Why can a diecast company make VWs but slotcar companys cannot?
Grrrrr....
Ok, I feel better now...
Scott

I think the German company Bauer, has exclusive rights...maybe???

Mattel makes VW bus' & vans, who makes slotcars. Good question, why doesn't Mattel make these into slots?

I think hefer hit it on the head. Bauer put up a major stink when someone trys to do a "tjet" style vw, so they wanted exclusive rights to be the only one making them.

It may also have something to do with VWoA I also being a Volkswagen fan have heard some real nightmarish stories of legal threats and other unpleasantries from them but yet VWAG has no problems so my guess is licensing issues with VW here.I think Mattel stopped producing their things for a time not too many years ago.

Somehow I don't think it is Bauer...
But maybe the bigger slotcar company Scalextric...
Scalextric makes Golfs and Beetle Cup cars...
Hmmmmm....
I wonder.
BTW, I decided to go right to the source (sort of) and ask..
I sent an e-mail to VoA's licensing section and asked why...

Scott

It may also have something to do with VWoA I also being a Volkswagen fan have heard some real nightmarish stories of legal threats and other unpleasantries from them but yet VWAG has no problems so my guess is licensing issues with VW here.I think Mattel stopped producing their things for a time not too many years ago.


I've been messing around with VW's for about 30 years or so and I can guarantee you that VW is just about as bad if not worse than HD when it comes to using their logo or anything else that they own. My wife has a sign shop an VW and HD stickers are 2 of the things that she will refuse to make due to the good chance that the feds, or an HD, VW lawyer will show up on her doorstep with some fancy papers to serve on her. On the sign shop forums she uses HD and VW are the 2 things that get sign shops into more trouble than anything else for making them. I believe you would get in less trouble printing funny money than making the above 2 logos.

Ronnie

I’ve been pondering this for a few days…

It comes to light that just about every slot manufacturer has made some sort of iteration of a VW.
Think about it…

I believe the only ones’ who haven’t, are Life-like and Johnny Lightning.

This must have something to do with the copyright/trademark legislation being lax during the earlier years.

The only VW model I can recall not making it in the slot world is the Jetta—and I’m probably wrong about that.



Cheers..

I'm in the auto parts busness. I haven't been able to sell anything with the VW name or logo on it for over 15 years.

johnny lightning did the pullback afx baja bug. so what gives?

The reason I asked is because JL was going to do a Bug slotcar at one time...
I understand that VW would not give then the license to do a slotcar Bug despite the fact that JL did many different VW diecast...
Scaleauto at one time was going to do a Beetle Cup body to fit the Turbos & G's.
But VW had shot that one down as well...
It makes you wonder...
Scott

As far as the JL slot car, I heard that there was a "glitch" with one of the diecast products that soured the relationship with VW at about the same time they were seeking licensing for the VW themed slot car release, which was already deep into production. I don't think VW has it in for slot cars at all. I just think that you'd better get all your licenses in place before you even talk about shipping a VW licensed product, much less start showing prototypes of the product in your advertising literature or on the web. I suspect RaceMasters got in hot water by showing prototypes, which I seriously doubt were approved by VW. They will want final approval on everything.

If you think about it, advertising that you are going to release models of any company's licensed products before you start negotiating the license deal doesn't exactly put you in a favorable position for getting a price that you are going to be happy with. Duh. The less we hear about a VW themed slot car release the more likely we'll actually see one.

It's kind of funny talking about VW as if they are preserving some elite product line. Other than the Beetle and the Ghia, there's not a lot of VW products that I'm champing at the bit to see done in HO scale. And those two have already been done. Some Audi cars would be nice though, especially the TT.

I picked up 2 box sets of Cararama VW 1/72 scale from a KB toy outlet months ago. One set consist of 6 VW buses and the other set consist of 6 VW "pickups".
http://www.happykidtoy.com/hey/Small%20VW%20Van/Dsc00018.jpg
http://harotoy.com/hey/VWBus1-72Set6/Dsc00290.jpg

I am just wondering if anyone converted these diecast cars to TJETS. The details are VERY good.

I make the VW pickup, but i used the Johnny lightning as my master.
http://3rdcustoms.com/ipw-web/gallery/album07
Shoot, now I'll probably get sued by VW.
hojoe