Kittyhawk / Panda just announced on Facebook they are closing down

[Dave Roof]

It was literally just that statement with no other text or information.

 

Could be legit or could be a hacked page.

Edited June 3, 2021 by Dave Roof

[Mr Matt Foley]

They had much potential. Time to go shopping.

 

[Dave Roof]

Glenn, the US Rep, just chimed in on LSP. Apparently it's legit.

[Charlie D.]

Wow…always hate to see a manufacturer shut down. I wasn’t a fan of many of their subjects, FJ-3 and F-94C were the only items of interest to me and I’ve got them. I’m sure those molds will turn up under a different label at some point.

[flanker27]

Maybe a gimmick to make everyone rush out to buy their kits? than back again after six month or a year?

[Ben Brown]

I have mixed feelings. They had some great subjects but they were so poorly executed.

 

Ben

[Tracy White]

Ditto Ben. Always sad to lose a company that puts product out there, but at the same time I'm not a fan of companies that "poison" a subject by releasing a bad kit and ensuring no one else is doing one for a long time due to satisfied demand.

[stalal]

51 minutes ago, flanker27 said:

Maybe a gimmick to make everyone rush out to buy their kits? than back again after six month or a year?

 

Or may be some other manufacturer is taking over. Their kits had too many issues right from packaging, instructions, decals, missing parts to wrong instructions. All not too difficult to fix but just lazy oversight perhaps. 

[ESzczesniak]

This was a surprise for me, there goes my hope for a revival of their F11F for my Blue Angels group build.

 

I have to admit to ordering a bunch of their kits this morning from Spruebrothers.  All hellos, mostly all H-60 family.  I think I have all the other jets I was looking for.

 

Their kits may not have been the best, but they were anything but unbuildable and they were on top of Cold War subjects other companies weren't touching.  Sad to see them go.

[juanchopancho]

I mean I bought every single one of their H-60 releases plus 2x AH-6

 

Just bought the 1:32 Mirage 2000C

[Inquisitor]

I was in talks with Sophia Lynm a few weeks ago to get clear parts replacement for their Su-34. She needed to check stock and get a reply. I was afraid I wouldn't get the parts after today's announcement and sent another email today to ask for an update.

From her reply she said the company won't be releasing new kits in the near future. But they'll keep selling their stock for a "long" while.

Edited June 4, 2021 by Inquisitor

[JackMan]

18 hours ago, flanker27 said:

Maybe a gimmick to make everyone rush out to buy their kits? than back again after six month or a year?

 

Or under a new company name. 

[jpk]

13 hours ago, ESzczesniak said:

This was a surprise for me, there goes my hope for a revival of their F11F for my Blue Angels group build.

 

I have to admit to ordering a bunch of their kits this morning from Spruebrothers.  All hellos, mostly all H-60 family.  I think I have all the other jets I was looking for.

 

Their kits may not have been the best, but they were anything but unbuildable and they were on top of Cold War subjects other companies weren't touching.  Sad to see them go.

I agree. For mid 50's NavAir they were the only ones mining that subject. 

[jpk]

I also bought another FJ-3 Fury from SB and another -2 from eBay. I'm going to try and get their Cougs as well. I have heard pretty glowing reviews of their helicopters and armor kits. I really love the Furys and Cougars. And, as much as the Banshee was criticized and rightfully so over the intakes, Rieth's resin correction set cured 90% of what was wrong. I don't know about any other subject aircraft but their Russian stuff seemed pretty good but that is not my area of interest so I can't comment on them. Rotorheads love their choppers. They did have a very ambitious release schedule. Maybe that might have been their problem.    

[skyhawk174]

As others have said it is sad news no matter which way you look at it. To lose a model company is not a good thing. I don't have any of their H-60 series but from what i have read and seen they do look good. I am a 1/48th chopper guy so was hoping for a scale down in the near future. I only have 4 of their kits and was hoping for good things for their Voodoo but did not get it in the end due to some issues that bugged me on them. The KH moulds are still valuable so who knows where they will end up.

[Spruemeister]

I'm starting the rumor that they were bought by Knott Models and will move production to the US under the new Squadron name.  Because its a slow day with no new UFO sightings and I have an FJ-3 on order from HobbyLink that is tied to a Tamiya Phantom pre order, and which now may never be fulfilled if they all suddenly go "poof". 

 

Rick L.  

[skyhawk174]

3 hours ago, Spruemeister said:

I'm starting the rumor that they were bought by Knott Models and will move production to the US under the new Squadron name.  Because its a slow day with no new UFO sightings and I have an FJ-3 on order from HobbyLink that is tied to a Tamiya Phantom pre order, and which now may never be fulfilled if they all suddenly go "poof". 

 

Rick L.  

 

I read on FB I think that they have a year of stock to get rid of and they will be doing that.

 

[Charlie D.]

59 minutes ago, skyhawk174 said:

 

I read on FB I think that they have a year of stock to get rid of and they will be doing that.

 

That’ll be interesting to see if it it’s true, I’ve been watching the fury’s evaporate on eBay over the last 24 hours😝

[ElectroSoldier]

I thought them expensive kits for what they were.

 

They went together in the end but with the way people talk about wanting models to fall together themselves these days then its no surprise they aint making it.

[F-16]

I wonder if Kinetic would be interested in buying some of the molds.....

 

Scott

CNJC-IPMS

[Dave Williams]

5 hours ago, F-16 said:

I wonder if Kinetic would be interested in buying some of the molds.....

 

Scott

CNJC-IPMS

I’d be surprised if any major companies bought the molds unless they got them at a rock bottom price.  It sounds like they are still holding a sizable inventory still to be sold, and once all that’s run through, there may not be that much of a demand left.  Yeah, there will be some who miss out and wish for a repop of kit X, but probably not that many.

[ESzczesniak]

11 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:

I’d be surprised if any major companies bought the molds unless they got them at a rock bottom price.  It sounds like they are still holding a sizable inventory still to be sold, and once all that’s run through, there may not be that much of a demand left.  Yeah, there will be some who miss out and wish for a repop of kit X, but probably not that many.

Time will tell. I think you have a good point they’re not very valuable at the moment until that surplus inventory Is out of circulation. But there will be a day they might be in demand again. 

[John Tapsell]

Lots of reasons why a company can fail (and in the modelling world, very little of that has to do with the accuracy, or otherwise, of the products).

 

If there's that much stock left then it means they haven't been able to sell it through their distributors, which in turn means that the distributors are not confident they can sell stock on to retailers (and the retailers aren't confident they can sell it to consumers). A oft-quoted figure in the commercial world is that a single item of stock costs 25% of it's value in storage costs for each year it is in the warehouse. Therefore you don't want to maintain large inventories of stock because it is a constant financial drain and the longer you store it the less value it has on the market.

 

A lot of smaller companies (irrespective of the market they are in or the products/services they sell) fail because their rate of growth outstrips their ability to absorb that growth and the increased costs associated with it, or they over-extend themselves and can't pay back their investors, or they under-estimate the real costs of the enterprise and fail to invest enough capital in the first place. 

 

It might also be that the global market is reaching the limits of how many competing manufacturers it can support and some of the weaker ones will fail.

 

It could be any one of those reasons, a combination of them, or a different reason entirely.

[Mr Matt Foley]

If Kitty Hawk had a better marketing strategy and manufactured kits that were engineered to fit better with accurate instructions, I am certain this would not be happening today.

[skyhawk174]

18 hours ago, John Tapsell said:

Lots of reasons why a company can fail (and in the modelling world, very little of that has to do with the accuracy, or otherwise, of the products).

 

If there's that much stock left then it means they haven't been able to sell it through their distributors, which in turn means that the distributors are not confident they can sell stock on to retailers (and the retailers aren't confident they can sell it to consumers). A oft-quoted figure in the commercial world is that a single item of stock costs 25% of it's value in storage costs for each year it is in the warehouse. Therefore you don't want to maintain large inventories of stock because it is a constant financial drain and the longer you store it the less value it has on the market.

 

A lot of smaller companies (irrespective of the market they are in or the products/services they sell) fail because their rate of growth outstrips their ability to absorb that growth and the increased costs associated with it, or they over-extend themselves and can't pay back their investors, or they under-estimate the real costs of the enterprise and fail to invest enough capital in the first place. 

 

It might also be that the global market is reaching the limits of how many competing manufacturers it can support and some of the weaker ones will fail.

 

It could be any one of those reasons, a combination of them, or a different reason entirely.

Thanks for the insight John. Your comments maker so much sense. However I do think KH had a market especially for their large scale H-60 series since no one else did that (Academy notwithstanding). I only have a few of the kits and I am happy with them (not built) as the subject interested me. Time will tell I would say.