Wow, the 'Mistel' is a really neat kit. I'm betting its going to be expensive, though, like most of Hasegawa's products.

The reason Hasegawa out-of-Japan prices are so high has to do with a peculiarity of some Japanese manufacturers I read about recently, when doing a search on economic matters: Japanese manufacturers, of all sorts, are well-known, in foreign trade circles, to "retreat" to their home market, where they have all sorts of advantages, including protectionism (though that is not often mentionned)... The Hasegawa 50% foreign price jack in the Fall of 2008 (with no real corresponding domestic price increase) was exactly that strategy put into action. I think they were hoping for the artificial peak of oil prices at $140 that year to help conceal the intentionality of their new foreign strategy, but when oil prices dropped back to $70 the reality of what they were doing became more apparent: It wasn't shipping costs or material circumstances... Price gaps with Hasegawa are the same worldwide, so it is not the importers, same as with Trumpeteer... They are indeed gouging us, on the basis of a more rapidly shrinking, but more dedicated, foreign market perhaps... They apparently dropped out of 1/48th altogether anyway, so it is immaterial to me now... Gaston

Just buy them from Nippon. Problem solved.

€x¢€₱₮ ₣or the $hipping, th₳₮ i$.

Hi there As much as I like to support my LHS, I almost always buy Hasegawa and Tamiya kits from HLJ - they are available earlier and usually so much cheaper direct from Japan, even including postage. All the best Rowan

The Mistel has a nice box-art. Not my scale,but i thing i´ll get one..because of the beautiful box