UH-Oh. Floquil and PollyS are going away

[wcfn100]

QVC is making a second run of ColorMetrics’ award-winning hair touch-up product Friday. The private-label hair paint product is produced by the Testor Corp. (testors.com) in Rockford. It has won leading cosmetic industry awards including Allure Best Beauty, CEW Insider’s Choice and Discover Beauty award.

Yeah, produced by, not a brand of Testors and not somehow hidden behind a LLC.

They are making paint markers for hair touchup under a new brand name.

Notice how CAREFULLY they hide their identity on that web page.

I'm all for a crusade, but it's over, let's move on how to we're going to replace Polyscale and others with what's available.


Jason

[C855B]

I'm all for a crusade, but it's over, let's move on how to we're going to replace Polyscale and others with what's available.

The point is they've said, in so many words, that they are no longer interested in the niche hobby business, and would rather devote production resources to private-label pigmented products for other consumer categories with better growth potential. Reasonable business decision, but our ox happened to have been gored in the process.

I agree that we do need to move on, and, more to the point, further suggest our energy (and money, frankly) should go to the suppliers who directly support the MRR palette... Scalecoat, for example. Force-fitting non-MRR paint products through approximations and mixes is going to be more art than science.

[wcfn100]

The point is they've said, in so many words, that they are no longer interested in the niche hobby business,

Well I never read that.  I just see an effort to downsize.  If I was faced with the decision to choose between a line carried by Walmart or Michaels vs. a line carried by a bunch of individual hobby shops that require 20x more colors but order 1/10th of the product,  I can't say I wouldn't do the same.

Yes it sucks, but if they still made Polyscale it would just continue to be overprice and inconsistent.


Jason

[C855B]

Well I never read that. ...

I did. Let me further parse it: "niche hobbies" = MRR and flying models, i.e., Floquil, Polly-whatever and Pactra. General hobbies and crafts, as supported by big boxes like Michael's and Hobby Lobby = Testors.

[kalbert]

Looks like the topic derailed over here too.... Rumors and speculation about Testors exiting the model market and becoming a beauty product manufacturer? I don't believe I've read anything to suggest that.

It is the craft store market they are going after with their "innovations and intimacy" not beauty products. Making personal care and beauty products has not been mentioned as the new focus of Testors, it has only been reported that a beauty product line that has been manufactured by Testors for QVC in the past will be getting another run at Testors. It is QVC's product line, not Testors or RPM product line. It is not uncommon for a manufacturer to sell available time in the manufacturing facility to outsiders. That equipment doesn't make any money just sitting there, and if paint production is caught up they sell the remaining hours of the day to someone else. This does not mean that Testors is exiting the model paint/product market. It means they have available time in their facility and have wisely chosen to sell that time to outside non competitor clients. I would not doubt for a second that RPM helped Testors land the QVC contract, but it's hardly a conspiracy against modelers, more like a sound business decision to keep the facilities operating at capacity.

Well I never read that.  I just see an effort to downsize.  If I was faced with the decision to choose between a line carried by Walmart or Michaels vs. a line carried by a bunch of individual hobby shops that require 20x more colors but order 1/10th of the product,  I can't say I wouldn't do the same.

Yes it sucks, but if they still made Polyscale it would just continue to be overprice and inconsistent.


Jason

Yes! This!

Testors paint isn't popular with arts and crafts big box stores. They are putting new CreateFX labels on some of their products to try and change this. They are exiting the markets with meager earnings and going after markets that their research has shown to offer greater opportunity. It's just business. It's not a conspiracy. If you're not conducting business, you're going out of business.

They know what many of us know.... Modelers are resourceful and will buy craft paint, crafters don't know there's a model aisle at Wal-Mart, and that this aisle also has paint in it. If we're going to speculate, how about speculating something plausible, like that we'll soon see a CreateFX rack in the craft paint aisle at Wal-Mart instead of a Testors rack in the model aisle. Or maybe that Testors approached Wal-Mart and said "Listen... Our paint works for crafts too, will you put some in the craft aisle?" and Wal-Mart said "Um no. It's model paint. Go home and make it look like craft paint, then we'll talk". Or maybe Wal-Mart just said "Make your paint look like craft paint. We want to sell it in the craft aisle."

[peteski]

Looks like the topic derailed over here too.... Rumors and speculation about Testors exiting the model market and becoming a beauty product manufacturer? I don't believe I've read anything to suggest that.

If I was the first person in this thread to mention beauty products (as personal intimate lubricants), I mentioned it as a JOKE ,with my tongue firmly in my cheek!   At that time I had no idea of any QVC/RPM/Testors deals.  I was joking.  But then of course things happened and people actually discovered some actual example of Testors producing beauty products. 

[Ian MacMillan]

...don't know there's a model aisle at Wal-Mart, and that this aisle also has paint in it...

Depends on your area. Many of the New Hampshire stores no longer have a model section or even a resemblance of the one they used to have.

[SkipGear]

Depends on your area. Many of the New Hampshire stores no longer have a model section or even a resemblance of the one they used to have.

Walmart hasn't had models in their stores in 4-5 years. They do keep the crappy little bottles of enamel paint which I dare anybody here to use on one of your prized models. Everyonce in a while I will see a small stack of "Snap-tites" on the shelf but you surely can't call that a model section. The local Hobby Lobby and Michaels have also dropped their model section recently.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Well, this finally happened:

[jagged ben]

Haha.  That can go along with the DCC one. 

[SkipGear]

Well, this finally happened:

/>

Thanks Ed,
 The guys at the shop were all rolling. Made a crappy day at work a little brighter. LOL.

[benderda]

Microscale has released a cross referencing chart that was published in their newsletter today.

Here's a direct link:

http://www.microscale.com/ResourceCntr_Floquil.html

[pnolan48]

Umm,

This Hitler scene has been parodied many times on You Tube, on various subjects. The parodies ignore the fact that this was a very serious film, produced with great study, effort and risk, and that the producers abhor these parodies, and have pursued legal action to stop them. Yes, there have been parodies of Hitler, notably Chaplin, but these were made as comedic parodies, not serious films. Given the research and effort behind this film, I believe parodies of this particular film are in poor taste. In the past, Hitler has been a de facto reason for a thread to be locked.

The man caused about 100 million deaths. Enough said.

[DKS]

...the producers abhor these parodies, and have pursued legal action to stop them.

While the producers did have YouTube pull them back in Spring 2010, they reversed their position a few months later because the director actually really enjoys them quite a lot. Also, they realized that the parodies bring quite a lot of attention to what might otherwise have been a virtually unknown film, expanding their audience many fold. I imagine that most people can laugh at the parodies and still appreciate the seriousness of an incredible film with a bone-chilling performance by Bruno Ganz.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/downfall-hitler-reacts

Given your position on Downfall parodies, you won't enjoy this, so don't click it:

[pnolan48]

Thanks for the links. I read the first in its entirety and viewed the clips until they became relentlessly repetitive.

I guess I'm with the director in the end: if the parodies get people to actually watch the film, then that's good. I've become too cynical to believe an increase in viewing the film will ever happen, and the producers (if not the director) still seem to bristle at the parodies. I speak German, so the film was incredibly powerful for me in its native language.

Why shouldn't I click on the second link? I haven't, and won't, until I hear a reason. My position on Downfall is simply that it is a very serious film, with exemplary acting and production values, that should not be parodied about such trivial subjects as Testors, or Bachmann, or thousands of other parodies.

My final point--hey, watch the actual film, instead of the parodies!