According to my LHS, kits just don't sell. He has kits on the shelf that have been sitting there for 5 years. And he says he hardly makes any profit on kits. He counts on kit builders to buy other things from him that are profitable. I don't think there is any conspiracy on the part of manufacturers. They are just responding to the market.

I wonder if modelers who want to build could band together and pre-order kits. Maybe if a manufacturer had an order for a few hundred kits they would make a production run. Of course, that would take planning and patience on our part. We might have to place our order and pay a year in advance.