I think this would be the first hobby i have been involved in that as soon as some one mentions reproducing parts that are no longer made, some one always drops in the words you will be sued, and lawyers lol, its stupid, its holding back the hobby imo

You're right - it 'IS' holding back the hobby. It would have been FAR better for all of us if Bally - Williams and Gottlieb went broke all those years ago then 80% of these issues wouldn't exist.

Then you have the second 'layer' of problems with licence owners such as Addams Family Trust & (as in the current example here) Dr Who (whoever owns those rights) and numerous others.

I have taken legal advice (for what it's worth) and I was told that if you want to reproduce ANY part or ANY graphics for the purpose of repairing/maintaining your OWN machine then this is 100% legal and no rights owner would be able to stop you or do anything about it. Even if they tried (my advice was) it would never make it to court.

The problem comes in when - let's say YOU - design up the artwork to repair your own XXXZZZ machine and then decide "this is too good to waste all this effort - I think I'll offer some extras for sale" - you are then potentially placing yourself in a difficult and possibly very costly position.

I still maintain that if you want new decals on your Dr Who machine you should "sell the machine" to me - I will design, print and install new decals but then I might "decide" that I don't like this machine anymore and offer it up for sale - you may choose to buy it back because now you are so happy it looks like new. I truly doubt anyone could do anything about this nor do I think they would bother trying.

If you blatantly offer decals for sale however to all and sundry then I think you will be in for a nasty surprise.