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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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




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.)

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

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.

It's not just you, this is pretty much what has happened to all of us.

Keep in mind that without HF,you can expect kit prices @ E2046 to climb considerably...

Oh, I kinda doubt that, since Hobbyfan usually gets nothing in stock... And besides, the prices of E20 always had been cheaper, than the prices of Hobbyfan.

The recent rush of WF2008 kits into the mix has restored my objective confidence. The entire hobby is fading, meaning that event kits are now the only substantial offerings available. I do, however, maintain that older kits could get a dusting off for sale, albeit harder due to molds becoming weaker with age and use.

But it is nice to see the word "model" below the thumbnail a little more...

When I was in Japan last year it was impossible to find any resin kits in the shops, but I saw a lot more this time around. Japan is notorious for filling nitch markets, anything that can make money will be explored. I can't imagine a market as large as resin kits will be abandoned all together.

Japan is also known for going through fad and phases, I did notice a decline in the doll market. Not a surprise since that hobby is more expensive to maintain and it appeals only to specific people.

Pre-paint and toys are a different story all together, but with so many companies flooding the market with similar products every month, I think it becomes harder for consumer to decide what to spend their money on. Which may be the reason why some of the large hobby stores in Akihabara closed down.

The main stream market is never decided by individual kit makes, it is always carried by the big manufacturers & companies. And they do it with the support of hobby magazines & anime medias. If a large company suddenly decided to push for resin and gets the support, it can easily forge a market in 6 months.

The biggest disadvantages with toys, prepaints, & trading figures is that it cost a lot to manufacturer, package, and distribute. The turn over rate for these things are very fast too. So if a company produces a toy/figure that don't catch the consumers' attention and wallet, they will lose a lot of money. And with so many companies competing in a saturated market, some will have to lose out, and will either close down or find other areas to fill.

The other problem with toys/prepaints is that they have no real value in the long run. Since they are produced in such large quantities, they are not hard to obtain for most collectors who wants them. So the demand and value will only stay at a certain level. Recent prepaint figures are made mostly with PVC and inexpensive materials. They can change color and degrade just sitting in their boxes. And that will hurt the overall collectabilities as well.

I say wait about 2 years, there are signs that makes me think the resin market may return. Not in a big way but it will be a small stable market in Japan. If there is money to be made in Japan, somebody will make it.

Please pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that PVCs cost less to manufacture because the process uses more automated machinery to build the parts than resin kits. Maybe I'm wrong, as I've never been to Japan or discussed this topic with anyone in the manufacturing sector, but it's food for thought.

I also thought that the reason that prepaints/PVCs were becoming more popular was that they did have collector value. They are all factory original, in display boxes, that are easy to distribute and retail. It doesn't take any hobby skills to own one, and if you buy two, you've always got that other one stashed away to sell on Ebay years from now.

But I do think you're right about resin returning to prominence in a couple of years. My main point there is that the recasters who were reportedly killing the original marketplace overseas will dry up, leaving less budget competition. And, with more data about how much westerners love anime goods, the manufacturers might find more streamlined ways of selling garage kits overseas through a more controlled distribution network. After all, many Japanese cars sold in the US are manufactured in the US, using US workers, and although the comparison might seem trivial, it does show how an effective distribution strategy can bring profits if an infrastructre is built first.

The cost per figure is a lot cheaper, but the cost to create molds and production is significantly a lot more. PVC (like injection kits) needs to sell a much larger overall quantity to recoup the cost. This is why only big companies are able to produce them.



That is how US comic book market died, everyone has 2-3 copies of the same comic stashed in their collection, so by the time you want to sell them, everyone else has several for sale too. So who wants them? The only way to get rid of them is to sell below the original cost. Ebay is filled with comic sellers who does that.

Just look at how fast some of those Anime properties go out of popularity. Remember Sister Princess and CC Sakura? About 3 years ago the market were flooded with merchandising on those 2 shows. But You do not find high demand anymore. Not a single figure of those 2 shows were spotted at this year's WF. Even last year's hot properties like Haruhi & Fate is fading out.



I certainly don't foresee Japanese resin kits being manufactured in US. The GK sellers in the clubhouse are barely able to collect enough interest to cast & sell their own American kits here. It seems like there's always new kits being sculpted at the clubhouse, but if you take a closer look at the numbers, most only sell between 10-20 kits on average. There is also no surge in Resin kits builders, so if the number of interests don't go up, there will never be an increase demand on resin kits.

Westerners may love anime, but that don't translate to modeling at all. I see a bigger increase in cosplay than modeling. Westerners are also killing the official Anime markets, because everyone download stuff on Bit Torrents instead of buying them. Here is an article on that (which mirrors the modeling industry in some ways):

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2007-11-25

In my opinion, if you can't even get people to pay for the shows itself, what makes you think they will do it for resin kits?

I wasn't referring to Japanese resin being made in the US, just the fact that there have been succesful foreign ventures by riskier businesses than anime in the US that have paid off for Japanese companies. It's not about making the resin here, it's about distributing it here.

I think what might be the first foray into better distribution is the partnership between Ebay and YJ auctions. I don't remember when they're going to start working together, but it will surely bridge the gap between people outside Japan getting a better shot at event kits.

And maybe it's just that the swelling of popularity of anime in the US and other western nations has run its course. The hardcore fans will still be around, but the casual fans have gone their own way. But I don't think you can blame things on downloading anime. That technology hit everyone in technologically solvent nations at the same time, including Japan. Everyone wants portable, on-demand entertainment these days, so driving to the video store to rent anime on VHS or DVD won't be around too much longer. Streaming video takes over.

Just another 2 cents...

I purchased a couple of resin kits from HF on Sunday, from WF 2008 and 2007. Hopefully there will be no problem in the delivery. If there were more resin kits, I'd buy them.

I believe in supporting a vendor that has been good to me by doing repeat business with them, and also supporting smaller shops that are putting in the effort to bring something very obscure like garage kits to the public. I mostly order kits that are more popular and have a much greater chance of shipping on time. I haven't been disappointed by HF, especially since their pricing on off-the-shelf stuff (like Armored core models) is better than everyone else. I don't mind waiting a few extra weeks or a few months. I don't really trust e2046, because I see a lot of recasts of PVC that are not available anywhere else. I don't like the idea of a recast of a popular PVC model done in resin, because that's just completely ripping off the company that made the PVC, imo.

Plus the bizarre Japanese restriction on exports to American buyers doesn't help matters. I don't really understand why Japan is that way... exporting is supposed to be good for a country.

can someone redirect me to where misatochan originally posted about e20?
what problem did you guys face with them?
i was about to purchase from them until i saw this post

I am not sure why you consider it weird. It's a region based license scheme not unlike ones employed by American companies. In general most kits are licensed only for local distribution, as such manufacturers are prohibited from exporting kits (this however does not restrict whole sellers or retailers, thus HLJ, 1999 etc.)

Which original post are you refering to?