mikos

Wouldn’t it be great if somebody put up the money for some of that old Johan tooling? Hmmm, does he like Johan kits too?

I wonder why they decided to move the tooling to another location? Is that location here in the United Sates instead of China? Or, is it a different location in mainland China? If it’s been put on hold, that probably means 2025 at the earliest which is a shame because except for the AMT ‘70.5 Camaro Z28 and the now discontinued custom “Cheverra”, there is really no scale representation of a stock late ‘70’s early ‘80’s Camaro Z28 in the Round2 portfolio. Revell has reissued their Z28, but that one leaves a lot to be desired with its incorrectly rendered round Firebird Trans Am style wheel wells.

Me too!

Was the tooling found not usable?

Nice box art. I will definitely have to get one or two or perhaps three. Buy the aftermarket resin grills so I can do a Nova SS/RS.

His stuff is good, but I’d rather have Round2 clone an original kit that was done using the factory blueprints of the real thing. You can’t get any more faithful to the original than that. Then, combine the cloned body with the correct interior and then use the rest of the parts from the ‘70 Impala. It’s much less expensive to do it that way than tool up a brand new kit with Tamiya like level detail. You don’t need a hundred parts count to make a kit look good.

They could clone it.

Yep, you’re right, I guess they went back down to 116” for the ‘73-‘77 models to reduce production costs. I always thought they were 118” like the ‘69-‘72 models.

That’s the AMT version. Look at the chopped upper greenhouse. The MPC kit did it much better (more accurate) in this area. The MPC version is the one to get.

If they could find the original tooling inserts for the front and rear bumpers, they can easily do any Firebird GTA from ‘88-‘92. For the earlier Firebird Trans Am, they would need to find the front bumper for the ‘82-‘83 models. The rear bumper on the recent Knight Rider reissue is the original ‘82-‘83 style so it seems they never lost that bumper insert. Then, if they can find the ‘85-‘87 front/rear bumpers and side ground effects, those models could be covered too. The only problem would be the incorrect later interior for the earlier variants, but that didn’t stop Round2 from the last Knight Rider reissue with the incorrect ‘90-‘92 GTA interior. The earlier style Camaro may be more difficult because the front bumper and the ground effects were molded with the body on that one. So, as they made the various updates over the years, they were molded in with the body tooling. However, the ‘92 Camaro Z28 would be nice to see again if they could find the tooling. Also, the promo based ‘91-‘92 Camaro Z28 from the old “SnapFast Plus” series line would be nice to see again as well. That is, if they can find the promo tooling inserts for it like the molded in hood with screw stand supports on the inside, solid roof insert and the one piece promo style chassis. They could market it under the new Craftman Plus series.

Actually, no. The redesigned ‘73 Grand Prix still had the unique (slightly longer) 118” wheelbase of the ‘69-‘72 models. When they were downsized in ‘78 with the rest of the intermediates, they then shared the same 108” wheelbase with the rest of the GM A-body variants.

The ‘72 Chevelle based on the MPC tooling would be great to have again. I’m guessing the tooling is long ago missing or damaged since we haven’t seen that one since the mid ‘80’s. The MPC Pro Street Camaro Z28 would be great to have again as well. However, since we haven’t seen that one yet, I’m guessing the body tooling is damaged. That’s a shame because it would be very easy to convert it to a stock late ‘70’s early ‘80’s Camaro Z28 if you can find the original annual 1981 cowl induction hood insert. If not, then you could still do a stock ‘78-‘79 Camaro Z28 with it. That would compete very favorably with the current though inaccurate in wheel well shape Revell reissue.

Those Monogram Caddy’s are getting expensive, though.

How about converting the Sweathogs Dream Machine back into a stock Grand Prix?

If they did that, then we’d lose the ‘70. I’d rather not lose anything these days. If they could clone the ‘69 body, hood, bumpers and interior, I’d be all in for that.

The Revell Charger is a competitor product and the Snap kit has no engine detail. A full glue based “MPC” 68-‘70 Charger would have tremendous ROI if they cloned an original annual body. It’s a no brainer with that one.

I’m sure BMW and their racing teams, sponsors, etc would be at a much higher licensing rate than doing a cloned kit of a mid ‘60’s Cadillac. I could be wrong, but my gut instinct tells me those premium German luxury brands would demand a much higher licensing fee than a domestic brand. Cloning can give us those old Johan kits again and they can market them under the nostalgic branding of the Jo-Han name. I’m sure they would make money on it. You just got to get the right people in, not the naysayers who say it can’t be done, to do it. That’s why I think it’s imperative to have a parent company with deeper pockets be on the deal as well. That’s why I suggested Round2. Unless we want to just see some esoteric 3D printed trailer out of resin and call that the new Jo-Han, financial risks will have to be taken. Deeper pockets can take more risks. I think it would be worth it.

You don’t need the old tooling anymore to reproduce a Johan kit. Cloning technology gives you the ability to do it without it.

Steve G. from Round2 reported that it did NOT cost $250k+ (or nowhere near that number) to produce a cloned kit. Why do you keep insisting on that number? It’s incorrect and misleading. Licensing is also not the impenetrable barrier that people make it out to be. Cost, licensing and tooling have been the three can’t do it excuses people have used for decades to explain why there will never be another Jo-Han or Jo-Han kits. Well, cloning blows the old tooling won’t work excuse out of the water because you not using the old tooling or whatever you can find of it to make the kits. The cost not as prohibitive as the people around here said it was because Steve G. already told us it’s not as expensive as we all thought is was. So, what’s left? It’s the licensing that is the final challenge. Maybe Steve G. from Round2 could enlighten us on that one as well and set everyone straight.

The licensing might not be as much of a problem as you think it is. A lot of people on here thought it cost $250k+ to reproduce/clone a kit and had to sell in the 10’s of thousands to make a profit until Steve G. from Round2 finally set them straight.

You don’t need the old tooling anymore. You just need the ability to clone an existing kit to make a new tooling mold that could work in a modern injection machine.

If the 3D market can help them to eventually clone and reproduce a vintage styrene plastic kit like Round2 from their archive, I’m all in for that. Just don’t have the 3D resin be the focus of the company. Utilize it as a stepping stone to get making plastic kits again.