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Forums - News / General |
For General modelling or hobby-related topics that are not covered by any other specific forum. Please keep to topics concerning the hobby. |
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| Subject: | Re: What happens to useful molds from old companies? |  |
| Date: | Jan 8, 2007 |
| From: | Gerald Owens | |
Depends on the nature of the mold and the perceived demand for the product. I liked the old MP products conversions, but I was willing to live with the fact that while the surface detail was nice, the overall molding was rough and fit was lousy. My Israeli Super Sherman kit had a cannon barrel shaped like a corkscrew, for instance. As an advanced modeler, I can live with such problems, but many won't. The story going around 15 years ago was they went broke when they shipped a lot of their Israeli Sherman kits to Japan on consignment, and the wholesaler refused delivery because the products were not deemed to be of acceptable quality, and it wasn't economical to ship them back.
As for the orphaned MP molds, injection molding is an expensive venture for a cottage industry manufacturer to undertake, and none of the big companies want to sell conversions when they have full kits to offer, so I suppose the tooling is sitting in some warehouse (unless they were actually scrapped).
There is a booming market in molds for well-tooled but obsolete model kits. Old molds from better known manufacturers (and defunct start-ups) usually make a pilgrimage around the world as discount model companies buy them up and re-release the kits (witness the back catalog of companies like Maquette, RPM, Mirage, Zvezda, Hobbycraft, Modelcraft, Blue Tank, etc.).
The 1970's Peerless Max vehicle and artillery kits went to Tomy, and then Airfix before becoming part of Italeri's catalog.
The Russian Gaz-66 truck kit has appeared in about five different company's boxes, and the Ural truck in almost as many.
However, the cottage industry molds for resin or white metal are short-lived RTV rubber, so the masters are generally what pass from one manufacturer to another, rather than the molds themselves. Sometimes the manufacturer (often one guy) retires or loses interest. If the line is popular, the masters may be sold, but often the product line just dies out. |
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