I'm a figure builder, I remember Aurora put figures in with their ship models,
PLEASE, PLEASE do the same, I may want to jump the gap and buy them.
I think the large Seaview has them, so I may spring for that. The characters figures bring the models to life for me.
Thanks!

They've already explained that putting likenesses of the actors in the models requires licensing fees to those actors (and possibley to the creators of the characters, and the studio, and their lawyers...), and will shoot the price of the kits WAY up.

The aftermarket industry has you covered. Crow's Nest makes GREAT resin figures for the Chariot, Flying Sub and Jupiter II.

Where it's practical and costs will allow it we'll consider adding figures to kits.
In many cases we find that adding figures will add at least one tool to a kit- Chariot and J-2 are prime examples.... Since each tool is several thousand dollars and that cost directly affects selling prices we have elected to do those kits without figures..
.As for actual likenesses of real people - that's very highly unlikely - using actor likenesses just complicates everything far too much!
The new Viper Mk2 kit will include a pilot figure..
The cost of adding multiple figures to large kits is usually prohibitive and I don't anticipate that we'll change the way we've approached this issue.

Dave

Dave, there is a solution, it's already in place, but it takes a little thinking outside the box. Allow me a moment.

In Japan, a company named Gunze Sangyo (you may know them for the Mr. Color line of paints, they make a TON of model supplies we don't see over here in the US) in addition to paint, they also make model kits, car kits and suchlike. At one point they decided to get in on the licensing game and picked up the license to a popular animated series called 'Lupin III', because it was set in the real world and they could re-purpose some existing tooling. For a long time this was good enough, but the work of various other companies raised the bar of consumer expectations, and the tools for the car kits were getting old, a bit 'behind the times' in terms of detail.

So they decided to add figures to these car kits, but they didn't want to change the tool (because they want to sell the cars without the cartoon license as well) and incur the expense, so they went the 'garage kit' route. Professionally made resin figures added to the plastic kit, and by adding DIFFERENT figures they're able to sell the same old car several times!

http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZG-351

http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZG-381

So then, there's a radical idea. Resin figures included with a plastic kit. I won't go any further lest I risk anger but I wager you can follow the logic.

(hint: You KNOW there's someone able to do the job available, he's already 'auditioned' if you will)

(resin figures are expensive due to small production runs. have a company in China run off thousands and the cost drops dramatically. Those Gunze kits I linked to had production runs of about 5000 or so)

Where it's practical and costs will allow it we'll consider adding figures to kits.
In many cases we find that adding figures will add at least one tool to a kit- Chariot and J-2 are prime examples.... Since each tool is several thousand dollars and that cost directly affects selling prices we have elected to do those kits without figures..
.As for actual likenesses of real people - that's very highly unlikely - using actor likenesses just complicates everything far too much!
The new Viper Mk2 kit will include a pilot figure..
The cost of adding multiple figures to large kits is usually prohibitive and I don't anticipate that we'll change the way we've approached this issue.

Dave


Great to hear the Viper will include a pilot figure:)

Steve H.
I'm very well aware of Resin figures... I'm also quite familiar with Gunze... I'm sure that their staffing levels are a little larger than Moebius Models at this time..Adding resin figures to old kits where the old kit tools are already paid for is one thing - adding them to a brand new kit is another...It adds significant development costs and raises kit wholesale pricing.

Adding six figures to a kit makes six sculpts to be paid for and approved -
Sculptors don't work for free and approvals take time...Resin figs are not free add ons - The sale price of the kits would still go up significantly

Adding figures regardles of the material that they are made out of still makes complex kits more complicated and expensive to produce and more complexity is not a good thing when you're as small as we are...

Once more We will add figures when it is simple and inexpensive to do.... Otherwise we will continue to rely on the aftermarket to provide groups of figures for our larger kits..

Now since I believe that I have answered this question, and can't see any need for protracted discussions. I'm going to grab my Moderator hat and close this thread

Dave