[Coopdevil]

I believe that Racers are short-run, so not much gained in the way of economies of scale, and aimed at collectors and once something is aimed at a perceived collector market the normal rules of pricing go out of the window. (My local Forbidden Planet is full of absolute tat at stupid prices which seems marketed to people who think that because it's Doctor Who or Star Wars it's an "investment" and will "obviously" be worth a small fortune in the future). But it's difficult to argue with because if you don't think the price is worth it you aren't really the market, and I'm not.

Scalextric high-impact cars are overpriced IMO, it's not too long ago that the first Boxsters and TTs appeared on the market at £14.99 to the approval of all. The worst price gouging here is in the £5 they slap on the RRP just for being in a real race livery, e.g. (RRPs from Pendle, this morning)

C3274 Porsche 997GT3R in orange - £29.99
C3277 Porsche 997GT3R in real racing livery - £34.99

Does it really cost £5 per toy car for license rights?

I haven't bought a Ninco car in years because I cannot see how the price differential can be so great over similar RTR cars. Yes, they might end up bettering non-mag club racing cars, but if anything there is less there as regards detail and interiors and lights than Hornby's offerings.

Coop

 

[Coopdevil]

It all depends upon what the individual contracts say I guess!

I remember that in the HO world an IRL slotcar livery had to be scrapped because the HO bodyshell did not have any "front" leading edge to the sidepods (a feature needed for clearance on an standardised chassis) yet the sponsor of the real car whose logo was in that place was contractually guaranteed that any reproductions would feature their logo in the correct place - hence ultimately no HO version.

For the record I do not believe that there is a real quantifiable extra cost in providing "real livery" Porsche 1 over "street colour" Porsche 2. It's simply a question of Hornby believing (rightly or wrongly - I don't have their sales figures) that somehow #2 has "added value" and that the market will support a higher price for that "added value" and somehow that figure is £5.

I would also suggest that old tooling such as the 996GT3 that Hornby are re-releasing for the 45th time have already paid for themselves and really these could be reissued at a far lower price but I suspect it's been chucked out again to try and snare the "Got To Catch 'Em All!" collectors.