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It is often said that this hobby is currently going through a 'Golden Age', with new sets appearing all the time and a record number of manufacturers satisfying demand. So we thought it would be interesting to actually quantify that, and let the statistics show just how the hobby has fared over the few decades that it has existed.
Below is a breakdown of the number of sets released each year. The figures are taken from the reviews to be found on this site, which we believe to represent all the important sets ever produced. At certain times both in the past and today, poor quality figures, usually copies, have been produced by various manufacturers such as Giant. Since we do not include these on this site they are not part of these statistics. Also note that the figures only include 'soft' plastic sets, not hard plastic or resin, and also exclude reissues such as those from Nexus or Italeri.
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Commentary
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During the 1960s, Airfix were the only producer, but released three or four sets a year. In 1972, Atlantic came on the scene, producing many sets, and in 1976 Matchbox also began their range, causing the peak we see during the seventies. By the end of the 1970s the market was in serious decline, with the last new Atlantic figure set in 1978 and both Airfix and Matchbox slowing down - both had made their last set by 1983. Luckily Esci began producing their first soft plastic set in 1982, and are solely responsible for virtually all production during the 1980s, maintaining a pretty steady rate. Esci production stopped suddenly in 1989, but again a new company was to come along to keep things going - this time it was Revell. They produced around six sets a year for the first few years, and were joined by Accurate in 1991 and IMEX in 1993, both producing small quantities each year. In 1995 Italeri started making sets in small numbers, and the following year HaT released their first set. All these companies continued to produce new sets, with HaT quickly getting into their stride and outstripping all their competitors. As a result, we see production levels rising significantly in the late 1990s.
By 2000 Revell were losing interest, but Italeri, HaT and the others were in full flow, and A Call To Arms had starting to produce scaled down versions of their 1/35 range. The new century also saw debut sets from Emhar and Zvezda, but it was Italeri and HaT that were really pushing things now. 2001 witnessed the first sets from Orion and Strelets, and the East European surge grew in 2002 with sets from LW and MiniArt as well as the Italian producer Waterloo 1815. 2003 welcomed Dark Dream Studio and Lucky Toys while 2004 saw the first original figures from BUM and new output from Caesar Miniatures, Armourfast and Pegasus. 2005 continued to see real growth, with ever more companies joining the rush to make more and more figures.
2006 saw the hobby reach a peak of production, with well over 100 brand new sets appearing. However manufacturers began reporting a drop in sales, partly because of a slowdown in the world economy and partly simply because the market could not afford so many new sets. Profit margins shrunk dramatically and several manufacturers have scaled down or even suspended output in favour of more profitable lines. 2007 has seen a drop in output overall, as the market rebalances towards a sustainable level.
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The Future
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The overheated market is currently undergoing a 'correction', where fewer sets are made in the hopes of improving the return on each one. Exactly where a sustainable and economically viable level of production lies is yet to become clear, and to a great extent this will depend on the performance of the world economy. However it seems likely that there will continue to be many new sets made in the future which, although not at the high levels seen in 2006, will continue to feed the hobby, which has never been on a more secure foundation.
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This page is automatically updated each time a new review
is added.
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