They say they're going to discontinue a bunch of some of their most popular kits: https://twitter.com/DragonModels
Is it a real change in marketing and priority policy or just a trick to boost up sales?
What is your opinion?

It's most likely a trick to boost sales, or at least have everybody talking about it.

I have 25 unstarted kits in my stack, and +/-10 models underway. Some of the unstarted kits I bought 30? years ago and of the same subject there are now much better kits around.

I am systematically reducing that stash by not buying anything until the stash is at an acceptable level. I aim at having only 5 unstarted kits at home, and 3 on the workbench.

In the beginning, it was very difficult NOT to continue buying each fancy kit that came along, or buying anything interesting from a sale, or a message such as the Dragon one.

Now I got over the "addiction" and consider the Internet, and all its webshops, as my super complete and super cheap stash from which I can draw any kit, at any time, when I actually want to start building it.

In conclusion, the Dragon message will not influence me.

For those who are not linked to Twitter, can you tell what kits will be discontinued?

I am not registered as user on Twitter either but I could see these images:









It says Discontinued on the left edge so I presume it applies to all of the kits shown and listed in the images.

Some of them have probably been replaced by newer/better kits but some are unique.
Maybe they want to concentrate on their hugely successful, super accurate and top quality Black Label series
It is not the first of April yet either ....

/ Robin

It's about 187 kits.

DON'T PANIC! We all know what Dragon loves to do! Recycle old sprues!

This looks like the same ploy they tried, with the "white box - limited" kits.

Maybe it is some disturbed twit who is trying to be clever or funny ...

If you take a look at their 2018 catalog (which is available in pdf format on their website) you will see that none of the kits listed as discontinued are featured in.
And the black label kits are also fewer in number (I think only 4 of them are still there, 2 that have not yet been released).

On the other hand I find it rather interesting that they have in their 2018 catalog items that are long gone from any store shelf, like their 234 Puma or RSO kits. If they re-issue them it will make me very happy as I can't stand the Italeri version of those.

I'm surprised they are dropping the "131" kit. It's not like Bovington's tank will ever be forgotten.

David

You know what's more disturbing? All the out of production kits are German. Where's the M4? T-34? (Imperial kits?? )

Hi, I tought the same that Drabslab.

Hopefully this means they are making room for new tools and new subjects. One can dream?

This doesn't surprise me. They've said for years they are going to move more in the direction of their collectible and toy market (note their title which puts collectibles first and hobby company second). Their slipshod accuracy of late in thier "Black Label" line, and now discontinuing some kits which were very good (for instance their Panzer I with complete interior, and early kits which were "the only game in town") along with their insistence of using "Dragon track" in the newer kits (it's easier to produce than indie links) all point to short cuts in manufacturing. Now they are discontinuing some of their "best sellers". I don't think we should be too concerned about it though, model manufacturers discontinue kits all the time, and place molds in storage. It will probably drive the price up in the secondary seller market though for some of these kits.
VR, Russ

They are always running tons of sales lately at dragonusaonline.com for a bunch of the listed kits. Maybe they just have a ton of product sitting that didn't sell at their stupidly high retail price and they are trying to get from under it?

In the UK 'twit' means 'idiot' so I thought the thread was going to be about the DML 'twit' who thought the Black Plague' series were a good idea. Maybe this is his latest brainwave.

I BELIEVE THE 1/35 TIGER LATE 3 IN 1 KIT IS $30 CURRENTLY from Dragon USA.

Or it may be a case of 'coming to a store new you in a different box soon'.

Thank you for the pictures, Mr Nilsson.
187 items is a big number.
Much of them are not on sale in most places.
Maybe they will get them ,again ,in production.
Will see.

I feel the same, won't be long before they change the color of the box and list them as a 'new release'.

I wonder if this could effect getting replacement parts?

Does this mean Dragon is getting out of the World War II German business?

They took one look at the on coming Trumpeter and Meng and all German kits and decided to fold the whole line up.

And their next new kits will be the M3 Lee and a Sherman Jumbo which somehow resurfaced in the 2018 catalog...

This looks like a huge chunk of all the Dragon models I would ever want to build, but surely it's a listing of models discontinued over the years - I can hardly imagine they still box the Hummel #6004 after 25 years.....

Scalemates says:
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/132792-dragon-6004-sd-kfz-165-hummel
The latest seems to be #6876

In the bottom right corner of the images I linked to in a previous post it says 30th Anniversary.
Could it be that the images show all the kits that have been discontinued/replaced during these 30 years?

/ Robin

My initial thought about the title too.