by goosenapper » Fri Sep 14, 2012 7:15 am
Count me in the "Fly got me back in the hobby" pool. It was the detailing on their cars that prompted me to shift from 1/43 to 1/32. The amount of detail that they used to put in to their cars was jaw-dropping. I recall having to sit down after I saw the faux-wood-trimmed dash of one of their BMW 3.5. You can barely make it out through the side windows, yet they felt the need to include it. That dedication to detail is what impressed me. The last car of theirs that I bought was the green Ferrari 250LM David Piper model. Again, the detailing was superb. (even if my car arrived with a decapitated driver!)
I look at 1/32 cars like this: It's a lot simpler to improve upon a poorly running car than it is to scratch-build minute detailing. I'm much more impressed with detail than drivability, but that has a limit. Fly's rash of out-of-the-box broken pinions a few years back was hard to stomach. Back to the point, at 1/32 scale, there better be a good reason not to include a full interior. Being cheap, (which is what the new Fly offerings appear to be, cheaply made) is not an adequate explanation for a dramatic decrease in detailing level, especially when there is no corresponding reduction in MSRP.
My thoughts on Fly is that if they go back to their old ways of full interior, highly-detailed, spotty running cars, they could do fine. It seems that one of the contributing factors to their most recent financial troubles was that they spread their line too thin. Licensing fees are not cheap, and they were pumping out more makes in multiple liveries than the market (us) could absorb. I don't see much future in a business model that more or less copies Carrera's philosophy that all cars must be inline and they are pretty as long as you don't look in the windows, and charges $15+ above what Carrera does.
Personally, I've moved on to Slot.it, NSR, and kit building. I hope that the old Fly comes back, but I'm not sitting here on my wallet and waiting for them.