The low down on gocco's future...(it's not good news)
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Original Post
I spoke to someone from Australia's gocco supplier, Nehoc, the other day & asked lots of questions about what's going on with gocco.
As we know, production of the machines ceased in June - but since so many have been produced, stocks are plentiful, especially from online sellers, ebay, etc.
As for the consumables, Riso is apparently no longer supplying US-based retailers. The supply agreement with the US is totally different to Australia - apparently the machines & consumables supplied to the US were produced specifically for the US market, & Riso doesn't find that profitable anymore.
Luckily for we Australians, our supplies are directly from Japan (the same as those made for the Japanese market) so as long as they're being sold in Japan, they will hopefully be available in Aus too (& Nehoc has stock to last at least the next 5 years).
Unfortunately, even in Japan, the packs of 5 screens are no longer being made (you can only buy packs of 2 screens & 2 bulbs) & many of the ink colours are no longer being made...so you just have to get what you can until the stocks run dry.
As for another manufacturer picking up where Riso left off, apparently the bulbs are the main problem. Only two manufacturers in the entire world make them & they're not cost effective to make unless in massive quantities. There is a (very expensive) machine Riso made to flash the screens, but they no longer make that either! They still make a machine to flash their coarser mesh...nowhere near as fine as the gocco master screens though, so only suitable for cloth, not paper.
So it looks like the American market may run dry of supplies quite soon & US-based people will need to buy online from Japanese sellers. Unfortunately Nehoc doesn't ship to the US.
So very sad...
Posted at 9:46am Aug 10, 2008 EDT
Responses
whaaaaaaa! :( so sad. off to cry in the corner now...
Posted at 1:59pm Aug 13, 2008 EDT
just curious... what's the difference (in the final product, not equipment) between gocco and screen printing?
Posted at 2:05pm Aug 13, 2008 EDT
damn and i was so hopping to buy one, now that the word is out ebay is not cheap for them either :P
Posted at 2:29pm Aug 13, 2008 EDT
SassyCat...because the ink is applied with even pressure rather than a squeegee, you get lovely textures coming through...kind of like a cross between a screen print & a relief print. The ink is also less plastic & absorbs into the paper more...& you can print super-fine detail because the mesh is a really high count. The other benefit (apart from the compactness) is the fact that you can apply more than one ink colour per screen.
Posted at 9:20pm Aug 13, 2008 EDT
how sad.. :( does this mean i should stock up on lightbulbs and screens?
Posted at 9:23pm Aug 13, 2008 EDT
I learned about gocco just this year and I was hoping to get one....looks like I won't have a chance..sad.
Posted at 10:03pm Aug 13, 2008 EDT
this makes me sad and angry that RISO is so negligent of potential markets . . .
bookmarking in case there are any updates.
Posted at 10:40pm Aug 13, 2008 EDT
feels like the same thing happened with Polaroid cameras too...
Posted at 10:42pm Aug 13, 2008 EDT