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Bad news from Danbury Mint


Harry P.

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You all know that Danbury's entire tooling was "confiscated" by the Chinese government some time ago (at least, that was the story as I heard it)... putting DM in a tough spot. Now even more bad news from what used to be the premier 1/25 diecast model car manufacturer. Got a letter in the mail the other day...

"Dear Classic Car Preview Society member,

... regrettably, I must announce the end of this popular program. We are no longer able to cost-effectively produce enough new models to continue the Preview Society"...

:(

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No this this means that you have Danbury mint Orignal series.You wil be able to purchase, the New Danbury mint series at Harbor Freight stores soon, for about $10.00 bucks a piece. These will have paperwork titles written in Chinese.

Edited by my80malibu
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No this this means that you have Danbury mint Orignal series.You wil be able to purchase, the New Danbury mint series at Harbor Freight stores soon, for about $10.00 bucks a piece. These will have paperwork titles written in Chinese.

I wouldn't be totally surprised if something like that happened. After all... somebody has the DM tooling... :unsure:

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So does this mean that the chinese government have noticed that the western companys have been getting cheap stuff but still charging us all million aire prices ? Seems that the chinese have waited till we all rely on them and then try to hold us to ransom ???????

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Sorry, no sympathy for any American manufacturer that out sources to China and gets reamed in the process. People wonder why our economy is so bad, this is a big part of it, no worries about what happens when you want to move assets out of your control to a country infamous for piracy of anything that will hurt the American economy.

Man, stuff like this really burns my buns!

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Sorry, no sympathy for any American manufacturer that out sources to China and gets reamed in the process. People wonder why our economy is so bad, this is a big part of it, no worries about what happens when you want to move assets out of your control to a country infamous for piracy of anything that will hurt the American economy.

Man, stuff like this really burns my buns!

Not a good point at all. Thousands upon thousands of American companies have outsourced at least portions of their product manufacturing to countries like China, Korea and India to make them more affordable. We live in a GLOBAL ECONOMY and there's no way around it. Any exception to the rule is just that –– a minor exception. We just have to get used to it, and other kvetching is totally unrealistic. Which one of us can make it change? Boycott outsourced products? Not a chance.

Edited by sjordan2
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The Danbury Mint name still has enormous value. Going to their web site it doesn't appear as if they are active with new releases of automobiles. Are they facing starting over from scratch? Hopefully they will find the time, energy and capital to release more fine automobile models.

Companies like Revell and Round2, among others, have to have noticed. When you hear/read about "intellectual property" and the lack of due legal process in developing countries such as China this is what is being talked about. Danbury Mint's investment in tooling and design appears to be all gone now, with, most likely, no recourse. There is a trend, just beginning now, of repatriation of production back to home countries where holders of copyrights at least have some hope of legal protection. Combine that with rampant inflation in many developing countries, where labor rates are rising at more than 10% per year and land prices exploding, and you have an argument for rebuilding rich country industrial capacity. But it is a costly and painful learning process. Ideally US production for what is likely these companies' largest market is the best solution. It may be coming...

Edited by Bernard Kron
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Skip's point about this being a world economy and there's nothing we can do about it is correct, but I doubt affordability was the driving concern to moving their product line to China. If that were true, they would have lowered their prices when they moved making them more affordable. It was all about the dollar and being able to keep a larger portion for themselves, which in itself is not wrong, just good business. Too bad they picked the wrong country to outsource too.

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We had a company in australia here that made work boots , and they moved their production over to vietnam . Ok the wages are not high there BUT they stll sell the boots for $100 ! When i emailed them and told them how upset i was at the lose of jobs and how they STILL sold the boots at the original price they told me they still make gum boots here ??????? Thats when i asked the question , that i stll havnt got answer for - WHEN EVERYBODY HERE HAS NO MORE JOBS AND ARE ON WELFARE ------ WHO BUYS YOUR PRODUCT THEN ???????????? Yep i understand we all want to make money and live a decent life but in my eyes it's just greed , and i think these countrys are seeng that and thinking well hey if they get that much for a little outlay why dont we do it and cut out the little man .

It's happening right now in the beef industry here in australia the buyers are NOW buying up all the beef farms and supplying their country with beef and shipping it home , cheaper to them but the governments of these countrys are makin a killing doing it this way . And this country makes NUTHING out of the deal and the government don't see it as they see it as GOOD BUISNESS ????

If we are not careful WE will become the 3rd world countrys .

Sorry about the rant but thats how i see it folding out , just look at how many pepole are on welfare here and in the states .

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Move your operations to a communist country, expect your stuff to be taken for the general good.

Yep. You never know what will happen when you deal with a totalitarian government. It's a shame that DM lost all their tooling this way. Their models were state-of-the-art, spectacular detail and quality. Worth every penny, IMO. And now... poof! Gone.

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This Charger is just one of many DM models I own. This is the kind of detail/quality we're talking about:

charger-4.jpg

That is some nice detail, if you don't mind that there are MANY things wrong with it. Seriously, as modelers some of us complain about every new release and pick apart every detail. There are so many things wrong in that picture I don't know where to begin. If that is the kind of "detail/quality" that DM was know for I'm glad I never laid out any money for their stuff.

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Well, he said "detail", not "accuracy". They're two entirely different things, ya know...

What's the point of adding detail if its not accurate ??? Would you win a contest with a model if it had 30 spark plug wires because it has more detail than they guy who only put 8 on their model ???

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