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Where are the new Volkswagen models?


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Does anyone know why there haven't been any new Volkswagen kits issued of newer Volkswagens?

Licensing costs for one. I've also been told VW is not easy to deal with and got a lot of new staff in their licensing arm two years ago or so.

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Probably licensing costs. VW is notoriously predatory in that regard and also notorious for siccing the lawyers at the slightest provocation.

but the cars are so popular it could well be some model companies like fujimi or Tamiya may get around to doing some.

jb

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there could be an entirely different set of circumstances in licensing "old" (read: air cooled) models vs modern or even 1st gen water cooled cars. for a whole lot of different reasons including just that VW doesn't give a darn about licensing their name out, so they play hardball and want a lot of $.

personally I don't think VW is anything special since they dropped their support of their air cooled cars. but someone is buying the water cooled ones! and I have to admit some of their designs are pretty nice...still a lot of the "when I grow up I wanna bmw but meanwhile I will pretend with this jetta" feel to them though.

jb

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I am not so sure its Licensing , as VW is owned by VAG, which also owns just naming a few, Audi and Lamborghini , Seat, Skoda, and we have seen Revell /AG do the Audi R8 , Aoshima/Fujimi with their Lamborghini kits, Fujimi/Tamiya with their Porsche kits, Bellkits are currently doing a VW Polo, and they also have Skoda kits, and those are License kits.

I really have no idea how the VAG handles their licensing.

Edited by martinfan5
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You might check your local VW dealer. Mine had three or four 1/24 die cast Jettas and Sportwagons awhile back. Pricey, but very, very nice. I don't have any idea who produced them for VW, but they were in the parts department's Beetle Boutique.

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In my eyes it would be nice to see more modern european cars that is not a super/hypercar thing. Here in Norway, VW has been on the top of the salescharts since the 50s and the Passat and the Golf has been and still is the biggest sellers. There is some more modern cars out there, I got Revell mk1 Ford Focus in their Tuner series that I plan to modify in to a more standard looking Focus, I also got first generation Toyota Yaris, the 2010 Prius and a 2003ish Nissan Micra. Then I belive Fujimi or Hasegawa got the new Mini (both the one from 2001 and the ca 2010 model) and Revell has a 1998-2005 Mercedes W220 S-class. I also got a Revell kit of the first generation Mercedes A-class (the one that didn't do corners).

But thinking about it, these are 15 years old already....hmm....

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VW can be notoriously difficult to deal with, RE licensing. They seem to be very insistent on making sure that the only VW models and diecasts are exactly to German spec (went through that several times while working up Johnny Lightning 1/64 scale diecasts.

They were sorely PO'd that the JL 1/18 Herbie (you know, the Disney Love Bug) we did had no VW badges--well guess what Wolfsburg! The movie car had all it's VW scripts and badges stripped off (in the script, it's referred to as either "The Little Car" or "Herbie"--true to the original children's book. We licensed our diecasts (and the 1/24 scale Polar Lights snapper) directly through Disney Studios and VW couldn't really do much about it, but they sure let us know their unhappiness when we wanted to do those larger scale models in VW markings and colors. It was the same with the JL 1/64 scale Type 2 Samba's, and the 1/64 scale Karmann Ghia--along with the beetles, we wanted to do them as US Spec, but the "goose-stepping" folks at Wolfsburg would have none of that.

Oh well, another saga in the story of licensing! (Ask me about Hispano-Suiza sometime!)

Art

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Do you honestly think that they would SELL enough Volkswagen kits to even break even???

Do you really think they would sell less well than Japanese cars? Those certainly seem to work for Tamiya, Aoshima et al.

Might not be huge sellers in the US, but we are not always the target audience.

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You'd think there would be a kit of the newer GTIs, R34, new new Beetle or Scirocco, :unsure:

I'm looking forward the upcoming MKI Golf GTI from Revell, but I'd be interested in any air-cooled models if they would re-do them. Its a crime there were never any kits of a Type 3 or 181.

Edited by Zarana-X
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Kits of all the Type 3s... Notchback, Fastback, Squareback and Karmann Ghia. Peace and love across the world...

Fixed.

Type 3 Ghia. Not sold in the US cause it would "confuse" people with two Karmann Ghia offerings. And It looked too much like a Corvair... :rolleyes:

volkswagen-karmann-ghia-type3-1963.gif

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