Why are there so little new releases of 1/16 static armor kits? Because of the higher price per kit it’s logical the market for 1/16 scale is a lot smaller than say the 1/35 scale static armor market, and Trumpeter and some boutique brands have their recent 1/16 scale range, but there seems not much competition.

Tamiya has the 1/16 RC only kits with the nice packaging. I understand that the RC market is probably a lot bigger and more attractive than static armor, but why not just rebox those Tamiya 1/16 RC kits without the motor and electronics? I know Tamiya released the Tiger as a static, but why not the rest of the lineage?

What are your thoughts on this?

PS: I like 1/25 scale too, but I guess it is more or less the same story as with 1/16 static armor.

The 1/16 kits are somewhat large and take up a lot of shelf space compared to 1/35th (my preference).
Four 1/35 tanks or one single 1/16th, hmmmmm...
They also consume more space in height so one shelf of 1/16th or two shelves of 1/35th, hmmmm .....
Not to mention the stash, for every 1/16th kit I can squeeze into the stash I could have had room for 8 1/35 kits instead (in theory, it also depends on how well the boxes are filled ....)

Cost is also a factor, do I want one BIG kit or a handful of smaller ones ....

Summing up: I think that the manufacturers will not spend too much effort on 1/16th before they know that there is a sufficiently large market out there.

The level of detail also needs to increase, simply scaling up a 1/35th kit won't work so the research cost increases.

The same question could be asked about model ships: Why are there so few 1/72 kits when there are so many in 1/350?
Yes, I know that 1/200 is starting to get "populated" but many modellers can't find the space for them.
Frigates, destroyers and smaller ships would be cool in 1/72.
/ Robin

As Robin said, they take up a HUGE amount of space both on the bench and in display. Also, they are freakin' $200.

http://www.hyperscale.com/2017/reviews/kits/p7hg_img_49/fullsize/15_fs.jpg

Tamiya static 1/16 and will be out soon

Supply and demand stuff. I'm not sure what tooling up new molds costs, but the manufacturers are in it to make money. I would agree, that cost and space are the main reason, that not many of these scale kits are bought. For me, if the cost was lower, I'd find the space.

The market for such large scale is remote control with static kits being a tiny off shoot. Might as well ask why so few 1/12 and 1/16 scale static car kits as opposed to the literal army of R/C out there.

Tiny niche market, prime for development just as 1/200 was once the province of R/C ships and now more and more static kits are appearing.

Patience. Build that addition onto your house to put the kits because I am sure they are coming.

Thanks for the input guys!

@Peter: thank you for the tip on the Tamiya Jagdpanther 2017 reissue. That is good news.

Wish there were more 1/25 they are big but not as big as 1/16 sure would love to see a plastic injection molded M113 in either 1/25 or 1/16 scale these old eyes would not be as strained by working with magnification for long periods just my 2 centavos worth

The simple answer (which is the same answer to the question "Why don't they make a model of XXX") is that no model company thinks they can make enough money at it. When they think they can make more money at XXX than whatever they are doing now, they'll make XXX.

It's just that simple. All the rest is just discussing the factors that may, or may not constitute rationale, but the simple answer is, they don't think they can make as much money on XXX as doing something else.

By and large, what Paul said.

Modelers can be extremely myopic due to the very personal nature of this hobby and the passionate way many of us devote ourselves. This tends to blind us to the fact that the hobby suppliers are for-profit businesses -- whose decisions are driven by comprehensive forecasts of expected life cycle profit, cost analyses versus expenditures on other areas, etc. Very few vanity projects (like supposedly the Tamiya Char B1Bis -- which turned out to be pretty profitable I heard) are undertaken.

Note the outsized anger and disappointment that crops up on various DGs or FB when Tamiya (for instance) decides to make a Valentine tank. Up comes the chorus of "But STILL no XXX or YYY or ZZZ! What's wrong with Tamiya!" --- all the while ignorant of the fact that Tamiya is issuing tons of other non 1/35 items (RC bits, aircraft, cars, educational toys, etc.).

When Tamiya announces a new 1/350 ship model, do you go onto the ship modeling forums and whine why your 1/35 Bergepanther has been issued?

Just a small example of the short-sightedness and how misplaced some of the frequent complaints can be.