Schuco keep on using the old livery!

[rstretton]

Something that has been almost bizarre recently is how often Schuco bring out a new model only for the airline in question to bring out a new livery (or alteration to their current one). So far there has been:

Air India 747, 777
LTU A330
Turkish A330
Qantas 747
Aeromexico 777
Alitalia 777
Delta 777

and now the Egyptair A330 was released literally days before they changed their livery too! It seems amazing that Schuco don't know slightly in advance of livery changes as I thought they spoke directly to the airlines. It would have been the case with Air New Zealand too if their new livery hadn't been delayed recently. Does anyone know what's going on?

Also does anyone know if they will replace the old with the new liveries? The new Air India livery in particular is really cool.

[CO777]

Schuco always says they get their informations from the airlines regarding the livery and registration.
But I can't believe this when I see all the errors Schuco made with some models.

[TriStarCollector]

Something that has been almost bizarre recently is how often Schuco bring out a new model only for the airline in question to bring out a new livery (or alteration to their current one). So far there has been:

Air India 747, 777
LTU A330
Turkish A330
Qantas 747
Aeromexico 777
Alitalia 777
Delta 777

and now the Egyptair A330 was released literally days before they changed their livery too! It seems amazing that Schuco don't know slightly in advance of livery changes as I thought they spoke directly to the airlines. It would have been the case with Air New Zealand too if their new livery hadn't been delayed recently. Does anyone know what's going on?

Also does anyone know if they will replace the old with the new liveries? The new Air India livery in particular is really cool.
Well, this is a common problem with Schabak/Schuco releases. In the past, Schabak did not produce any model without a huge order from an airlines, providing a full pre-financing of the production. As far as I know, the airlines usually ordered packages of between 1,000 and even 10,000 (or more) units of a certain model as the Schabak models were considered 'give-away items'. Actually, that's the reason Schabak did not care about the collectors market until the mid-1990's. As a result, their information definitely came from the airline which ordered a certain amount of models for its marketing activities.


Today, Schuco seems to be deleted from most of the airlines' marketing plans. I am pretty sure they are still getting additional money by contracting airlines, but the majority (this is my conclusion) of their model range is aimed at the collectors' market. Today, most of the airlines do care about the copyright of their corporate identity, therefore, Schuco has to acquire a licence for each and every release. I do not know if they are doing so but I guess - even if a licence can be obtained - that the airlines have an additional charge for supplying a model manufacturer with detailed design patterns of their livery. This definitely is a question Schuco should respond to. However, I got word that Schabak - during the final years - obtained pictures of aircraft they tried to release... therefore, I guess, Mir Stolpe did not purchase any original design patterns for the SilverWings and all the other late Schabak releases which were not 'covered' by an airline order.

Concerning the question if Schuco will replace the old liveries you mentioned by the new ones: that's really tricky. I am sure they will sell off all their stock before they will consider such a re-design. Furthermore, e.g. in case of LTU, most Airbus A330 have been repainted in Air Berlin colours already... I am not sure if they will retain any aircraft with 'LTU' titles over and after 2008.

[CO777]

Does anyone here already saw some Schuco planes in an airline's onboard sale?