WNW is nowhere near the end of its run...!

[cbk57]

I was looking at Hobby Search model car store, which I do every morning as I always puruse the new releases of all types.  I think the link below which is to a new 1/32 kit, Is proof that every assumption we have about the market for scale models is either completely wrong or ill conceived.  The kit linked is by Fujimi it is in our favorite scale but it is a commercial Bus that is probably only sold in Asia only.  

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10575262

 

I don’t know what the rules are anymore when you look at the total market but when you focus on one manufacturer, or one subject matter(1/32 airplanes) you are only looking at a few trees in a big Forrest.  Nothing Wing Nut Wings has released or announced tells us anything about the future of Wingnut wings.  So yes per the post above, this horse is dead.

Edited February 15, 2019 by cbk57

[wunwinglow]

13 hours ago, Pup7309 said:

Considering the research etc that goes into them $79, $89, $129 is fine. But depending where you live it’s  $145, $170, $240. 

 

On another forum a guy from NZ complained about paying USD. He gets stung for exchange and foreign currency transaction rate, taxes etc. This is the reality for consumers in the antipodes now. People like getting things at 20% off not double the price! 

 

To emphasise: It’s not a complaint about WNWs price point at all. But if they had multiple currency payment options that would be great.

To be fair, you do have fantastic beaches, though!!!!!

[wunwinglow]

2 hours ago, john32 said:

Build ww1 planes, rebuild ww1 engines, participate in ww1 air meetings with its aircraft in flight state with "the vintage aviator", then reproduce them at 1/32 scale, as the FE.2b, for the happiness of the spectators and customers models, it is a passion or business ?

Sorry, why on Earth do you think passion and business profitability are mutually exclusive?  That's nonsensical. When they combine, they are a dream formula, surely!!!?

[wunwinglow]

59 minutes ago, jimbo said:

No offense whatsoever to the OP but I almost choked on my cereal when I saw this topic. We have a “beating a dead horse” emoji; we NEED a “poking a hornets nest” emoji. Since we all get to pontificate a little, I think WNW is the greatest success story among many recent success stories (Z-M, HK, etc). They’ll be around for quite a while methinks. I have more WNW kitsets (61) in my stash than any other manufacturer. And that was prompted by what I see as their near total perfection in all aspects - design, molding, graphics, web presence, and so forth. Even in the box they are pure joy to behold. IMHO of course 

 

jimbo

..AND quantity! They have produced more 1:32 kit types since they started, than all the other kits manufacturers combined in the same period! And they have certainly had more of my money than all the rest, and I only buy the Brit ones. Mostly.....

[vince14]

7 hours ago, Radub said:

Q: Why the reluctance to make kits of already released subjects?

A: Not true. There have been previous kits of SE5a, Camel, Fokker DVII, Fokker III, Pfalz DIII, DH.2 from other manufacturers. 

 

The Pfalz, SE5a and DH.2 (and the Sopwith Triplane) were already deep in development by WNW when the Roden versions were announced and released, so that’s why we have those from both manufacturers. The alternative Fokker D.VII and E.III kits were from Battle Axe, and were neither readily available nor any good. The Camel came about after the Hobbycraft kit went OOP (but before Italeri re-released it, which in any case is the older Academy kit and not much good).

 

So WNW have abided by the ‘unwritten rule’ of not releasing kits that other manufacturers are currently producing. Will that remain the case? Only time will tell...

[Radub]

32 minutes ago, vince14 said:

The Pfalz, SE5a and DH.2 (and the Sopwith Triplane) were already deep in development by WNW when the Roden versions were announced and released, so that’s why we have those from both manufacturers. The alternative Fokker D.VII and E.III kits were from Battle Axe, and were neither readily available nor any good. The Camel came about after the Hobbycraft kit went OOP (but before Italeri re-released it, which in any case is the older Academy kit and not much good).

 

So WNW have abided by the ‘unwritten rule’ of not releasing kits that other manufacturers are currently producing. Will that remain the case? Only time will tell...

 
The Roden kits were released before WNW was known to the public.
But it should make no difference. Why am I even enteratining this? There is no "rule" that WNW will never make kits that were also made by others. They never said that. When asked about the Dr.I, Richard Alexander replied "Why? There is a good kit on the market already". That is all. The crazy world of the internet took that remark and created a whole scaffolding of crazy around it. Note that Richard did not say "never ever, not in a milliom years". :-) 

Radu 

[vince14]

The Roden kits might have been released before WNW was publicly revealed, but Richard Alexander has said that they were so deep into the design process that not releasing them made no sense (don't forget that WNW started as a company back in 2005). I'm also pretty sure that Peter Jackson has gone on record saying that he didn't want WNW to be directly competing against the likes of Roden. We do know that he makes the final decision on what kits are made, though - this is from an Ouest France interview with PJ;

 

What criteria do you choose to release a model. Who decides on the final choice?

Me ! I have the last word for my films, and the same goes for the selection of models! This is very simple: I get an email from Richard Alexander, the Wingnut Wings coordinator who tells me that he has someone from the team about to break free. He asks me what model I would like to do next. I'm sure people think there's a big business strategy behind it, but there's none! I only have to choose which model I would like and 18 months later, I can build it, and the rest of the world too! It's an ideal situation for me.

 

As for not being a traditional, profit-driven business, Richard Alexander said this in an interview with LSM;

 

Much has been said about WnW craziness of the new and most welcome news… but there`s are voices that said that what WnW wants is, as all companies, the profit… I think WnW has been showing that is not true… what do you want to say about this?

 

Well those voices are dead wrong. Wingnut Wings is NOT a profit driven company. I would think that was very clear from our choice of subjects and the attention to detail that we often apply well beyond what most modellers would expect. If we were a profit driven company would make models of Mustangs, Spitfires, Bf 109s, Fw 190s, F-15s and Ferraris etc. Any one of which would almost certainly prove to be more profitable than even the most popular of First World War aircraft.

 

In any case, some people say these 'rules' exist, others (like yourself) say they don't. But seeing as none of us actually work for WNW, we have no idea whether the 'rules' exist or not - it's just speculation from both sides.

[Radub]

3 minutes ago, vince14 said:

 

In any case, some people say these 'rules' exist, others (like yourself) say they don't. But seeing as none of us actually work for WNW, we have no idea whether the 'rules' exist or not - it's just speculation from both sides.

Nope! I am not just "saying" that these rules do not exist. Reality demonstrates that these "rules" do not exist. They broke every single one of the these so-called "rules". 

Radu

[MikeMaben]

14 hours ago, Radub said:

Q: Why no marketing?

A: This is an outright lie.

 

Q: Why just release kits with no warning?

A: This is an outright lie.

 

It's not nice to call someone a liar when they say something incorrect.

There's a big diffence between lying and being incorrect.

I haven't seen any lies in this conversation.

I have seen a lotta crystal balls tho 

 

 

[LSP_Ray]

Instead of arguing about their motives, why not just sit back and enjoy what they have done/are doing? Sure has spiced up the 1/32nd modeling community!

[Pup7309]

10 hours ago, Radub said:

The crazy world of the internet took that remark and created a whole scaffolding of crazy around it. 

Ha ha, exactly.

Edited February 16, 2019 by Pup7309

[Pup7309]

15 hours ago, jimbo said:

No offense whatsoever to the OP but I almost choked on my cereal when I saw this topic.

 

 I have more WNW kitsets (61) in my stash than any other manufacturer. 

None taken! Someone said earlier in response to a comment the kits are expensive over here that I ‘should have worked harder in school.’(?!)

Not sure what that means or what it has to do with the price of fish...or models, but sure it was meant to ‘poke the hornets nest’. Keep ‘em coming, just helps the thread count 

 

Me too, they’re my fav manu (sorry Mr Tamiya, you’re great too with a few others coming in close behind)

 

‘Rumours of this topic’s death have been, so far, greatly exaggerated’

Edited February 16, 2019 by Pup7309

[Radub]

7 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

 

It's not nice to call someone a liar when they say something incorrect.

There's a big diffence between lying and being incorrect.

I haven't seen any lies in this conversation.

I have seen a lotta crystal balls tho 

 

 

I am not calling anyone a liar. I did not say "you, sir, are a liar!" I said that those respective assertions, those made up "rules" that keep circling the internet, are lies. I have no idea who is the precise person who started the lies. 

Radu

[vince14]

22 hours ago, Radub said:

That is just because the decal sheet is so sparse that they had to fill it with something. It is part of a kit, it is not "a decal sheet for a competitor". That is no "proof" of a "rule". And in any case, there is no "rule" that WNW will never ever issue a Dr.I.

Oh Radu, you complain about people making things up about WNW but then go right ahead and make something up yourself. You know that saying they included decals for the Roden Dr.I 'just because the decal sheet is so sparse that they had to fill it with something' is utter nonsense, right? This is the decal sheet in question, with the Dr.I markings highlighted - they're about 25% of the total area of the decal sheet, so hardly 'space filler'. And that's before we consider why they'd go to the time and expense of making them just to fill a decal sheet - surely you'd save the money and just make the sheet smaller if you were a traditional model company, right? 

 

h

 

And you're just playing semantics by saying 'It is part of a kit, it is not "a decal sheet for a competitor"' - you know very well that STWilliams meant that they included decals for a competitor manufacturer's kit in one of their own products. Besides which, WNW didn't have to include the decals for the Roden Dr.I at all. They could have easily left them out. It doesn't mean that they are now abiding by some rule that means they'll never release a Dr.I - in fact the instruction sheet for the kit even says 'Recommended model (as at April 2018) is Roden 601 1/32 Fokker Dr.I. So make what you will out of the words 'as at April 2018'.

 

It does prove that they're not a traditional manufacturer, though, unless you can show me another example of where a company has included decals in one of their own kits for a model that they don't produce, but a rival company does.

Edited February 16, 2019 by vince14

[Radub]

1 hour ago, vince14 said:

It does prove that they're not a traditional manufacturer, though, unless you can show me another example of where a company has included decals in one of their own kits for a model that they don't produce, but a rival company does.

 

I don't have to "prove" anything.

I am not the one treating WNW like a "cult" with a "messiah" (PJ), revelations (interviews taken as gospel), and commandments (rules about what they "do" and "do not do"). I am fully aware that I blasphemed in some of the cultists eyes, but I do not believe any of the BS peddled about them. I refuse to drink the Kool Aid. I love their products and I bought a lot of them. I demonstrated in my replies that all the so-called "rules" about WNW are pure BS. You believe whatever you want. :-) 

Radu  

Edited February 16, 2019 by Radub