R.I.P Airfix

[Phantom 2,520]

Airfix has gone into administration

 

I do hope someone buys the company and keeps it running.

[maryportfuncity 10,482]

Somebody will have to take all the little pieces of Airfix and - like - assemble them into a thing of beauty.

 

Kinda fitting really.

[Cowboy Ronnie 77]

I was crap at Airfix. I'd always lose, or break, one of the pieces, the transfers would never slide onto the right part or else they'd disintegrate, and I inevitably ended up with glue encrusted fingers.

 

My Dad soon learned I had no aptitude (as did he) for such things, and started buying me already assembled toys, which seems much more sensible.

[Tempus Fugit 214]

Airfix has gone into administration

 

I do hope someone buys the company and keeps it running.

Good riddance, what a bloody cheek charging people to assemble their bits of tiny plastic crap into a larger piece of plastic crap.

 

Only the sort of people who make models out of matchsticks are worse than keen airfix hobbyists.

[maryportfuncity 10,482]

Maybe if they'd diversified into, you know, dildos and that.....

[Magere Hein 1,398]

Maybe if they'd diversified into, you know, dildos and that.....

I'm not sure that'll be a big seller, a dildo that you have to glue together before use.

 

regards,

Hein

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

For some reason, I always used to get glue in the cockpit.

[honez 79]

Maybe if they'd diversified into, you know, dildos and that.....

I'm not sure they didn't...

[in eternum+ 21]

Maybe if they'd diversified into, you know, dildos and that.....

I'm not sure they didn't...

Ouch!

[maryportfuncity 10,482]

Aye, on second thoughts, self-assembly sex toys would've been an accident waiting to happen. Especially since they'd probably appeal to nerds and obsessives, who'd enjoy assembling them whilst their girlfriends lay there getting more and more bored.

 

Maybe if they'd gone into......cheap self-assembly houses for asylum seekers.

[Magere Hein 1,398]

Maybe if they'd gone into......cheap self-assembly houses for asylum seekers.

I've been told there's competition in that market.

 

regards,

Hein

[maryportfuncity 10,482]

Aye, right enough Hein, they've had it.

 

Air-f**ked, eh?

[Tempus Fugit 214]

Looks like Hornby may steam in and save the Airfix as the Times puts it.

 

Isn't Airfix what Pete Doherty does on an Easyjet flight.

[Phantom 2,520]

Looks like Hornby may steam in and save the Airfix as the Times puts it.

 

Isn't Airfix what Pete Doherty does on an Easyjet flight.

 

Hornby would be an ideal company to bail Airfix out. Another great British institution.

Hornby were the ones who not only made the train sets but also Meccano. Had hours of fun taking the skin off my knuckles trying to bolt the wretched pieces together while attempting to make anything.

[Tuber Mirum 123]

Just another example of the fact that you can't keep an institution down.

 

Nobody really believed that there would never be any Highland Toffeee ever again when McCowan's went bust, and lo and behold the company was saved with about 90% of its employees.

 

Same thing.

 

Talking of Hornby, this is one of my favourite model railway accessories. It has its own smoke generator.

[Magere Hein 1,398]

Talking of Hornby, this is one of my favourite model railway accessories. It has its own smoke generator.

 

regards,

Hein

[scsibear 4]

ahh sheesh..bummer

 

Well I was never an Airfix geek but I did have some of the models. It started years ago when I was a kid, my dad used to have to build them originally for me (esp) the boats coz my wee fingies weren't big enough to put the keels together. Soon afterwords tho I did them by myself building the spitfires, hurricanes, henk 111's, Messerschmits and stukas.

 

Hey I even have one of them dildoes still...the big one on the right in the piccy (no that's a Saturn 5 rocket to you !!!)

 

It's a shame it looks to have folded, but was really only a matter of time I think for obvious reasons and it's good to hear that perhaps Hornby will keep them alive.

As for Hornby they maybe better at the plastic model kits than they are at trains or correct scale sizes.

 

OOps now I'm starting a Hornby rant..ok I'll stop B4 I start....

 

cheers

scsi

[Brinsworth House Baiter 12]

Okay, now I know I'm some sort of Jonah. About a month ago I accompanied my wife to Hobbycraft (she was after some ribbons for something) and for some reason I was lured by the Airfix section. For some unknown reason I decided to buy a Challenger Tank to build in the back garden while the sun was out.

 

Did it too, my first ever model, although I couldn't get the tracks quite right and if you push it along the 'wheels' inside start bulging and look as if they're going to pop out.

 

And now look what's happened- Airfix have gone into administration and the sun has f**ked off.

 

Jonah, I tell thee, that's what I am.

[Godot 149]

Ah Airfix. I still have a loft full of original boxes of small plastic soldiers, trouble is the plastic has gone brittle and their stands fall off. I spent most of my childhood playing with those soldiers and painting them, made a lot of the models too, had all the armoured vehicles and tanks and most of the WWII planes.

 

Airfix introduced me to theft and fraud. One of my few shoplifting forays involved nicking a two shilling box of Napoleonic era highlanders from a shop in Leeds. I can remember the thrill of shoving them up my jumper. Fraud was easier. Each box came with a complaint slip and I would often complain that a piece was missing. The first time it was true, a piece was missing, but Airfix sent a whole box full of soldiers in reply. From then on I complained that pieces were "missing" quite regularly. If any others among its pre-pubescent clientelle were as bent as me little wonder the company went bust.

 

Airfix paints were crap. Humbrol worked best.

 

Soldiers included:

 

Cowboys,

Indians,

Waggon train (one waggon and a few barrels, poor)

Civilians (boring in cream plastic)

WWII British infantry (early, so poor)

WWII German Infantry (ditto)

WWII Africa Corps

WWII Eight Army

US Marines,

WWII Russian Infantry

WWII Japanese Infantry

Confederates

Union troops

Union artillery

Confederate artillery

US Cavalry

Robin Hood and his men (bright green)

Sheriff of Nottingham and his men

French foreign legion

Arabs

WWI British Infantry

WWI German Infantry

WWI French Infantry

WWI American Infantry

WWI British artillery

Napoleonic French infantry

Napoleonic British Highlanders

Napoleonic French Cavalry

Napoleonic French Artillery

Napoleonic British Cavalry

British Grenadiers

WWII British Paratroopers (included a plastic parachute, quite poor)

WWII British Commandos

Ancient Britons

Romans

 

Er.. then I grew up

 

Subsequently they have issued:

 

British RAF Personnel

Gurkas

WWII Italian infantry

WWII Australian infantry

 

But I don't have these. No doubt I have missed some. But these are the ones I remember

[Guest Airfix MAd]

Airfix has gone into administration

 

I do hope someone buys the company and keeps it running.

Good riddance, what a bloody cheek charging people to assemble their bits of tiny plastic crap into a larger piece of plastic crap.

 

Only the sort of people who make models out of matchsticks are worse than keen airfix hobbyists.

 

Only the sort of person that complains about people who make Airfix models can be a complete and utter W**ker.

[Godot 149]

In the extensive research I carried out for my post on the Trumpton thread I found this which I hope will thrill and excite those of a certain age and disposition. In fact there is a whole community of instruction sheet lovers out there as I discovered when reading this poignant tale of a formative experience surrounding the construction of an Airfix Folland Gnat. I too have a little box with all my old instruction sheets. Anyone interested in exploring the nature of the British psyche would do well to start here.

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

Ah, memories. 1/32 scale plastic soldiers. I remember a recreation of the Normandy landings with the British Infantry, (accompanied by several detachments of mounted Knights Templars, a American Civil War Union cannon team and some cowboys) bravely overcoming the German Paratroop Brigade, Rommel's Afrika Korps, a Civil war Confederate Gatling gun and an ice-cream man. They had air support from Concorde and a Gypsy Moth, so victory was a forgone conclusion really.

[Josco 49]

Ah, memories. 1/32 scale plastic soldiers. I remember a recreation of the Normandy landings with the British Infantry, (accompanied by several detachments of mounted Knights Templars, a American Civil War Union cannon team and some cowboys) bravely overcoming the German Paratroop Brigade, Rommel's Afrika Korps, a Civil war Confederate Gatling gun and an ice-cream man. They had air support from Concorde and a Gypsy Moth, so victory was a forgone conclusion really.

 

But defeat was assured in my case when the Briish Infantry joined forces with Jerry and went into mortal combat with Action Man in a Lilliputian fight to the death; until the dog ran off with Action Man, whereabouts unknown, MIA.

[Gunjaman5000 30]

Ah, memories. 1/32 scale plastic soldiers. I remember a recreation of the Normandy landings with the British Infantry, (accompanied by several detachments of mounted Knights Templars, a American Civil War Union cannon team and some cowboys) bravely overcoming the German Paratroop Brigade, Rommel's Afrika Korps, a Civil war Confederate Gatling gun and an ice-cream man. They had air support from Concorde and a Gypsy Moth, so victory was a forgone conclusion really.

 

But defeat was assured in my case when the Briish Infantry joined forces with Jerry and went into mortal combat with Action Man in a Lilliputian fight to the death; until the dog ran off with Action Man, whereabouts unknown, MIA.

My recreations of the battle of Waterloo on the card table were always under threat of catastrophic scale earthquake whenever the dog was around. Maybe he was French?

[DevonDeathTrip 2,341]

Model railway group Hornby is to buy aircraft kit manufacturer Airfix out of administration.