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It sucks for sure if they are truly gone. I dealt with them for decades on many levels and visited frequently. The last CEO they had unfortunately didn't do them any good IMO and pretty much ran it into the ground. She was a bean counter that was not into the hobby and only looked at the bottom line without insight on how the hobby world worked. If you dig deep she was also CEO of the Franklin MInt before Squadron and you can see how they went down hill too. One formula DOES NOT work in every business.

 

 Eagle quest was always fun to go to but all good thing come to an end. I guess other online stores that have the big financial backing will take over the void and grow even more. 

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This is not surprising, but it is sad to see them go. 

 

Back in the pre-internet days, the Squadron flyer was a door to a whole new world of manufacturers you may never see at the hobby store. They had the stuff that you might have only heard of by reading magazines. 

 

Even into the early 2000s, before the emergence of Sprue Brothers, the Squadron website was one of the big players, and the coming soon page was a great source of information for new releases. 

 

They also had great customer service over the phone, or by email. 

 

For the past 10 years or so it seems like they were a zombie company.. it is a sad end to a once great company.  

 

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10 hours ago, Raptor01 said:

Went to a few open houses in conjunction with NCT IPMS Shows at the end of the 90's & early 00's.  Killer deals back then, 1/32 Tamiya F-15E Bunker Buster $89.,  Classic Airframe Kits, just about everything you could want.  Warehouse was stocked, stacked floor to ceiling, modelers heaven.  It would be like going through Sprue Brothers Warehouse today if you could.  The first time I went without a list, only a few items on my mind, then when I got to walking around, I forgot what I wanted, it was awesome.

It changed hands and has been struggling since maybe 2004/05, sad really, monopolies are not good for anyone.

 

John

 

That sounds like the old VLS Mastercon Days. I attended three (3) of them and they opened the warehouse for 40% off or more for everything inside. I spent way too much money on those trips...but had a lot of fun.

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2 hours ago, breadneck said:

So what will happen with the True Details range now? I noticed some of them have been modernized not like the older sets. Never shopped with Squadron directly, just wasn`t my thing.

Likely it'll go away, along with all the other brands under their banner....Aeromaster/Eagle Strike, Superscale, Black Box, Avionix, Encore, In Action books...

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On 1/14/2021 at 2:57 PM, Charlie D. said:

Likely it'll go away, along with all the other brands under their banner....Aeromaster/Eagle Strike, Superscale, Black Box, Avionix, Encore, In Action books...

I've been told that one of the other aftermarket brands is trying to acquire the True Details masters as payment for money owed by MMD to them. No clue how far along this process is, though.

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7 hours ago, MHaz said:

I've been told that one of the other aftermarket brands is trying to acquire the True Details masters as payment for money owed by MMD to them. No clue how far along this process is, though.

 

That would be great, unlike when Meteor Productions (Cutting Edge) went under.

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I noticed over the years that many of the items listed in the eStore were adorned with the caveat "Available To Order" which to me was a bad sign as the merchandise was not in stock and available for immediate purchase.  While it could have been a source of supply issue  that did not bear out as many of the competing eStores did have the merchandise in stock and ready to sell.   

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Even if I've not bought from them in a long time, it's sad they are gone; before the internet was a thing, Squadron was my source for kits and supplies that were too expensive or impossible to find in my country.

 

I remember making a copy of the insert in FSM, filling it carefully in that tiny space, and place my first order by mail; I've had to borrow a credit card from my dad's friend (in those times, international credit cards were uncommon)  it took a month and a half for the letter to arrive and the same time for the package to return.

 

Now, before buying a kit already seen pictures of the sprues, on-line reviews, or cad images at least; back then with Squadron, my only reference was a black and white thumbs size sketch of the box cover, if it looks cool, the kit must be cool.

 

By coincidence, this popped out inside a book a few weeks ago.

 

Yg7BZabm.jpg


Squadron, along with FSM, were the culprits of getting me stuck in this hobby; I'll keep the good memories.

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5 hours ago, jeffryfontaine said:

I noticed over the years that many of the items listed in the eStore were adorned with the caveat "Available To Order" which to me was a bad sign as the merchandise was not in stock and available for immediate purchase.  While it could have been a source of supply issue  that did not bear out as many of the competing eStores did have the merchandise in stock and ready to sell.   


I suspect that it had nothing to do with supply issues.  Most likely, the MBAs in charge decided to go to a business model that had limited physical inventory to reduce costs, and just ordered product on demand.

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20 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:


I suspect that it had nothing to do with supply issues.  Most likely, the MBAs in charge decided to go to a business model that had limited physical inventory to reduce costs, and just ordered product on demand.


If so, why keep the huge warehouse?  It wasn’t that long ago they doubled in size at the current location. If reducing overhead was an MBA goal then they would have walled off and leased out the giant warehouse.  
 

.

 

 

Edited by habu2
Stupid autocorrect....
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11 hours ago, Mr Matt Foley said:

 

That would be great, unlike when Meteor Productions (Cutting Edge) went under.

Hopefully nobody steals their joy... 

 

1 hour ago, habu2 said:


If so, why keep the huge warehouse?  It wasn’t that long ago they doubled in size at the current location. If reducing overhead was an MBA goal then they would have walled off and leased out the giant warehouse.  
 

.

 

 

 

MMD failed because of mismanagement, high overhead and once a new management team was installed, lack of understanding of the hobby.

 

In the mid 2010's, while we were living in DFW, I'd go to every NCT IPMS open house they'd host, and since my daily commute would take me very close to their warehouse, I'd usually have an order to pick up every so often. MMD had about 30-40 people working there at that point, including 3 full time graphic designers for the flyers, several other office personnel, and the warehouse staff. By contrast, Sprue Brothers has 12 people, total, processing orders, ordering new product and maintaining their website. The level of overhead that MMD had to deal with hampered their cash flow, and that's about when we started seeing some of the "out of stock/available to order" funny business start to happen.

 

Once the "new" CEO, Gwen, and her management team took over, they were still saddled with the oversize staff, and added unfamiliarity with the hobby to the mix. Gwen joined MMD from Franklin Mint miniatures, and had zero background in the hobby, and some of the decisions she made reflected that - the collectibles and such that they tried to sell. MMD also had buyers that didn't understand either their hobby or their customer base. I had one tell me at an open house, point blank, that "Hasegawa isn't a popular brand, so we don't carry it..."

 

I know for a fact that they've had trouble paying their suppliers for several years. One paint company is owed in the 10's of thousands of dollars, and several of the book publishers are owed almost as much. I had my own experience with them back when we did the first VF-84 Phantom sheet - MMD wanted to buy a whopping total of 10 copies, wanted a 60% discount from retail AND wanted to pay me with a purchase order that would be redeemed up to 90 days after my decal sheets showed up at their door. (The owner of the local HobbyTown USA's there in DFW bought 50 copies, only asked for a 40% discount and paid in both cash and store credit [which I promptly spent on some new kits and supplies.]) 

 

The death blow was when Hobby Boss/Trumpeter dropped them as an importer; that was the only positive net cash flow for them by that point.

 

Sources: I'm friends with a couple of guys that were in the warehouse and one of their former orderers.

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7 hours ago, MHaz said:

Hopefully nobody steals their joy... 

 

 

MMD failed because of mismanagement, high overhead and once a new management team was installed, lack of understanding of the hobby.

 

In the mid 2010's, while we were living in DFW, I'd go to every NCT IPMS open house they'd host, and since my daily commute would take me very close to their warehouse, I'd usually have an order to pick up every so often. MMD had about 30-40 people working there at that point, including 3 full time graphic designers for the flyers, several other office personnel, and the warehouse staff. By contrast, Sprue Brothers has 12 people, total, processing orders, ordering new product and maintaining their website. The level of overhead that MMD had to deal with hampered their cash flow, and that's about when we started seeing some of the "out of stock/available to order" funny business start to happen.

 

Once the "new" CEO, Gwen, and her management team took over, they were still saddled with the oversize staff, and added unfamiliarity with the hobby to the mix. Gwen joined MMD from Franklin Mint miniatures, and had zero background in the hobby, and some of the decisions she made reflected that - the collectibles and such that they tried to sell. MMD also had buyers that didn't understand either their hobby or their customer base. I had one tell me at an open house, point blank, that "Hasegawa isn't a popular brand, so we don't carry it..."

 

I know for a fact that they've had trouble paying their suppliers for several years. One paint company is owed in the 10's of thousands of dollars, and several of the book publishers are owed almost as much. I had my own experience with them back when we did the first VF-84 Phantom sheet - MMD wanted to buy a whopping total of 10 copies, wanted a 60% discount from retail AND wanted to pay me with a purchase order that would be redeemed up to 90 days after my decal sheets showed up at their door. (The owner of the local HobbyTown USA's there in DFW bought 50 copies, only asked for a 40% discount and paid in both cash and store credit [which I promptly spent on some new kits and supplies.]) 

 

The death blow was when Hobby Boss/Trumpeter dropped them as an importer; that was the only positive net cash flow for them by that point.

 

Sources: I'm friends with a couple of guys that were in the warehouse and one of their former orderers.

NCT? 

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11 hours ago, MHaz said:

Hopefully nobody steals their joy... 

 

 

MMD failed because of mismanagement, high overhead and once a new management team was installed, lack of understanding of the hobby.

 

In the mid 2010's, while we were living in DFW, I'd go to every NCT IPMS open house they'd host, and since my daily commute would take me very close to their warehouse, I'd usually have an order to pick up every so often. MMD had about 30-40 people working there at that point, including 3 full time graphic designers for the flyers, several other office personnel, and the warehouse staff. By contrast, Sprue Brothers has 12 people, total, processing orders, ordering new product and maintaining their website. The level of overhead that MMD had to deal with hampered their cash flow, and that's about when we started seeing some of the "out of stock/available to order" funny business start to happen.

 

Once the "new" CEO, Gwen, and her management team took over, they were still saddled with the oversize staff, and added unfamiliarity with the hobby to the mix. Gwen joined MMD from Franklin Mint miniatures, and had zero background in the hobby, and some of the decisions she made reflected that - the collectibles and such that they tried to sell. MMD also had buyers that didn't understand either their hobby or their customer base. I had one tell me at an open house, point blank, that "Hasegawa isn't a popular brand, so we don't carry it..."

 

I know for a fact that they've had trouble paying their suppliers for several years. One paint company is owed in the 10's of thousands of dollars, and several of the book publishers are owed almost as much. I had my own experience with them back when we did the first VF-84 Phantom sheet - MMD wanted to buy a whopping total of 10 copies, wanted a 60% discount from retail AND wanted to pay me with a purchase order that would be redeemed up to 90 days after my decal sheets showed up at their door. (The owner of the local HobbyTown USA's there in DFW bought 50 copies, only asked for a 40% discount and paid in both cash and store credit [which I promptly spent on some new kits and supplies.]) 

 

The death blow was when Hobby Boss/Trumpeter dropped them as an importer; that was the only positive net cash flow for them by that point.

 

Sources: I'm friends with a couple of guys that were in the warehouse and one of their former orderers.

 

Thank you for taking the time to put this out. Is this also the reason Jef V left the company? I thought it was odd that he left the way he did. One could assume he saw the writing on the wall.

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On 1/17/2021 at 7:52 AM, Mr Matt Foley said:

 

Thank you for taking the time to put this out. Is this also the reason Jef V left the company? I thought it was odd that he left the way he did. One could assume he saw the writing on the wall.

I'm honestly not sure about Jeff V, but I believe that's the essence of it.  I find it poetic that he's now sponsored by Sprue Brothers.

 

It's honestly sad the way it went downhill - every time I went to an open house, it seemed like their warehouse got emptier and emptier. They they started charging admission for their open houses, and only for Eagle Quest attendees, leaving NCT IPMS high and dry. The last show I went to in 2019, MMD cancelled their tables the week before the show, leaving the club with a very sparse dealer area.

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Well, I was actually getting ready to send back to them 4 tubes of their horrific new-formula white "putty" as a statement of how useless the stuff is.  I'd used their original formula for nearly 30 years and didn't know when I restocked that the formula had changed. 

 

Guess I can save myself the postage now....

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29 minutes ago, Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy said:

Well, I was actually getting ready to send back to them 4 tubes of their horrific new-formula white "putty" as a statement of how useless the stuff is.  I'd used their original formula for nearly 30 years and didn't know when I restocked that the formula had changed. 

 

Guess I can save myself the postage now....

Crap. I just bought a tube because it was all the LHS had, and I was out of my other putty. What’s wrong with it before I use it?

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