Who has the molds?

[bobb428]

F-14?
F-4?
A-10= destroyed?
AH-1W?
F-15?
SU-27?

[flayrah]

It's anyone's guess what happens to any molds (RE: 21st Spitfire), but some companies just destroy them when they decide they're no longer needed. Seems like a lot of money to pay for something just to abandon it in couple of years, but there's probably some write-off or other process where the company might actually make money by destroying property. Before TJ Maxx and Marshalls and Big Lots and other stores we have today, it was common for wholesalers and retailers to destroy finished products rather than release them to market. It makes little sense to me, but that's on a level of business above my pay grade.

[tmanthegreat]

I know that the 21c AH-1W tooling was destroyed (along with the Spitfires) that happened back while 21c was still in business and was a reason why we only ever got the two Supercobras and four Spitfires. The A-10 we could classify as "lost" since we know it was stolen by Jack Plonka of Skyworks Toys; it's likely been destroyed but we can't confirm that exactly. 21c never had a prototype for their F-4 Phantom, but Admiral Toys did. AT also had prototypes for an A-1 Skyraider and SBD Dauntless, though that really wouldn't be needed now. I would assume that the tooling for the JSI F-14, F-15, and SU-27 may still exist, though it seems likely JSI has put off making those new planes or further incarnations of the F-14. I did once hear rumors from a credible source that there may yet be another F-14 repaint, but there's obviously no proof at this point and I would say the long-gestating FW-190 is far more of a likelihood than another F-14...

[bobb428]

Wouldnt it be easy for a company like Merit to copy the existing AH-1W to do new molds? Just curious.

[YT]

Wouldnt it be easy for a company like Merit to copy the existing AH-1W to do new molds? Just curious.

Developing a prototype is small potatoes compared to the cost of cutting steel molds. They can run hundreds of thousands of dollars.