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It doesn't take anybody, other than those people so overly obsessed with every detail of every version, to understand why Trumpeter are releasing Tigers and not basing them on versions that haven't been done before.
Tigers sold by other manufacturers don't put money into Trumpeters bank account so knowing the popularity of this tank they've decided to get some of that money.
They are obviously not bothered that the versions they intend putting out has been done before, and probably the same goes for the vast majority of folks buying this kit as well.
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I think your comment covers the story quite well. I guess we tend to forget, that we (us here at the forums and modelling communities) are at the very most only the very small tip of a huge iceberg called "customer". Those companies are most obviously not so much interested in getting this ONE version done that few crave but selling a whole lot of kits to all those convenience modellers with second to zero effort to put in... I mean all that shows on every corner of the hobby: re-releases, molds sold to other companies, shared projects etc. (Just get the story of the RSO as a straight example of how that works all out)
So I guess that's why they are bringing out those kits. And people buying them simply don't know too much about the differences in single tanks or versions (original and model world). I mean I consider myself having at least some basic knowledge about that stuff and still if Trumpeter is releasing a decent enough kit for a fair price I could imagine buying it without even knowing that all the others did exactly the same version... Just to build the first Tiger of my modelling career
(okay, not entirely true since I have the RFM Bergetiger in my stash somewhere)