Would it not be great if...

[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??

[tonioseven]

All of their Mercedes-Benz kits and all of their Skyline kits (street and racing)

[bigfrit]

Peugeot 205 Group B and the jeep wrangler.

[hirofkd]

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??

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.

[primera man]

Originally posted by hirofkd


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.

...wow, alot more to it then i thought