Hasegawa kits in New Zealand

[Craig Sargent]

There are a few model shops in New Zealand who for whatever reason are not ordering any Hasegawa stock from us. Everything in our current inventory can be seen at www.nichemodels.co.nz including stock quantities to hand.

If there is something you want and your LHS is not being helpful or does not have it in stock, email us instead with your order and your LHS name and we will make sure they get it in for you.

Many do not seem to have the ability to navigate the internet properly, so you may need to let them know something is in stock, that you are after. They can certainly request wholesale price from us and then let you know their retail from that - sorry, but we can't retail direct at this point in time.

[Dave Homewood]

I'll make this a Sticky thread Craig. I hope the shops sort their issues out soon and all gets back on track.

[Craig Sargent]

Look for a LARGE restock of Hasegawa to appear in Frankton Models tomorrow morning (17/12). Geoff has allocated a large section of the back room for us to stock, so we'll be headed down with as much stock as we can fit.

[Dave Homewood]

Geoff's back room has always seemed like an Alladin's cave to me. Every now and then he used to have a clean out in the back room and would come out with some very rare kits that had been there since Alf's days. I picked up original early 1970's boxing of the Airfix Old Bill Bus and Dennis Fire Engine kits from one of these interesting purges in the mid-1990's. They were like hen's teeth at the time, i think they've been re-released since. I saw several other kits see the light of day too after he'd seemingly been rummaging in the back room.

[Craig Sargent]

My business partner picked up a cheap Airfix 1/48 scale Lightning this morning and there is an Airfix 1/48 Tornado GR4 and 1/24 Harrier GR3 there for good prices too.

Geoff and Nathan now have pretty close to one of every item we have in their back room, and they have moved all their existing Hasegawa stock there too - that's where to go if you are looking for Hasegawa. We will be adding some Hasegawa signage and, within 12 months, a display case with built-ups in as well.

[mstokes]

Great news, I will be around Hamilton aas of Saturday!!!

[scorpiomikey]

Finally, one of my LHS's is utterly useless when it comes to ordering stuff in. Not just hasegawa, but everything. I wont mention names. I asked for a hasegawa kit and they were all like "were having trouble with the hasegawa supplier for new zealand. we can do it, but no garuntee it will come in" now i see this i know its bollocks and theyre just lazy.

[Craig Sargent]

If you are having problems getting hold of something, email me direct with what you are after and where you are froma nd we can sort the order with your LHS for you. We are certainly interested to know if someone sees a supply issue as that is not the message we want to get across.

[corsair67]

Is would appear that some small business people have no business sense at all.

You'd think that it would be in a shop owners best interests to encourage people to order stock through their shop; thereby creating some goodwill and encouraging returned patronage from the customer (instead of losing them to someone else), which then adds to the income made by the shop owner.

A win-win for all involved!

[Parrotfish]

Yeah, my LHS has only one 1/48 Hasegawa kit and maybe 6 1/72. And this has pretty much been the case for the last 6 months or so. So much for them claiming to be one of the premier shops in the country.

Many people I know just buy their stuff overseas as the local guys don't seem interested. On one occasion one of the people who worked there said people buying from overseas was killing business only to have it pointed out to them if they stocked what was wanted then people would buy locally as many were fed up with waiting for stuff to be ordered rather than being on the shelves. How ca you make a good old fashioned impulse buy if it isn't on the shelf?

[corsair67]

On one occasion one of the people who worked there said people buying from overseas was killing business only to have it pointed out to them if they stocked what was wanted then people would buy locally as many were fed up with waiting for stuff to be ordered rather than being on the shelves. How ca you make a good old fashioned impulse buy if it isn't on the shelf?

Too right, Sean. Sure, sometimes it is great to buy stuff online - but what I often find is that it can be a bit of a false economy in the end; you might get the kit you want for a cheaper price, but then you often end up getting hammered with postage. Also, you then have to wait a number of weeks to wait for the thing to finally arrive.

What really annoys me though is how even though technology has made life much easier for modern day shop owners, why is it so many of them seem to have no idea of how to use it to grow their business? Also, maybe customers are sick of walking in to model shops and seeing 300 Spitfire kitsets of varying scales, a couple of Hornets and Skyhawks in 1/48th and 1/72 scale, a Peter Brock 05 Holden Commode, and nothing else in between?

In 'the olden days', before the porno-net was invented, I would imagine it used to be so much harder for shop owners to order stock in (order lodged by choosing items from possibly out-of-date dead tree edition catalogue. Phone call (or even letter!) to warehouse/distributor with request. Wait to hear back from warehouse/distributor whether item(s) are still available in stock. Pay by cheque or money order. Wait for item(s) to arrive by post or freight delivery company. Contact customer to advise order has arrived. Wait for customer to come back and pay for order) - yet, most shops I dealt with used to go out of their way to help you with any requests you had.

Now, many of them aren't interested in helping by ordering anything in - then blame the internet for loss of custom.

[Dave Homewood]

Back in my day it was 300 boring Me109's, not the much sought after Spitfires.

[flyjoe180]

Bf109's and Spitfires are never boring.

[Dave Homewood]

True. But to me seeing endless kits of the same aeroplane being churned out was disheartening to me as a modeller as so many aircraft types were being totally overlooked by the manufacturers. Things are different now, so much more variety is available, but now I have no time and inclination for modelling sadly.

[Craig Sargent]

New shipment arrived and new items instock and on the shelves now

01909
1/72 Spitfire Mk.I & Mess. Bf-109E Battle of Britain"

01910
1/72 B-24J "90th BG Jolly Rogers"

01911
1/72 F-15DJ "Aggressor 2010" (new parts)

01913
1/72 F-16A ADF "Italian Air Force combo" (2 kits)

01914
1/72 F-4E/J Phantom "American Aerobatics combo" (2 kits)

01915
1/72 Messerschmitt Me262A-1a/A-2a combo" (2 kits)

01916
1/72 Junkers Ju88G-6 "Berlin Radar" (new parts)

09846
1/48 J7W2 Shindenkai "Jet Version"

09918
1/48 Ki27 Nate "64th Flight Regiment w/figure" (resin figure)

09919
1/48 A6M3 Zero Type 22 "201st Flying Group"

09920
1/48 F/A-18++ "VMFA-115 Silver Eagles"

09921
1/48 Harrier GR Mk.9 "FAA 100th Anniversary"

09922
1/48 A6M2-N Rufe "Amakusa Flying Group"

09925
1/48 Ki45 Kai Koh Toryu Nick "13th Flight Regiment"

09926
1/48 A-4E Skyhawk "Top Gun"

09928
1/48 Hughes 500MD "Israeli Air Force"

PT49
1/48 F-15C Eagle

PT50
1/48 F/A-18A/C Hornet

08206
1/32 Fi156C Storch "Gran Sasso"

08207
1/32 Mess. Bf-109E-4/7 Trop "Marseille"

ST31
1/32 Mess. Bf-109F-4 Tropical (new tool)

20249
1/24 Volkswagen Type 2 Delivery Van "Moon Equipped"

Z27
1/350 USS Gambier Bay CVE-73 Escort Carrier (new tool)

QG44
1/350 USS Gambier Bay Basic Photo-etch Upgrade Parts

QG45
1/350 USS Gambier Bay Super Photo-etch Upgrade Parts

QG46
1/350 USS Gambier Bay Wooden Deck

QG47
1/350 US Navy Carrier-based Aircraft Set

[phil]

Jul 25, 2010 15:25:29 GMT 12 corsair67 said:

Now, many of them aren't interested in helping by ordering anything in - then blame the internet for loss of custom.

I agree there are some like that, I know a certain Model shop in my old town whos owner would often flat out tell you something didn't exist or wasn't available, even when I'd already researched it and was happy to give him my business rather than ordering over the net. This was especially true when he had a similar kit in stock!

So off to the net I'd go and get the kit that 'didn't exist'.

But others like Modelcrafts and Hobbies are usually very helpful and will get something in for you if they can.

[Deleted]

How does this new Hasegawa MD500 Defender compare with the (very basic) Academy/Minicraft offerings? I may be keen on one or three

Shame to hear of your past LHS experiences there phil, I tend to do research ahead of time and just do it all over the 'net now, sadly. But I do enjoy going into a shop and talking with the owner....knowing what is what! There's a great wee R/C shop in Palmerston North that also does plastic kitsets, run by a former Fletcher and Airtruk driver, one could spend hours gasbagging!

[Craig Sargent]

The Hasegawa MD500 is a very good kit, but still the same as previous releases (it is not a new kit). This kit has new decals and an instruction sheet on how to add detail to the IDF Defender. Have a look here for contents and instructions and you'll get an idea what it is like.

www.1999.co.jp/eng/10127541

BTW, the Academy kit is a copy of the Hasegawa kit.

[Craig Sargent]

Upcoming new releases from Hasegawa

www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/e-w/image/leaflet/2011PART1A.pdf

www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/e-w/image/leaflet/2011PART1B.pdf

[Craig Sargent]

New shipment due this week including new 1/12 motorbike, new 1/48 modern US weapons, 1/200 Shuttle and 747 SCA or Hubble, 1/72 Mustang back in the catalog.

Also note that after our first full financial year, we have gone through our opertation and looked at areas to cut costs to try and get prices down for modellers. As a result, the price of Hasegawa in NZ will now be on average 25 - 40% lower than previous on most items. This will not be reflected in stock already purchased off us, but any new stock arriving in shops will now be relatively cheaper than before.