Dave Williams Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 So, if the potential shutdown has nothing to do with Covid-19, then the presumption is that would be that we would be in the same place we are now If Covid-19 never happened. I’m not sure there is any proof that this is the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ade rowlands Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Shame if true. I was looking forward to the Lancaster nose section kits. Wanted 2 or 3 of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamj Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 40 minutes ago, DeanKB said: Is anybody else wondering what roughly 90 sets of tooling for 1/32 WWI aeroplanes should cost? Well it will definitely be seven figures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamj Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 5 minutes ago, ade rowlands said: Shame if true. I was looking forward to the Lancaster nose section kits. Wanted 2 or 3 of those. Santa had a plan in place to surprise me with the new Lanc this Christmas. So I'm canceling it,going to have a second Halloween instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oyoy5 Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 I guess we will get confirmation in a week or so, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMA131Marine Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 29 minutes ago, williamj said: Well it will definitely be seven figures. Doubtful! It will be based on whatever someone thinks they can produce from the tooling to get a 12-18 month payback on the investment to buy the moulds. And keep in mind that, with the exception of the unreleased kits, all these kits have been available at least once so that factors into the calculus of how much remaining demand is still out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanKB Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 My thoughts on what's happening. If WNW is indeed being shut down, it's not because of the Virus. Three months cash-flow interruption does not sending a decent company bust. Same with TVAL. I think Mr Jackson has just had enough. Last year, his manager at TVAL got jailed for diddling PJ out of $2m. The very same employee had borrowed $600k in 2011, and had repaid the square root of nothing. That loan, with accrued interest, is now $1m. So he's been diddled twice by the same bloke that he also paid a large salary to. Then there's the $41m of taxpayers cash that his businesses ultimately benefit from. Every year. Year after year. The law was going to be changed, then HE called a meeting with NZ PM, and -shock!- the law stayed the same. Recently, a building developer applied for planning permission next to one of PJ's houses. PJ didn't like that, so when the mayorship came up for re-election, PJ supported a new candidate. With lots of money. And - another shocker! - this bloke was 100% against granting planning permission. He won the election. He's also unpopular because he pressured the government to not improve workers rights, arguing that companies would relocate to the US. He won, again. And there's lots of these little flashpoints - PJ loaned a whole lot of his WWI memorabilia and made a Great War Exhibition. But the government refused to fund it, and after 8 months it closed for good. He's got more money than he'll ever need - at least until he starts building a stash of his own kits - he doesn't have to work again. Perhaps he's just said "enough!", he'll close the lot down & relocate to the UK, or the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 (edited) 9 minutes ago, DeanKB said: My thoughts on what's happening. If WNW is indeed being shut down, it's not because of the Virus. Three months cash-flow interruption does not sending a decent company bust. Same with TVAL. I think Mr Jackson has just had enough. Last year, his manager at TVAL got jailed for diddling PJ out of $2m. The very same employee had borrowed $600k in 2011, and had repaid the square root of nothing. That loan, with accrued interest, is now $1m. So he's been diddled twice by the same bloke that he also paid a large salary to. Then there's the $41m of taxpayers cash that his businesses ultimately benefit from. Every year. Year after year. The law was going to be changed, then HE called a meeting with NZ PM, and -shock!- the law stayed the same. Recently, a building developer applied for planning permission next to one of PJ's houses. PJ didn't like that, so when the mayorship came up for re-election, PJ supported a new candidate. With lots of money. And - another shocker! - this bloke was 100% against granting planning permission. He won the election. He's also unpopular because he pressured the government to not improve workers rights, arguing that companies would relocate to the US. He won, again. And there's lots of these little flashpoints - PJ loaned a whole lot of his WWI memorabilia and made a Great War Exhibition. But the government refused to fund it, and after 8 months it closed for good. He's got more money than he'll ever need - at least until he starts building a stash of his own kits - he doesn't have to work again. Perhaps he's just said "enough!", he'll close the lot down & relocate to the UK, or the US. Great Post! He must have decided that all of his projects wouldn't be funded by his own personal wealth. I can understand that some people make that kind of stand. I just find it odd that WNW isn't more self-sufficient. Edited April 10, 2020 by Gazzas williamj 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanKB Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 26 minutes ago, VMA131Marine said: Doubtful! It will be based on whatever someone thinks they can produce from the tooling to get a 12-18 month payback on the investment to buy the moulds. And keep in mind that, with the exception of the unreleased kits, all these kits have been available at least once so that factors into the calculus of how much remaining demand is still out there. 12-18 months is far too short of a period to get payback. I also assume you'd get the moulds, instructions, 3d plans, artwork rights, etc. It's also worth remembering that a whole lot of those kits have already been sold out, meaning there is at least some latent demand. They could repurpose some kits into the inter-war market, which they have hardly touched at all. WNW was never run as a classical, profit maximizing business. Doing so should reduce costs somewhat. Finally, WNW never released the kits that would sell the most. So, no Fokker Dr.I, no BE.2x, no DH.4, no Italian machines at all, just one US machine, etc. Prioritising those kits that are expected to have the greatest demand will bring in more revenue, earlier. It would depend upon due diligence, especially the sales figures, & operating costs. I still think it may well be possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barkhorn Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 5 hours ago, esarmstrong said: Don't forget about Copper State Models. They have this kit in development and from what we were able to see of it in the CADS, we should expect something nice. The Nieuports are nice, too. Who knows, if WNW does indeed cease operations, this will give room for Copper State and others to fill in the void and spread their wings, so to speak. Info circulating amongst the industry people says that Nieuport was such a commercial success that CSM is going to focus on vehicles... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 I hope this isn't the end. They've been one of the most important companies for modeling in recent memory. Extremely high quality kits of subjects no one else was touching, and raised the game on molding and instructions. Guess I'll put in a big order for the things on my wishlist, just in case. But all thoughts should go to the team, who may be losing their livelihood now after 10 years on the job. Matt williamj 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Unfortunately, also according to posts on the WW1 Aviation forum, Aviattic may also be closing its doors because of this shutdown. If you need anything guys, you might want to support both right now before they're gone for good. Matt Alburymodeler, williamj and coogrfan 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanKB Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 1 hour ago, ade rowlands said: Shame if true. I was looking forward to the Lancaster nose section kits. Wanted 2 or 3 of those. And I was looking forward to buying them from you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanKB Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 46 minutes ago, Gazzas said: Great Post! He must have decided that all of his projects wouldn't be funded by his own personal wealth. I can understand that some people make that kind of stand. I just find it odd that WNW isn't more self-sufficient. By subsidising WNW with his own cash, he could still guarantee top quality kits, not produced to a budget & timetable that are both too small. If the losses were reasonable, he could do that without pouring in million upon millions every year. I think maybe us guys were subsidising PJ business? Without our purchases, the costs would be very high Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony T Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 17 minutes ago, Jennings Heilig said: I don't think Hornby has a proverbial pot to p**s in right now, so the odds of their picking up the WnW line and suddenly launching into a line of 1/32 kits seems prettttttttty far-fetched to me. I just pray they stay around long enough to get their new 1/72 Vulcan out the door. Amen. Would be nice if they moulded it in the UK, as they did with the Victor. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts