Sio. He said it would be in your hands Christmas.

gary