[stoooo]

I'm still confused as to why the sponsors would need to be paid at all. I can understand the vehicle manufacturer wanting a licence. After all, they spent time designing the car in the first place. The sponsors of race cars pay teams to get their names on a part of their rolling billboard. Why then would they want to turn around and limit further exposure of their brand by demanding a fee to reproduce the livery they originally appear on ? I know that these are businesses, and they want to maximise their profits, but how much is really to be made from pursuing licences in this way, especially when compared to the cost of dealing with the licensing issue ? Surely the value to the sponsor of the goodwill earned by being a good sport and the additional brand exposure of having thousands of model cars in front of thousands of potential customers far outweighs the cash in hand made from manufacturers already struggling to make ends meet.

If I was in the fortunate enough position to be a sponsor on a car in a major racing series, I'd be calling the toy manufacturers begging them to reproduce my car's livery.

EDIT - Looks like me and SplitRim are of the same mind. Spooky ? Or just plain scary ?

 

[stoooo]

You're wrong about Downton Abbey. *That* rocks. But then again, I'm a sucker for solidly made period drama.

I'm also a non-smoker, who doesn't gamble, smoke, play away from home and who usually consumes noticably less than 1 unit of alcohol per week, so our lass is pretty understanding when it comes to me spending *my* pocket money on toy cars. And while she doesn't take much of an interest in it, she will play along sometimes when I have the track out. It drives me crazy how she can run two cars at once, though. Damn me and my unitasking manbrain !