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Armor/AFV: Allied - WWII
Armor and ground forces of the Allied forces during World War II.
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Mengs M4A3 release date
jekrott
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Posted: Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 04:17 AM UTC
I have been waiting on this release for a while now and have noticed over on Hobbyists that the release date has moved back about 4or5 times within the last month or so.I wonder what the issue must be?
ctkwok
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Posted: Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 11:06 AM UTC
MENG seems to hit a snag in production. It was cranking out kits one after another until the Rolls Royce/Magach, and then it just stopped completely unlike other kit makers. I wonder if they were spending a ton of effort on their flop-to-be wandering earth vehicles.
m4sherman
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Posted: Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 11:23 AM UTC

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MENG seems to hit a snag in production. It was cranking out kits one after another until the Rolls Royce/Magach, and then it just stopped completely unlike other kit makers. I wonder if they were spending a ton of effort on their flop-to-be wandering earth vehicles.


While I think it would be a shame to loose out on a new M4A3, the Wandering Earth is a Chinese made movie, and might have a very large market in China. We will know sooner or later.
ctkwok
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Posted: Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 02:52 PM UTC

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MENG seems to hit a snag in production. It was cranking out kits one after another until the Rolls Royce/Magach, and then it just stopped completely unlike other kit makers. I wonder if they were spending a ton of effort on their flop-to-be wandering earth vehicles.


While I think it would be a shame to loose out on a new M4A3, the Wandering Earth is a Chinese made movie, and might have a very large market in China. We will know sooner or later.



I know. The lack of overseas interest is putting Meng at a high risk, and scifi subjects are themselves not as popular as military. Adding to that they must be paying a substantial licensing fee, thats why I'm predicting it'll be a flop.

I really hope this doesn't put them under, their kits are wonderful. It's so jarring that the latest Panzer IV race doesn't have their name on it.
m4sherman
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Posted: Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 02:58 PM UTC

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MENG seems to hit a snag in production. It was cranking out kits one after another until the Rolls Royce/Magach, and then it just stopped completely unlike other kit makers. I wonder if they were spending a ton of effort on their flop-to-be wandering earth vehicles.


While I think it would be a shame to loose out on a new M4A3, the Wandering Earth is a Chinese made movie, and might have a very large market in China. We will know sooner or later.



I know. The lack of overseas interest is putting Meng at a high risk, and scifi subjects are themselves not as popular as military. Adding to that they must be paying a substantial licensing fee, thats why I'm predicting it'll be a flop.

I really hope this doesn't put them under, their kits are wonderful. It's so jarring that the latest Panzer IV race doesn't have their name on it.


I have to agree. I don't understand why they didn't jump on the PZIV, or the PZIII. I like their Panthers.
bill_c
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 06:25 AM UTC
Meng is facing some serious financial issues from what I have heard, with too many kits released and not enough sales.
ctkwok
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 07:10 AM UTC
It could very well be caused by their pricing model, they tend to undercut everyone, great for us but you have to wonder how sustainable a strategy that is.
Wierdy
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 07:51 AM UTC

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I have to agree. I don't understand why they didn't jump on the PZIV, or the PZIII. I like their Panthers.


Their Panthers are some of the worst on the market with only ancient Tamiya Ausf.A and all Italeri ones being worse. Just an IMHO.
Wierdy
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 08:00 AM UTC

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Meng is facing some serious financial issues from what I have heard, with too many kits released and not enough sales.


Too many kits released? Really? What about some other new players? Takom, RFM etc. Don't they produce 'too many kits' yet? Of course there should be certain balance between what you make/do/produce and what you earn. It is a business and, as such, should be profitable. They are the only company I know who announce 'we won't make this and that kit until there is demand from the market'. What the heck guys? If you don't buy it from a shop, there is E-bay where all those 'rare', OOP and 'collectible items' may be found decades after they're gone from store racks.
ctkwok
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 08:09 AM UTC

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I have to agree. I don't understand why they didn't jump on the PZIV, or the PZIII. I like their Panthers.


Their Panthers are some of the worst on the market with only ancient Tamiya Ausf.A and all Italeri ones being worse. Just an IMHO.



Strong words man, and not an opinion I subscribe to. At the risk of the thread devolving into Meng hate, what do you have against their Panthers?
Wierdy
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 08:38 AM UTC

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what do you have against their Panthers?


To begin with, the plastic colour and overtextured 'cast' parts. These two things are unimportant if we talk about accuracy, I know. The running gear. Roadwheel hubs are flat whereas in real life they are dome-shaped and you can hardly (if at all) spot any flatness on their face. Ausf. A suffers from incorrect turret front plate (SBS to the rescue) The sprockets should have slotted nuts (all Panther kits should, but don't have this feature). Track guide horns are too rounded at the top when they should be flat etc.
All these flaws are evident, but there are many more...
ctkwok
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 09:24 AM UTC

Quoted Text


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what do you have against their Panthers?


To begin with, the plastic colour and overtextured 'cast' parts. These two things are unimportant if we talk about accuracy, I know. The running gear. Roadwheel hubs are flat whereas in real life they are dome-shaped and you can hardly (if at all) spot any flatness on their face. Ausf. A suffers from incorrect turret front plate (SBS to the rescue) The sprockets should have slotted nuts (all Panther kits should, but don't have this feature). Track guide horns are too rounded at the top when they should be flat etc.
All these flaws are evident, but there are many more...



I respect your attention to details and while we're at it, a list of flaws would be very helpful to folks I'm sure.

I'm not sure what you are comparing against as you already phased out the two old kits as bad, so that leaves us with the 2007 Dragon tooling and Takom for Ausf A, with the former extremely hard to find.

I can believe Takom is a series of good and flawed kits like everything else, and whether you think the Takom kit is better depends on how you weigh features and price. But let's say Takom is better, that puts Meng at #2 which I suppose is the worst of the two.

I'm not questioning your distaste for the company, just want to understand what we are talking about.
Wierdy
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 09:32 AM UTC
Takom (now Das Werk w/o interior) kits are the best Ausf. As, Dragon are close second, Meng is third and Italeri is the last. Tamiya ex-motorised toy is number five.
bill_c
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 10:10 AM UTC

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Too many kits released? Really? What about some other new players? Takom, RFM etc. Don't they produce 'too many kits' yet?


In short, yes.

I had a long conversation with an Asian executive about the modeling biz, and he's not sure that Takom and Meng can survive. They basically light one kit off the sales of the previous one, with no plan for sustainability. So many kits of the same vehicle, for example, can't be good for the collective health of Takom, Meng and RFM, yet the three of them are popping out "me,too" vehicles at astonishing rates.

And the kits are all very complex (or at least were until Takom pulled back with kits w/o interiors which both increased the prices and scared off some modelers who didn't want to bloat their spares box or have to build kits with millions of "fiddly" bits.

My advice is: if there is a Takom, Meng or RFM kit that strikes your fancy, don't assume it will always be around.
ctkwok
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 10:30 AM UTC
Agreed Bill. These companies are living from one kit to another, and it just takes one disaster either in the form of a flop or economic downturn to kill them.
m4sherman
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 10:57 AM UTC

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I have to agree. I don't understand why they didn't jump on the PZIV, or the PZIII. I like their Panthers.


Their Panthers are some of the worst on the market with only ancient Tamiya Ausf.A and all Italeri ones being worse. Just an IMHO.


None the less, I like them, and I might get more of them, if the price is good.

I also have the Takom kits, and I like those as well.
SEDimmick
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 11:24 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Too many kits released? Really? What about some other new players? Takom, RFM etc. Don't they produce 'too many kits' yet?


In short, yes.

I had a long conversation with an Asian executive about the modeling biz, and he's not sure that Takom and Meng can survive. They basically light one kit off the sales of the previous one, with no plan for sustainability. So many kits of the same vehicle, for example, can't be good for the collective health of Takom, Meng and RFM, yet the three of them are popping out "me,too" vehicles at astonishing rates.



So who is this mystery executive that you don't want to name? All your doing is spreading rumors without any facts to back it up.

So with that said, RFM should be dead and buried with the delay in the Sheridan release (was supposed to be out in December), but yet they put out a new kit or two every month or so.

The reason these companies come out with so much new product is they don't have a catalog of product like Tamiya or other more established players. Trumpeter/Hobbyboss was coming out with new product at a blistering rate for the past 5-7 years and have slowed down a bit since then.

This is all small potatoes vs what AMK has been doing with their F-14 Tomcat release-kickstarter campaigns, pre-orders, etc...and people have been waiting almost 2-3 years YEARS for it come out and it is still screwed up and in the meantime Tamiya has released a F-14A and F-14D in the same time period and Great Wall Hobby is about to come out with their own F-14s in 1/72 and 1/48 that beat the detail on both kits mentioned above.

Keep in mind the Chinese market is most likely their largest-export sales are small potatoes to what they do in the mainland. This is also the reason why you see Tamiya come out with their own verisons of kits already done by manufactures.
panamadan
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 11:57 AM UTC
Where is the like button?
Dan
TopSmith
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 12:16 PM UTC
Scott, it matters based on the financing you are using. If you start with a chunk of cash and loans based on long term repayment you have fewer cash flow problems. If you start with a large chunk of short term loans and not much cash, your production/design costs might overwhelm your sales returns early on causing havoc with your cash flow.
KurtLaughlin
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 12:28 PM UTC
It's about the money. It's always about the money.

"Money may not be what drives you to produce, but the lack of money will certainly stop you from producing, so you want to spend it wisely so that you can keep doing what you do."

People argued with me about that.

KL
jekrott
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2019 - 11:06 PM UTC
So just looked again over at HobbyEasy,now it's gone from 8/8 released date to now 8/14.Im starting to think that this release just might not happen.
Wierdy
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Posted: Tuesday, August 06, 2019 - 12:04 AM UTC

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So just looked again over at HobbyEasy,now it's gone from 8/8 released date to now 8/14.Im starting to think that this release just might not happen.


What is wrong with Tasca/Asuka Sherman kits? Why are you so sure Meng offering would be any better? Is it unique in some way? Just trying to make it clear for myself.
jekrott
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Posted: Tuesday, August 06, 2019 - 12:09 AM UTC
Just looking to build another Sherman to compare from the tasca kit I have.
wildbill426
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Posted: Tuesday, August 06, 2019 - 12:19 AM UTC
Not for nothin' but I find the 'too many kits' talk pretty funny. If you've ever studied basic economics (like Econ 101 in college) you recognize the hobby industry as a very competitive industry with low barriers to entry. That is how companies like Meng and Takom rise from nothing to top of the heap in short periods of time. If they go, others will take their place, and the molds will be sold or leased to others and continue onwards. I do think it is pretty silly how multiple manufacturers keep doing new kits of the same thing (Tiger, Panther..), and although not armor I think the business wisdom of the new tool P-38 from Tamiya shines through. Bottom line is, sit back and enjoy it; we all need another lifetime to build what is in our stashes NOW, not to mention all the amazing stuff that's coming out in the future.
barkingdigger
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Posted: Tuesday, August 06, 2019 - 02:41 AM UTC
Got to say the market from M4A3s is pretty saturated, so may affect sales and thus the decision whether to cut the tooling. As for too many kits for sustainability, I do wonder given the rate they are coming out from such small new companies - I hope they have their numbers right. But it is a shame they seem to dog-pile on the same subjects, rather than finding open corners of the market.
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