Quote:
Originally posted by exhaust smoke
Just been accessing the HLJ advanced search on all Tamiya kits (including deleted). What do they do with the deleted kit's moulds? I know that they delete kits due to licensing, but would it not be great if they could still produce one-off's on a demand basis?
I for one can think of ten or twenty that I'll really want!! What would you guys want to have a copy of if you could??
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The molds are intact, because they are precious assets. Only a few were updated, such as the 1st Gen RX-7 or more recently, the 350Z.
Manufacturing takes only a few days to shoot hundreds of plastic kits, so they produce them by demand basis because of business reasons, but not the licensing problem.
For example, there was a distributor, who agreed to buy 4000 (?) kits of 1/12 Tyrrell P34, so Tamiya reissued it for them.
Reissue isn't just installing a mold and turn the machine on, but it has to be cleaned and polished by skilled craftsmen, and even a metal mold does get damaged, so it has to be repaired by hand.
Only McLaren molds are currently at idle, because the contract is short term basis.