... a small 1/35 kit maker of course, but their insolvency may have ramifications empacting TOTS modelers. A companion rumor has AFV Club buying their molds & tooling.
What is your source for this information? I have most of the Tristar kits, and they are excellent. I am a big fan of the German vehicles based on the Czech tank chassis, the Panzer 38(t) and Marder series. Tristar is king when it comes to these kits.
Heard it from some of my Japanese vendors and then confirmed it with some of my HK vendors AFV has indeed gotten the molds. No one seems to know what has happened to Tristar Sirius though. They had some outstanding Resin 120mm figures and 1/72 Figures and 38(t) tanks.
As far as I know the Tristar website is still up and running. I do not know if there is a problem with the connection outside HK but it works for me.
I can say that the Tristar shop is open 7 days a week and I do visit the shop consistently on a weekly basis (along with DML store). The shop is profitable and there is no justification to shut down the shop.
And yes, Tristar is going through some changes and there could possibly be news in the not too distant future. This news will be good for modelers.
And to put the rumours to rest, Tristar moulds have not and are not being sold to AFV Club.
Tristar also has a number of new items that will be released. These new items are new i.e. not been mentioned before and I have had the good fortune to touch and see test shots with my own eyes. However, I am not at the liberty to say what they are as I do not work for Tristar.
I hope this puts a stop to all these groundless speculation as to the fate of Tristar.
Lawrence>
Now if only they would convert their Panzer IV's and 38T's to 1/48...
Not sure exactly of the connection between the Tristar store/web store, and the firm that produces the model kits, but the former's web site is still up and running, and lists the latest modeling products.
I picked up Tristar's lovely Brummbar (Early) two weeks ago, being the only kit of theirs I didn't have. Like all the others, it is a gem. WHY I picked it up is another matter, as with 450 unbuilt kits on the groaning basement shelves, it is doubtful I will ever get around to building it.......
I asked the owner of the LHS about the Tristar situation, and basically he said that the Japanese partner had dropped out for financial reasons. (Said Japanese partner owns a hobby shop of his own, and was the Japanese distributor as well as a provider of ideas for Tristar products. I understand that he also did some of the masters.) This, of course, affects the distribution situation in Japan, but it shouldn't have a big effect elsewhere since there isn't anything really wrong with the Taiwanese partner.
Of course, this is at least second hand information, so there may be some differences from the truth.
they can sometimes do real damage to companies. There was a rumor that Badger Airbrush was going out of business, and it very much affected their sales, because stores were reluctant to order from them if they were going out of business. Where would their customers get spare parts, or service? Badger's president had to write a long posting denying the whole thing, which was entirely due to a modeler's misinterpetation of something someone else had posted. Like YouTube, rumors can be viral, and once they're out there, it's almost impossible to stop or get rid of them. But here's the thing: IF the rumors had prevented Badger (or Tristar) from getting the ordinary business financing most companies need just to do business, those rumors would have become self-fulfilling prophesies. And we would not have Tristar kits or Badger airbrushes any more..... Let's be careful out there, people.....
I wonder if this rumour originated with a certain blogger who posts on a certain maufactures site? I seem to recall a post speculating on the lack of recent Tristar releases. If so, I put little store by this "gentlemans" comments, given his sometimes vitriolic remarks about other manufacturers and reviewers.
Untrue rumours get out into circulation by two methods, innocent second/third/fourth-hand (bogus) "I heard" reports, and purely malicious fabrication. Whether they get any notice is determined by where the bomb is placed. At least twice now some "big-scale" armour guy has tried to put out the tale that Tamiya is shutting down 1/48 production. What they hope to gain from this I don't know, but it was done all the same.
Luckily for us it was only wishful thinking, and Tamiya is evidently not into worrying what the web says about its products. Dragon, on the other hand, does follow the web goings-on, and their "Hiroshi" sock-puppet says some incredibly inept things on his member-controlled blog. Perhaps if we frequently post on the "big-scale" sites loudly bemoaning that Dragon would rule 1/48 if it ever entered the arena, they might be tempted. Any company that indulges in psych warfare is also susceptible to it .
The company I used to work for once passed on making a trade show appearance. Sure enough, one of our direct competitors declared at the show that we were history. It hurt orders some, but a couple months later when his product caused some nasty fatalities, it was karma time, baby . Belly-up served on a silver platter with all the insurance guys, lawyers, and litigators in on the feast. You reap what you sow...
I was initially skeptical when I saw the post positing that Tristar was gone, though I have never bought a kit. My appreciation of them was using the review pics of their early Panzer IV stuff on PMMS as a scratchbuilding aid. If they ever produce a 1/48 kit, I'm there.
about using 1/35 Tristar kits as reference for 1/48 modeling. I highly commend the practice of hanging around the 1/35 armor modeling sites and using new kit reviews and build articles and galleries as references for modeling in The One True Scale (TM)..... Griffon PE set reviews are fabulous for this, as Griffon and Aber are cut from the same cloth: 800 hours to add the PE, followed by extensive therapy..... I often use the new products announcements on PMMS - lots of detail photos and for kit reviews, Terry Ashley often provides extensive photo references to show errors in new kits. I have dozens of reference files and photos just from PMMS, a great research resource. And, for those who don't get it, Military Modelling articles by Steve Zaloga are like smaller "armor in action" books: history, plenty of photos, and excellent model detailing and conversion data. The point here is, don't restrict your web activity solely to the 1/48 sites - use the larger scales as refs to make your models better. A bunch of us do it all the time.....
Tamiya is abandoning 1/48? They're afraid others may see that 1/48 is still largely a "tabula rasa", open to a host of new kits without a lot of duplication. I think you're right: we should start posting on the 1/35 sites how great it would be if Dragon and AFV Club really made 1/48 a priority for new kits - I mean how many one-offs and paper projects can Dragon do? Satchel Paige, the great pitcher in the old Negro baseball leagues (and very likely the most successful pitcher in the history of baseball), once said, "Don't look back - someone may be gaining on you." I think we're seeing a bit of that concern on the "big boys" sites. I'm happy they have all the new kits they want, even if they are ecstatic about kits we've had for years (Citroen, Normandy campaign M4). I just would like a little loving in 1/48 from some of the larger mainstream companies to build competition and keep quality rising. Don't want much at all....
...had been voiced for days before my posting here. I had received personal messages on the subject from different sources. The company's tribulations are factual, while the AFV Club affiliation is only rumored as I stated in my initial post.
Foolishly, I shared the information with this forum; a blunder I shall not repeat.
And todays 10 points go to Malcolm for using the world 'Viral' without mentioning mexico or pigs.
Heard an interesting discussion on the mathematics of viral dispertion when the last Pandemic non-event happened. Was it the duck one? Or the avian one? I don't know... Anyway, The learned professor explained the maths of such spreading of 'stuff' worked equally well with diseases, rumours, fads of sylish products (The Japanese are masters in that field!) and even to the spread of things like the habit of wearing your baseball cap on sideways.
It apparently works at its absolute best when applied to 24 hour news networks and something scary that might happen. Doesn't matter what, just so long as it is scary. God help us if the Martians ever arrive. But then, maybe it will be the swine flu that saves us. Apparently this happened for real, in the USA, in the 1930's. On the radio. Orson Welles had something to do with that one....
Thanks for the 10 points, but we have a large batch of freshly-released porcine effluvia forty miles down the road from here. Can't wait 'til it gets to this neighborhood... You mentioned a prize, but I already have a cone-shaped hat left over from the old primary school days .
The math involved with the exponential dispersion of virii, rumours and fads is indeed very similar, and also close to that of self-propagating nuclear reactions. None of these are good, especially the "Hello Kitty' thing.
As for the news, I would prefer it if it was introduced as wild speculation with "staff expert" talking heads throwing spin, as opposed to faking as honest reporting.
It apparently works at its absolute best when applied to 24 hour news networks and something scary that might happen.
I don't think it necessarily has to be scary, just something that catches people's fancy.
Case in point: Susan Boyle of "Britain's Got Talent" fame. Even the Japanese newspapers and TV news has had something about her, but I think she's really caught the fancy of the U.S. media.
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I often use the new products announcements on PMMS - lots of detail photos and for kit reviews, Terry Ashley often provides extensive photo references to show errors in new kits. I have dozens of reference files and photos just from PMMS, a great research resource. And, for those who don't get it, Military Modelling articles by Steve Zaloga are like smaller "armor in action" books: history, plenty of photos, and excellent model detailing and conversion data. The point here is, don't restrict your web activity solely to the 1/48 sites - use the larger scales as refs to make your models better. A bunch of us do it all the time.....