why cant model companies update their old molds

For the simple reason that in order to make new molds they have to REDO the WHOLE process that went into creating those molds in the first place.

Now as a business which is more viable spending money on fixing/improving something old that is still fairly ok or to produce a new item to sell?

I think I saw it once quoted that it takes PLAYMOBIL 250.000+USD to produce 1 new figure for their range from design to actually producing the item.
Now the cost might have come down since a lot of the new molds are made from 3D CG graphics and a laser cutter that shapes the molds.

I'm sorry, but the Revell/Monogram molds have to be decades old, and I'm sure that they have paid for themselves by now.....it's time to remold, and there are NO excuses....expecially if they want to keep/make more customers!!!! The quality of kits have increased too dramatically for the old raised panel line kits to sit back, and pretend the technology doesn't exist.

Grant it the cost of the making new molds is very expensive but you'd think just a 6 month run and you be back in the black, and like their more popular kits like the B-17's, P-40B, P-51D they themselves would absorb the cost of making all new molds for their inventory, and even come out with different kits like an A-2, A-3, A-5, or make a run of the old Soviet Block Aircraft from the Antinov's to the YAK's, and maybe the whole fleet of Japanese WWII aircraft to boot too

Not sure how it works overseas.

Over here the main cost is NOT the mold, but the process and design of it PLUS the licencing issues whenever details are changed.
The guys over here are very strict with licences and ALL changes to a licenced item need to be approved by the licence holderas it might entail a new licence/royalties that need to be calculated.

I know that Ferrari gives Tamiya quiet a bit of grief over their designs.

As for Ferrari; the only way for a regular person to own such a car is to buy the model kit, and thats why Ferrari zapp's the model companies for royalties because that the only way they could stay in business unlike Ford or GM they just flood the market with less expensive cars, and as for the aircraft who does the model companies pay royalties to if the manufacturer is no long in exsistance?, like Consolidated(Convair),Curtis, Chance Vought, Vega, McDonnell Douglas General Dynamics, Fairchild, Republic grant it a few of those where bought out by other manufactures but they really don't use those names anymore, just their products

You know I think your right. I stay away from Monogram because I don't think that their kits are up to snuff. If that B-29 or C-47 or B-24 kits were made today (among others) there is no doubt that they would be much higher quality. I agree Monogram wake up and smell the coffee. Time to throw away the old molds and start fresh. If Hasegawa can do it to their F-4's then Monogram should do it also.

Many manufacturers create new molds with recessed lines based on other manufacturers kits, so it can't be that hard or expensive. Trumpeter's F-5 is a modified Italeri kit and I'm pretty sure Academy's A-10 is a modification of Hasegawa's.

72cuda
Several years ago over on the model RR side, GM,s attorneys got really nasty with people about producing and selling models of GM cars and trucks in the commonly accepted RR scales without a royalities agreement. Even showed up at trade shows armed with injunctions forbidding the manufacture and sale of said models.

As far as what happens to the royalties for "fallen flag" companies, they go to the company which has absorbed them (For example royalties for Douglas, North American and McDonald now go to Boeing). In most cases the company holding royality rights isn't interested in makeing money but in making sure that the end product does not put the holding company in a bad light. At the time of the incidents I mentioned in the first paragraph, the article I was reading said that Boeing was requesting $5.00 per type for a royality, whereas GM was requesting $20 to 25 thousand per type. It's still based upon greed.

Lets also not forget that many companies operate from a country where there is a legal vacuum when it comes do copyright enforcement and similar.

It is geting better as more countries join the copyright treaties/etc. and start to enforce them, but there are still MANY places where you can do whatever you want.

Go to China, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, etc and see what is sold openly and obviously a pirate/unlicenced good. DVD's you pay maybe $18 for sell for as little as $1.50 openly.

Revell has retooled some of them such as the F-15E Strike Eagle I am working on. It is as well scribed as any Hasegawa I have seen.
The problem is that they need to retool more of them.

Mike

Royalties to Enzo Ferrari, OK I can see that, or General Motors. They are private and developed the products, the name , the reputation. But why should there be a royalty on a B-17, F-86, P-51, B-24. These were paid for by the U.S. taxpayers from start to finish. If anyone should get the royalty it should be the US government.

OOPS silly me. I forgot the US government paid to have "Tang" and "Gator Aid" developed (for the space program) and the professor got the royalties, not even a dollar went to the University of Fla. (I think that was the University involved)

As for Ferrari's reputation, I remember a guy from Texas who ran circles around Enzos finest, and took 1st ,2nd, and 3rd in almost every race they entered against Ferrari, and Porche for that matter. Remember Carrol Shelby and the Cobra's.

I agree with the greed but like the military items Those manufactures already hit their pot of gold when Uncle Sam signed the check, But you know the Automotive companies and their compatition within their relm of each other, but the question is could the model Manufactures do this slight modifaction to their molds with out doing a complete retool of the molds and save money in the process?, I think it could be done and with the new technologies in welding and materials this minor wire modifaction should be a big bread winner but how could US THE MODELERS convence the manufacturer