It is not often you get the chance to do a review on a battleship, not just any old battleship, but a famous and historic one, I am now looking at the USS Missouri as a kit from Hobby Boss seeing how good it is and if it needs extras like aftermarket and see if it stands up to the price tag.
Great Review Robbo 
With now 4 kits in 1/350 of the Iowa class BBs available (Tamiya, Very Fire, Joyyard and now Hobby Boss/nee Trumpeter) the modeller is certainly spoiled for choice
I too understand your frustration with the rise in kit prices in recent times, but on the whole for a kit such as this I think it may be fair. The price has to be considered against the quality of the contents and the AM included. Also worth considering is how long a kit such as this will fill the hours in at the workbench. For a project such as this, it will cover off a fairly long period for even the most seasoned builder, which certainly will help spread that cost over the same time period of several smaller/simpler/cheaper kits… 
Now if only HB would consider a new kit of SoDak in 1/350 to this standard 