[blade runner]

I'm sure many of you have noticed this, by surfing over to Hobbyfan, but it looks like Hobbyfan is out of the garage kit business altogether. The last resin figure kit they have reported to be in stock was back on Feb 5. The overwhelming majority of figures are now PVC only!

I'm wondering if the owners of Hobbyfan have decided to no longer support figure modeling. PVC figure collecting might be okay for some, but they started as a modeling website store. It now looks like they're offering a healthy list of PVCs for sale, but leaving the recast figures out.

It's not really a complaint on my part, but an observation from a figure modeler's perspective. I know that E2046 is still saying they sell figure garage kits...

[cwmodels]

E2046 from what I've heard, is doing their own casting with some sources in China. The low price war caused some of the recaster to give up the market since there is not much overall profit. Most of the Recaster in Hong Kong have either died out or scaling back on their production. If the source is chocked out then it is much harder to maintain a supply.

[misato-chan]

blade runner, on Feb 29 2008, 06:49 PM, said:

I know that E2046 is still saying they sell figure garage kits...

They do. Sorry, guys, I know you have some problem with them and I'm not trying to flame up things again. I'm merely reporting a fact: they still sell them and, whatever is the source of their recasts, I can assure you the quality is excellent at the moment. It's a shame HF is off the picture right now... I'm really not interested in PVC so, unless they get back to what they were, they won't be getting my money atm.

[Just Me]

As mentioned in the "rants" thread, I've had kits on order with HF for over a year. I've been buying from E2046 for the past few months and have gotten good service and better quality than previous. I just got another one delivered last night to be exact. There's no reason to shop at HF anymore if you're a GK person.

The broken record reply from Henry if you ask about a kit is "Do you want to cancel the order?"
The just don't have interest in GK anymore.

[blade runner]

What seems strange is that they built their initial business on resin modeling. They started to add other products over the past few years, but never ventured, I guess, into doing recasting themselves. Maybe they were concerned about copyright issues.

The bottom line is this: Although I understand Hobbyfan trying to stay relevant by selling PVC's, PVC's themselves are so far removed from modeling that I just don't have any interest in their store anymore. Call me a jerk all you want, but a store that used to treat me well by shipping kits quickly for a low price has turned away from me.

They still offer other things, but I'm a "chick modeling" guy.

[cwmodels]

Here something I don't necessarily understand. If Hobbyfan don't wanna carry anymore garage kits, what's wrong with that? It's not like they tell people to not buy from else where.

People are only loyal to their wallets. That's the bottom line for any internet business. I can say in my 5 years of being here on this board, I've probably bought around only 20-30 kits all together from Hobbyfan. And when I do buy kits it's not out of loyalty to their shop, it's because they have something I want and at a reasonable price. I've taken my money to other online shops throughout the years and there are a few that I know have gotten more of my money than Hobbyfan.

[manitu]

I got the following from Henry....

"Most of the gundam stuff do come in faster then the figures.
As most of our vendor are recast mecha, because E2046 are not doing them.

E2046 has hurt a lot of casting company in HK.

Henry"

And next is another reply from Henry which I have already posted in Rant section...

"Hello

we are actually going to go though our list of preorder with our vendors.
Two of our vendors has gone under, and we are still determining which items are still in final production in their hands.
And which items has been canceled. We should be sending out cancellation notices soon.

Henry"

So as you can see they are hurting due to lack of casters out there.

[Kumama]

It's kind of taking the "Hobby" out of Hobbyfan, isn't it? When all they sell is prepainted figures

I share everyone's frustration. I've had many figures on preorder here for a long long time, and some I've had to move over to other stores simply because I can no longer trust that things will come in stock here. The lack of communication in what will come in and what won't is the worst, I think. I'd rather know that these rare kits that we've successfully gotten enough requests to come back into production will actually be in my hands someday, rather than this endless wait with no updates. I check the new items on hobbyfan every day, and I see less and less mention. Heck, they don't even have any new recasts announced from the latest festival, that's gotta say something. I wish we had some good answers Hobbyfan has lost hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars of business from me alone, because I cannot see an effort to maintain the promised release dates.

[blade runner]

Let me add that this is not really a complaint at all. It's just an observation.

But it's an observation based on my personal history with buying from Hobbyfan. They used to be very early with all sorts of figure models, making them hard to beat since they're located in the US like me. By abandoning garage figure kits, they've abandonded many of their previous customers, including me and my interests.

I'm sure there are market forces pushing them towards PVC's, making it harder for garage kitters like me to find newer stuff from anywhere besides YJ. It's simply the reduction in a hobbyists list of sources.

Anyhow, I hope the guys at Hobbyfan don't take this personally. It's not a slam. It's just me voicing what I'm seeing.

[dita]

I also don't have a problem with HF going in any direction they want to, I just wish that we had been informed about the changes and the fact that we probably won't get our pre ordered kits filled, as many are rare and cannot be found anywhere but Y!J (on a VERY rare occassion) and had we known that this was our only option we would have happily gone into a bidding war (well I would lol) to get the kit we want.
Now we are sort of stuck with no where else to get certain kits.
Sigh, will I ever get my Bome Naya

[Jayden63]

If HF wants to move away from GK thats fine by me. Its sad, they were my first GK supplier when I started into the hobby. They had great quality resin at good prices. But if they have chosen to take their stock in a different direction, I'll just have to take my money elsewhere. There are a few places that have taken up the recasting slack, though the quality isn't the same as what HF supplied, they aren't Thai crap either.

I still check out the web site every now and then, sometimes they get something interesting in, but I don't hold my breath on pre-orders anymore, they never seem to come in before I can find the kit elsewhere.

[cwmodels]

Well.... Hobbyfan just updated their sites with WF 2008 kits. Here is the disclaimer:

Quote

Special introduction offer price. Ends March. 09th pacific time. No late order will be accepted. Price will goes back up on March 10th. Act Fast!

Delivery Guaranteed leaves our warehouse on or before June 30. 2008. Or an extra 3%OFF each week will apply when item was delay. Until it reaches zero dollar.

I noticed E2046 also went to price war on some of the same kits. So I say take advantage of this whole thing while you still can.

[Lead Butthead]

cwmodels, on Mar 7 2008, 05:18 AM, said:

Well.... Hobbyfan just updated their sites with WF 2008 kits. Here is the disclaimer:

Quote

Special introduction offer price. Ends March. 09th pacific time. No late order will be accepted. Price will goes back up on March 10th. Act Fast!
Delivery Guaranteed leaves our warehouse on or before June 30. 2008. Or an extra 3%OFF each week will apply when item was delay. Until it reaches zero dollar.

I noticed E2046 also went to price war on some of the same kits. So I say take advantage of this whole thing while you still can.

The price war of attrition has been on going for some time. HF is at a disadvantage since E is a lot closer to the source and doesn't have to pay shipping from HK to US. Although it's obvious E has been eating some of the shipping (look at the postage on the packages from E sometimes.)

[scottsch]

They just got some WF08 kits in their system. I wish they had more.

[PetarB]

I pretty much lost faith with Hobbyfan after I had a couple of kits on pre-order for a year, and every couple of months I would go and check the site to see their expected production date. After around 10-12 months the items I had on pre-order simply disappeared from the site. I was not informed of their status, and when I emailed Henry it was still not clear whether I should 1) still receive my preorder 2) forget about it because they were no longer producing that kit or 3) wait a few months more to see what happened.
I still have a preorder active from around 2 years ago. For a period of 6 months I checked the production date, it was always bumped ahead to the next month. When the next month came around... it was bumped again.
I think Hobbyfan has been quite unprofessional in my case, other sound like they are happy with their service.