23rd Beijing Hobby Expo China (HEC) Preview
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Modified: April 2025
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The 23rd Beijing Hobby Expo ran from April 18-20th 2025. It represented a massive hobby expo for model and diecast manufacturers. While only a small portion of the exhibitors were in the 400 scale diecast airliner market its importance in the scale cannot be underestimated as an opportunity for businesses to show off their products, network and announce model news. This year there was a wide range of brands from 400 scale present at the show including several of the newer startup brands. Most had new mould announcements to make or exclusive models for sale so let's take a look at what went down.
I want to thank those who have provided photos for this article - especially Wings400, JC Wings and Dang Tung.
The Expo was held at the Beijing Exhibition Center and had its own Hobby Expo China website. It was founded in 2001 and is China's only model exhibition approved by the Ministry of Commerce. It is split into various categories of model including: remote control vehicles, model engines, remote control electronics and tools, diecast cars and aircraft, railways, science fiction merchandise, figurines, plastic models and pretty much everything in between. In 2024 there were 269 exhibitors, 3,200 business attendees and 65,000 model enthusiasts.
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N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
You can see from the Expo map how large it was - but it seems most, if not all, of the 400 scale exhibitors were in section 7 in the top right of the image below (coloured in yellow). Despite the shows large size I'm told it was very crowded as you can see in the photos to the left:
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Even though the 400 scale portion of the Expo was small many brands were present. Those I know that attended include:
Here's a summary of new mould announcements at the fair excluding JC Wings who announced so many they have their own table in their section!
C Model is a brand that started up in 2022 that has so far used entirely Panda Models moulds. I wrote about them a while back here at the site, but since then they have continued to release new models - most recently using the new Panda 767-300 and MD-11, as well as 737-800s and A321s.
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C Model gave out gift bags containing exquisite pendants or 2025 Beijing Exhibition limited collection cards. They also had some limited editions of their CAAC 737-300 - 30 of which have electroplated silver rather than grey painted bellys. Apparently these will be hidden among the standard models for collectors to hunt out.
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C Model are also expanding into the mould production space themselves and had early samples of the Boeing 787-8/9/10 on display. These look like resin samples and they had no undercarriage so I wouldn't expect to see production models for at least 6-12 months. They also announced they will be making a new Airbus A330 mould as well.
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C Models also announced 3 new models using the Panda Models Boeing 767-200 mould. These will be examples from CAAC, Air China and China Airlines. Note how the tail of the China Airlines example is carefully hidden to hide the Taiwanese flag!
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HX Wings and their 200 scale partner SQ Wings were also present at the show. HX have been making a splash in 400 scale with their 747s and flaps down variants of various types (see Flaps Down Models for more). They had a lot of new moulds to showcase at the Expo and I have been told however that anything they have in 200 scale will get made in 400.
In the below photo you can see new 400 scale moulds for the Boeing 737-700/800 and Airbus A319/A320 along with the existing MD-11s, A380s and 747s.
Beneath there are 200 scale moulds for the ATR-42/72, Airbus A340-500/600 and Boeing737-700/800:
The 400 scale Ilyushin IL-76s were also present too with some metal fuselages present:
JC Wings were quiet before the Expo, but announced and showed off a huge range of new moulds in various scales at the event. The new moulds included aircraft in 1:72, 1:100, 1:200 and 1:400 scale.
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Panda Models had two unannounced models for sale at the Expo, although presumably both will be general releases and not exclusives.
They also had on display their new Boeing 767-200 model sample:
Patriot Models had already announced several models that, although billed as HEC exclusives, will also be sold outside the Expo. These included the 400 scale Iranian Air Force 747 Tanker two pack. There was also a 200 scale 747 tanker with SR-71. Patriot are sharing their table with Turbulence Aviation Photography Group who will be selling their 2024 yearbook of photos.
Patriot also announced a new 400 scale mould of the Antonov An-12 at the fair:
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Undefined Collectibles is a newish brand that has featured at the site before too. So far they have collaborated with both Panda Models and JC Wings to make 10 models, of which I own 4 (with another on order).
Nelson at Undefined Collectibles has told me he'll have four new models at the show. Three are Chinese A330s, which will are part of a new collaboration with Aeroclassics. The other model will be a Boeing 767-300 freighter - G- reg I'm told.
I believe one of the A330s will be the below aircraft - B-18392. One of a pair of Trent powered A330s leased for 18 months from Virgin in 2011. The rest of China Airlines A330s are CFM powered. |
Paul Spijkers (GFDL or GFDL ), via Wikimedia Commons
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YU ModeL is a brand that has been going now for 5 years and has made a great range of Chinese classics using moulds from Aeroclassics, HYJLwings and Panda Models. I own quite a few of their models and have written about them here at the site - see:
For a list of their production to date see:
Of course YU have also been working on their own moulds and now have a completely independent self-built factory - Yu ModeL Yujia Dream Factory.
I have been tracking the development of their new A300 mould here at the site for some time. For that see here: |
The A300 now appears to be fast approaching readiness and samples were present at the fair. These are the latest photos:
YU has also provided the following teaser image for the Expo:
The second mould here is the Tupolev Tu-124, which I first wrote about way back in 2021!! They also had a resin sample of what appeared to be a Tupolev Tu-104 too.
