Can anyone truly confirm whether the recent two 1/32 planes from Revell US are or are not the exact same kits as the two from Revell Germany?

Great difference in price, the boxes are the same size.

They are the Ju-88 Battle of Britain and the Heinkel He 111 P.

I have heard both opinions locally, some modellers will ONLY buy Revell Germany. Is this valid or just speculation?

They are definitely the same plastic. Revell is now one company so we'll likely see many more of the "German" moulds being boxed in North American packaging.

They are the same kit, but I think just different markings.

Revell USA and Revell Germany are not the same company, but they are both owned by the same parent company....big difference. In either case, both companies have shared kits back and forth for many years, so nothing new there, and these 2 kits were out on the market before Revell USA's parent company purchased Revell Germany....so the deal had no bearing on whether they would get re-boxed in a Revell USA box.


Reason they are so much cheaper? I don't know for sure, but my guess is that there is more of an import tax on fully kits being imported to the US (Like a Revell Germany kit) vs only bags of parts imported to the US (like a Revell Germany kit, mated up with a Revell USA box on US soil).

Just my theory, but makes sense to me, no other reasonable explanation as to why there is such a difference between the prices of 2 identical kits in 2 different boxes.

It is the same going the other way also, Revell Germany has reboxed a few Moebius kits for the European market as well..the International Lonestar is a good example, it is much more expensive to purchase said kit in Europe than it is for someone in Europe to purchase the Moebius kit from the NA market.

thank you both!

It is as I suspected, but you hear stories occasionally, so I wasn't sure.
Haven't kept up in the Corp. wars for some time. Too many mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, etc., who can keep track any more!

I have always loved the German Revell stuff, and the old "History Makers" series from the US.

I do wish they'd re-pop that XSL-01 Spaceship, though - I can't afford the $800 they go for on Evil Bay...

Hey there Joe,

No problem. If you click on my banner, it will take you to my website, where I happen to have one of each of those kit in stock...if you are interested...plus I am just down the road in New Brunswick.

We have this thing in Europe called VAT - value added tax. Typically its 20% but can be as much as 25% in some countries. So one fifth to one quarter of the purchase price goes to the government.

Hi, Antoni!

Yes, we in Canada have all the taxes everyone else has and then some!
until recently, in Ontario, we had both GST and PST (federal and provincial sales taxes). They weren't the same in every province. Ontario recently converted to HST or "Harmonized Sales Taxes" which bundled the two with a minor discount. But none of these applied until time of purchase, so the difference in pricing I was talking about was exclusive of these ( and the higher the price, the higher the tax).
It may be right that import duties and/or exchange on the Euro are at fault here. The import duties are applied to the shipments, so vendors of course include them in their retail price, passing the cost to the consumer. Imports from the US into Canada are mostly NOT affected or nearly so due to the NAFTA Agreement.
So we have the same kit, boxed in the US, selling for about 30% less than the German Revell kit...

One-sixth to one-fifth, in fact. If the base price is £1 and VAT is 20%, the purchase price is £1.20, and the VAT is one-sixth of that.

Oddly enough, plastic model kits are exempt from import duty in the UK, and possibly throughout the EU. Quite how this squares with their being liable for VAT is one of those mysteries that mere mortals can never hope to understand. That's tax law for you. How is it across the pond?

And, whether you call it VAT, GST, purchase tax, or whatever, I'm pretty sure every western economy has it. Personally I detest it, but this is not the place to start on why progressive taxation is much more sensible.