What happened to the Star Wars models???

[DreamKnight]

I remember way back when Star Tours was just out at Disneyland and when you left the ride, it took your right into the shop and in that shop was a plethora of Star Wars Memorabilia and one huge section was all these models. What happened to those models? Do they make em anymore or is it like the Star Trek AMT ones where you gotta go hunt for em?

All I see now is the snap-tight cruds. Are they any good? Every time I see "Snap-Tight" I think Tonka Toy. Are they worth buying? I almost caved in and got an Imperial Star Destroyer but then I looked at the "Snap-Tight" logo again and was like, "Oh come on... where's the real stuff?".

Chung

 

[Grendels]

I buy most of my models off of ebay. I live in a small Texas town and all we have is a Hobby Lobby, which is great if you are scrapbooking, but sucks if you are into models.

There are a lot of older star wars kits for sale there. Just have some patience. I got an x-wing for $15, a star destroyer for $18, and the falcon for $20 (all US dollars), those prices do not include shipping but for most shipping was an extra $10 to $15. For the size of those models I paid a fair price for them. All were still sealed in their boxes.

The star trek models are pricey, so watch them. But again if you are patient, bargains can be had.

I too have been afraid of the snap together models.

 

[DreamKnight]

Yeh I find alot of Star Trek ones on ebay but they are very expensive. lol

I'll look for Star Wars ones on there too then.

 

[Exarkun77]

Interesting question, indeed.
When i started looking for a slave 1 kit, i went to my local model kit shop, and the only thing they could order for me were these snap kits from Revell. i said no thanks, and did other shops, but only saw snap kits.
I'm in france, so i thought i'd search overseas. Luckily, Finemolds had the ship i wanted, but i didn't see that many real starwars models, especialy models from the first trilogy.
It's all about the new episodes, or clone wars series, now...the world is going crazy.
There are so many ships from the espanded universe that would be cool to build...

 

[DreamKnight]

So true. It guess scale modeling is getting less of a market now that kids are all glued to their Xbox's so the big companies don't invest in the market other than these cruddy Snap-Tight models which seems to me are no more than Novelty items than real models.

Anyone have bought a snap-tight kit before? Isn't it already painted and everything? I find it sad that on the box for snap-tight they advertise that "No glue required!" as if that's a good thing. *sigh*

 

[JMac]

The Pegasus kits I'm working on in our BoB build are not too bad...I glued 'em together (out of spite)...

 

[DreamKnight]

I glued 'em together (out of spite)...

LOL! Are the prepainted too?

 

[Grendels]

Here is a vid of Model Man Tom's build of a snap tite x-wing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3MPsg-Tb_0[/youtube]

In another video, he weathers the kit.

 

[DreamKnight]

I should looks there over at toms vids. lol Figured he'd have a vid on that.

Kinda takes the fun out of the construction and painting parts of modeling doesn't it? :/ I guess it's good for a model to bash around a bit. I rather spend the $20 towards a real model ya know?

 

[Exarkun77]

At first i thought like you, but maybe these are just kits for kids. I'm ok with that.
But i still don't understand the vanishing of "real" starwars models.
I guess you have a point with consoles and video games, but it can't be only this...

I'm just hoping that Finemolds doesn't stop their star wars models, and maybe that other model kit companies follow their path...
...Or we'll have to start scratch building.

 

[JMac]

I glued 'em together (out of spite)...

LOL! Are the prepainted too?

Ha,
Unfortunately not, I’d be done otherwise.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Thing is, most of the older Star Wars kits were put out by MPC, and then later AMT.

All of those molds are now under the care of Round 2 for the next 9 or so years, and no indication that they are going to re-release them.

Could also be a licensing issue, as I believe Revell has the license for the newer Star Wars stuff, which may preclude Round 2 from releasing any of the older Star Wars stuff like the X-wing, A wing, ATAT, ATST, etc, etc.

No different really as Round 2 holds the license for Star Trek, which precludes anyone else from releasing Star Trek based items (many are being re-released this year by Round 2, including a Clear sprue 1701D, similar to the Yamaguchi/Enterprise C from years ago). Likewise, Moebius has the license for the new BSG, (Viper out later this month, with Galactica to follow later in the year), however I think their license is only for the new BSG, and not the original, as Revell continues to produce the old Viper, Cylon Raider and Cylon Base station....really wish they would re-release the old Galactica again, I just watched one go on Ebay for almost $110!

 

[Grendels]

I was watching that same Galactica, and would love a new release on it. I just got a base star off of ebay for $12 and I want a companion for it. But, for $110, I can buy 2 1/350 polar lights refits and give my had at bashing in large scale.

Round 2 does seem to be focused on Star Trek, and it is probably for the reasons you stated. Revell has the license. Until Round 2 gets the lisence, have patience with ebay, you will find what you are looking for, if you wait long enough. It took me two weeks to find that star destroyer for under $20, but I did it.

 

[DreamKnight]

@ Elm: Thanks for the insight! I forgot about the whole liscensing crap that companies make in back end alleyways :

Yeh, I guess gotta go ebay underground for the real stuff. Sucks we have to suffer for stuff like this. :'(

 

[Junkie]

Forget the snap kits and go the way of Finemolds if you want Star Wars.

 

[DreamKnight]

OK, I'll go find some fine mold Star Wars stuff then and take a look

 

[ScreamingSamuraiStudio]

i'll have to post some pics later, but you know...the Revell Snap Kits aren't that bad.
They're terrible if you're going to build them right out of the box without any paint or even gluing in spots. But each of the new kits I've gotten really aren't that bad once you get rid of the paint job it comes with.

So far, I've built the RoS Jedi Fighter, a Y-wing and an Arc-170. I even scored an out of box kit if Anakin's Jedi Fighter for 9 bucks at hobby lobby. In the kits I've gotten, there isn't even the worry of raised panel lines, which is something that has been a bit of a problem with the older kits.

Anyway..that's only my two cents, for the price, they're not so bad.

 

[Boxster]

The snap-on kits requires some work to get them to look very good and is worth considering. Most of the AMT kits also requires tons of works to make them right so, make no diff really!

B