And you guys wonder why some only buy Revell and AMT kits...

[tigeraid]

Just bought my first Tamiya kit ever, the Ferrari F189:



Looks like it's gonna be a lot of fun, very detailed. I bought it at the LHS for $26.00 cdn... IN THE CLEARANCE BIN.

Why do the japanese kits have to be so goddamned expensive? I can see a buncha kits I'd love to build, and might get around to buying sometime, from Tamiya and a couple of the other manufacturers, but the prices are INSANE. The average price of most Tamiya kits at the store are $45.00-55.00, with most of the racecar kits (rally cars, f1 cars) going as high as $75.00 for a REGULAR 1/20-1/24 kit!!

Compare this to $15.00 for a good AMT or Revell kit, possibly as much as $28.00 for a brand new super duper Revell kit. I just can't see myself spending $75.00 for one damn kit, and I see pics of some of your guys' closets FULL of Tamiya stuff and I wonder how you can afford it!

eBay might've been a decent source for Tamiya kits, but many of the bids are getting so high, and the shipping costs to Canada are so ridiculous I might as well just buy them here. Do ANY of you fellow Canadians have inexpensive options for japanese kits?

[chenc544]

You get what you paid for. IMHO, Tamiya kits fit better than AMT and Revell. It's also for the most part the attension to details. I guess the best answer is that Tamiya invest alot more into the engineering of their kits so they need to recover their investment. Besides, Revell and AMT kits cost just as much if not more over in Japan as Tamiya in the US. Of course there are certain cars that only Tamiya makes and only Revell makes so you really don't have a choice if that's what you want.

[mike@af]

One reason I dont buy Tamiya's. That $30 I save with buying a Revell goes to supplies or college fund.

[mickbench]

It might have cost you, but Tamiya kits fit very well. The only problems you will have with that kit will be mold lines, trust me I've built 6 this year, now on my seventh and many more Tamiya kits to build.

They even have fantastic spares replacements... I've used them a few times for spares, only today I got spares for my Honda build as one of the parts in the box was of a sub standard quality...

I moan about Tamiya not releasing kits, and I sometimes grip about their more simple snap lock kits. They also have a lot of colour plastic sprues in the box meaning a lot of primer is needed, but hands down Tamiya are good kits... They can have dodgy decals sometimes, as they can be a little thick and some solutions do not work well with them, but their decals are harder to rip, although they do rip, so be careful.

You will have fun building it, take your time, enjoy the kit and don't rush such a nice model..

i've enjoyed all the Tamiya kits I've built so far, the Honda S2000 I built from Tamiya was a pure pleasure, let down only by my own lack of skills.

Have fun..!!

[D_LaMz]

Originally Posted by mickbench

It might have cost you, but Tamiya kits fit very well. The only problems you will have with that kit will be mold lines, trust me I've built 6 this year, now on my seventh and many more Tamiya kits to build.

They even have fantastic spares replacements... I've used them a few times for spares, only today I got spares for my Honda build as one of the parts in the box was of a sub standard quality...

I moan about Tamiya not releasing kits, and I sometimes grip about their more simple snap lock kits. They also have a lot of colour plastic sprues in the box meaning a lot of primer is needed, but hands down Tamiya are good kits... They can have dodgy decals sometimes, as they can be a little thick and some solutions do not work well with them, but their decals are harder to rip, although they do rip, so be careful.

You will have fun building it, take your time, enjoy the kit and don't rush such a nice model..

i've enjoyed all the Tamiya kits I've built so far, the Honda S2000 I built from Tamiya was a pure pleasure, let down only by my own lack of skills.

Have fun..!!

Great answer!!

[racingminiatures]

We stock many Tamiya kits and try to offer the best price possible. You have to bear in mind that the engineering cost that goes into Tamiya kits is higher than that for an AMT or a Revell so the wholesale price will be higher. Add to that the cost of shipping from Japan and then distributor markup and you end up with a much more expensive kit than the domestic ones. But as mentioned above the quality is generally much better with Tamiya.

Now that being said, we are having a big kit blowoout sale and all in stock kits are 35% off right now so there are some great deals on many Tamiya kits right now. Even though the pricing is in US dollars we are in Canada (just outside Vancouver). Unfortunately our ecommerce system only supports a single currency and 90% of our business is from outside Canada.

Regards,

Ron
Racing Miniatures
www.racingminiatures.com

[tigeraid]

Thanks Ron, I'll take a look. What kinda shipping will it be to London ON?

I understand why they cost more I guess, it just seems odd that you pay so much for kits that are often curbside too!!

[willimo]

I want to say, that even though those are CND, those prices sound steep for everything, even the Revell kits you mention. Perhaps your LHS is overly expensive? Correct me if I'm wrong.

I will say this one thing on the price or quality of one brand kit over others: I buy the kits for the car, not the manufacturer. If the moldings suck, I make it work, if the kit is expensive, I save up, and I get what cars I want.

[tigeraid]

agreed, I want the CARS I want too... Revell just doesn't make many japanese cars that I like

The Revell prices seem the norm, Wal Mart tends to charge the same amount as well... Some of the older AMT kits are $9.97...

[mike@af]

Tamiya's are too expensive for me to cut up and leave to collect dust.

[Vric]

quality have a price.

[racingminiatures]

Hi John,

Shipping to Ontario will depend on what kit or how many kits as Canada Post charges based on a variable formula using both size and weight. They aren't the cheapest but you will save on taxes as we only charge GST on out of province sales. You can add any items you are interested in to the shopping cart, start the checkout procedure and submit your shipping info. You will then be given the shipping options and prices before any payment is made so you can see the shipping charges and still cancel the order before commiting.

Regards,

Ron
Racing Miniatures
www.racingminiatures.com

[tigeraid]

Cool... not in the market right this moment, how long is the sale on for?

[JTRACING]

i agree tamiya are way to expensive, and they dont make any cars i like

i stick with revell and amt for the most part

[tigeraid]

You know I'm mostly an American car guy, but I have a bit of a hard-on for a lot of rwd japanese cars, especially 80s ones... 1st gen MR2, AE86, things like that... but I can't find kits without spending a damn fortune.