Airfix – it’s a name that conjures up so much for me. I was so young when I first encountered it that I really cannot remember the first Airfix product I came into contact with. However, I do remember building and playing for hours with Betta Builder, creating all kinds of constructions, many populated with Airfix soldiers, cowboys, Indians, Robin Hood (and his Merry Men!), and the Sherriff of Nottingham, with his rather splendid Norman Knights. Even the Romans fought with the Ancient Britons in amongst the small white bricks, often taking shelter under those unforgettable green tiles – oh those tiles, how we loved them, and Lego have never produced anything as good to this day! Why did I not keep these bricks and tiles – I seem to have kept everything else, much to my own children’s amusement.
Dinky’s military vehicles in particular also played a major part in those land-based battles. A whole squad of soldiers could take shelter behind the Chieftain tank, making my homemade catapult ammunition sorties very challenging to knock them out.
Meccano was important in my younger life, too. Anything I could build and make move with various motors and belt drives always made for an entertaining few hours, with the metal parts and fittings making it feel substantial and really ‘grown-up’.
It must have been this early hands-on relationship with the brand that became part of me, completely cemented by constructing all those fantastic Airfix models hanging in my bedroom from about the age of seven. Bringing every dogfight to life, with particularly vivid battles being fought by torchcreated searchlights, moving dramatically with air blown from excitable lips, the play value of Airfix continued until I discovered Queen and Abba (yes, an eclectic choice that also continues to this day!).
I’m sure that there are tens of thousands of us children of the 1960s that think and remember the same way, the only difference being that I’ve been extremely lucky to have been working with the brand for nearly twenty-five years as well. Starting as a sales rep in East Anglia in 1988 with Humbrol Ltd (April 1st – that always makes me smile!), selling to independent model and toy shops (many of which are still trading), being promoted over the years to the upper echelons of sales management, through the trials and tribulations of Humbrol’s somewhat challenging ownerships. The strength of the Airfix kit brand, even then, opened doors for Humbrol themselves to launch toy and craft ranges, just as the giant Airfix company had done previously.
The then shrinking market for plastic kits and the lack of investment meant that Humbrol finally went into administration. This, as we all, know meant that Hornby came along, saw the potential, and bought the brand and all its assets at the end of 2006, with me being again lucky enough to come into a new role as the marketing manager of both Humbrol and Airfix. Hornby’s ownership of Airfix has breathed new life into the brand, with major investment into new tooling that appears to be going down a storm, and with a market in many parts of the world that no longer appears to be shrinking.
This exciting growth in Airfix has encouraged a number of companies to use the Airfix assets in many ways, from T-shirts, mugs, notebooks, Painting by Numbers, storage boxes, and even a cake! There’s also now a magazine, Airfix Model World, produced by Key Publishing, which immediately became the bestselling title in its category, so all us Airfix fans can surround ourselves in Airfix, even without the models. Heaven!
Airfix – the excitement is building!
Darrell Burge
Marketing Manager, Airfix and Humbrol
Airfix is a registered trademark of Hornby Hobbies Ltd, Enterprise Road, Westwood Industrial Estate, Margate, Kent CT9 4JX.