Wingnut Wings perhaps not out? EDIT: no, pretty sure they're out.

[RLWP]

7 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

If they aren't making new kits...  Then it really doesn't matter to me.   What is happening with Ronny Bar?  Has he said anything at all since they sacked everyone?

 

Why don't you ask him?

 

https://www.facebook.com/RONNY-BAR-Aircraft-Profiles-166538664131/

 

Richard

[Gazzas]

5 minutes ago, RLWP said:

 

Why don't you ask him?

 

https://www.facebook.com/RONNY-BAR-Aircraft-Profiles-166538664131/

 

Richard

 

I would...  but I'm sure he has plenty of other pests who have asked him the same question.

 

But thanks for the link...  I'll check it out and see if he says anything noteworthy.

[Dave Williams]

We can play games with semantics and the current legal status of a corporation all we want, but for a year now, there has been little more than small release batches of the same group of kits that weren’t already sold out.  Whether it’s WNW in a small tent, or batches sold at Andy’s Hobby HQ or MBK, it’s the same stuff.  No indication of any new kits, repops of long sold out kits, or suggestion that they are in any way “back” other than selling some leftovers in a tent in a local air show, so I’m not sure that the fact that the company hasn’t been delisted means much as a practical matter.  A company existing in name isn’t the same thing as existing as a functioning business.

[KiwiZac]

I'm unsure why Radu is so invested in WNW's survival and convinced the company will go on but I think they're mistaken.

 

On 2/27/2021 at 10:41 AM, adameliclem said:

I hope that the excitable person who announced this exciting event is happy about getting people excited for...a remainder sale! Under a dark, sad tent! For people who have already spent a good chunk of change to get into the airshow!

I'm not. I'm disappointed too. I try to be optimistic in my day-to-day life and evidently that attitude was a mistaken one to adopt here.

  

12 hours ago, Pup7309 said:

Covid is pretty much over for Aus & NZ

Have to disagree given the latest alert level change which led to today's Wings Over Wairarapa airshow - the very event this thread centres on - being cancelled late last night, and the new cases we're getting almost daily.

  

On 2/27/2021 at 2:04 AM, RLWP said:

 

None of which are as disturbing as the shorts...

In their defence it was a VERY hot day out at Hood yesterday!! 

  

7 hours ago, SimonCornes said:

Zac,

If you were able to go to the show and see the Wingnut stand, did you ask how mail order might work?

I did get there, unfortunately the two or three staff onsite were very busy and my nephew and I were pushed for time. Plus I didn't want to take up time when there were genuine paying customers in line. I have to apologise for not being able to investigate my long-dormant journalistic muscles as I promised- I honestly didn't expect them to be so busy. Perhaps tellingly the only built/display model was a Camel that was broken and tacked onto a base instead of a display case.

 

Due to the previously-mentioned change in national COVID alert levels today's show was cancelled late last night so I expect whatever stock remained will be put back into stock added to any future online sale.

 

Edited February 28, 2021 by KiwiZac

[Bob MDC]

If I can pose another view having had the experience of working for a large model based PLC and I was involved closely with a film company on a miniatures project, another view perhaps !!

If you look at not WNW but Wingnut (the cover all company for all  PJ's ventures) then vector in "The Suit" interested only in numbers and has NO knowledge of any hands on process of anything.

"Now Then" last big film has just bombed lost so many millions so cut-backs must be made hence the WNW "closure" Suit now happy cut-backs have been made.

BUT several months down the line invoices for mould storage, moulds not used (Lancaster) and others appear Suit not happy, now Suit must be taken to a darkened room and very slowly explained the workings of a model company and with a bit of luck and without the aid of water boarding Suit understands and company can start back but not in any big way.

Just a different view 

Must try and tell the one about the Suit and the Dragon but may have the mods vet it first

 

ATB

Bob

[Pup7309]

This is just a guess but I don’t see him letting go of the ‘Wingnuts’ name. So who’s in control of the company the suit or Sir PJ?

 

PS You mean Smaug? Currently sitting on the biggest stash. Hope he doesn’t get told to incinerate the lot

Edited February 28, 2021 by Pup7309

[Pup7309]

32 minutes ago, KiwiZac said:

 

Just wondering did it look like they were re filling stock or just had one lot? Looks like a healthy selection on day 2 cheers. 

[Dave Wilson]

If Sir Peter Jackson wishes it, and allocates the budget to it, Wingnut Wings can be revived but the staff who made that business what it was have scattered to the four winds and based on how they say they were treated when they lost their jobs, I'd be surprised if they wanted to return for more.

 

The existing moulds can be re-used of course and new staff hired but would it be the same as before? Sir Peter is a detail fanatic which is why Wingnuts were the best WW1 kits in the world. I doubt he would be happy to just preside over a re-pop company and I doubt he would be happy to sell or licence the tooling to others under the Wingnuts (his brand) name. Don't forget Wingnut Wings was a side venture of the Wingnut group so SPJ is rather careful about protecting his brand name.

 

But for the optimists, new kit designers could be employed, new kits could be produced and presumably the Lancasters and Handley Page models could be completed.

 

For any of this to happen, Wingnut Group would have to be embarking on an expansion. At the moment they are at the very least in containment mode. Wingnut Wings was/ is wholly owned by Sir Peter and Lady Jackson. As such they can close the business, put it into a deep sleep, kill it or revive it.

 

Everyone would love to see the business revived but the image of a tent with a sell off of jumbled warehouse stock and a model of a Camel crudely blu-tacked to a base speaks volumes. More to the point, Sir Peter himself has not uttered one word of public comment about the Wingnuts shut down since the business was closed a year ago.

 

Dave Wilson

Gold Coast

Auistralia

[Kagemusha]

1 hour ago, KiwiZac said:

I try to be optimistic in my day-to-day life and evidently that attitude was a mistaken one to adopt here.

 

It isn't, stay optimistic.

[D.B. Andrus]

+1, emphatically!

[LSP_K2]

3 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

It isn't, stay optimistic.

 

Yep, agreed 100%

[Radub]

8 hours ago, KiwiZac said:

I'm unsure why Radu is so invested in WNW's survival and convinced the company will go on but I think they're mistaken.

 

 

I may be mistaken, indeed. But all I am saying is that if it looks like a duck, it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it may indeed be a duck.

As I already said many times here, WNW as we knew it is gone and may never be back. But WNW is still here in some other form. This "new form" may look "sad" and "disappointing" to some but it is what it is. 

Maybe it will be shut down, maybe the molds will be sold, maybe this, maybe that, but so far none of that has happened. These are the facts that anyone can see. THAT is all I am saying. 

Radu

 

[Kagemusha]

It's a bit like when a band splits up, you can still buy their old releases, which may stop being produced, might in time see the release of some recorded, but unfinished material, completed by record company choices, might even see the band reform with new members. The back catalogue could be sold to different companies, repackaged and released again. 

 

The WnW's situation isn't unique, it isn't set in stone, and there's more than one way to look at it. 

 

I doubt very much that Peter Jackson knows what's going to happen with WnW's. 

 

I still have the Dambuster Lanc on my Backorder list at Hannants even though it's classified as "finished", one day... 

[Panzerwomble]

At the risk of stating the obvious, a lot of kit manufacturers go through business problems and either bounce back or not . 

 

Airfix being the obvious one to me as a Brit ; huge in the 70's, went bankrupt in 1981, sales declined in the 90's , with Humbrol bouncing from owner to owner until going bust in 2006, now under Hornby it's turning around and looks like it will be around for decades to come, even if it resembles little of the company I knew as a child . 

 

Stay optimistic, my feel is those moulds will see the light of day again . 

Edited February 28, 2021 by Panzerwomble

[KiwiZac]

Thanks for the kind sentiments folks. I also re-read my OP and it seems pretty reasonable and level-headed!

 

I'd also like to say I want WnW to come back. I love the brand and the work by their former staff. I only have one of their kits but there are so many I want - it was a bit hard to see some of them in the tent and not be able to afford one! I'm not celebrating what to me appears to be the end and will be right up there among those celebrating should they resurface as I think we all hope.

 

It's just hard to visualise it right now. Especially knowing (kinda) how many exciting TVAL projects are stacked in containers somewhere instead of maybe debuting this weekend.

Edited February 28, 2021 by KiwiZac