Hobbico

[Tony HadleyParticipant @tonyhadley]

Spotted on facebook, Hobbico have filed for bankruptcy. Probably best known in the plastic kit section of our hobby.

Hobbico are owners of plastic kit manufacturers Revell (US and Germany), Haswega, Monogram and Italeri. These are shown in the link, click on 'our brands', 'Explore our Brands' and then 'Building Kits'.

**LINK**

[Tony HadleyParticipant @tonyhadley]

Owner of Revell and others

[shipwrightParticipant @shipwright]

Tony,

Although I never built plastic models the demise of another model/kit supplier is a shame but not surprising. Yet another indication that younger people are in general less interested in constructing models (of any type) than previous generations. Computer games, smartphones etc seem more attractive to children today – though there are obviously a few exceptions and I am aware of sterling efforts by some people on this website to attract youngsters into model making.

Ian

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All

I guess most of us started building models with a 2 shilling Airfix kit in plastic bag ??

Regards Ray

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Ray,

I certainly did — mine was the 1:600 HMS Victory kit, sometime in the winter of 1973/74, when I was 8 going on 9 … I don't know exactly what the price was, though, in Swedish krona, but probably in the region of 1 kr 50 or so.

Mattias

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

I also note that another brand in the Hobbico portfolio, perhaps of more immediate interest to r/c modelers, is Futaba …

Mattias

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Mattias

Airfix kits = Happy days !! Our favourite store ALDI here in the UK are selling a small range of Series 1 Airfix kits for £3.99 which is great value and 1-600 scale HMS Victory is one of them, kit sales must have fallen off a cliff when Woolworths stopped selling them on the High Streets a few years ago

Fortunately I have 200+ kits of all sorts in my loft space as insulation for a rainy day

Shame about Futaba, have some of their sets from flying days, but now use Carson or Hitec for my boats.

Regards Ray

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 12/01/2018 10:56:37

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 12/01/2018 10:57:23

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Ray,

Fortunately, I think that I have to back-pedal on the Futaba bit; further checking seems to indicate that Hobbico were/are only their US distributors, so the brand as such should not be affected were Hobbico to go bankrupt.

For my part, I haven't built any plastic kit since my late teens; the last one (Monogram's 1:8 1932 Ford Roadster) still sits part-built in its box, after my attempt at r/c conversion failed back in the early 1980s. I might be tempted to get one of those series 1 Airfix ships, though, just to see what I could make of one today; however, I would then probably to go for the one I liked the best back in the day, namely HMS Shannon …

Mattias

[Tony HadleyParticipant @tonyhadley]

Looking at the Airfix website, they now only list one ship kit in their web shop, H.M.S. Victory as a starter set and it would appear that their main focus is aircraft.

**LINK**

The interest in plastics is that I like to 'throw in' a plastic kit in-between builds. Never built one as an r/c conversion, just OOB builds. The photograph is my latest, Revell's 1:700 R.M.S. Olympic, as said it is an OOB (Out of Box) build and their are inaccuracies. I've just started their Fairplay tug too.

Reading Thomas Graham's book 'Remembering Revell' their are few lines which sum it up – "a new product appeared in American stores: an electronic device that hooked up to TV sets and allowed youngsters to play games on their television screens, it was another straw in the wind signalling changes that threatened the model kit industry" then later – "We watched our charts, and the trends going down. We could see possible extinction coming". This was from the mid to late 1970s.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All

The Hornby museum at Margate is well worth a visit and interesting as it has a history of Airfix since their first kit for a tractor, and plenty of built examples and metal moulds etc + the trains, Scalectrics and super collection of Italian built model cars.

Regards Ray

[Peter FitnessParticipant @peterfitness34857]

Hobbico do own Revell and, I'm informed, Monogram, which is part of Revell, but, to the best of my knowledge, don't own Hasegawa or Italeri, they are distributors for these brands. Hobbico's main retail outlet is on-line and mail order company, Tower Hobbies in Champaign, Illinois, USA.

Peter.

[Tony HadleyParticipant @tonyhadley]

Horizon Hobbies recently bought the r/c part of the Hobbico business. Plastic kit manufacturer, Revell (Germany and U.S.) has now been sold to the German investment group, Blitz.

**LINK**

**LINK**

[Author]

Posts