Polish Publishers

[CharlieC]

I can't make any sense out of the Polish cardmodel publishers practices. Recently there have been 2 armoured models which have been replicated by two publishers almost at the same time. These are:

WAK and Answer Sturmtiger
Halinski and GPM Wespe

I can understand releasing models in hardcopy and by download from different publishers but 2 different hardcopy models?
To me this doesn't seem to make much sense commercially - just how big is the market for a 1/25 Sturmtiger? Overall this has the effect of reducing the diversity of models available. Does anyone have an explanation of the thinking behind this behaviour?

Regards,

Charlie

[Gharbad]

I have no idea, but if you look back at the Maly kits, they repeat some every few years. Some have been on repeat for 30 years...

[dansls1]

I get the impression that the designers for these companies work free-lance, so they pretty much publish what the whim of the designers come up with when they are available.

[shrike]

And/or it means that the companies and designers have roughly the same the same development time and are being responsive to the requests of the same group of modelers, without any cooperation (or cartel-like collusion.)

[Fozzy The Bear]

Originally Posted by Gharbad

I have no idea, but if you look back at the Maly kits, they repeat some every few years. Some have been on repeat for 30 years...

A lot of GPM kits are like this as well.... Not to mention Shipyard who have released HMS Cleopatra 3 times and HMS Victory 3 times HMS Alert twice and several others as well.

With regard to the GPM releases, they do update the models and the new releases quite often have better skins, but just how many Me109's do we need!! between them the model companies must have released about 40 or more different variants.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[SCEtoAUX]

Maybe they figure some people would like multiple copies of the same, even if it is from different publishers. I sometimes buy the same book in different editions from different sources.

[Gharbad]

Originally Posted by Fozzy The Bear

A lot of GPM kits are like this as well.... Not to mention Shipyard who have released HMS Cleopatra 3 times and HMS Victory 3 times HMS Alert twice and several others as well.

With regard to the GPM releases, they do update the models and the new releases quite often have better skins, but just how many Me109's do we need!! between them the model companies must have released about 40 or more different variants.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

Yeah Maly upgrades them as well, as does Halinski. I've got a few re-releases from both.
Maly's obsession seems to be the T-34, there's maybe a dozen of them, and oddly enough I don't have a Me109 yet

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by Gharbad

Yeah Maly upgrades them as well, as does Halinski. I've got a few re-releases from both.
Maly's obsession seems to be the T-34, there's maybe a dozen of them, and oddly enough I don't have a Me109 yet

There's a cultural reason for the Maly T-34s - the model tanks have the name "Rudy" - this comes from a Polish TV show of the 1960s called something like "4 men and a tank". This show was apparently very popular in Poland and was repeated many times. I found some detail about this show and posted it on the old cardmodels.net site.

My original point wasn't about upgrades - even the plastic model manufacturers do that - but the odd behaviour of releasing the same model subject at the same time.

Regards,

Charlie

[Gharbad]

Yeah, I've seen it. My parents watched that show, and forced me and my brother into it as well.
It's dog instead of tank, by the way.

[CharlieC]

Sounds like the dog and tank shared the same name.

The symbol on the turret seems to be the 1st Armoured Brigade, 1st Polish Army raised by the Soviets in 1944.

Regards,

Charlie