Wingnut Wings... We Really Did Lose Something Special

[Adrian]

5 hours ago, Pup7309 said:

I missed the whole Accurate miniatures thing but a modeller told me their Helldiver was an excellent kit. Did their molds get re-popped or did they disappear in a train crash or accident at sea? Just wondering 

 

The Mitchell, Dauntless, Avenger, Vindicator (Chesaapeake) and IL2 are still regularly put back out by Italeri, Academy and sometimes Revell. 

 

Not seen the early Mustangs in another boxing but maybe I just missed it.

 

I loved the anticipation of what they would bring out next, I always enjoyed building their stuff.

 

[thierry laurent]

Molds do not disappear. Accurate Miniatures kits are now in the Italeri catalogue. This is also the case of the Trimaster kits that were initially re-released by Dragon. Old Lindberg kits were re-released by Glencoe and Polar lights did the same with Aurora kits... And I may add tons of similar examples.

[iang]

1 hour ago, thierry laurent said:

Molds do not disappear. Accurate Miniatures kits are now in the Italeri catalogue. This is also the case of the Trimaster kits that were initially re-released by Dragon. Old Lindberg kits were re-released by Glencoe and Polar lights did the same with Aurora kits... And I may add tons of similar examples.

 

Those companies went into liquidation and the moulds were sold-off.  This is not the case with WnW.  PJ can do what he likes with the moulds. He may decide to sell them, keep them or destroy them, so there is no certainty that they will surface again under a different label. The Meng Dr.1 could be a one-off.

[thierry laurent]

You are forgetting one important aspect. The heavy and bulky steel molds are not in the private warehouse of Peter Jackson. They are located in factories in China and Korea. Such actors are not going to keep them forever as such just because WnW stopped their releases. Of course, PJ could pay quite a lot of money to see them going to NZ and rust somewhere. But I don't think he is dumb. Moreover, the fact he possibly does not want the same kits to be released by someone else way be understood in very different ways. In another box, with another brand label, other instructions and photoetched parts, is it still the 'same' kit? 

[iang]

Indeed, that is true. We will all just have to wait and see, but I think the situation with WnW moulds is not analogous to the demise of previous companies because WnW were the pet project of a very wealthy owner and the company has not gone into liquidation.  

Edited September 19, 2020 by iang

[Gary Needham]

IMHO, there are a number of considerations to suggest that WNW won't rise like a phoenix; or certainly anytime soon for those who seem convinced he will sell on his creations for others to re-box.

1. PJ does not 'need' the money and so entering into negotiations to sell may not, to his mind, be worth the hassle.
2. Talented and creative people like PJ (often) have egos to match and combined with 1, I think personally he will say that this was 'his baby' and 'vision' and no-one else. In terms of his overall business portfolio, the WNW re-sale of moulds money would be absolute peanuts and so given he destroyed the (multi-million $ ) LOTR film scenery sets rather than sell them on, it shows that money isn't his main driver and the WNW moulds would represent a mere fraction of the return compared to the potential sales he could have enjoyed with selling the LOTR stuff. 
3. Don't forget, some WNW kits such as the Brisfit and J1 fro example were in production many years (10+ in some instances) and many for about 7+ years and so, those who were going to buy them will already have done so. Those buying now are simply 'panic' buys by kit builders or 'investment' purchases by kit speculators. As such, the market moving forward to make a new production run (say 2K+) to make it worthwhile must be wildly optimistic and ultimately impossible to reach. Also, some models  -  I understand the Felixstowe was a disappointment in terms of sales but was made simply because PJ 'wanted' it to be made -  will have been very poor sellers right up to the end. Likewise, their new Gotha and UWD kits which you can still get today and even at less than retail price in some places appears to have no ready market even in the long term. Not all of the WNM kits will have the long term viability and sales market potential as stuff like the Alb DV/Dva, Camels, Pfalz DIIIa and DRVII's etc. There were a heck of a lot of 'esoteric' subjects in the range and think to yourself, how many of some in the range do you ever actually see built up at shows or on the internet or magazines as build articles...? Take the Salmson, the Rumpler and the Pfalz DXII for example. 
4. The looming and inevitable world recession makes 'luxury' products like this hard for any new model company buyer to make a profit (from scratch) and ensure long term viability of sales which recover any purchase costs of the tooling (and) make a profit.  Sadly of course, whoever knocks them out will always be seen as an inferior product to 'the real deal' in a WNW box anyway....look no further than the comments on this thread with Meng Models boxing the DR1. 

Gary

[scvrobeson]

15 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

Molds do not disappear. Accurate Miniatures kits are now in the Italeri catalogue. This is also the case of the Trimaster kits that were initially re-released by Dragon. Old Lindberg kits were re-released by Glencoe and Polar lights did the same with Aurora kits... And I may add tons of similar examples.

 

Academy also has some of the Accurate Miniatures molds.  The only AM kits that haven't been brought back are the F3Fs and the early Mustangs.

 

 

 

Matt 

[RadBaron]

21 hours ago, Pup7309 said:

I missed the whole Accurate miniatures thing but a modeller told me their Helldiver was an excellent kit. Did their molds get re-popped or did they disappear in a train crash or accident at sea? Just wondering 

Pretty sure "their" Helldiver was a repop of the monogram/promodeller kit.

 

https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/am/kit_am_480405.shtml

[Pup7309]

10 hours ago, RadBaron said:

Pretty sure "their" Helldiver was a repop of the monogram/promodeller kit.

 

https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/am/kit_am_480405.shtml

I could have got this mixed up with Avenger, maybe 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Pup7309

[Marcleon]

I don't really want to comment much, but a friend who works in company law has come across the papers filing for bankruptcy of a certain WNW.... if there is a real need or desire I can arrange for them to be reproduced here... but I think not, let us accept they are gone. The moulds themselves are subject to complex law bound up in the contracts initially signed... we may see them or not... Sad but inevitable. Regards, Marc.

[Kagemusha]

12 minutes ago, Marcleon said:

I don't really want to comment much, but a friend who works in company law has come across the papers filing for bankruptcy of a certain WNW.... if there is a real need or desire I can arrange for them to be reproduced here... but I think not, let us accept they are gone. The moulds themselves are subject to complex law bound up in the contracts initially signed... we may see them or not... Sad but inevitable. Regards, Marc.

 

So it's safe to assume they have debts, and the usual way for those to be repaid, is the sale of assets? 

[Dave Williams]

To be honest, I don’t get the fascination about what actually happened to WNW.  It’s really none of our business and changes absolutely nothing, because it’s already happened.  Fantasies about what they should have done are irrelevant, because things already went as did and it’s too late for woulda, coulda, shoulda.  And as far as whether their molds are available again, maybe they will and maybe they won’t.  But remember the kits were out there long enough for most people who wanted the kits to get them.  At this point, most of the demand for the kits are from people who want to get them just to have them, and many of them will never be built.  With few exceptions, like the W.29s, demand would drop sharply if the kits were released since it’s mostly artificial, caused by them closing shop.
 

Anyway, as the Meng DR.1 showed, there’s more to it than just the plastic.  Someone else reboxing the WNW plastic probably isn’t going to have the same appeal as the original WNW boxing.

[Basta]

1 hour ago, Dave Williams said:

To be honest, I don’t get the fascination about what actually happened to WNW.  It’s really none of our business and changes absolutely nothing, because it’s already happened.  Fantasies about what they should have done are irrelevant, because things already went as did and it’s too late for woulda, coulda, shoulda.  And as far as whether their molds are available again, maybe they will and maybe they won’t.  But remember the kits were out there long enough for most people who wanted the kits to get them.  At this point, most of the demand for the kits are from people who want to get them just to have them, and many of them will never be built.  With few exceptions, like the W.29s, demand would drop sharply if the kits were released since it’s mostly artificial, caused by them closing shop.
 

Anyway, as the Meng DR.1 showed, there’s more to it than just the plastic.  Someone else reboxing the WNW plastic probably isn’t going to have the same appeal as the original WNW boxing.

Yours is a recurring complaint about WnW speculation, as opposed to all the other mass of speculation here, which pretty much only occurs about this subject. I recall a similar gripe post in an earlier thread where a septigenarian swore by his father that he could not stand WnW and had had enough, dangit! Curiously, he got more than a few upvotes for that rather unpleasant imagery. 

 

No one rants vehemently against most of the speculative threads here, but WnW really gets under some people's skin. I assume that this is due to a resentment of the rich man's kit company and a certain sense of anti-elitism. Whatever the reason, it sure is "a thing." l doubt you'd have this going on if Tamiya suddenly up and closed shop. 

Edited September 20, 2020 by LSP_Mike
A comment best left out

[Kagemusha]

I just want their Dambusters Lanc. 

[Archimedes]

19 minutes ago, Kagemusha said:

I just want their Dambusters Lanc. 

I’d have taken any Lanc by them just to see how they did it vs HK. 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Archimedes
Typo