A "shout-out" certainly, to ICM for originally producing their WWl series of extremely well-sculpted figures (maybe the finest so far in plastic); not so much for Revell and Italeri who regularly re-box ICM products because they can't do as well on their own, when, with a little effort and expense, there's no reason they couldn't.

I get what you're saying Biggles, but REVELL and ITALERI have a far more diversified product range than ICM, in other words, they have A LOT more irons in the fire, what with HUNDREDS of cars, trucks, aircraft, ships and a boatload of "youth-oriented" stuff that they market. Sure, it's a lot easier, and less costly to re-box other manufacturer's stuff, rather than "go it alone". After all, TAMIYA has done it too, by re-boxing 1/35 ITALERI and FINE MOLDS armor kits; also 1/48 ITALERI and HASEGAWA aircraft kits. So has TESTORS, when they re-boxed some of the older 1/35 ITALERI and PEERLESS MAX kits. ITALERI has re-boxed a number of 1/48 HASEGAWA aircraft kits as well. The more, the merrier, I guess- The thing about certain identical re-boxed kits that are still simultaneously manufactured by their "original" makers, is that many times, these "otherwise the same" kits cost us MORE MONEY after they've been "re-boxed"... A classic example of this is the 1/48 ITALERI Arado Ar.196A Seaplane; I bought the ITALERI kit on ebay for $32.95USD + Shipping on ebay, whereas THE SAME KIT, reboxed by TAMIYA, was selling for $74.95USD + Shipping from the SAME VENDOR!!! I checked around ebay just to see if the same disparate pricing was consistent, and I found that by and large, the TAMIYA re-box of that same kit was, on average, TWICE the price of the original ITALERI kit! I suppose that there is an ass for every seat!!!

this set of italian of ww1. these are ready to fight the imperial austrian army in alps moutain range.

Sometimes this works in reverse. The 1/72 Seehunde, originally marketed by ICM, was reboxed by Revell at over $10 less. But Revell, in various re-incarnations, have 60+ years of plastic molding. The first kit I built was a Revell 190 - something taxi in 1956. I would expect much higher quality by now, than what they are actually doing.

Often it costs more to upgrade and modernize an existing plant than to build something new. So an existing company cannot upgrade while a new company can start off with all the latest gadgets. Then there's the problems with poor sellers in a big line-up of products. Sure they have their rabid fans but not enough to keep that particular line going. It stinks for us but at the end of the day it's still a business and dedicated builders are a tiny share of the market. And we've all been told this a dozen times and still feel slighted. Revell is also sitting on a pile of old molds. Come on, more Rewal ship reissues...

Just to add to what Steve just said- It's obviously MUCH CHEAPER for one model company to buy models (or the old original molds) from another model company than it is to invest time and money in R&D, engineering/buying/making NEW molds and related tooling, packaging, (aside of the boxes and instructions with the re-boxing company's name & logo on them), plus overhead, i.e: wages, utilities, etc, and advertising extravaganzas for all-new products, ESPECIALLY if they are buying said models in bulk lots- They would be CRAZY not to. Even if a certain re-boxing flops, it's not as bad as losing your shirt on a "home-grown" project that fails to bring enough profits. Steve is right when he says that "dedicated modellers" are but a small segment of the overall picture, especially if some of these dedicated modellers confine themselves to an even smaller "niche". I'm talking about the modellers who will build only in a certain scale, and who confine themselves to models of WWII German, or US/Allied, or Soviet AFVs, or Soft-skins, OR strictly "modern" examples of the same. The same goes for the Aircraft, Car or Ship Guys; we ARE a fussy lot, and SOME model manufacturers take full advantage of that. Others could give a flying leap whether we're happy with their wares, or not- Do I dare mention names..? Also agree with what Biggles wrote in his last post, in that "sometimes the reverse is true" regarding re-boxes, but those are the exceptions to the rule, of which there are not very many. More often than not, the re-boxes cost more money than the originals. Personally, I prefer the originals...

I actually like the Italeri/Revell reboxes. Simply because it is a lot easier to get Revell (or to a lesser degree Italerie) here in germany or get the local "Modelbau-Laden"(1) to at least ORDER something from that companies that to get Tamiya or (gasp) ICM. Sure, I can (and more and more do) order Online but still... And it is not as if they are stealing/copying, ICM gets money for the reboxing so a Win-Win for all. (1) Actually a dusty corner in the basement of a toy store wedged in between the "ready to use" RC kits and the Märklin railroad kits

When you look at italeri own figure sculpture skill, you can easily understand why they get license from ICM.... Creativity 0 though. I agree with MBR, it ease their availabilty in store. That's the only positive point about this release Ps: italeri, don't pretend to be original by changing the cap by a helmet..... Kg