Small Scale Military Headquarters

Assuming that the Monkeydepot Blammo clearance is a prelude to 21st Century's demise, is it possible someone here could contact Roy Sutherland to do a Q&A session to give an insider's viewpoint of 21st Century and model collecting as a whole. If 21st were to be really dead, Sutherland might feel free to candidly comment on the good and bad on not just 21st but models in general. I'm not necessarily looking for a "tell all" Q&A session, but just the insider's perspective from one who was a leader in the field

I'd bet that he had to sign a NDA for 21st so I really wouldn't expect him to say anything.

CENT-ONE:

I'm not a lawyer, but if 21st is kaput, would a non-disclosure agreement still be valid?

Under most circumstances, yes, it would. It depends a little on how it was written, but most NDA's remain valid for the specified term, even if the originating company folds. I am actually surprised that Roy has been able to do what he has in the field after leaving 21st - most companies will require a non-compete that excludes essentially any kind of competitive activity, even indirect.

I believe Roy doesn't work for 21st anymore, pretty sure I read something about his leaving several months back, on Hyperscale?

Roy is noww running his own business with BarracudaCals :

http://www.barracudacals.com/

phil

Most NDA's extend 6 months to a year after exit date, and like fiero dude mentioned, there's almost always a non-compete clause included, ESPECIALLY in any type of design/consumer product business. Back when I worked corporate design there was usually about a year lead time before product hit the shelf. Without a NDA/NC contract I could have quit and taken my inside knowledge to the highest bidding competitor (not that I would have). Not to mention that it would be extremely unprofessional to comment in a public forum on the current publicly unknown status of a former employer.

CENT-ONE:

To clarify things, my original post said IF 21st is truly kaput, could/would Roy Sutherland be invited to comment about 21st and on models in general, and I didn't want it to be a "tell all" format.
Most of what is discussed about 21st on SSHQ is speculation. It would be enlightening to hear Roy confirm or deny such speculation, not to mention his vast knowledge of models in general.

Ah, misread you on that, my bad. I thought you were asking if he would comment on the current status of 21st, I missed the IF 21st is kaput part.

I agree that it would be great to have some inside perspective on what happened/is happening.

Of course the flip side of that is 21st would likely have to be confirmed dead for us to get said info.

I'm on the fence as to wether or not I want to know for certain that they're gone. It's nice to still have some hope of a comeback and seeing future releases. On the other hand, if this is it then it'd be nice to know for sure so we can all stock up before there's nothing left.

CENT-ONE:

Just for starters, I'd like to know the stories behind the Ritchie F-4, the Bush Avenger, etc. Not to mention a lot of fascinating insights that Sutherland could provide from being behind the curtain on models in general that aren't readily visible from the collectors' viewpoint---the process of making a model from Step 1 to production, for example.

a "how it's made" type timeline of the entire production process would be really cool.

I am still failing to see how people are correlating the sale at Monkey Depot to 21st going under. Call me crazy, but usually when companies know their supply of something that is still in high demand will no longer be made, they raise the prices, not slash them drastically.

The sale at MD is because MD needs to vacate one of their storage warehouses, where they happen to keep most of their stock of 21st Century items. They don't want to pay the rent for the extra building anymore because of the hard economic times. That's it. If you're looking for signs of 21st going under, I think you'll have to look elsewhere.


-Kevin