Why not reuse older molds?

Why do you think Schleich don't reuse older retired molds and release them in new colours? At least for limited or special editions. Like the percherons or the trotting friesian stallion to name a few? Cheaper, no need for entirely new molds and people will still buy it. They already reuse the newer ones, and or course I don't buy them as I find many of them ugly. I would have thrown myself over some of the older ones though. If they made me able to buy them at least.

Good question !!!
But it seems that they let Maia & Borges use some, - first   Tropical fish, then Whales, dolphins etc, and lately Horses and the musk ox

When Schleich do that, the screams from the german forum will heard around the world and even at mars. LOL

I would love to see the cats return in a slightly more modern coat color (improved paint techniques).
Make them special additions and you have a second highly wanted sale piece.

I won't buy any horses next year, the only ones I want to buy are some forest animals, one or two wildlife and the new cat.

Tupolew Tu-154 wrote:

When Schleich do that, the screams from the german forum will heard around the world and even at mars. LOL

Yes, but that is if they re-launch exactly the same model with the same paintwork . I HATE that also

Perhaps the molds are getting worn out as well and would produce models with low detail in comparison to the original release. I don't know how long these molds last - Breyer molds last for a while.

I hate it when they do that, so please don't

There are quite a few retired molds I would love to see again with updated paintwork, or maybe improved textures. Especially the reindeer, the elephant calf with the ball, and a lot of the retired horses, like the Percherons and the Camargues. It just seems a shame that some of these great molds may never be used again.

I would actually love to see them just plain rerelease the older molds as they were so people can go back and pick up any they may have missed out on. It worked for Bullyland when they rereleased their prehistoric mammals. Still, I wouldn't mind seeing the older models with new coats of paint.

I would love to see Auruun again...

I don't understand very well the question here.
Schleich do reuse older molds exaustively.
Just keeping them almost unchanged as the 13282 Angus bull from 2004, retired in 2007 and reissued in 2014 for North American market as 13766 Angus bull.
Recoloring them as it happened with the 13764 Hereford Cow, released in 2014 for North American market but that is the same mold as the 13641 Simmental cow from 2009.
Either remastering them with subtle changes on sculpt as it happens with lots and lots of horses and other creatures. Take the example of the 14392 zebra female that is clearly remastered from 13620 Przewalski's horse
In my opinion, Schleich is the king of remastering and does it in a very nice way contrarily to Safari Ltd that keep them scandalously identical.
What is being asked here is that Schleich re-release some of their old figures exactly as they were before? As Safari did with the aardvark? I understand and obviously accept it as a sporadical thing and just for remarkable figures, Schleich would never be such a collectable brand if these re-releases were common.
I enjoy much more new figures and preferrably completely new.
I know some people disagree with me that the new oryx is remastered from previous, I actually like better the new version, but I wished it was completely different, walking, for example, it would bring something really new to a Schleich collector. Or, in alternative, they could have remastered it as they did but turning it in a different oryx species instead of another gemsbok.
To complement a little Susanne's post, I'd love to remember that Safari reused the mold of the Schleich mountain goat, here!

Great compilation of information, Roger

SUSANNE wrote:

Good question !!!
But it seems that they let Maia & Borges use some, - first   Tropical fish, then Whales, dolphins etc, and lately Horses and the musk ox

How interesting! I didnt know they produced the Musk ox again - however, strangely enough why just the musk ox and no other wildlife model? Very strange!

Numaan wrote:

SUSANNE wrote:

Good question !!!
But it seems that they let Maia & Borges use some, - first   Tropical fish, then Whales, dolphins etc, and lately Horses and the musk ox

How interesting! I didnt know they produced the Musk ox again - however, strangely enough why just the musk ox and no other wildlife model? Very strange!

The musk ox and the horses are a rather new thing. M & B may bring others later perhaps?
But basically it is not their core business, so perhaps they lack the distribution channels ?
As far as I know, the core business of M & B is comics models, - and probably they are also making models for others such as Papo and Schleich...am I right, Roger ?

Yes, Susanne, you're right! Maia & Borges is currently manufacturing some figures for Schleich and Papo. Manufacturing, not designing. You can identify them easily once both companies mark them as made in Portugal.
They also design figures and they designed for Schleich before. The Sea Life that M&B reissued some years ago is originally a collection from 1998 and it was Schleich who used these molds later and not the other way round.
As Susanne said, comics are their main subject but sometimes they venture into animal figures and they are very good in it in my opinion. Both in design and manufacturing. The wonderful series of Lake and River Birds , they released in 2012, is a proof of it.
Though, it is evident that the line, despite the high quality and interest, was not very successful commercially. M&B is not very well setted up in this particular niche of market and their main market, Germany, is already crouded with mighty Schleich and Bullyland.
I won't hide it anymore but other similar animal lines were planned but, the founder, Victor Maia, passed away, what was a shock in all regards to the entire structure and obliged from everyone a huge effort to keep the company up. Recently, Maia & Borges, started a cooperation with the successful Portuguese company of scientific toys called Science4You and introduced their products (Sea Life, Birds and tropical fishes) in the range of products of S4you in a collection called Animals4You. Surprisingly, some horses and the musk ox, all retired Schleich molds, were introduced in the Animals4you collection but it is more or less still an experimental thing. It is important to remember that Science4You has also a cooperation with Animal Planet and that they seel a generous selection of Mojö Fun figures, among others, horses and sea life. As we are talking about similar products, it is unlikely that Maia & Borges will expand this new line. It maybe explains why a muskox and not a giraffe or lion once it is a species not available in Mojö range. However, I keep not understanding the breed choices to their new horses. They don't work very well with the used molds and these breeds are already available in Mojö collection. They lost the chance of introducing a Lusitano horse, the most popular Portuguese horse breed and that is not yet represented in Mojö range.