Quote:
Originally Posted by star21
I can understand that compared to a plastic kit the production number is going to be significantly lower so companies like Top Studio need to recoup their expenses but still...  |
Actually, the real problem is that resin kits don't get any cheaper when you scale up production. (this gets complicated, so bear with me)
Normal plastic kits are done in factories, using steel tooling, injection moulds. Just like toothbrush handles and garbage pails and computer keys. In fact, there's a good chance that the production facility that's cranking out the newest plastic kit from Company X will be swapping out the tooling for cutlery racks or some other consumer product once they've filled the order for the required number of model kit sprues. You hire a factory to produce however many parts you want, they make them, then they move on. Most of the production cost is in research and development - researching the subject, creating the CAD drawings and designing the sprue layouts, and (most of all), finally cutting and refining the steel tooling to be used for actual production. Compared to that, the price of a box, some decals, instruction and the actual styrene is negligible. When you sell 2000 kits for $50 each, they may only have $5 worth of actual "stuff" in each box, but the rest of the money goes to paying the $90,000 it cost for R&D. However, once you've paid off that tooling, you're into pure profit - everything above the cost of the base materials goes into your pocket, and you can produce tens (hundreds?) of thousands of kits from the same, original steel tooling. That means you've got economies of scale, so instead of selling few, expensive kits you can sell lots of cheaper kits, hence, $50 Tamiya BRZ. And $50 Tamiya 635 re-release of a kit tooled 25 years ago.
Resin kits are different. You've got research, obviously, but development is negligible. You're probably creating your master patterns from sheet, strip and rod plastic (or brass), various putties, maybe tooling wax, renshape and the like. Throw in some 3D printing and, at the TOP end, for a full, curbside kit, you're probably well under $900 to have a production-ready pattern. Unfortunately, production costs aren't fixed. Most resin kits are cast in RTV rubber moulds. RTV lets you cast awesome detail, but has a very short production life. Depending on the complexity of the part, you can get visible degradation after casting 5 - 10 parts. Little chunks of RTV tearing out, sticking in your resin cast, which means the next casting will have those details filled in. You may only get 10 - 15 pulls from a rubber mould, before it's essentially useless. You've got to throw it away and start over again with new rubber moulds, poured from your master parts. RTV is expensive, so casting new moulds isn't cheap. You may need $250 worth of rubber for a full set of moulds for your curbside model car. If you can only get 10 castings before they're worn out, that's $25 per kit. Resin is waaaay more expensive than styrene. You're looking at $50 per pound for resin, vs. $.05 per pound for styrene. And depending on how thick the castings are on your kit, that can really add up. Thin castings use less resin, but more RTV, and are difficult to cast (more prone to damage, more prone to warpage, so a higher reject rate and possibly more after-sales headaches). Most resin kits are pretty solid. If you're using a pound of resin - which isn't unreasonable - you're now at $75 per kit, just to get the actual parts. By necessity, that means you'll have to charge a lot more than a comparable plastic kit at retail. That means you won't be able to sell as many. Which means you're ordering fewer decal sheets from your decal printer, fewer instruction sheets, fewer boxes, etc. Most print shops work on sliding bulk rates - the more you order, the cheaper each unit is. So you're paying more per decal sheet than if you could make thousands of kits. *Maybe* you think you can sell 200 kits. That's a really small decal run for Microscale, Cartograf and the like. It would easily cost $5 per sheet, maybe more, depending on the number of colours and print layers. Add in your other packaging items, maybe $15 total, and you're at $90, *just* to make and box a kit. Every kit. And if you sell out your entire production run... you're right back at the beginning, because you've got to order new decals, new boxes, pour new moulds... AND, that's not even paying off any of your R&D costs, or heating, lighting and a building to do it in, let alone factoring in any sort of profit for all your time and effort. Or PE. That stuff is EXPENSIVE to have made. Or turned metal.
Which isn't to say that everyone should go out and buy loads of resin kits or anything, or even that we should all be happy to see a $250 new release. But understanding how the kits get made, and what goes into it, makes it a lot more understandable when you DO see a steep sticker price.