Whether this is a new venture or a recycling of older kits, their 1:144 quality is pretty impressive. Yeah, I could join long line of people disappointed by this kit or that kit, but the fact remains, if you had built these kits as I have, you've
probably be impressed as well. (I know some people have standards so high they are never impressed by anything)
Who knows why they are doing it ? Who cares? You either buy it or you don't. Maybe it's the price some find attractive. Others have already alluded to space issues. Have you seen the average apartment in China? Which brings me to this point:
Yes, they really don't care what you want. In 1996 I had the privilege of visiting the Tamiya facilities in Shizuoka City, and got to speak to Mr. Tamiya and his reps on this subject. Tamiya's export market is but a fraction of their total sales. And the US market is even less than that. (I don't remember the exact percentages, but a Nexus search would yield one of my old posts on rec.models.scale with those numbers)
Tamiya at that time sold over 2,000,000 mini cars
per month in Japan alone. That's a staggering number.
Now, when you consider the populations of China and Hong Kong combined total nearly 1.5 billion, (a smidgen more than Japan's) I venture that they might tailor their market to what they know they can sell there, and everything else is just gravy.
