Airfix to close?

[In Bloom]

this is you gloating...

You've a funny idea of gloating.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

never really got into these because i was somewhat ham fisted and got bored easly


however my pulse rises when i see certian gunpla and garage kits ... but i think i will never really be a model pro

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

You've a funny idea of gloating.

you just have funy ideas why did you bother commenting on summit oyu knew nothing about and then turn the thread into an in bloom attention seeking fest...

yawn

 

[Dhimmi]

Could this be the end? I used to love making my Airfix kits and then battling to make the transfers stick properly.

Well airfix went bust before and Humbrol bought them. Humbrol had so many cash problems they stopped making vital lines, such as paint. Well if you own a model company and stop making paint it's a sign of bad management...
They also didn't even consider making some of their most popular lines... remember these?

Six parts, tough toys (polyprop), ripe for painting or conversion, Sherman DD anyone?, but Humbrol never dreamed of making them... it's not a lack of interest its a lack of imagination... true of action man too who having been reduced to a comic charactor is now discontinued.
But the 40th anniversary sets are selling like hot cakes.

So games like Black and White, The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, etc. etc. offer no opportunity for creativity or customisation then?

Only if your idea of creativity is pushing buttons, its not the same as knowing what the cowling of a Gloster Gladiator feels like... even at 1/72nd scale. Nor how to engineer physical adaptations.

 

[Dhimmi]

Apology not accepted.
Airfix prospered at a time when society was a whole - i.e. all proud to be British, proud of Britain winning the War etc.
British society nowadays, due to multicultirism, is now disparate.
Small pockets of hatred as opposed to one community.

It's more PC gone mad, the original artwork that many of us grew up with was edited to remove explosions etc, making the packaging dull. Show a boy a plane strafing a Nazi tank and that's exciting, show it passing a cloud that's dull.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

be warned: obejects in the rear view mirror may appear rose tinted

i always liked the idea of model building but sadly the physical reality of it never really matched up. i too took part in the ritual of pulling apart many tiny plastic piecies and then somehow (using only superglue and desperate pleas to the god of model bulding) tried my best to construct some thing that looked like a spirfire. but of course the end result always looked like it not only encountered heavy ack ack but had also been constructed on a friday afteernoon after a beer lorry had ccrahed through the side of the factory.

and just don't even ask about painting and transfers


such was my bitter disapointment that it is only now many years later that i even consider returning to model building... and even now it isn't the imagined roar of a Rolls-Royce engine coming from my own personal bit of aviation history that draws me to the modeling scene but in fact the strange desire to build my own little bishojo anime charactor ... gone are the days of deciding what registration to paint on your fusulage and in are the days of deciding what design to paint on your models underpants

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

i always thought the real appeal of the planes way in there freadom to soar in the sky

forget tank strafing i want soaring (though mayby a bit of dogfighting wouldn't go amiss)

 

[kakuma]

kids still have lots of fun and imagination, just the toys are better now, so they don't build replicas of planes.

 

[dylanredefined]

It's more PC gone mad, the original artwork that many of us grew up with was edited to remove explosions etc, making the packaging dull. Show a boy a plane strafing a Nazi tank and that's exciting, show it passing a cloud that's dull.

Same product remeber the fuss when matchbox did de violence their art work .Though how you can make a panzer diorma peaceful I dont know.

 

[editor]

(threads merged)

 

[Geoff Collier]

i can't imagine there's a lad in the land who never used an airfix kit at least once...

Well, I didn't. But I knew a punk called Airfix once. I think he used some of the kit Coincidently we were both in Hull, where the Humbrol plant is

 

[Dhimmi]

Same product remeber the fuss when matchbox did de violence their art work .Though how you can make a panzer diorma peaceful I dont know.

Yes it's verging on propaganda, "The brave men of the panzer corp stop their liberation briefly to brew a cup of coffee for Polish refugees."

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Apparently Hornby will be stepping in to save Airfix.

 

[Dhimmi]

Good news Mrs M. I doubt they'll make anything down here in Margate though they do most of their manufacturing in China now...

 

[Errol's son]

Apparently Hornby will be stepping in to save Airfix.

They haven't made an approach yet. They have just told the press they are interested. Unfortunately, Airfix is a dying brand IMO and considering Hornby have just bought Germany's largest model train maker I think they would be better served integrating that. Hornby's Chief Exec used to work at Airfix; I think he is just getting sentimental and wanting to rush in and save the brand. Admirable, but unlikely if you ask me. I can't see it happening.

 

[Hollis]

Oh blimey!!! You gotta be quick round here!! ! !

 

[david dissadent]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7131047.stm

Hornby to relaunch airfix with a strong focus on franchise tie-ins, Dr Who been given as an example. Well that is one 60s UK icon that has already been revived successfully.