Sdkfz 7/1 competition from Trumpeter.

Finally found some juicy photos to drool over reguarding Trumpeters newest head to head with Dragon. This time it is Dragons latest future (?) release of the 7/1. I really have a feeling that this is more a case of Trumpeter having this very near to actual release, and Dragon spies finding out about it. Then Dragon does some quick CAD drawings and announces the same kit before Trumpeter, just to try to steal their thunder. Now we have a situation where Dragons shows us drawings, and Trumpeter shows us plastic.Although on the Dragon USA site they are showing that they are taking pre orders at $59.95 I'm wondering if there are any bets on which one will be available first?

If you haven't been over there here are the photos of the Trumpeter setup on PMMS.

Ihttp://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/newkitnews/trumpeter.htm

t's real nice to see that Trumpeter will include the trailer, but I worry about the price. Unlike Dragon, I still haven't seen any suggestion of a price on the Trumpeter kit, but I have a real fear that it will come in somewhere around $90 - $100 USD.

Hopefully they will be different versions and both reasonably (like the Dragon preorder price) priced for what you get, as well as both actually released soon so we have a choice.

well - we have seen that before many times! i remember very well the release race for the "dicker max" (at least one kit that comes to my mind where both have released it - haven't build the dml max yet but the trumpeter and this one was really bad!)

it's their battle (if not to say war!) and i let them do as they like! competition is good for the market!

what disturbs me are the prices of kits nowadays in general! 60 us bucks (46€) for some pieces of plastic is close to insanity! i remember the prices for italeri and tamiya back in the 80ies where one italeri kit was sold for 20DM (10€) and an average tamiya kit for 30DM (15€) ... now the same kits, the very same kits sell for 20€ (e.g. the old inaccurate italeri panzer 4 F1/F2/G) or 30€ ... they just exchanged the currency sign! and this is not acceptable!

the newer dml kits e.g. sell for 50€! F-I-F-T-Y (!) - no one should tell me that a kit for 50 fleas is worth every cent because of what you get! on my last visit to my LHS i saw the new DML Panther with zimmerit and was amazed until i saw the price tag! same goes for the panzerjäger1 or the bison 1 ... beautiful kits but not for that price! i still have the panzerjäger1 from zvezda which i bought for 10€ and i will be happily building this one ... if i would pay so much money for a kit like the new releases i would really feel bad with every single part i glued in place just because of the enormous sum invested!

trumpeter in general is a good example of price insanity: their "sturer emil" is a good kit in relation to the price ... what do you get for the retail price of their vk3001? nothing! ... this kit is worth 15€ but sells for 25-35€ (and the recommended retail price is 46€!!!) ... their "dicker max" urgently needs the pe upgrade what rises the price for that one around 50€ (and the pe upgrade doesn't even save the kit!) and in effect for what you get the whole kit is worth 20€ at the most!

i for my part will build out my stash and won't buy a new kit until we reach an reasonable level again!

my 2cent worth of rant!

Well I think the big winner is us the modellers , the more high class kits the more pleasure for us !

The losers will be one or both of the model companies but that is up to the model companies .

Jenny

I think if you are a mass consumer of these kits you can always find bargains. I usually get stuff for -20 -30 sometimes -50% under this suggested retail price. It is only the question of time and effort.

Regards
Tibor

The US suggested retail price for Trumpeter's Sd.Kfz. 7/1 with trailer is $69.95USD.

Regards,
Saúl

sharkmouth wrote:The US suggested retail price for Trumpeter's Sd.Kfz. 7/1 with trailer is $69.95USD.

Regards,
Saúl

That will be a great deal for me.I'm litteraly right across the street from Mission Models, and I always get a good deal from them when I walk over there. And I also have a local hobby shop (0.75 miles) that I get 20% off on anything, so I will be able to get either one at a reasonable price. And as I stated earlier, it's always great having choices.