Reproduction Wingnutwings?

[Yamamoto]

does anyone know what this is about? a certain store on ebay sells rare models of wingnutwings such as, for example, Wingnut Wings - Hansa Brandenburg W.29 at strangely reduced prices as buy now with a note that the models will only be available in the first quarter of 2024 Has anyone bought the molds?

 

„Binding pre-order for indirect import. - Delivery in Q1 2024.

Shipping takes place from Germany!”

[vince14]

The general consensus is that it’s most likely a scam. There is no reliable information that the molds have been acquired by anyone and, if they were, it’s highly unlikely that some random seller on eBay would have first call on newly released WNW kits.

 

I’d avoid if I were you.

[LSP_Mike]

That.

[esarmstrong]

If it seems too good to be true, then it is.  This is a scam.

[CRAZY IVAN5]

Something smells about the whole thing , Stay the hell away from it! Nobody in their right mind would sell Wingnutwings kits that cheaply, I'm crazy and even I wouldn't do it.

[Rob Owens]

A few years ago there was an ebay seller from Germany offering knock-offs of OOP Cutting Edge 1/48 U-2/TR-1 resin detail/correction sets. The parts looked to have been recasts using original CE parts to make new molds, and he went so far as to copy instruction sheets and card headers from the originals. IIRC, CE complained to ebay, but got no relief.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Rob Owens
Spelling

[Christa]

Wingnut Wings kits raised the game. Their legacy lives and is healthy. The quality of Wingnut Wings' offer was much more than sprues. Meng's Fokker Dr 1 and Border's Avro Lancaster BI/III made that crystal clear.

 

Bootlegged Wingnut kits? Forget it.

[Borsos]

15 hours ago, Yamamoto said:

“Shipping takes place from Germany!”

Just forget it. From Germany?

Buying the molds from a defunct company, finding someone in Asia who produces kits with them, importing the kits to Germany, selling them….

just no way. We write bureaucracy with a capital B. You’d be dead before you’d be half through the paperwork.

[thierry laurent]

I'm still wondering how we are regularly seeing new 'last' batches of WnW kits coming on ... MBK in Germany recently got another one. If I accepted the story of the remaining stock stored in a warehouse some years ago I don't buy it anymore as we got at least five times an arrival of a 'last' stock... If you look at the status of discontinued kits from other companies, you do not see that phenomenon going over years and years...

[Violator1991]

Yeah. That's probably Peter Jackson himself trying to raise some funds for his chapter four of the Lord of the Rings.

[cbk57]

On the Bench podcast in the most recent episode noted that the business entity rights for Wingnut Wings was renewed in New Zealand.  I would not be jumping on some ebay seller claiming these are coming in 2024.  But I doubt these kits are gone forever either.  I don:t think Peter Jacksons ego will let this forever go dead.  I do think it matters to him to some degree.

[Yamamoto]

so yes, friends. I ordered two models from this seller, as I wrote, it was Hansa Brandenburg and Junkers. After a week, however, I gave up because I couldn't find any mention of reproductions of these wingnutwings models anywhere and asked for a refund of the money I paid. The seller refunded my money without any problems. and now there remains an interesting question posted by cbk57...

[Dave Williams]

I’m not sure that renewing the business entity rights really means much.  Doesn’t that just mean that the company still exists, at least on paper?  It doesn’t necessarily mean that they couldn’t have sold, or rented, the molds to someone else.  Reboxes of kits from companies that still exist and are still actively making kits are quite common.  As far as copying OOP resin stuff, like CE stuff, that’s fairly easy.  Copying an injection molded kit means spending money on making a new mold, which is a lot more investment than most copiers would go to, plus to make it anywhere near the same quality would be very expensive.  I agree, a lot of things about this seem very sketchy, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely impossible.

 

Is there a link to these eBay listings?  I can’t find anything.

[Christa]

Thanks Scott

 

I have no head in this industry, but I am interested to learn that Wingnut Wings business entity rights have been renewed if only to warn off freeloaders and to keep WnW excellent website alive.

[Bill Cross]

I second the caution that many of you have recommended, but I am unconvinced these molds are not being used by someone. Having done business in China for over 2 decades, it is simply impossible to know where the skeins of relationships lead, and whether someone isn't selling **** "out the back door." In terms of intellectual property, it's a much more wide-open market than in the US or certainly Europe, so until we hear DEFINITIVELY that these are NOT Wingnut Wings models, I would not assume these kits are dead and gone. The periodic "discovery" of "new stocks" of kits leads me to believe someone in China is still pumping these things out.

 

Remember, Peter Jackson and crew weren't pouring these molds in a warehouse in New Zealand. And once you contract with a Chinese factory for almost anything, unless you post a 24 hour-a-day guard around said factory, you have no way of controlling the flow out of the "back door."

Edited November 29, 2023 by Bill Cross