2022 Round2 Releases

[Plowboy]

Both the '68 Road Runner and '69 GTX have some issues: drooping quarter panels, rear wheel openings the wrong shape, flat trunk lids and the vent glass detail. I fixed the issues on a '69 GTX. It was a test run to see if I could fix the issues and the fixes were fairly simple. To me, they greatly improved the looks of the model. 

 

[Oldcarfan27]

While it is a good kit and is a welcome reissue, one thing it is not is a "customizing kit".

[slusher]

On 6/18/2022 at 4:28 PM, Tom Geiger said:

It makes sense to do the Green Hornet as long as they have the licensing.

Did anyone say it was coming from the original 1964 tooling?  Today it may even be easier to produce that curbside kit as an all new tool.

And as the Whine-Fest develops,  note that this kit isn't aimed at us car model geeks.  It's going out to the TV and Movie fans, there are large conventions all over the country.   Most of the kits will be sold to this market, and many will never have the shrink wrap broken.

And it makes business sense... 

 

 

I never thought of it that way, thanks…

[Dave Darby]

On 6/18/2022 at 5:28 PM, Tom Geiger said:

It makes sense to do the Green Hornet as long as they have the licensing.

Did anyone say it was coming from the original 1964 tooling?  Today it may even be easier to produce that curbside kit as an all new tool.

And as the Whine-Fest develops,  note that this kit isn't aimed at us car model geeks.  It's going out to the TV and Movie fans, there are large conventions all over the country.   Most of the kits will be sold to this market, and many will never have the shrink wrap broken.

And it makes business sense... 

 

 

Green Hornet is all new tool.

[mrm]

Any news on “the rumor” of the ‘32 Phantom Vicky being reissued?

[Bob Ellis]

On 6/19/2022 at 10:35 AM, Can-Con said:

Yea, exactly the same parts as in the original issue and all the non-pro street issues since.

Round2 needs to fix the Road Runner Body before reissuing it again

[Justin Porter]

23 hours ago, mrm said:

Any news on “the rumor” of the ‘32 Phantom Vicky being reissued?

Not a rumor, just a delayed reissue. According to Stevens International the kit's (AMT #1313) arrival is still TBA with an MSRP of $41.95. Announced around the same time as the Dan Gurney Indy Lotus which I am honestly still eagerly awaiting for my own personal building. 

[mrm]

10 minutes ago, Justin Porter said:

Not a rumor, just a delayed reissue. According to Stevens International the kit's (AMT #1313) arrival is still TBA with an MSRP of $41.95. Announced around the same time as the Dan Gurney Indy Lotus which I am honestly still eagerly awaiting for my own personal building. 

Thank you. 
What’s the reason for the crazy price? Is it going to have any new or revised parts and/or decals or is it going to be straight up reissue with giant sinkholes, goofy roof and all?

[Justin Porter]

2 minutes ago, mrm said:

Thank you. 
What’s the reason for the crazy price? Is it going to have any new or revised parts and/or decals or is it going to be straight up reissue with giant sinkholes, goofy roof and all?

That's been an across the board price hike for Round 2. An excellent "case in point" would be the Ford LN8000 race hauler. The last time I had stocked that kit I had it priced at $36 on my shelf. The upcoming reissue of that very same kit is suggesting a retail of $64.95. 

To be fair, it's not ONLY Round 2 that's done this. The latest run of the Revell '56 Del Ray kit jumped from $27.95 to $32.95. Eduard aircraft also saw a bit of a jump with 1/48th scale Weekend Edition kits starting to crowd closer to $30 on average where they were previously averaging around $25. 

[Oldcarfan27]

Have you guys been to the pump lately?

Plastic is made from the same sources. 

[Motor City]

Between the cost of petroleum products used in the manufacture of plastics and the substantial increase in transportation charges to ship the product here from China, prices were bound to go up.

[mrm]

2 hours ago, Justin Porter said:

That's been an across the board price hike for Round 2. An excellent "case in point" would be the Ford LN8000 race hauler. The last time I had stocked that kit I had it priced at $36 on my shelf. The upcoming reissue of that very same kit is suggesting a retail of $64.95. 

To be fair, it's not ONLY Round 2 that's done this. The latest run of the Revell '56 Del Ray kit jumped from $27.95 to $32.95. Eduard aircraft also saw a bit of a jump with 1/48th scale Weekend Edition kits starting to crowd closer to $30 on average where they were previously averaging around $25. 

That still does not answer the question if the kit will have any additions/improvements. 

 

1 hour ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Have you guys been to the pump lately?

Plastic is made from the same sources. 

Well, I don't believe anyone's vehicles on here run on hopes and dreams. But then Hobby Lobby and Michael's must have their models beamed up to them from another planet, since they have no models over $30 and sell them at 40% off.

[Mark]

HL and Michael's buy much larger quantities than anyone else, they are probably still selling off stock bought months ago.  Michael's stores around here haven't gotten anything new in months.

[tbill]

 Not sure how to articulate my thoughts on the price increase, bottom line is, MSRP is always way high ( as in X kit is coming down the pipeline, it’ll be $40), then it hits retailers , or pre order status and the advertised price is lower, and then if you’re lucky, you know a wholesale kit dealer, and the price is even lower. Cost always goes up as it goes thru the various middle men, I’m sure HL has a direct link to manufacturers, as such, no middle man, they buy at rock bottom due to volume, so can sell for $30, offer 40% off, and still make money.  I work for a chevy dealer, mark up on parts is insane, so I have to assume the mark up game is the same in our plastic playground, not quite as high mind you, but there is plenty of mark up along the ‘pipeline’. And as to shipping costs, I know that’s gone up, but if you divide the increase over each piece stuffed in that shipping container, it can’t add that much per unit. Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary.

[niteowl7710]

Lose and fast back of the napkin math, MSRP us usually 100% higher than wholesale and wholesale is usually 100% higher than cost. That way all the people in-between make their profits. Someplace like HobbyLobby can negotiate a better wholesale rate considering the sheer volume of their purchases (they're buying an entire kit run just to get a few kits per store).  My LHS sells a pretty hearty volume on most kits when they're released and tends to price their stuff 25-30% below MSRP.

[Justin Porter]

10 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

Lose and fast back of the napkin math, MSRP us usually 100% higher than wholesale and wholesale is usually 100% higher than cost. That way all the people in-between make their profits. Someplace like HobbyLobby can negotiate a better wholesale rate considering the sheer volume of their purchases (they're buying an entire kit run just to get a few kits per store).  My LHS sells a pretty hearty volume on most kits when they're released and tends to price their stuff 25-30% below MSRP.

Here's a rundown from behind the counter with the hard numbers.

Generally for local hobby shops our purchase rate is in the neighborhood of 40% off of MSRP. Using the upcoming Phantom Vickie as an example, my cost on that kit is $24.67 before shipping through Stevens International. My other primary wholesale account on Round 2 is through Hobbytyme. Currently they're not listing a wholesale price on the Phantom Vickie. However, a brief scroll through the in-stock kits at Hobbytyme brings me to the '71 Mustang Mach 1 (kit #1262) with an MSRP of $40.95. Now, my rate at Hobbytyme is a bit better than at Stevens so my price before shipping is $22.94 on that kit. Finally, I have Heartland Hobby Wholesale which I primarily use for railroad items but also carries a selection of domestic and imported kits. They also don't have the Phantom Vickie listed yet (one of the advantages of Stevens being that they often get product first) but do have that same Mach 1 Mustang #1262. They list the Mustang's MSRP as $36.99 but their rate - again, not their focus - on AMT isn't quite what Stevens or Hobbytyme offer so my cost before shipping on that same Mach 1 from HHW is $26.26.

[Luc Janssens]

14 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

Someplace like HobbyLobby can negotiate a better wholesale rate considering the sheer volume of their purchases

Also they save on shipping by using their own distribution network.

 

[slusher]

21 hours ago, Justin Porter said:

That's been an across the board price hike for Round 2. An excellent "case in point" would be the Ford LN8000 race hauler. The last time I had stocked that kit I had it priced at $36 on my shelf. The upcoming reissue of that very same kit is suggesting a retail of $64.95. 

To be fair, it's not ONLY Round 2 that's done this. The latest run of the Revell '56 Del Ray kit jumped from $27.95 to $32.95. Eduard aircraft also saw a bit of a jump with 1/48th scale Weekend Edition kits starting to crowd closer to $30 on average where they were previously averaging around $25. 

oil is up, truck drivers add fuel cost per load, mail costs are ridiculous, and now they make shorter runs and if you want a kit don’t wait too long on getting it…

[bobthehobbyguy]

16 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

Lose and fast back of the napkin math, MSRP us usually 100% higher than wholesale and wholesale is usually 100% higher than cost. That way all the people in-between make their profits. Someplace like HobbyLobby can negotiate a better wholesale rate considering the sheer volume of their purchases (they're buying an entire kit run just to get a few kits per store).  My LHS sells a pretty hearty volume on most kits when they're released and tends to price their stuff 25-30% below MSRP.

Which means a $1 cost increase will show as a $4 increase in msrp. And given the current situation that seems to be the issue.

[Dragonhawk1066]

The cost of shipping alone, both to get stateside via shipping container, and once in the U.S. via truck, is going to drive the prices up a tidy amount. One of the Round 2 videos mentioned the fact that the cost to ship a container increased from around 3K for one to around 15-18K, and that was last year before the Russia/Ukraine situation. Then factor in the rising cost of materials that the plastic is made from and we're unfortunately going to see the big price increases. We can only hope that if/when the war in Ukraine finally ends, for more than just this reason, and Covid backs off enough to reduce the shipping container dilemma, we will see a return to more reasonable prices for not just our hobby, but for all of our daily goods that have skyrocketed recently. I have a bad feeling that even if gas and shipping prices go somewhat back to normal, we may not see any price relief.

[Luc Janssens]

5 hours ago, Dragonhawk1066 said:

The cost of shipping alone, both to get stateside via shipping container, and once in the U.S. via truck, is going to drive the prices up a tidy amount. One of the Round 2 videos mentioned the fact that the cost to ship a container increased from around 3K for one to around 15-18K, and that was last year before the Russia/Ukraine situation. Then factor in the rising cost of materials that the plastic is made from and we're unfortunately going to see the big price increases. We can only hope that if/when the war in Ukraine finally ends, for more than just this reason, and Covid backs off enough to reduce the shipping container dilemma, we will see a return to more reasonable prices for not just our hobby, but for all of our daily goods that have skyrocketed recently. I have a bad feeling that even if gas and shipping prices go somewhat back to normal, we may not see any price relief.

I heard that in some case it's cheaper to airlift merchandise, than use a container.

[Motor City]

I wonder if Round2 is considering bringing production back to the U.S. due to the transportation costs and logistical issues of creating or modifying tooling.  Probably not since they likely save a lot of money on labor costs.

[niteowl7710]

33 minutes ago, Motor City said:

I wonder if Round2 is considering bringing production back to the U.S. due to the transportation costs and logistical issues of creating or modifying tooling.  Probably not since they likely save a lot of money on labor costs.

It would also cost many times more than the tooling was worth to bring it back from China, if such a thing were even possible. Salvinos JR is the only company doing their products end to end in the U.S. and they just upped their MSRP to $44.95 last month on every kit they sell including old inventory, so it's not like bring production back here is going to make it any cheaper to produce the kits.

[GMP440]

7 minutes ago, niteowl7710 said:

It would also cost many times more than the tooling was worth to bring it back from China, if such a thing were even possible. Salvinos JR is the only company doing their products end to end in the U.S. and they just upped their MSRP to $44.95 last month on every kit they sell including old inventory, so it's not like bring production back here is going to make it any cheaper to produce the kits.

     Despite the fact Salvino's does developement and manufacturing in the U.S., resulting in higher MSRP of their kits, they are doing very well.    I bet Round 2 and others see this and could be debating to do the same thing sometime in the future.

[Daddyfink]

6 hours ago, GMP440 said:

     Despite the fact Salvino's does developement and manufacturing in the U.S., resulting in higher MSRP of their kits, they are doing very well.    I bet Round 2 and others see this and could be debating to do the same thing sometime in the future.

I think Salvino is doing pretty good because they are a Niche market maker, and only make one style of vehicle, race cars, and that keeps it pretty manageable. I am sure if they had to do everything R2 does, they would also probably go overseas as well. 

 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Daddyfink