Squadron is Gone - But now it's back!

Like others here Squadron was ‘The’ mailorder source for my modeling needs back in the 80’s and for several years there after. I started using Great Model Web Store sometime in 2005 because the pricing was more affordable and bettr selection, I’ve continued dealing with them since Sprue Bros. purchased the company. I can relate to Jef’s account of Squadron’s demise. I work for a web based retail company that was begun in the basement of the founder and once profitable was sold to a larger company, this company after making too many competive takeover purchases found itself hemorageing money trying to stay afloat while manageing and maintaing three other separate subsidiary businesses, in come the investment venture capitalists that would inject operating funds but then reap the annual profits and put us back on the aquisition market for another venture gruop to repeat the process. We (the company) were finally purchased by an established national name brand business that wanted to grow the business but since they were in an entirely different market sector their attempt to redesign our company nearly sank us. Thankfully they sold us to a larger company that was more inline with our product line and we’re profitable and growing the lable, as long as we can survive Covid.

Cajun

I would order paints and other disposables from them when they had a sale. Other than that, the prices of their kits during any sale they had, was still higher than what other sites/companies offered on a regular basis. Nostalgia wise, I did enjoy thumbing through their pamphlets/catalogs over the years.

A video eulogy of sorts…

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It’s retail Darwinism in action. I too used to buy from Squadron, fairly frequently, from a good range of products. It irked me that I was paying so much in shipping, especially being less than 20 miles away from the warehouse, but I was rarely in a position to pick it up, so I just went the easy way. Noticing lately how much of their advertised products were “available for order”, I began to wonder just exactly what they were actually stocking. Turns out not much.
I can’t say I’m terribly surprised by their closure, but it just goes to show how important it is to pay attention to the needs and wants of existing customers BEFORE you go off on tangents seeking new markets.
PS: What will I miss most about Squadron? Green Stuff putty, followed by the newsletters.

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Speaking of Squadron running sales on the same items over and over…the Dragon USA site does the same thing. Much of what they put on sale isn’t even in stock and hasn’t been in a while. Wonder when Dragon will shut down that store?

Speaking of Squadron running sales on the same items over and over…the Dragon USA site does the same thing. Much of what they put on sale isn’t even in stock and hasn’t been in a while. Wonder when Dragon will shut down that store?

Off-topic, and I’ve said this on Armorama a few times before, but I miss the Concord/Dragon magazines such as “Special Operations Journal” and their armor books. Many hobby shop owners said that those magazines don’t sell well (well, if someone leafed through them with their grubby hands, then sure, they won’t sell since the pages are no longer pristine), but they had conflict news content that rivaled any newspaper and news magazine; they read like an Intel Brief.

The Concord reporters have since scattered and to my knowledge, they didn’t start anything as a replacement to those Concord Publications magazines.


Back on topic…this does make me wonder if the USA can run a decent large hobby business without the conflicts, management hassles, disagreements, backstabbing, etc. I wonder if the “Curse and the taboo” of the hobby affects this country. I know that chain bookstores, toy stores, and art stores are closing around the nation too as the USA embraces STEM more for career, profession, and salaries.

As a nation, it is a shame if the USA can’t promote art, craft, 3D design, graphics, BA Degrees, and paint and tool quality and thus has to depend on overseas imports for quality art materials, brushes, art products, tools, and kits. If the USA can’t domestically produce these products, then the USA manufacturing base is in trouble and the future of Art and Design students seems bleak. (Don’t flame me). :laughing:

Agree 100 % on Concord publications, my collection is one of my most prized hobby possessions.
Funny story about shelf worn books not selling. A few years back while at AAA hobbies in Jersey they were clearing out most if not all of their references, the reason I was told was because the guys who came and flipped thru them but never or rarely purchased were the same ones who demanded a discount for the wear ! I guess that’s one way to do it !

@Trisaw on topic about your off topic topic, have you ever checked out JANE’S ARMOUR AND ARTILLERY?

back to topic! sorry

Don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees, so to speak. Squadron is just one of many, many scale modeling retailers and distributors in the US.

For example, even as we have this discussion, Sprue Brothers has just posted up photos on its FaceBook page showing the construction on its own warehouse expansion. Clearly they’re experiencing success.

Squadron fell victim to a combination of its own success, the retirement of its original founder and owner (i.e. a loss of its core goal direction), and financial vultures looking to turn a quick profit on an investment and who had zero interest in sustaining the core business (which would have taken too much time, effort and knowledge for small and slow returns).

Squadron had grown into a fairly large but very successful, specialized retail-distribution business. That success and the value it created took decades to grow and develop. When its founder-owner decided to retire and sell the company, its very size and CURRENT value made it attractive to small-sized venture capitalists who were more interested in becoming larger sized venture capitalists (by making a quick buck) than becoming the owners of a specialized retail-distribution business whose mission they had no interest or passion for. In short, buying Squadron wasn’t an investment for the next several decades but rather an investment for, at the very best, the next few months or years.

Squadron was too large for some small, private investor who as passionate about the hobby to buy. (It was valued at a few million $$.) However, it was also too small for some large hobby-related corporation to buy and add as another business line (some other wholesale distribution or direct retail-sales competitor). However, it was just the right size for a group with a couple million $$ to purchase and suck dry.

Turn a quick profit without reinvesting that profit back into new and ever changing product. Hired gun managers and operating officers who specialize in squeezing every penny out in the near term with no concern for long term business sustainability. And no hesitation with closing the doors since that means nothing but moving on to the next honey hole.

(The dirty deal was that the initial purchaser was someone with an interest in the hobby but not enough money to buy Squadron without turning to fast-money venture capitalists who became his de facto partners. When he couldn’t turn profit fast enough, he was pushed out the door and control was turned over to hired gun managers who’s main objective was making money fast even at the expense of the long term sustainability of the business. The purchase was a deal with the devil… a devil who knew that the business model would never turn profit fast enough and who always planned on sucking the company dry when it didn’t.)

Squadron failed not because of the kind of business it was in (hobby retail with a concentration on scale modeling) but because it fell victim to venture capitalists who saw it as ripe for exploitation. Low-hanging value on the vine ripe for plucking…

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I think that is the second or third investment project in a past decade and a move to another facility. When Gordon retires they may fall pray to the same issues as Squadron.

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I totally agree. An option for some similar sized business might be to combine with another similar operation before reaching the “I must get out now” point. That way, when the owner finally does call the ball, the business lives on as part of larger entity with a similar management philosophy and goals.

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I didn’t know that…thanks for the FYI as it seems to be a very exciting prospect. :smiley:

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As posted on another site.

Ouch!

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Oh crap. I love Squadron white putty but I’ve got an old tube. I read that they’ve changed it.

Certainly a loss, count myself fortunate that over the last few months they were having specialized target sales on some stuff I was after. Hard to argue with their “in actions” series, a mainstay at the LHS I grew up working in (have a huge pile of vintage ones plus a ton of the regular books); at 4.99 each couldnt resist but I had noticed my last email in late December or January had but a handful (under 10 or so) titles listed and a wider search didn’t show any others outside of the ones on the blast. Pretty sure I snuck in on that Verlinden 75%(?) off sale not too many weeks back, kicking myself for not going a little deeper on on the buys. Not that my order would have helped keep them afloat but I found them quick and responsive with no issues of them suddenly marking stuff out of stock, got exactly what I ordered, at the right price in the timeframe they promised. Having just returned tot he hobby a few short years ago I was unaware of some of the previous history as detailed above, certainly a loss.

Yes I have a ton of those books and have purchased recently. I started off with those books in the late 70s/ early 80s and still have them. One of the first ones I bought was the Fallshirmjager book which dates to 1973.

Sad. End of an era. Squadron did so much for the hobby. “Squadron Armor Accessories” (their precursor to True Details.) Green Putty. Sheen. Books. Squadron/Rubin figures. Infantry detail sets in partnership with Historex. So many other things. Didn’t Squadron take over MasterCon after Verlinden and Letterman broke up? From 1972-78 they opened 12 hobby shops across the country. I have their first black-and-white “magalog”, The Squadron, from Vol.1 No. 1 (1970), through the full color era with history and modeling articles, to the end of that format and devolution to black-and-white catalogues. They were quarterly. They replaced that format in 1976 with a yearly catalogue with monthly supplements.

Neil Young’s song Hey Hey My My comes to mind.

The king is gone but he’s not forgotten… It’s better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps.

A shame they ‘rusted away.’

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I have worried about this since a post on their Facebook site a few months ago from a supplier, who demanded Squadron pay their bills.

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Yeah Fred, I saw that too. Definitely a sad day. Squadron has been my main “go to” place for several years. :frowning:

Up to 1 million in assets…up to 50 million in liabilities…dang. :open_mouth:

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