No more Spark models?

[Christian]

A member of forum-auto.com just posted that he spoke to a French dealer who told him that Spark will stop production of their 1/87 scale models.

If true, I am really sorry to see them leave, but I will say that this is not a real surprise. With earlier news that Benoit Moro allegedly left the company and considering the lack of new releases it's a logical consequence.
Actually the more I think about it, the more annoyed I become. This is yet another manufacturer entering and exiting 1/87 on a whim who couldn't come up with a sensible business plan, who couldn't muster patience and who in the end just plain didn't understand the scale. In my opinion - and I have no inside knowledge - they made a number of grave strategical errors.

1. The abandonment of the road car business which I think was announced at Toy Fair. 1/87 models of racing cars do not really sell in high numbers. Anyone with some experience could have told them that.

2. Inconsistent and erratic schedule of releases.

3. Ups and downs of prices, which ...

4. ... was probably due to several reorganizations of their distribution. In Germany the models were at first distributed by Minichamps, which meant that they were widely available. Then, Spark removed this intermediary from the supply chain and the gravest of all errors happened. The distributor who handled the models then basically refused to sell to most of the established dealers. Online-only and part time retailers fell by the wayside and only the biggest shops were still supplied. I don't know any specifics, but I hear that the minimum order value did not make this economically feasible for the smaller dealers any more, anyway.

This lead to a situation that is very undesirable for any manufacturer. Older models were constantly cleared out with huge discounts while the ones that were in great demand were mostly not available at all.

Spark gave us many models of extraordinary quality, but I can't say that I could ever relate to the company.

[Mark Maticek]

Having collected 1/87 vehicles since 1966, if this is in fact true, it is personally one of the most disappointing developments in our hobby to date.

While I can't speak to the distribution issues in Europe, Spark clearly had distribution issues in the US. Only a handful of sources were available here and they told me that they often had problems getting some of the models.

I agree with Christian that they did not maximize their road car line. The Bentleys, Aston Martins and Ferraris were well received and sold well at Burbanks House of Hobbies. Gems like the Zonda and Lotus Exige were a welcome change from the BMWs and Mercedes models all of the major manufacturers produce.

While I purchased all their race cars, I am in a minority among the members of this hobby. Christian is right that this was a mistake to focus on this genre in 1/87. 1/43rd, okay, but they just don't sell in 1/87.

Like Ricko, Spark/Red Line was a brilliant newcomer in the hobby and then flamed out too quickly. I will personally miss them a lot but my enthusiasm was already diminished when they lost their Ferrari license. No hope for a 458 Italia or FF

[Christian]

Well, for now this remains a rumor and Philippe Langevin is going to investigate further. The criticism is certainly appropriate no matter what, though.

[Cor_DutchArt]

I heard that the man behind Le Mans Miniatures was the engine behind the Spark 1/87 range.
That he left the company ment the end of the 1/87 range too.
This also explains the choise for race models.
I realy hope the (LMM) models will appear again somewhere.
And the transporters as well!

[Mark Maticek]

Is there any more news on Spark?

[Mark Maticek]

I contacted Spark models and asked them to comment on the rumor that they were discontinuing their 1/87th scale line. They replied,

"It is not true that we are discontinuing our 1/87 scale line. The new 1/87 scale models will be released again in the near future."

I guess we will see.

[stanhas87]

Dear All:

If they will leave the HO business (coming back soon has many meanings) that is too bad.I got many of them from BHOH,such as the Toyota Celica Racer (commited the stupidity to remove that from the pack and lost the Antenna,but otherwise it is a great model),the Zonda,Aston Martin Vantage,Saviem Stepvan,Mercedes Benz Racer and couple more I can remember which are they.Simply great models,but it seems that as Motormax,they tried the HO business,did not had the returns they expected and there they went.Alas,as Matt,I do not mind adding the racing cars to my mini garage,because in real life they are limited issue vehicles and also have a lot of history.I will be getting them as BHOH adds them.I also loved the Ferrari Modulo,but I had no opportunity to get that.

[mstar]

They will bring some models they have announced at the toy fair this year according to mo87. All are race models. Among them a Lancia Stratos, Jaguar XK120 and a Simca.

[Christian]

German website Auto & Modell has published an article about Spark which originally appeared in the print magazine Motorsport Aktuell: www.auto-und-modell.de/pages/aktuell/1311/MOTORSPORT-aktuell-zu-Besuch-in-der-Fabrik-von-Spark-Models/ (click the link towards the end of the text to get to the PDF).

It's in German, but you can copy and paste it into Google Translate to get an idea. The author was invited to the factory in China and writes about his impressions. While we don't learn anything truly exciting, and notwithstanding the fact that 1/87th scale doesn't seem to exist in the author's world, it's quite impressive that Spark has about 1,000 employees and makes 1,000,000 models per year. One thing I found interesting is that they still seem to do manual work a lot when they don't have 3D data of the prototypes. Take those figures with a grain of salt, though.