I will take this opportunity to chime in on this one. I have most of the information on this subject but not all the details so I will talk about what I can and only what I know for certain.
I have been in communication with old management of 21C for the past 3 months. There is a new name, some new management / strategy, and yes essentially a new company. I am not fully aware of the exact structure of this new company so I won't bother to speculate or expand on foggy details. That said it is not called 21C.
Because of my experience in working with 21C, this new company has hired my design firm to develop the new logo, look, website, packaging, and marketing materials as they begin the final phases of the company launch.
There is indeed an new repainted P-51D scheme waiting in the wings. Due to the start-up required and to ease into more offerings the strategy requires making use of the investments made in purchasing the 21C molds. This in part explains some of the reasons behind the C&D letters as well as some other reasons too I am told. The rest has to do with name use and so on.
So how true is this? Well as others have stated, we still need to see a plane in our hands. That said I can tell you that dollars are being spent, conversations are happening now almost on a daily basis, and I have instructions to launch by the end of the month. For me, this means art to China, and a live website, and marketing to push out. The new company is also looking to me to bridge back into the fan base so you guys are hearing things here first as usual.
Hopefully this means that better days are ahead for this hobby. I hope it means that they can take the better parts of 21C and maybe leave out some of the baggage / restraints that had come along with WM and mass retail. I know that the management's vision is to make the new brand more adult minded in subject. So hopefully bolder releases are in store.
They cannot be blamed I guess, seeing as how Merit and JSI did retailers a VERY bad turn with this color scheme mistake.
