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1 hour ago, Tapchan said:

Well, they released some info about one test shot weaponry sprue set to be unveiled today evening. Seem like they read this topic.

 

According to HobbyEasy the whole set is released as of Jan 22.

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2 hours ago, Dave Roof said:

I posted this comment on Facebook earlier this morning. I've also discussed this possibility with someone very involved in the hobby and they believe it's possible based on other factors (that he did not share with me). I will again state that I am not saying this as matter of fact, it is simply speculation on my part. 

 

I'm beginning to wonder if AMK completely lost their a$$ financially on the previously released kits (MiG's, Kfir, etc) and couldn't move forward with the F-14D until the previous debt was paid off. Perhaps the Indiegogo/pre-order endeavor was to cover those debts and not for the F-14 itself. Kind of like 'robbing peter to pay paul, but now peter is broke too'. I am in no way stating this as matter of fact, nor have I heard anything to suggest this is true. It's just something I've thought about as being a *possible* situation they're in.

 

I was musing above about the possibility of cash flow problems due to cost of redoing the molds. This is an interesting alternative. Something is holding them up. The weaponry pics are not that interesting. They posted pics of parts of the set months ago.

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2 hours ago, Dave Roof said:

I posted this comment on Facebook earlier this morning. I've also discussed this possibility with someone very involved in the hobby and they believe it's possible based on other factors (that he did not share with me). I will again state that I am not saying this as matter of fact, it is simply speculation on my part. 

 

I'm beginning to wonder if AMK completely lost their a$$ financially on the previously released kits (MiG's, Kfir, etc) and couldn't move forward with the F-14D until the previous debt was paid off. Perhaps the Indiegogo/pre-order endeavor was to cover those debts and not for the F-14 itself. Kind of like 'robbing peter to pay paul, but now peter is broke too'. I am in no way stating this as matter of fact, nor have I heard anything to suggest this is true. It's just something I've thought about as being a *possible* situation they're in.

 

Did you see this post Dave?:

 

On 11/25/2018 at 4:29 PM, Zactoman said:

AMK began tooling the Bronco in April of 2017. I was told by HazMAT that it would take 3-4 months.

AMK started taking pre-orders for the Tomcat in May.
It was May 2018, after I ended my relationship with HazMAT, that I learned that the Bronco tooling had been taken from AMK (See post by HomeBe: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/296183-148-ov-10a-bronco/&do=findComment&comment=2913751 ).
My understanding is that the current Bronco tooling needs extensive re-work/re-tooling.

 

Which later led me to this:

 

On 12/31/2018 at 11:23 PM, Zactoman said:

There is also the possibility that they paused the Tomcat to do tooling for another company. This was apparently the case with the HazMAT Bronco.
Gotta pay them bills...

 

Where I got this reply:

 

On 1/1/2019 at 3:15 AM, Laurent said:

Yup... reminder: Annetra Mi-8/17

 

Reading some of the comments in the Aviation Art Su-33 thread, I'm starting to wonder if perhaps AMK sidelined the Tomcat yet again to do the tooling for that kit.

 

 

Wimpy_sm.jpg

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1 hour ago, Zactoman said:

 

 

Did you see this post Dave?:

 

 

Which later led me to this:

 

 

Where I got this reply:

 

 

Reading some of the comments in the Aviation Art Su-33 thread, I'm starting to wonder if perhaps AMK sidelined the Tomcat yet again to do the tooling for that kit.

 

 

Wimpy_sm.jpg

Actually no, I missed those posts. I do hope the kit gets released.

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I think Dave's theory has allot of merit.

I'm seeing more and more pre-buy/early access buys in various industries. Why? The manufacturers either dont have enough starter money or they over estimate their ability to provide the product they sold  at a fixed price and in the time-frame they promised. And when dealing with a foreign company, where laws are different and recouping your money is difficult, you're essentially gambling. 

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That and the latest technologies allow for crowd funded sources MUCH easier than before. It use to be to get investors you'd have to hit the pavement and meet with people who had capital and pitch your idea. They would determine if it were a viable business venture and they would help or not. They were essentially brokers to the consumers. Now, that has been turned upside down on its head with sites like Gofund me and other such places and such international connections. You can throw an idea out there and say, directly to the public, "here is my idea or product, are you interested?" I think that concept is getting out of just being for start-ups and now trickling into more mainstream company concepts. It's interesting times for sure.

 

Bill

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At Zactoman's request we've unlocked this thread again. But be warned...do not turn this thread political!  And don't post any nasty crap at AMK. No one know whats going on so there is no need for that kind of thing. Just keep it decent and we'll allow it to continue...

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On 1/25/2019 at 3:06 PM, terrysumner said:

Had enough of this.  This thread is being locked. If some news, some concrete news, comes out from AMK maybe then I'll unlock it.

 

23 minutes ago, terrysumner said:

At Zactoman's request we've unlocked this thread again. But be warned...do not turn this thread political!  And don't post any nasty crap at AMK. No one know whats going on so there is no need for that kind of thing. Just keep it decent and we'll allow it to continue...

 

I requested that the thread be unlocked because there has been some news and a new thread had to be started to discuss it.

For those who haven't seen the other thread, you can find it here: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/307088-only-option-to-give-news-of-a-sort/

 

Thanks for unlocking! :cheers:

 

Edit: Can that thread be merged with this one?

Edited by Zactoman
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6 hours ago, terrysumner said:

 No one know whats going on so there is no need for that kind of thing.

And this has been MY very point, for close to the last 6 months. There has been baseless speculation, rumour-mongering and outright vitriol aimed at AMK and this kit, for no reason I can see. It was patently obvious that AMK retreated to their shell, after the ruckus started over the so-called "waist issues." Who can blame them, as each time they tried to address the so-called issues, they were slammed before they could even truly respond. A losing game if I've ever seen one.

 

The ironic thing about all this is that IF AMK does release the kit with major shape issues, the consumer will sort them out fairly quickly with their wallet. There are numerous examples to cite here including the Airfix P-40B, KH Banshee, Mig-25 and so many others. So all I have said all along is let them do their thing, there will be more than enough time on the other side of release, to rip them to shreds if they fail to deliver. In the meantime let's just enjoy the hobby, why get worked up over plastic, it ain't life or death!

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5 hours ago, madmanrick said:

There has been baseless speculation, rumour-mongering and outright vitriol aimed at AMK and this kit, for no reason I can see.

Speculation and rumor-mongering have likely resulted from AMK not answering questions and deciding to stop communicating with the modeling community.
Vitriol is likely because they took pre-orders, which many people who partook actually had funds removed from their accounts, and promised a delivery schedule which wasn't met. In addition they promised "the most accurate F-14D Tomcat ever produced" and test shots showed they had some big problems.

 

5 hours ago, madmanrick said:

It was patently obvious that AMK retreated to their shell, after the ruckus started over the so-called "waist issues." Who can blame them, as each time they tried to address the so-called issues, they were slammed before they could even truly respond

They didn't show that the problems were corrected and the modeling community called them out. They chose to stop communications. Not a good choice considering that many had invested and the community was anticipating a very accurate kit.

 

5 hours ago, madmanrick said:

The ironic thing about all this is that IF AMK does release the kit with major shape issues, the consumer will sort them out fairly quickly with their wallet.

Maybe you didn't read the comments in the link I provided or followed the link to the Czech page included therein or haven't read the comments on Britmodeller. If I am interpreting the comments correctly, AMK has made major changes and has been re-working the kit to be more accurate and easier to build.

That's a good thing isn't it?

Would this have happened if not for the comments made by the community?

Let's hope that they choose to share the changes before committing to tooling.

 

5 hours ago, madmanrick said:

why get worked up over plastic, it ain't life or death!

This is a modeling discussion forum where we discuss plastic models.

Unfortunately "somebody" chose to inject unrelated politics into this thread and got it locked down so we have missed out on updates about the kit.
Let's focus on the subject which in this case happens to be the AMK Tomcat development and related issues.

 

:cheers:

Edited by Zactoman
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Seeing people get worked up into a lather over plastic model airplanes is just entertaining. There's no other way to phrase it. You know what - if and when it comes out then everyone can whine about it and post drawings with red lines on it to complain some more. SMH. Better off locking this thread.

Edited by jgrease
"bad girl" changed to "bad girl" - LMAO
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1 hour ago, Zactoman said:

In addition they promised "the most accurate F-14D Tomcat ever produced" and test shots showed they had some big problems.

 

 

Worse still; AMK disregarded those big problems as being just an "optical illusion!" :woot.gif: They had to be kidding us? That's disrespecting their customers. I won't believe anything else AMK could communicate on any platforms, ever. They've gone south for me as kit manufacturers.

 

1 hour ago, Zactoman said:

Maybe you didn't read the comments in the link I provided or followed the link to the Czech page included therein or haven't read the comments on Britmodeller.

 

I wouldn't hold my breath about the link to the Czech page... :rolleyes: Ever since Terry locked this thread on ARC, I went over on Britmodeller to check any comments made by our Brit counterparts regarding this subject. It was after someone brought the link to the Czech page that Plasto posted:

 

"Ah AMK... Could your market comms strategy be any less ideal... 

 

If I read the above correctly. The main source of the new news is via a 3P who is working with AMK on the development of another kit / tooling who’s happens to have seen the revised tooling and now is letting folk know via a forum in the Czech Republic...

 

Is that correct? If so it a hell of a way of updating the market...

 

:rofl:

 

It's nothing but a big farce. And it's starting to feel quite pathetic.

Cheers,

 

Onigiri

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6 minutes ago, EagleAviation said:

I found this very interesting point of view about the subjext on DN Models blog. Totaly agree with the guy! 

 

https://dnmodels.com/all/modeling-companies-engagements/

 

 

Well written article :thumbsup:! Thumbs high for that author as I think he pretty much nailed it.

 

Regards.

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It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

 

As of now this thread has reached 159 pages, 3,957 posts, 428,581 views, and an uncounted number of broken promises.  And zero kits released. 

 

This thread certainly meets the definition of insanity. 

 

If the purpose of this thread is to give people a place to vent, well, it serves a purpose. 

 

If the purpose of this thread is to post facts about the kit, it’s content and accuray, and it’s real, factual date of availability, then it has failed. 

 

This thread should be closed. Permanently. Not for censured political posts, but because it serves no useful purpose. To continue on the current course is insanity. 

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17 minutes ago, habu2 said:

If the purpose of this thread is to post facts about the kit, it’s content and accuray, and it’s real, factual date of availability, then it has failed. 

 

As long as AMK or other persons were sharing some photos it was serving well for that purpose. Who knows, maybe if not this thread then Tomcat would be already released, with fat arse?

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37 minutes ago, habu2 said:

It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

 

As of now this thread has reached 159 pages, 3,957 posts, 428,581 views, and an uncounted number of broken promises.  And zero kits released. 

 

This thread certainly meets the definition of insanity. 

 

If the purpose of this thread is to give people a place to vent, well, it serves a purpose. 

 

If the purpose of this thread is to post facts about the kit, it’s content and accuray, and it’s real, factual date of availability, then it has failed. 

 

This thread should be closed. Permanently. Not for censured political posts, but because it serves no useful purpose. To continue on the current course is insanity. 

The solution to your dilemma is to simply not read this thread nor even come to it rather than just post another non-useful post.

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There is a rumour of some kind of collaboration between AMK and GWH; with, say, AMK doing an F-14D and GWH an F-14A but the kits sharing a degree of common CAD and hard metal. Truth or myth?

 

The Czech bloke who's been fondling AMK Tomcat bits is not their spokesperson: so really, that whole story is a tangential red herring about a visit to a Chinese plastics factory and a yarn about some moulded missile parts not fitting the intended box - whoops!  But we know there is a Mi- helicopter kit coming out next under a European label.  

 

At this juncture the only and/or reliable information seems to be Great Wall Hobby and its F-14A. My emotional Tomcat energy has accordingly been diverted there. Probably permanently. 

 

Tony 

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:woot.gif: habu, relax!

:woot.gif: Terry, relax!

 

18 minutes ago, tony.t said:

AMK doing an F-14D and GWH an F-14A

 

Pros, if true, is that Great Wall Hobby is doing an F-14A. :punk:

Cons being AMK will never turn out their F-14D :rolleyes:

 

21 minutes ago, tony.t said:

At this juncture the only and/or reliable information seems to be Great Wall Hobby and its F-14A. My emotional Tomcat energy has accordingly been diverted there. 

 

Me too. Great Wall Hobby + F-14A = Forget about AMK as a model manufacturer for ever.

Cheers,

 

Onigiri

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33 minutes ago, tony.t said:

 

There is a rumour of some kind of collaboration between AMK and GWH; with, say, AMK doing an F-14D and GWH an F-14A but the kits sharing a degree of common CAD and hard metal. Truth or myth?

 

The Czech bloke who's been fondling AMK Tomcat bits is not their spokesperson: so really, that whole story is a tangential red herring about a visit to a Chinese plastics factory and a yarn about some moulded missile parts not fitting the intended box - whoops!  But we know there is a Mi- helicopter kit coming out next under a European label.  

 

At this juncture the only and/or reliable information seems to be Great Wall Hobby and its F-14A. My emotional Tomcat energy has accordingly been diverted there. Probably permanently. 

 

Tony 

 

He's the boss of Anetra, a company for which AMK are making molds for the Mil Mi-17.

So yes, he's not the spokesperson of AMk, but he's a client,

he can not criticize them openly, because they got his money now and it could damage reputation and sales of the future Anetra mi-17.

 

 

 

 

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