This is a good development if the price reflects the difference. But more important is the Zim made for the Takom kits. ATAK makes the best Zim IMO but it's available only from Poland on eBay and the shipping is brutal. This could be a good alternative for modelers who want the Zimmerit but don't want to spend $40 for it.

No Zimmerit included in the kit, so it would have to be aftermarket as shown in the article. As this is coming from Europe supplied in conjunction with Atak I think the price will still be steep for supply to the US.

Price for these kits appear to be around 30 Euros in Europe, so that's roughly the price of two ATAK sets already. If the prices in the US are (too) steep you anyone, like with Asian kits, one would be silly not to find a shop in Europe (and Asia for the Asian kits). Ask for postage and do the math.

The Panther kits are great, it's just that we've already seen (and purchased) them as kits with interiors so we already know how really nice they are, what good value, etc. The Zim is fabulous but if the availability is limited on this side of the pond then I'll have to drag out the Tamiya polyester paste and scrapers and have a go at it(sigh). I just won't contribute to making some postal service rich just so that I can have a hundred grams of resin shipped out to me. Kind of stubborn that way. Zimmerit, regardless of complexity, I can do but I'd rather spend the comparable amount and buy kits that I can't otherwise make.

Takom has announced on their FB page that they have stopped making their Panthers, so this may be the only game in town.

Where do they say that? The last thing about Panthers I saw was an announcement for the Ausf G mid production coming in April of this year.

Please provide the link. Wild guess: now that they have covered every possible variant of Panther / Jagdpanther / Bergepanther, they'll stop releasing new Panther kits. Doesn't mean they will stop producing existing ones. Please clarify.