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Posted

I have to say that when China opened up in the '70's many businesses took the opportunity to move manufacturing to China because of it's very low labor costs. Some companies, like Apple have nearly 100% of their manufacturing done in China. These companies saved millions on labor over the decades and in so doing became totally dependent on Chinese manufacturing. They closed US factories, laid off a skilled labor force and made more money off Chinese made products. It is all a bubble and could burst at any time.

We currently are having problems with China over territory and military expansion. Chinese have invested heavily in the US, gaining some control over some institutions. All of this happened since Nixon's "ping pong diplomacy". Still, all a very tenuous relationship(s) and a crisis can occur at any time in the future.

Posted (edited)

anything that's in China is theirs if they want to take it.

Pretty much sums it up.  This is another reason I keep adding to my kit stockpile.  All it takes is one spark to set off the powderkeg, and it's really only a matter of time.  Manufacturing in a communist country really is equivalent to making a deal with the devil.  The smart countries like China play with the rules of capitalism just enough to bend it to their advantage, but when push comes to shove their government can and will change the rules at their whim.

Don't expect to ever see any of the classic American-made kit tooling shipped out of China en masse for a company to shift production elsewhere.  Once the manure hits the fan, it's dunzo.

Seeing more and more products made in Vietnam now, and even Cambodia.  As a kid during the eighties, I never would have believed we would see that.  Imagine it's all just a different side of the same coin, as far as dealing with those regimes.

Just today we learned we are getting new Carhartt company coats at my workplace, with 2 styles to choose from.  Went back to our warehouse to check out which style I wanted.  The classic black denim style is made in America, as I'm used to seeing.  The gray style (weird polyester-type material) is made in Cambodia of all places.  Guess which style I picked...

Edited by Robberbaron
Posted

A dimes worth of trivia on Vietnam and Cambodia....  anyone have stink bugs?  They started to arrive in the US about 6 years ago when we started importing furniture from Vietnam.  The little buggers are an agricultural nuisance and breed like crazy.  They can lay dormant a year, as in container shipments.  The only thing that saves us is that they cannot survive a deep freeze winter, so they manage to get into houses and buildings to winter.  I'll see one pop up and fly around the room in the dead of winter.  I grab it and (don't squish one -- hence their name) flush it down the toilet.  I also find dead ones that got trapped in model car boxes. 

Posted

A dimes worth of trivia on Vietnam and Cambodia....  anyone have stink bugs?  They started to arrive in the US about 6 years ago when we started importing furniture from Vietnam.  The little buggers are an agricultural nuisance and breed like crazy.  They can lay dormant a year, as in container shipments.  The only thing that saves us is that they cannot survive a deep freeze winter, so they manage to get into houses and buildings to winter.  I'll see one pop up and fly around the room in the dead of winter.  I grab it and (don't squish one -- hence their name) flush it down the toilet.  I also find dead ones that got trapped in model car boxes. 

I don't buy any furniture that is made in Vietnam or Cambodia.

Posted (edited)

I don't buy any furniture that is made in Vietnam or Cambodia.

There's an awful lot of it out there now, though.  Unfortunately, it seems like the majority of the American public either doesn't pay attention or just doesn't care.  I suppose to most millennials, the Vietnam War might as well be ancient history, never mind the Korean War and China's role in that.

Edited by Robberbaron
Posted

Just today we learned we are getting new Carhartt company coats at my workplace, with 2 styles to choose from.  Went back to our warehouse to check out which style I wanted.  The classic black denim style is made in America, as I'm used to seeing.  The gray style (weird polyester-type material) is made in Cambodia of all places.  Guess which style I picked...

A couple weeks ago, I went to a nearby plaza to pick up something at the Lowe's there.  I noticed a Carhartt store had opened nearby.  I've got an older jacket with the ends of the sleeves worn through and the insulation falling out, so I thought I'd start looking for a new one.  With all the stuff there made offshore, I figured either they shifted production themselves or someone just bought the name and started slapping it on the foreign stuff.  The search continues... 

Posted

I don't buy any furniture that is made in Vietnam or Cambodia.

Me either, still got the stink bugs!    

When I moved to Pennsylvania 6 years ago we went shopping for new furniture.  There was a clearance on leather couches so we bought two for our den and a matching recliner.  I asked why they were on sale so cheap and were discontinued?  The answer?  Company closed shop in the USA and moved production to Vietnam.  I bought the last USA made pieces!

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Tower Hobbies recently changed the stock status on these from "Currently Unavailable" to "Discontinued."

That's a real shame.  I hope that is a typo and the kit is available again in the near future.

Posted

It has been noted in previuos threads that the Tower Hobbies and others will list a kit as discontinued if it is not available.

It was stated above that production will be resuming in the 2nd quarter of next year. Revell has too much invested to not get this kit back on the shelves.  

Posted

According to a post that has appeared in several Facebook model groups, Stevens  International has revealed that Revell has discontinued both the '29 roadster and '30 coupe kits due to the tooling being destroyed by either Revell's Chinese contractor or the Chinese government, and that the kits remaining on the shelves will be the last ones.

Be nice if someone could confirm this.

Posted

According to a post that has appeared in several Facebook model groups, Stevens  International has revealed that Revell has discontinued both the '29 roadster and '30 coupe kits due to the tooling being destroyed by either Revell's Chinese contractor or the Chinese government, and that the kits remaining on the shelves will be the last ones.

Be nice if someone could confirm this.

So what if it is "destroyed", the files to cut the tooling are in Illinois (or a cloud Illinois can access). Cut a new piece of steel and fix the port spacing on the Buick, and the inside out engraving of the "skeleton" interior pieces to boot.

I've seen said FB posting and I have to wonder why in a country with billions of people the Chinese GOVERNMENT has time to wander into whatever backwater molding contractor Revell uses and maliciously destroy ONLY one tool and it's inserts. Seems like someone's a tad xenophobic and is trying to gin up some anti - China hate - which considering the average car modeler isn't particularly difficult. 

Posted

No inside info here on the Revell tooling........But from my Analyst days at a worldwide bank......China feels anything tooling wise done in China is , in the end, owned by the state.....or they have a lean on it. It's a complicated quasi private and government partnership that is troubling at best.  

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