Looks like a new repro decal option on the way (UK based)

[Truck Norris 2237]

1 hour ago, Frog Jumper said:

This should be a no brainer for BigT. How hard is it to print more decals and sell them at a premium???

Quite hard. Original Tamiya stickers (they refer to them as stickers, not decals, decals are water slide) are screen printed. This involves printing each colour of the artwork individually in stages with specifically set up mesh screens. Unlike the digital printing process MCI etc use, it's not just a case of sending a file to the printer and getting a sheet out, each sticker sheet requires the printers to be set up to print that and only that sheet.

I'd imagine Tamiya are equipped with enough printers to produce sufficient sheets to keep up with production output for current models, but anything in addition to this (i.e. printing old sticker sheets) would require investing in more printers, not to mention the space to house them and the associated running costs. It's possible someone has run the numbers on this and decided it's not economically viable. The same thing could be said for old parts - moulding machine capacity running at a level where there's no resource for anything other than what's currently required.

There's a reason for everything and there's undoubtably a sound business decision for them not doing what we'd like. It may be the above, it maybe something else. It's entirely their decision and they're unlikely to make it public, but they know what they're doing and aren't oblivious to what fans are asking

[Frog Jumper 3663]

2 minutes ago, Truck Norris said:

Quite hard. Original Tamiya stickers (they refer to them as stickers, not decals, decals are water slide) are screen printed. This involves printing each colour of the artwork individually in stages with specifically set up mesh screens. Unlike the digital printing process MCI etc use, it's not just a case of sending a file to the printer and getting a sheet out, each sticker sheet requires the printers to be set up to print that and only that sheet.

I'd imagine Tamiya are equipped with enough printers to produce sufficient sheets to keep up with production output for current models, but anything in addition to this (i.e. printing old sticker sheets) would require investing in more printers, not to mention the space to house them and the associated running costs. It's possible someone has run the numbers on this and decided it's not economically viable. The same thing could be said for old parts - moulding machine capacity running at a level where there's no resource for anything other than what's currently required.

There's a reason for everything and there's undoubtably a sound business decision for them not doing what we'd like. It may be the above, it maybe something else. It's entirely their decision and they're unlikely to make it public, but they know what they're doing and aren't oblivious to what fans are asking

Blah blah blah.

Fine.  I'll pay half-price for Tamiya to do digital reproductions!   

Terry

 

[kalsh 44]

I have some of Miles from a number of years back and some MCI stashed away and I remember thinking at the time MCI were pretty good but Miles were far better. As others say if you are happy with what you get and pay for no issue …get them on the vehicle and move on🙂 I am just grateful there are some clever people out there with good set ups who are prepared to produce items which Mr T no longer does. Unfortunately there are some rip off artists out there also and I have junked some decals I have purchase over the years as they were simply awful.