MMP Co. Ltd. - Ebbro bankruptcy

[JM]

Thats very sad. I like their kits. Fortunalely I ordered quite a lot of their Lotus 49, 49B and 49C kits for vaious conversations.

[gp-models]

Sad news and like said, it will raise the price for speculators pretty much

[indycals]

Italeri has been buying up old tooling - this wild be a HUGE upgrade for them if they could get Ebbro tooling.

[lezdep]

Italeri has been buying up old tooling - this wild be a HUGE upgrade for them if they could get Ebbro tooling.

That would be great, considering the speed Italeri releases plastic kits. However I am not sure they ever done
1/20 scale kit. Might be to foreign for them.

[Orso]

Another thing in favour of Italeri is their cooperation with Tamiya who is reboxing Italeri kits for the Japanese market. Getting the Lotus 25 parts for the Lotus 33 is what I'm thinking of.

[Marcel]

Sad News! If my perception is correct, there was never a re-release of their kits. I only remember first editions. Have they simply forgot to earn money with their work? Not an accusation, just a thought...

Marcel

[MoFo]

No, they've re-released stuff, or at least have made more inventory available if not an 'official' re-release.

Last kit out was a 3D printed sports car a month or two ago, so this is slightly surprising (but also, makes the long delays make sense - businesses don't want to NOT release stuff, so there's usually a reason, and "we can't afford to pay for further development" is a common one).

As for Italeri... HAVE they been buying tooling? Every reissue I can think of is either a Protar or Esci kit and they bought those toolings more than 30 years ago. I can't think of any recent acquisitions. I'm actually struggling to think of any manufacturers that would be a good fit; most of them are either small (Nunu), or struggling (Beemax, given their own delays), or just don't seem inclined to do it (Tamiya, Hasegawa, Fujimi). I almost think it seems most likely that one of the Chinese manufacturers would be the likeliest candidate, as an easy way to build up a new product line.

[BMW]

You might be right.

Italeri, yes they only re-released the 1/12 protar kits due to them launching their own line of 1/12 kits.
Fujimi has stopped re-releasing their F1 cars and have not made a new kit in ages. Though, they did re-release the old Modelers’ F1 cars during their storm into F1.
Hasegawa really stopped after the Lotus 79 problem
that only leaves Tamiya and they are not in the habit of buying moulds from others.

Trouble is, 1/20 is a rare scale and the Chinese brands all focus on armour and aircraft with the odd ship thrown in and only on the well known topics at that.