Posted by John M
on May 17, 2009, 5:24 pm
82.29.22.70
I found an advert and application form for this series of models in a magazine several months ago. Since the only commitment seemed to be £2.99, I duly posted off the form, and promptly forgot all about it.
On Friday, a neat package arrived with French post office labels (a bit confused for a few minutes - "Atlas Editions" are supposed to be based in Asby de la Zouch) containing models of Hood and Bismark. Also included were some "meticulously researched" (sic) historical notes, a dodgy reprint of a 1941 Daily Mirror front page and reams of advertising bumf encouraging me to sign up for the full run of models. To encourage me to make the correct decision, Atlas Editions (a.k.a. d'Agostini - the part-work champions) offered as inducement some free gifts - a tacky watch, some even tackier cufflinks, an irrelevant DVD and a discount voucher for Prince of Wales, the next release.
Today, I've been having a closer look at the first two models and made my decision about "investing" in the rest of this "collectors" series. Well, immediate impressions are OK but I'm not too impressed with certain aspects of quality control.
For example, here are the bows of the two models:
The join is a bit rough and there's lots of glue in evidence. Hood in particular seems to have acquired lots of surplus glue:
What really caught my eye were the B turret bases which have lazily been painted with the deck teak colour.
This is a shame, as some of the detail work, especially on Bismark, is really quite neat.
At £2.99 including post, the pair are a bargain. For this silly price, I've got absolutely no concerns about cleaning them up, correcting the paintwork and chopping them both down to the waterline. However, this is as far as I go - future models would cost me £14.99 + £2.99 post every month. That's £18. I could get a lot of stuff that I really wanted if I put this amount aside on a regular basis. Future models to be released all feature on my "Oh no, not again!" list of ships and most are already available in finished or kit form.
I also have serious doubts about the "collectible" nature of these models. D'Agostini and their fellow "collectible" marketeers, Del Prado, have produced many similar schemes in the past. The edition of "N" gauge model railway locos was sold at similar prices and in a similar fashion to the 1/1250 ships, but appear to have little retained value. I came across a box load at a local diecast swapmeet last week priced at £1 each. The seller would have been happy to accept 50p.
This is just my personal opinion. Feel free to disagree.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread