Airfix Prices & Westland Lynx HMA8/Mk.88A/Mk.90B : In Box Review : 1/48 Scale 

Dont fully agree on Airfix pricing. yes prices are going up but all manufacturers are being driven to do it, But Airfix more than any company are massivly upping thier game in terms of detail and design so in a way your getting more than ever before from Airfix, how much would that have cost from Tamiya? you can bet it would have been more.

Any upcoming reviews for Trumpeter’s latest 1/32 F-35C?

Yeah they are pushing the prices pretty hard.. I kind of like it that they brought Humbrol back to the Uk and stuff? If they do such things, fine, I would pay more for their stuff, as is, if they brought it back to Europe.. But it cannot just go up because reasons. They are not that good - good but not the bets.. But they are taking rpemium prices.. Compare them to some Tamiya in quality and price, and Eduard! Gheez..

Especially considering you can get the Revell 1/32 example for around 40£..

50 pound is totally unacceptable, companies like Eduard have been keeping their kits at a great price, what’s even worse is that’s it’s basically a re boxing of a 9 year old kit, asking tamiya prices for well “Airfix” quality.

Overpriced is an understatement ICM AMK Tamiya kinetic great wall hobby valom eduard I could go on all cheaper and far superior than airfix how can the new Airfix Buccaneer be more money than the AMK f-14 tomcat. And how can an Airfix 1/48 kit be more expensive than on eduard profipack there's no comparison again. Then you buy an Airfix 135 tank it's a nice model until you find out it's an academy and it's cheaper to buy the Academy lol I grew up on Airfix but as you said they weren't the best models but they were cheap. Well the way I look at it is they will go out of business if they keep doing what they're doing if they're going to charge those kind of prices they've got to make better models with either a little bit of photo-etch or resin parts like all the other companies anyway rant over as well now I will wait for the backlash of the Airfix fanboys

I’ve just ordered the new Airfix Bucc in the UK for £62 inc postage. Shop around..

Agree on the Airfix pricing, Bob. The new 1/48 Buccaneer is at least £10-15 overpriced.

That Lynx looks great.But I’ve got the 1/32 Revell Mk.8 to do.I would have took a punt on the Airfix kit as well,but it is too much money by a tenner.The Buccaneer is £70 and I got that and I think it’s worth £60.!.Airfix are playing the money hike game at the wrong time.Great review.Thank you.!

Agree with you on Airfix pricing Bobby. I know prices have to rise but, for example, I have just bought Eduard's 'per ardua ad astra' pack. 2 spitfires with 12 schemes. Comes with PE and masking sets. Under £50. That's £25 per plane!

Airfix is a middle drawer company who is seeing talk of inflation in all the press and is getting in large price rises hoping everyone will blame Covid, or the Government. They are pushing prices to a top drawer company level without the quality or finish. A fix for this is to stop buying from them. I have a very substantial stash built up over the last three years but very few Airfix as I did not like the quality. I have enough models that I can concentrate on them for many years and be very choosy about future purchases. I was glad to see Airfix recover but they are making a strategic error by being greedy (or perhaps just not efficient). Wingnut Wings I was paying top price for but Airfix? Nope for the time being it is game over.

Great review Bobby. I picked up the Lynx right at the end of its first run from TK Max of all places. As I still have it in the stash, I just checked the box price and it was on offer at £16.99 with an RRP of £29.99! That must have been about seven / eight years ago. The new Airfix prices are just not in line with the quality of the product. I fear that some of the executives over at Hornby have started to believe their own hype about the quality of their Airfix kits and think that they are in the same league as Tamiya. Yes, things are better than before (lets face it, they needed to be) but they are no-where near the quality of Tamiya. I'm currently building the new Airfix Sabre and the fit of the kit is shocking, especially when you consider it was tooled in 2021. I always appreciated their willingness to appeal to their home market (with products like the Bucc) and like others have said, the kits were at a sensible price for what you got. If they are going to charge Tamiya prices for Airfix kits, then the Sabre will be the last Airfix purchase for a while.

I’ve just ordered the new Airfix Bucc in the UK for £62 inc postage. Shop around..

I read somewhere that there was a big price hike coming from Tamiya as well, but perhaps just here in Canada from certain retailers, not certain.

Propellers?!?! those are rotor blades. Helicopters dont have propellers, they have rotor blades

I was going to comment about the price of the new Bucc. but Peter beat me to it. I believe it's listed at £72.99. However, I think we have to face the fact that like everything else kit prices are going to increase. I think that the price of crude oil for starters is going to affect the price of plastic pellets. I work for John Lewis as a home delivery driver and we have a meeting about once a month about how trading is going. It was mentioned how much the cost of shipping containers as gone up since the pandemic. I think they said that it cost something like £20k to rent one now, whereas pre covid it was £5k. I obviously don't like the increase like everyone. Time to start building from the stash guys. Going to get the Anson when it comes out though. My father flew them in South Africa in WW2

Hiya Bob, your definitely not moaning i completely agree with you, i have always bought Airfix whenever possible as i regard them (very highly) as the entry level that children and first time modelers can get a lot of enjoyment from and the more experienced modelers can turn into a fantastic finished piece of work, i fear that they are pricing themselves out of this valuable spot in the marketplace, £70:00 for a 1/48 Buccaneer! no thanks, come on Airfix remember your roots if you price so much above children's pocket money range you take away a massive section of your customers and in so doing lose that all important brand loyalty.

This kit was horrid to build.The other two helicopters I have built,the fusalage went togeather in 3 pieces...this one has 14 pieces which makes it horrible to get the seams lines not to show and the puttying was hard to do because of the tight spots. The mold on this kit was FKN horrible..parts did not come out of the mold square,meaning lots of overlap and crooked which I had to constantly sand,grind,cut etc and of course putty. I give it a ZERO out of five stars.I actually bought a second kits to see if I had bought a dud kit but nope same sinario with the second kit. All parts were fitted 3 times before glueing and not painted and still it was horrid! My Hawker Typhoon class was an airfix having 600 parts and it was a great kit and turned out excellent and took me 6 months to complete...What happened to this kit Airfix???? The instruction book was horrrid too...if they have 3 different ways to build this,it should come with 3 different books of instructions..not have 16 letters and numbers in one box of the building guide, making it soooo confusing! Some Pictures in the book were wrong too. Very poor illistrations! KIT # A10107A = HORRID

Hi Bobby ..returning modeller here (50 years later) so who in your opinion in order gives better value for money on quality , range , or just overall Specifications …regards Adrian

Great review Bobby and I agree with you about the pricing. I can understand charging a lot for new molded kits but some of the reissues from the 70's are kind of crazy. I understand " the nostalgia factor" but some are 3 times the price, That's nuts. Gone are the days when you could buy multiples of the same kits. BUT I still love Airfix , (Styrene Crack) 🙃 Hope you and your loved ones have a great/safe and cool week! Cheers,Tony

It's no longer cheaper to have something made on the other side of the world.

.....дааааааа!-симпатичный LYNX...

good point about them doing cold war kits that no one else does...but getting too much now $$

Hi Bobby, you are absolutely right. The prices are definitely too high compared to Eduard or Hasegawa where the quality of kits is incomparably better. Maybe they want to catch up with electricity producers in terms of price increases 😀