Did DNA Disappear?

Sadly; the rumors are all but officially confirmed at this point. DNA Collectibles appears to have gone the way of the dodo. Social media pages have not been updated for weeks, and the comment sections are flooded with unanswered questions. The boys at CastHeads have reached out to DNA for a comment, but they have not responded. They haven’t responded to anyone, it seems. It seems the most credible lead is that a source from DNA’s manufacturing contractor has stated that the company has shuttered its doors. This screen grab was passed along to me, but I am not a part of this Facebook group.

When DNA first came on to the scene, it was evident that their passion for cars was the driving force behind the company. They were often lauded for building models of cars that no one else had the courage to do. They gave us the ultra sexy Saab Aero X concept car, the Volvo V70R wagon in Flash Green, and the Subaru SVX. Passion is great and all, but sometimes it isn’t enough to keep the lights on. Some model releases were head scratchers, like the Volkswagen W8 Passat. They chose the sedan body type rather than the ultra-quirky wagon. On top of that, DNA was a sealed resin model manufacturer. The weird engine configuration was what made the W8 Passat cool, and we couldn’t even look at it.

The writing began to appear on the wall that the brand was in trouble, at least to me anyway, a few years ago. DNA models used to come with really elaborate packaging: oversized boxes with full styrofoam clamshells, all placed in a silky fabric draw string back that doubled as a polishing cloth. Super fancy, but had to be a huge expense to the ever important bottom line! These were dropped in favor of standard cardstock and plastic window boxes. No doubt an understandable move by DNA, but still an obvious cost savings move. The second signal was the gradual shift to manufacturing models of more “mainstream cars”. At one point, their catalog consisted of the Saab 93 Viggen, the Rezvani Tank SUV, and… an Audi R8?! The R8 is a great car, no doubt, but the scale model world is way over-saturated with these things. Later models were seemingly decided by committee, where DNA would poll their fans as to which model was next. This led to things like a ’65 Mustang being developed…. great, thanks guys.

Of course, I’ll be sad to see DNA disappear. They were the first brand to provide press models to me and my Live and Let Diecast friends several years ago. They were also the first brand that we royally pissed off, too. We had a brilliant idea to review a 1/18 scale Saab 9-3 Viggen Convertible and a 1/43 Volvo V70 station wagon among five or six of us, with six different takes and photography styles. We had planned to roll them all into one massive review, recorded a podcast episode, and even convinced Hooniverse to publish a copy on their website. It was one of the community’s first “big breaks” and we were all so excited about it! The major issue we ran into was the time it took to pack, ship, unpack, photograph, repack, ship again, write and edit pics five times over! DNA waited and waited forever for our review to come out, and when it finally did, we didn’t even get a social media shout out! Rightfully so, in hindsight…

I’ll forever treasure my 1/18 Saab Aero X model from them, as I don’t even see it listed on DNA’s website anymore. In fact, all of their current models are marked “sold out”, because it’s rumored that the manufacturer themselves are going to be offloading whatever stock is left. One of their last releases seemed really promising: the Saab Sonnet III. These were to have a neat and ingenious pop-up headlight feature that I have never seen before. Both closed and open versions of the headlamps were included that were swap-able into blanks cast into the model’s body. You could exchange the pieces whenever you felt mixing things up on your shelf. Maybe I’ll be able to get my hands on one still…