Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Definitely news of the day; also being discussed at Starship Modeler, Ye Olde Rocket Forum, and The Rocketry Forum.

I'm not in to RC but you know it is big news there.

Here's Hobbico's own page on it, https://www.hobbico.com/company-news.php

Last time I was in hobby retail was 2006 and the world has changed even since then.

And will likely change even more as time passes.

Link to post
Share on other sites

This and the comments are worth the time to read,

http://www.uavexpertnews.com/2017/01/industry-giants-flounder/

Quote

 

This is a reflection of what I have been talking about with my staff for a long time. Most products in these, as well as in other industries are the same price, online or in a retail shop. However, due to the ease of letting your fingers do the shopping,  merchants still struggle for a share of the pie. 

Consumer electronics and hobby products are products that tend to be easy compare prices on. That is to say, you really can’t price shop a sweater (that btw has a 300% gross margin), but you can easily price shop a Sony TV, a Horizon hobby Champ or a DJI Phantom. At the core, consumers only really care about price for these products. While you might think service is king, the reality is consumers sort by lowest price, while demanding the best before and after the sale service and support. But can you really have your cake and eat it too?

...

Each industry is different, but in the US most customers simply do not understand (or care) how businesses work. Most are unaware that retail hobby and electronics stores operate on profits that have been driven to less than a 20% gross margin. What this means is that a typical beginner model airplane that might sell at a store for $99.99, cost the store $79.99. But to really get the full picture you have to do all of the math. For instance that model aircraft product that sells for $99.99 at the store (and online) has the following cost associated with it.

 

 

Edited by southwestforests
Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, Hajo L. said:

According to a german model-forum (which quoted the admin of the RoG-forum), Revell of Germany is NOT affected by that bankruptcy.

 

 

HAJO

I seem to recall that Revell-Monogram & Revell-Germany parted ways a while back. They still work closely together with kit swapping, but that are run but different corporate entities.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
7 minutes ago, Johnopfor said:

I seem to recall that Revell-Monogram & Revell-Germany parted ways a while back. They still work closely together with kit swapping, but that are run but different corporate entities.

 

 

You're well behind the times. RoG became independent of Revell USA in 2006.  Hobbico bought back Revell Germany in February 2012 - followed by the rapid disintegration of Revell Germany's position.

 

Shane

Edited by sweier
missed a word
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...

If you haven't heard already, Hobbico an co. are going to try selling themselves off very soon as part of their bankruptcy filing.

 

To anybody interested, there's this webpage containing several documents related to Hobbico's bankruptcy filing that keeps on updating as the case proceeds.

It's a good look into the state of the company, particularly interesting are the organizations and individuals Hobbico has done business with and become indebted to.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Before Christmas I had pre-ordered a 1/32 R-G P-51 they sent it to me last week....On Friday I ordered a Hasegawa parts tree for my friend who had a glue mishap and melted the nose off his 1/48 Growler, Ouch. They told me it should get to Tower in 8 weeks and it's coming direct from Japan. I hope they do....for his sanity!! I asked about the Chp. 11 deal and got the everything as normal response...so who knows. If they go under one of my main sources for kits and supplies will be gone!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

All Hasegawa replacement parts all come from Japan. They do not have spares state side. I ordered a replacement fuselage top for the old 1/48 F/A-18A, it took me almost 8 months to get it. There was a message in the box that stated that they had to mold one and that it came from Japan. You should get it just don't expect to get it fast!

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, crackerjazz said:

Hmmm...that explains their not getting back to me about the status of my Hasegawa spare A-7 canopy sprues.

 

You can always get Hasegawa replacement parts from HobbyLink Japan. Now that Hobbico is unfortunately going under. 

 

https://hlj.com/

Link to post
Share on other sites

8 months, wow!   Hi stalal, thanks for the Hobbylink Japan tip.  By the way, was your Hobbylink order for parts from a kit you bought from them?   'Cause I see this:

 

Please note that at this time we cannot accept orders for parts in general, but only for parts that arrived broken or missing in items received from HobbyLink Japan within the last 10 days.

Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

8 months, wow!   Hi stalal, thanks for the Hobbylink Japan tip.  By the way, was your Hobbylink order for parts from a kit you bought from them?   'Cause I see this:

 

Please note that at this time we cannot accept orders for parts in general, but only for parts that arrived broken or missing in items received from HobbyLink Japan within the last 10 days.

 

That was a long time ago. If I recall, there was a distributor in Alberta before Hobbico took over from them. This was a transition period between two companies and I was directed to HLJ then. But as always, someone on the forum was able to get me the parts I was looking for. :)

 

With Hobbico situation, I think if you write to HLJ, they will be able to help. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
20 hours ago, stalal said:

 

That was a long time ago. If I recall, there was a distributor in Alberta before Hobbico took over from them. This was a transition period between two companies and I was directed to HLJ then. But as always, someone on the forum was able to get me the parts I was looking for. :)

 

With Hobbico situation, I think if you write to HLJ, they will be able to help. 

 

 

No, the Edmonton company was Mikerian Mercantile, who were the North American distributor for Hasegawa. The moved to California and renamed to Marco-Polo and I think they renamed to Dragon now.

 

Those were the good ole days.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The notices of successful bids in the auction of Hobbico have been filed at 

http://www.jndla.com/cases/hobbico 

(Look under the docket section) 

The Hobbico RC business and Estes Rockets received successful bids, but no bids are recorded for Revell USA or Revell Germany. 
There was also an objection filed by Hobbico's creditors to the sale of the RC businesses. 

I can't help but see this as a bad thing for the future of both companies. It's clearly a step towards a straight liquidation of assets in which the survival of existing molds and 2018 release plans is no longer assured. 

We'll know more Monday, but with the sale of the largest part of Hobbico to Horizon. The ability of what remains to keep operating beyond the end of next week will be limited.

 

Also of note. Horizon did not buy the rights to import Hasegawa or Italeri and, if it finds a buyer, Revell Germany will also lose its US importer as of next Friday. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Whether it survives or not, Revell may not be able to renew the Star Wars license for the US and Europe, leaving the door wide open for other companies to fill in that vacuum. According to the documents, Revell's license expires this year and the rights to sell the Fine Molds kits this August.

I'm curious how much Lucasfilm used to charge for royalties before Disney stepped in.

Link to post
Share on other sites
29 minutes ago, kaz said:

Whether it survives or not, Revell may not be able to renew the Star Wars license for the US and Europe, leaving the door wide open for other companies to fill in that vacuum. 

I think Ban Dai already has. Thier kits have been doing quite well in the US since Disney removed their export restrictions. Zvezda also has a license.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I did not know Hobbico also owned Tower Hobbies.  I've ordered from Tower in the past and had good service.

 

The RC part of Tower is being bought by horizonhobby.com but apparently the scale model part is DOA.

 

Note Horizon also acquired Tower's customer list so if you were a customer you may start getting RC related emails in your inbox.

Link to post
Share on other sites
5 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

Whats this stuff about an email Hobbico sent out regarding customers information and possibly passing it on to future owners? Anyone else received that?

 

I got it also. It basically says Horizon Hobby bought out their business and that includes all customer info. You can opt out of your customer info going to Horizon by clicking a link at the bottom of the page. I opted out since I don't do RC, which is what Horizon does. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...