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Defects, short shots and warpage


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 I wonder if we might see re-patriation of production

Unlikely as not only were the molds, etc outsourced, so were the jobs. with no one to employ that can do the job in usa, they simply can't. They just better hope the Chinese govt doesn't step in and nationalize their equipment, like has happened to a few other toy companies.

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Unlikely as not only were the molds, etc outsourced, so were the jobs. with no one to employ that can do the job in usa, they simply can't. They just better hope the Chinese govt doesn't step in and nationalize their equipment, like has happened to a few other toy companies.

Actually, there are plenty of people in the U.S. who can and do, run injection molding equipment.

My part of the country, for example, is still considered one of the leading areas of production for plastics of all production methods globally. 

About 25 miles northwest of me is Leominster, considered the birthplace of the modern plastics industry, which still has a very high concentration of machine shops, molding plants, suppliers, and other support businesses. 

Large plastics centers are throughout central and western Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. 

Nationally, large plastics businesses are in Ohio, Illinois, California, Michigan (where Lindberg's molds are located,) and other points in the Midwest. 

UMASS-Lowell (about 35 miles north of me,) has the largest plastics engineering program, offering B.Sc. through Ph.D., in America and is one of the largest in the world. 

The threat of the Chinese seizing property not rightly theirs alone would be enough concern for me to relocate someplace. Slimmer profits are better than none at all, or the total loss of your business. When profit motive overrides common sense, then you have a problem.

Charlie Larkin

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I will agree, however, that slightly larger box (say Galaxie-size,) might fix a lot of the problems. Even in the other kits, it's a pretty tight fit.

Charlie Larkin

X2 on that. I bought one of the 1971 Ford truck kits, opened it when I got home so I could look it over, and it took quite a while to figure out how to get everything back in the box without breaking or bending any of the parts. I can see how if the sprues were packed when they were even slightly warm they could very easily get warped or deformed.

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to get the Plymouth back in its box I had to cut down some sprues, liberate the chassis and put it under the body etc. then it fit back in the box and the lid was able to close completely. as it was all the parts sans the body would just barely fit back in the box

jb

 

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.....you know, I keep hearing Moebius problems like this, not to mention other issues with their ford pickups.....and I usually sit back on these type of threads and rarely jump in, however as far as I am concerned, this Moebius stuff is over priced , poorly packed, and highly overrated, as far as I'm concerned.  they will never see one cent of my dough, I can assure you...........the Ace........;)

I can certainly respect your viewpoint and opinion on this.  I myself have some concerns about the latest Moebius releases, based on other's experiences with warpage, and some of the fidelity issues with the Ford pickups.  Neither the '65 Plymouth or the Ford trucks particularly interest me, so I'm probably not going to have to deal with those issues for those specific kits.

I am looking forward to the '61 Pontiacs and the '65 Comet, though, so I'm really hoping they get any packaging/warping issues resolved with their manufacturing plant before those are released.  I will say that the previous Chrysler and Hudson kits I've bought all seemed very well packaged and organized.  A step beyond what I'm used to from traditional "U.S. branded" kits.

I will say that since I got back into the hobby a couple years ago, what I buy is about a 50/50 mix between Revell and Round2.  I haven't had to return a kit from any manufacturer due to defects, which was not the case back in the 80s/90s when I was first building.

As far as the pricing issue goes, as long as a Moebius kit isn't warped, etc., I feel they are much more justified in their pricing compared to some of the Round 2 releases within the last year.  At least the Moebius kits are modernly designed, well detailed kits, even if there may be some inaccuracies.  The problem is many of the Round 2 reissues are listing for about the same cost from many retailers.  The latest example of this is the '79 Trans Am kit which is pushing $30 MSRP.  From the discussion in that kit review thread, pretty much everyone agrees that that is a vast overreach, since the only real difference/improvement in the latest release is the decal sheet.

Many of these old AMT/MPC kits have glaring inaccuracies that would result in 30 pages of discussion if they were newly tooled kits (sectioned '32 Vicky body, anyone?).  The difference is that most of these issues have been known for years, so the typical member of this forum would go into a purchase of one of these kits with the full knowledge of what they were getting.

As discussed in the '79 T/A thread, the Round 2 reissues seem very hit or miss.  As a consumer, it is much easier for me to justify some "premium" pricing if there has been some significant restoration of original parts to the tooling, such as the recent '36 Ford kit.  A kit like the '79 T/A, however, seems to be pretty much a straight repop of a kit that was issued not too long ago under RC2 ownership.  And if I can buy the brand new Revell '29 A roadster kit for about $5.00 less than that, it's not going to be a very hard decision on my part.

Edited by Robberbaron
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Unlikely as not only were the molds, etc outsourced, so were the jobs. with no one to employ that can do the job in usa, they simply can't. They just better hope the Chinese govt doesn't step in and nationalize their equipment, like has happened to a few other toy companies.

Dave Metzner explained that in a thread here.  The model companies today have a couple of employees and no manufacturing resources. They have a project manager in house and the rest is outsourced.  He said that there is no single company in the USA that can put out a turn key product... that is from the inception of mold design to shipping sealed boxes.  Yes, we may have companies that can do parts of it, but the companies have no resources who can run multiple contracts, pull it all together in one location and stuff the boxes.   So it's all done by one company in China.   

 

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Very interesting...I didn't realize what i had started, but a lot of information was revealed to me here, thanks. My original point was, that Round 2 (AND UNMENTIONED REVELL)  will go beyond the call of duty to solve kit problems. They are there for us, in spite of China or Mexico or whatever country. Some things are beyond their control, but simply writing to the company and filling out the request for parts form really does work, I got decals and a White truck cab replacement simply by asking for it...nicely that is. No bitching allowed or they won't respond!!!LOL

I like the Russian candy wrapper!   Not your everyday truck logo!   I know you saw it and your first thought was, "this will look so cool on a truck!"  :D

 

SANY0001.JPG

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You can't blame quailty control on all the problems with short shots or warped parts etc,  I work at a plastic factory, no we don't make models, wish we did, but it can be blamed on the operator of the presses, some don't care they get paid, some don't even look at the part they are sending out the door, some are in training not sure what is good what is bad, so if we as customers get bad parts don't be mad at the company, most of those jobs are out sourced to other factories, and then those parts get shipped to them, then bagged then boxed at their main hub, 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Brian, both of my Jo-Han Turbine kits (both the original issue and a 90's re-pop) had short shot exhaust ducts. It was the same pieces in both kits.

That must have been some kind of ongoing issue with the tool itself.

The re-pop had a much bigger had a much bigger "shortage' than the original did.

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