Various models brought in from China here are also very slipshod in every way, but hideously expensive. They'll get even more expensive once the tariffs get chucked about willy-nilly.

The research is "casual" with respect to details and paint schemes, the quality control and inspections non-existent (apparently blamed on the Chinese charging extra for that privilage). Their material quality is all over the map, the most egregious example the prevalence of lead contamination in their already inconsistent and often gummy white metals resulting in "zinc pest", an explosive material degradation well-known since the 1930s and easily avoided by cleaning the injection machines between projects.

Even their plastics are known for decomposition, the result of sweeping up the floor and dumping the spillage back into the melt. They're quality control and manufacturing practices are abysmal, and once the container is shut and locked it's your problem.

The costs are now so high some importers are parting out their own business expenses as "fees" so as to keep the catalogue price below a threshold of lunacy. A great example is the one importer charging a "container fee", a cost previously folded in the catalogue price.

It's clear the hobby industry here needs to wean itself off China, but I'm not sure they know how to do it, unlike in the UK where a base inventory of kits, track, &c are made domestically. The Yanks have convinced themselves they can't do the same here for some reason, I think because so many people won't build a dam thing, just buy it.

Those people can pay the price for garbage, and apparently they do. Just don't tell me this bollocks about, "If we don't support the importers, they won't get stuff for us." I frankly don't give a shit whether they do or not if the quality and fidelity don't meet expectations at the current prices.

Last I knew, that was the definition of "value".