No more Ferrari?

[CK]

On a bright side, may be another company has signed an exclusive license agreement with Ferrari for 2019 and beyond.

So there will probably still be new Ferrari models available but not from MFH.

[capri-schorsch]

If so who could it be?
Tamiya?
They still got a license for 1/20,or?
Now back in 1/12?
Don't think so.

[racingkars]

Please let me have my red ones, and you can have all the ones you want. I won't spoil your fun!

[ferrarissimus]

Hi Kars,
I'm with you, the last Ferrari they will produce will be the last MFH model for me.
Regards Chris (ferrarissimus)

[SuperMele]

No 1/12 F40

[alexpayne]

If memory serves me well then I think we have had this before from MFH a few years ago. Sound like Ferrari want to much for the licensing rights. It will also be an issue for all kit makers I suggest.

[smb]

I love Ferrari, but good riddance. There are many other beautiful cars waiting to be immortalized in resin and white metal!

[racingkars]

I love Ferrari, but good riddance. There are many other beautiful cars waiting to be immortalized in resin and white metal!

Sure there are, i just specialized in Ferrari.
And maybe MFH did a lot of them because it was the 'best selling product'?

[Paul_OFarrell]

Hi all,

I hope this news won't elevate all the remaining Ferrari MFH kits to even more out-of-reach prices. Anyone care to sell a limb for a 1:12 312T2 kit?

Cheers, Paul
Sydney, Oz.

[MoFo]

(mofo to the rescue?)

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

The short answer is, it's complicated, because there are a bunch of variables: MFH's contract with Ferrari; MFH's contract/s with retailers; how interested MFH are in renewing the contract in the future, etc.

If the license agreement is super strict, Ferrari may have demanded that all products be withdrawn from sale at the termination date. This happened with Fine Molds and the Star Wars license - when Bandai took over, FM had to stop producing kits, destroy their tooling or sell them to a company that was licensed (apparently), and withdraw their existing kits from the market (though that may have been pressure from Bandai "pull their kits or you can't get ours").

That seems pretty unlikely to me, though, since MFH are a small company, mostly selling to other small companies (like Mac). Plus, Tamiya has had their Ferrari license come and go, and the kits weren't pulled from retail. They just stopped making more.

Which brings us to MFH's future plans. First and foremost, it's possible that they just didn't want to release m/any more Ferrari subjects. The license is expensive, so if you're drawing up a list of the next couple of years' releases, it would make sense to cram all the Ferraris into 2018, then let the license lapse so you don't have to pay in 2019 or 2020. What seems like a bummer on F1M may just be a business decision for MFH. And if they're not desperate to get the license back and are willing to push their luck (or think they can get away with it), they could always 'discover' a hidden pile of kits they'd 'lost' in the back of the warehouse, or release new stuff under a one-off cut-out brand. There's a long tradition of unlicensed cottage industry car kits, and everyone plays along well enough to not get caught. (see: M@r!b*r*)

Realistically though, I suspect that not much will change; they just won't release any Ferrari kits for a while. The stuff that they've released will still be available until it gradually dries up, just like it always does. Things might sell out a little faster if everyone starts panic buying, but I doubt the kits will get yanked from the shelves.

TL;DR: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ , but probably NBD in terms of what they've already released.