49th Shizuoka Hobby Show 2010 predictions and results

[David]

And a close up on a bus

 

[bill937ca]

That's an old video. 2008 or 2009.

 

And a close up on a bus

 

 

 

[quinntopia]

Gender: Male

 

 

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Re: 49th Shizuoka Hobby Show 2010 predictions and results

« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2010, 05:37:01 AM »

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Fresh off the press!!!

 

I think everyone is going to be excited!

Photos and info from:

http://ngi.blog.eonet.jp/

http://blog.joshinweb.jp/joshintrain/

http://casco.blog.so-net.ne.jp/archive/201005-1

 

First off, Kato Sales Meeting.  I believe not all are shown yet.

But here are a first few.

I especially love how Kato is focusing into building more modern nicer looking buildings.

AND Unitram expansion...the price looks a little steep though...

 

 

Oy my goodness...those are AWESOME BUILDINGS!!!! Way to go KATO!!! WHOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!

[nekomo]

Thanks for the links.

 

And those motorized buses are really exciting. I knew the Faller Car System ones, but this system looks better for me with those plastic street platforms.

[bill937ca]

Oy my goodness...those are AWESOME BUILDINGS!!!! Way to go KATO!!! WHOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!

 

More photos and another corner building.

 

http://pics.livedoor.com/u/zip_osaka/6715539

 

http://pics.livedoor.com/u/zip_osaka/6715540

 

http://pics.livedoor.com/u/zip_osaka/6715542

 

Kato seems to have dug right into your pocket books!  All this is probably causing KenS pain!!!  But you don't have to get them all right now. Knowing Kato these will be available for 10-15 years.

[KenS]

All this is probably causing KenS pain!!! 

 

Only in the wallet. 

 

Those are some nice looking buildings.  And they look like they (at least the brown corner one, and probably the others) are "modular" so you can combine floors from two of the same to make taller buildings, as with a couple of the other Kato towers).

 

I was wondering what I was going to do to fill in the rest of my city scene. My scratchbuilding skills aren't good enough that I'd want to do more than one or two of my own.  These should help nicely.

[Scaper]

Wow these are awesome. When are these available? And who is selling them?

 

Cool looking buildings for sure!

[to2leo]

Wow these are awesome. When are these available? And who is selling them?

 

Cool looking buildings for sure!

 

Kato is selling these buildings for about 4000 Yen each MSRP.

There is no date set for them yet.  Another bonus about this building is Kato has included a slot where you can insert LED lights to light them up.

[cteno4]

these will be nice to fill out with the tomix high rises. not bad on price when you figure the kato 6 story buildings are 2800Y and the tomix 9 story is 2200Y. the new kato look to be almost 2x the footprint of the tomix and 8 stories. look to have the level of detail on the kato 6 story bldgs as well, the tomix high rise has little in the way of detail.

 

too bad kato doesnt get smart and sell a 4 stories of center floors as an addon!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

Something interesting.  Tomix had special commemorative cars sold only at the Shizuoka Hobby Show. Limit two per customer.

 

http://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/report/kilopost/sizuoka_hanbai.htm

[KenS]

too bad kato doesnt get smart and sell a 4 stories of center floors as an addon!

 

I wish they would too, but it probably wouldn't be worth it for them.  The plastic/assembly of these models is likely a relatively small part of the cost.  What we're paying for is the design development, set-up cost (mold construction, which can be astronomical for injection-molded plastic), and packaging/distribution/retailer's percentage. And an expensive model has more margin to pay that cost than a cheaper one would.

 

To sell a 4-floor add-on unit at a lower cost and make more money, they'd need to anticipate selling enough of them that the volume would make up for the extra costs (package development/printing and inventory management), lower margin, and loss of retailer shelf space that could go to a higher-margin model. Otherwise they'd net lose money doing that.

 

And I'd guess that those of us who use the modularity to make taller buildings are a small percentage of their overall sales.

[quinntopia]

I've already started triage on some of my existing buildings to make room for these!  :-) 

 

Can anyone tell what the dimensions are from their relationship to the Unitram plates?

[Guest ___]

Looks like I'll have to rework my plans for stage II on the layout to take the Tomix tram and bus system in to account. Goodbye new Nikkor lens to buy this fall.

[to2leo]

I've already started triage on some of my existing buildings to make room for these!  :-)   

 

Can anyone tell what the dimensions are from their relationship to the Unitram plates?

 

Judging from the pictures, I believe it is twice the footprint of Kato's glass office building kit.

[KenS]

Can anyone tell what the dimensions are from their relationship to the Unitram plates?

 

The basic dimension of the building space on the Unitram Road Plates is 124mm (frontage) x 112mm (depth) on the straight plates, and 112mm x 112mm on the corner. There is printing on the plate of parking spaces so an 81mm deep model can be placed at the back and have parking spaces in front of it.

 

Judging from these photos, the two corner buildings are 112mm square, and the two straight buildings are 124mm x 112mm.

 

Most of Kato's existing towers (e.g. 23-434) are 81mm square, although some (e.g., 23-431) are 64mm (frontage) x 81mm deep.

 

I don't have any of the Dio Town Road Plates (I do have a set of the Unitram plates), but it's possible the new buildings are too large for them, since I think they were sized for the 81mm footprint.

[cteno4]

too bad kato doesnt get smart and sell a 4 stories of center floors as an addon!

 

I wish they would too, but it probably wouldn't be worth it for them.  The plastic/assembly of these models is likely a relatively small part of the cost.  What we're paying for is the design development, set-up cost (mold construction, which can be astronomical for injection-molded plastic), and packaging/distribution/retailer's percentage. And an expensive model has more margin to pay that cost than a cheaper one would.

 

To sell a 4-floor add-on unit at a lower cost and make more money, they'd need to anticipate selling enough of them that the volume would make up for the extra costs (package development/printing and inventory management), lower margin, and loss of retailer shelf space that could go to a higher-margin model. Otherwise they'd net lose money doing that.

 

And I'd guess that those of us who use the modularity to make taller buildings are a small percentage of their overall sales.

 

 

yes its a dream, but in this case the lions share of the cost of the new product is done with the design/moulds is already done with the original building. also since you are already running and assembling the floors for the main building running the run say 10% extra is a negligible cost (main run cost is set up of the line and getting a good volume --  larger volume usually reduced price per unit further too). packaging and inventory are the only extended costs. to be simple in the packaging they could even keep the same form factor on the boxes, just new printing (this is cheap to set up and run and event this is a minor edit to the building box graphic) and even the same insert could be used with a small spacer at top and bottom. over all for this product product its a small fraction of the cost that a new product is.

 

I just wonder if the market for extensions in a case like this is limited currently as you have to buy two buildings and usually waste some $$ as you may not use the top and bottoms (some work if you make a short and a tall building). Tomix does this with their high rise and apartment building. the middle floors are just pop apart and mix and match, but unless you get 3 or 4 to build with you end up with extra tops and bottoms and those are the more 'unique' items that probably cost the most to produce. Just an interesting thought to see if they could stimulate a bit more buying by modularizing some and getting folks out of just doing the standard thing. but most of the kato stuff is so out of the box type stuff their market may have no inclination to modify.

 

just few opportunities to get any sort of twofer (well all most) like this. always interested to see how the market might respond to the potential. question is would it stimulate more interest in buying the building and doing expansion (thus more over all sales) than the slight loss in sales from the few who would buy 2 or more building then mix and match for expansion.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[KenS]

yes its a dream, but in this case the lions share of the cost of the new product is done with the design/moulds is already done with the original building.

 

Agreed. But my point was that they need margin to recover that cost. A lower-margin sale recovers less of it, so it's less interesting to them to do that than to just sell more full buildings to those few people who want extra floors.  Unless there's volume to make up for the lower margin, it's not likely to be attractive to them.

[cteno4]

yes its a dream, but in this case the lions share of the cost of the new product is done with the design/moulds is already done with the original building.

 

Agreed. But my point was that they need margin to recover that cost. A lower-margin sale recovers less of it, so it's less interesting to them to do that than to just sell more full buildings to those few people who want extra floors.  Unless there's volume to make up for the lower margin, it's not likely to be attractive to them.

 

 

yes but you have a lower unit cost (due to the original building paying for all the design, moulds, and production setups) for the extension units thus a much higher margin on the extension vs the full building, thus works ok with a lower sales (ie low sales need high margin, higher sales can work with lower margins). also gets them the modular caché as well.

 

jeff

[to2leo]

Speaking about modular buildings, what happened to Greenmax ones?  Did its venture into modular buildings fail?  I have heard anything being announced.

[cteno4]

just the first set as far as i have seen, nothing new at this last show...

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Scaper]

I've got so many of those 2102 2101 -03 etc... buildings. I still don't know what to build of them. I've literally have 2 boxes full of those box kits. Crazy.. They take a lot of work to put together so I want to build something really cool with them.

 

As far as these new Kato buildings... I'm really excited for them. As I mentioned. I had thought I had got to the point where All I was buying were a few more extra kits I need for taller versions of current kits I already have. And a last order from CMR.

 

But.........  Yikes... more cool stuff. I'm definitely going to be buying some of these. Regardless if they are stackable or if Kato offers mid section add ons its going to happen for me. Even If I have to take out the dremel and start cutting away. I always find uses for the left over base sections anyways if need be.

 

The one that might be hard to extend in height is the 0101 building or the round facade kit. With only a single window at the top and the visible stair case climbing the floors to the roof, it maybe difficult to add onto this kit. Plus is got such an ugly blank wall all the way up...it maybe a really ugly looking building taller. That said not all buildings have to be tall anyways.

 

However the one that would look killer 3 plus times the height would be the green mid block office building. I love this model!!!!

[Scaper]

I toyed with the idea of making one 2 high... I used mspaint..not the best...but it works to give a visual.

 

[KenS]

Nice photo. I sure hope they are modular; I could see one of those on my layout.

 

Plus is got such an ugly blank wall all the way up...it maybe a really ugly looking building taller.

 

One of the things I don't like about Kato's tall buildings is that most seem to have at least two walls that are little more than flat slabs with a couple of molded-in details. This looks really bad when they're next to a shorter building, or if you need one on a corner where three sides are exposed.

 

Still, the overall effect is nice.

[CaptOblivious]

No one's commented on this yet:

http://www.hobby-show.info/shizuoka2010/0386.htm

 

It's a photo of Tomix's new wide-rail tram. Notice the middle straight pieces…and notice the three(!!) different options for track spacing—the tightest of which is way tighter than Kato's Unitram!

[bill937ca]

No one's commented on this yet:

http://www.hobby-show.info/shizuoka2010/0386.htm

 

It's a photo of Tomix's new wide-rail tram. Notice the middle straight pieces…and notice the three(!!) different options for track spacing—the tightest of which is way tighter than Kato's Unitram!

 

Maybe because its been on reserve for a while now.  I've already ordered the track for my first tram layout with the second layout pending until the fall or when there is money.