As someone who works for a company that imports RC models as well as other products, this isn't unusual.
In this case the Mid has already been shipped around the world, and production of parts and kits are done in batches. Say Kyosho decide to make a batch of 10,000 kits. They will make 12,000 sets of parts so they have spares available as they can't just switch the moulding machines over to knock out a few of any part. How many kits they make in each batch depends on how many sales they think they will have, and what has to be taken off the production line to assemble the Mid kits. As a business it is always better to underestimate sales so you don't end up with dead stock that costs you money, especially as a manufacturer. Say Kyosho chose to produce 50,000 Mid kits to make sure everyone in the World who wants one can be supplied. Then the importers only buy 20,000 of them. So Kyosho has paid out of 30,000 kits worth of stock that hasn't sold, it now has to pay for storage for 30,000 kits until they find buyers, and their production line has been tied up for months making kits that haven't sold when they could have been making more Fazer chassis that would make the company money.
The company I work for has made this mistake in the past, when they first moved into RC cars. Bought plenty of stock of every part needed and all the upgrades, most of which weren't of interest to the customers. We currently have about £200,000 of stock that we bought nearly 20 years ago but will never sell. Now we buy smaller quantities and have more appropriate stock levels, but does means we run out of stock at times.
Spares are available while kits are out of stock for several reasons. Firstly, when first released for most kits there isn't a huge surge in demand with people rushing to buy them, while there isn't a huge demand for most spares. Only a small minority of people will stock up on spare parts when they buy a kit, so there isn't the rush to buy parts. Then it's cheaper for suppliers to keep parts in stock, they take up less space than kits. In our case if we want to buy kits we have to buy enough to fill a container and wait 3-4 months for them to arrive as it isn't viable to ship them any other way. Spares can be couriered quicker and cheaper.
We also have a problem with one of the manufacturers, they can supply us with parts but can't supply kits even though we are desperate for them because they don't have the instruction manuals and packaging as their supplier went under.
Part of the problem with the Mid for those of us who are interested in these things is that it was known about long before Kyosho publicised it. The importers told the importers about it way before time to gauge demand, then shops in the UK announced it publically and started taking preorders about 6 months before it was officially announced by Kyosho.
For the general public and most potential buyers it isn't a problem, remember we still find people who have only just discovered that Associated did re-releases.
