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How does this fit Colt (Python) at all?
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I think it fits tremendously well.
You've got Colt -- the legendary gun maker. To even begin to describe their imprint on history would take volumes, so obviously, they've made a couple lifetimes worth of phenomenal products.
Shaky business plan-- quite obvious in the 80s with their labor issues and their failure to rise above those problems.
Falls on it's face... not quite, but they sure tried. This is the company that almost entirely got out of the single action revolver market because their machinery was moved outdoors and rusted. Probably an awful big help to Ruger in the early days.
Shot themselves in the foot?! Bigtime, when they decided that the only thing that
really mattered was to focus on military contracts. When every other gun maker blasted out of the 80s and in to the 90s trying to follow Glock's lead, what was Colt doing? And who are all the big players in the biggest category in handguns (by far) here in the year 2013? Well... Colt isn't. They still have their name and the phenomenal popularity of the 1911 in the last 10 years may be the -ONLY- reason Colt even still produces any product for the civilian market.
To have something make a meteoric rise like the Python did, it
has to be one heckuva a good gun, much loved and for good reason, just like the Python. But it's a strange setting when a company can make something that good, that high quality, and that loved-- and then find themselves in a position where their only real option is to shut it down and end it entirely.
So to find the next Python, in the way the OP outlined the thread, you'll (IMO), need those elements. Otherwise, it's unlikely that a company pushing a wildly successful product will simply end production of it.
A special shout out to Smith & Wesson, who gave it a heck of a shot during the Clinton years... with regards to shooting themselves in the foot.