“Build a McLaren F1 car, build a u boat, build the Mallard.

Only 150 issues at £5.99, with the first issue at 50p”

Just seen an advert and I’m sure they said 150 issues. That nearly 3 years!,

Does anybody really buy these and complete the build? £5.99 a week for 150 weeks. That’s a hell of a lot of money for a scale model.

My lad loves to work out the cost of these. I’ve never known anyone do it, not even to start full of enthusiasm and then think “Hang on a minute, how much?”

Don’t they fold after six months or something? Get the interest in new year (“new year – new you” bollox) then as interest dwindles stop then think of the one for the next year.

Think the 150 issues was the u boat. £900 for a scale model. Can’t help thinking buying an airfix kit and a book would be cheaper.

Buying a u-boat would be cheaper.

There is a thread in the chat section Here talking about how expensive bikes are.

But for the record, I agree.

My eldest worked out that the model Mallard would be just under a grand! 😯

Father in law finished one years back which was for a remote controlled car. Ended up costing him about £550-600 I think even though he could have gone out and bought the same thing for about £300.

Don’t they fold after six months or something? Get the interest in new year (“new year – new you” bollox) then as interest dwindles stop then think of the one for the next year.

Quite often they do. I used to work in a call centre which took calls for a company that did a very similar ‘builds up into a collection of’ things and quite often people would be strung along for a few years before the company decided to cut the collection leaving some very angry people.

This company – let’s just call them Atlas editions – was properly disorganised and really messed it’s customers around. They’d suck people in with too good to be true offers – like £1.99 for a model car, then they’d offer you that for free if you took the next one for something like £8 with a load of trinkets thrown in. Taking would then enter you into a ‘collection’ where you got a parcel every month.

Problem was no one ever read the small print so cue loads of angry people calling in.

My eldest worked out that the model Mallard would be just under a grand!

Which is reasonable price for such a model.

http://goldenagemodels.net/LNER-Locomotives-A4-Class-O-Gauge.html
http://www.loveless.co.uk/stock/index.html

I tend to look at them as hobbies for the unimaginative or the hard of thinking.

Everyone needs a hobby right ?

As opposed to riding a bike in circles….

The only one we ever did was techno quest.

Which is already on it’s third generation of young people so it’s definitely paid fir itself.

I miss Techno Quest

I worked in a newsagent were we sold them. There was one a boat if I remember correctly that was stopped 3/4 of the way through an old man came in to collect his next part and was devastated it was discontinued, I felt sorry for him. There was another which built into a remote control car someone bought an issue for about £5 and all you got was a few screws and washers and a crap leaflet. The worse were the ones with animals each week, there was one were you got a dead scorpion or spider in resin.

Who the **** wants a scale model of a duck?

Who the **** wants a scale model of a duck?

Yep, half a real one will do with some pancakes and Hoisin sauce.,

Did one for a remote control car and swore I’d never do one again. The quality was utter crap. Made 80’s Tandy things look brilliant.

I then did a James Bond DB5 as it was the only way you could get the model. Took 18 Months to get a couple of parts that were missing (that’s after 2 years worth of issues had all come) but over all it was as good as any model kit and the price was about right for an all metal build.

I’d still say 99% of them are a con.

My eldest worked out that the model Mallard would be just under a grand!

It’s 130 issues at £7.99 isn’t it? So more than £1000. As said, that’s not a totally stupid price for an O gauge model (indeed it’s 1/3 the price of the Golden Age Models one), but it is 50% more than a DJH models one, and you don’t have to wait 3 years for that! I doubt the quality is exceptional too, I’d be interested to know about the technical spec of the models.

The small print on the advert says you won’t even get the gearbox or motor which I imagine accounts for a large part of the complexity/cost of these types of model?