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Has anyone ever done one of those magazine collections where you end up with a model ship or something? Or does anyone know of anyone to ever complete one?

I feel like my childhood was peppered with these adverts on tv. The latest, at 34 years old, being a model car from Fast and Furious. First issue 99p, the other 109 issues are £9.99 each.

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The cumulative cost of these part-works is astronomical, and all you get over and above buying a decent model kit from a shop is a set of glossy magazines that may or may not be worth the dead trees they're printed on.

Mind you, there was a jazz LP one a few years ago, and I did buy one of the discounted introductory issues for a copy of John Coltrane's Blue Train. Looking at the back, it is a Blue Note/Sony pressing with a small note saying it is licensed to d'Agostino (the magazine company) and it is an excellent job. The magazine was also sized to fit inside the record sleeve, which was a good idea. None of the other early, cheap ones were albums I wanted, though.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I've done a lot of airfix and other model-making throughout my life and whenever I see these things advertised I immediately think, "why would I spend a grand on that, waiting a month at a time to get each tiny piece, spending £10 on a magazine and, say, a wheel of a spitfire, to have to wait 5 years to have every part when I could just buy the biggest and best airfix kit for about £50?"

As far as I understand it, the makers of these things don't even produce every issue to start with. A lot of them say something like, '109 issues planned' in the smallprint of the ad and someone told me once that this is essentially if a certain number of people keep subscribed they will keep producing them but if they get to issue 50 or something and only a handful of people are still getting it they will stop producing it and you'll be left with a half finished spitfire and a £500 hole in your bank account. 

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12 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I've done a lot of airfix and other model-making throughout my life and whenever I see these things advertised I immediately think, "why would I spend a grand on that, waiting a month at a time to get each tiny piece, spending £10 on a magazine and, say, a wheel of a spitfire, to have to wait 5 years to have every part when I could just buy the biggest and best airfix kit for about £50?"

As far as I understand it, the makers of these things don't even produce every issue to start with. A lot of them say something like, '109 issues planned' in the smallprint of the ad and someone told me once that this is essentially if a certain number of people keep subscribed they will keep producing them but if they get to issue 50 or something and only a handful of people are still getting it they will stop producing it and you'll be left with a half finished spitfire and a £500 hole in your bank account. 

Sounds about right.

I think it was the model Spitfire one where I got the calculator out to check and worked out that it would be well north of £1,000 spent before you had an "Okay, I guess?" model Spitfire to call your own.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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10 hours ago, voteronniegibbs said:

I bought one copy, once.  It was in the 90's, and IIRC it was the 1st issue at 99p, of a blues magazine that had a cd or cassette tape.  The idea being that you bought umpteen subsequent issues at 3 or 4 quid to build the "exclusive" set. I didn't as I only wanted the JL Hooker tape and 99p was a bargain, but the rest is just a con.

There was one advertised on tv for a plastic model of a Spitfire, if you bought all the issues it worked out at over a grand. I remember, as Mrs V wanted to know what I was shouting at the telly for.... this time.

Oh, I remember the Blues one! I did buy a couple of individual issues, but as you're getting a complete CD in one go, it isn't anywhere near the nonsense that the model-building part-works are. I got a Gatemouth Brown album and (I think) an Albert Collins one.

Edited by Futtocks
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Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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5 hours ago, JohnM said:

Has anyone ever  completed one of these models?

 

Those adverts always made me laugh . It showed someone finishing off the Bismarck or something … you can do it in only 5,000 issues as we take you through the history of naval warfare . First issue 10p and only 2.99 after that . I mean you can rebuild the bloody Bismarck for that 

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8 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

I printed many of the D'Agostini publications.

What was the ratio of copies printed for the discounted early issues to the later, full-price ones?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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7 hours ago, Johnoco said:

I can't honestly remember but the print run went down substantially over the months. But there was a hell of a lot of work from them at one point.  A lot of 'learn to paint like Rembrandt' type mags in particular. 

I started watching Bob Ross on bbc4 ? From that some of my family entered into a Bob Ross paint off on a Saturday morning after Parkrun . Even had entries from Oz . I just copied Bobs paintings , got quite good at it .

 

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22 hours ago, henage said:

I started watching Bob Ross on bbc4 ? From that some of my family entered into a Bob Ross paint off on a Saturday morning after Parkrun . Even had entries from Oz . I just copied Bobs paintings , got quite good at it .

 

The wife loves Bob Ross, she watches him on iplayer. 

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I got into a series of magazines called "boxers". Really good magazine, each one on a particular fighter. Came with a video too, yes video. That's how long ago it was. First one 99p all others £4.99. Cost me a chuffing fortune. Majorly into boxing at the time, I was hooked on it. Ended up taking them to a charity shop as I didn't have room for them.

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17 hours ago, moorside roughyed said:

I got into a series of magazines called "boxers". Really good magazine, each one on a particular fighter. Came with a video too, yes video. That's how long ago it was. First one 99p all others £4.99. Cost me a chuffing fortune. Majorly into boxing at the time, I was hooked on it. Ended up taking them to a charity shop as I didn't have room for them.

Seems like most of these things end up in a charity shop or some equivelant. I was at a carboot yesterday and saw several issues of a craft one I remember my mother had looked into getting and changed her mind. I guess the person who was selling them had also only got the first few and thought twice about it. 

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On 28/08/2021 at 19:52, The Hallucinating Goose said:

This sounds almost like something from the expenses scandal. 99p of taxpayers money for the first issue of Busty Babes, £10m of taxpayers money for the next 100 issues. 

Have you got a web link for Busty Babes, HG?

I'm just asking for a friend - well, obviously...!

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11 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

There's just been one on for Warhammer figurines. First issue £2.99, rest of them £8.99 each, 80 issues.

If you're gonna spend that much on Warhammer you might as well just go down the shop and buy the figurines you want instead of hoping you get a good one with this each month. 

I have a couple of friends who are *very* into their Warhammer.

Their disdain for that advert and its products can be seen from space.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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I had a small collection of ready-made WW2 battleships in small scale collected this way.

Unfortunately the detail wasn’t great on the subsequent ships I received and it was nothing like the satisfaction of completing a model yourself putting in research and painstaking effort.

They got thrown in a house move eventually after sailing the seven seas of the loft for a bit.

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  • 3 weeks later...
14 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

So the latest one of these has just been advertised... Build a model of an Eddie Stobart lorry, first issue £1.99, subsequent issues £9.99 a pop, total of 140 issues. Would be bloody cheaper to just go out and buy an actual lorry! 

There's a diecast Eddie Stobart model truck on Amazon for £30. If you bought 46 of those, not only would you have spent slightly less, but they'd all be properly assembled.

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Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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  • 4 months later...

Did one of these as a kid in the late nineties or very early noughties. It was to build a remote controlled robot, the robot itself was the same shape as a ladybird shell with a transparent outer. Did the first 4/5 issues to a point whereby it would move forwards and backwards until my electrician father took an interest in one of the mags and soon after the £9.99 price tag per issue.

”you won’t need 90 more issues mate!” I remember him telling me. By Sunday evening he’d as good as completed the ‘finished’ robot - it could turn right, left, go back and forth and light up. 

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