Glad i'm not the only one!

I have to agree with you Sean.

For a while it looked as though Dragon would become king of the hill. But I feel that it is a title they don't actually deserve.
Yes, i have several of their "Smart Kits" but I find them far from the best ever. No crew, on the Shermans we still have crappy tools and even poorer high tech (ha) clear parts and now prices that almost require a second mortgage.
No, this isn't a DML rant. Many of the manufacturers are doing the same thing. Tamiya re-releases a 40 year old kit with a new metal barrel and $0.20 worth of PE and charges $30 for a kit costing $3 when it was released.
Catering to the rivet counters just increases the cost far beyond reason!
And for my money I'm switching to Tasca for Shermans and parts!

I understand that costs are driven by many factors. The price of oil for plastics, R&D on the molds, profit margins for the manufacturers and distributors. But what happens to your bottom line when your product becomes prohibitively expensive? I remember that as little as 10 years ago I'd buy 4 or 5 new releases per year. Now I doubt I buy even one! At shows I look for bargains and only get new what I absolutely need.

OMG! I just felt the bullseye pinned to my back!!!! But it is fun being a heretic!!!!

Remember: modeling is supposed to be fun!

Disclaimer: No PE was used in the making of this rant!!!!