Meng and WnW

[DonH]

So, can we expect a new Lancaster in the near future? 

[LSP_Mike]

Yes. Wait right there. It will be along any time now, just wait there...

[Hacker]

What could be a more realistic assessment one could think like a lot of companies they could just open another company under another name and sell the molds to themselves. It has happened before many time but whether it happens or not is problematic in nature

 

Hacker   

[vince14]

PJ wouldn't even need to do that - all he'd have to do is re-open the company and hire staff as WNW didn't go bust, it was voluntarily closed.

[vince14]

It's noticable that a number of the Facebook groups where this rumour originated from have now removed the posts...

[cbk57]

While I believe someone should keep making some of the WNW kits, The idea that Meng or anyone else just buys them all seems dubious at best.  There are a lot of dogs in there from a sales perspective that would be hard to get value out of so you would have to buy a lot of the tooling on the cheap to make a go of it.  WWI planes are beautiful but they are not high demand even by the standards of plastic models.  So there will be a good market for the best sellers but the rest will be hard to make money on.

 

Part of what helped WNW kits sell were the beautiful box art, the effort in the instructions, the support on the website, so there was a whole cache about it that Meng or anyone else is not going to have.  From here on they are just another model kit if someone else is selling them.  There was even a reasonable perception that they were limited production and so from the start held some value unlike other kits.  So the market then will be a lot harder to sell the more esoteric subjects.

 

Now take the Meng Dr.I you know that unless Meng goes under it is never going away, it will be reissued probably for decades.  

Edited December 1, 2020 by cbk57

[Marcleon]

Hmmm.. last time I posted on this I got shot down and burned... could happen again. The fact that WNW went bankrupt is easy to verify... the chances of someone picking up the moulds and doing something with them is just so likely... if it is Meng I say Hooray! (Picks up bullet-proof vest and runs....) Regards and salutations, no disrespect to anyone.. Marc.

[thierry laurent]

I do not understand the Idea that PJ would keep the ownership of the molds. This simply makes no sense as this will cost him money. His subcontractors will not go on hosting them for free and the probability of re-release profitability is more questionable in the future than it already was when WnW stopped activities. I'm sure this is just a matter of time before seing at least the most popular coming back, albeit very probably in a simplified packaging.

[vince14]

1 hour ago, Marcleon said:

Hmmm.. last time I posted on this I got shot down and burned... could happen again. The fact that WNW went bankrupt is easy to verify... the chances of someone picking up the moulds and doing something with them is just so likely... if it is Meng I say Hooray! (Picks up bullet-proof vest and runs....) Regards and salutations, no disrespect to anyone.. Marc.

The problem with your theory is that WNW didn’t go bankrupt, PJ closed the company so all assets remain his.

[vince14]

1 hour ago, thierry laurent said:

I do not understand the Idea that PJ would keep the ownership of the molds. This simply makes no sense as this will cost him money. His subcontractors will not go on hosting them for free and the probability of re-release profitability is more questionable in the future than it already was when WnW stopped activities. I'm sure this is just a matter of time before seing at least the most popular coming back, albeit very probably in a simplified packaging.

I think PJ is quite protective of his IP, he had almost all of the sets for the LotR destroyed so they couldn’t be used in other films and the full-scale Lancaster reproductions he had made for the (now dead) Dambusters film are still languishing in a warehouse in China. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he retained the molds.

 

Honestly, I believe all these rumours about the molds resurfacing are either wishful thinking or mischief.

[Rick Griewski]

I went down my WNW discussion punch list and I bet all that can be said has been said. So back to your benches gentlemen. COVID-19 will be “over soon”. and we will not have the time to build like we do now. 
LOL.  

[GrahamF]

Judging by the amount of Lancaster Aftermarket we've sold I think producing another Lancaster kit would be a real money loser.

Graham 

[cbk57]

23 minutes ago, GrahamF said:

Judging by the amount of Lancaster Aftermarket we've sold I think producing another Lancaster kit would be a real money loser.

Graham 

Thanks for the insight.  I don:t have the perspective of a manufacturer, but my instinct is that 1/32 4 engine bombers as a whole are not a great investment if one is considering injecting them and selling them.   The number of people on this planet that have the time, inclination, the space, and all other applicable conditions precedent to buying such a model and after market has to be increadibly small.

 

 Take me for example I can afford to buy a kit like this, I could even build it,(it would take me a year or two) but I could never display such a thing in my home and it would take too much space in my workshop.  

 

From what i could gather, the WNW Lancaster was about 90% done, maybe more, but was never fully completed to a retail sellable standard.  I suspect that from what we saw on line of these that they were going to be an injection and parts nightmare.  Think in terms of the over detailed dragon kits from 10 or 15 years ago, where they were doing final drives on the panzer iv with individual bolts, which is what the molding reminds me of on the WNW samples.  They have a lot of stuff they were trying to mold, that you would never see molded at that detail level like wire harnesses.  Then there was the stressed skin.  My belief is the kit is not ready for prime time and no one is ever going to spend the money to finish it.

Edited December 1, 2020 by cbk57

[Basta]

1 hour ago, vince14 said:

I think PJ is quite protective of his IP, he had almost all of the sets for the LotR destroyed so they couldn’t be used in other films and the full-scale Lancaster reproductions he had made for the (now dead) Dambusters film are still languishing in a warehouse in China. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he retained the molds.

 

Honestly, I believe all these rumours about the molds resurfacing are either wishful thinking or mischief.

Bingo, we have a winner. Anyone who has been sitting on full scale mock-ups of a Lancaster for years for a stillborn movie and trashes tens of millions in film sets is not likely to be pressed to sell off some obscure WW1 model moulds. Though this does beg the question of why he disbanded WNW in the first place... 

[DeanKB]

5 minutes ago, MARU5137 said:

so now it will be MengNuts I presume!

 

NoNuts more like!