Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

Old Revell "double" parts-pack-based kit trio


Recommended Posts

22 hours ago, Dave Ambrose said:

I wonder if we couldn't turn the funding model around. What if someone like Atlantis says, we could do some set of interesting kits. They need X to make a run. People sign up, pay for them, and they either get to enough to run, or some time limit runs out. Kind of like GoFundMe without the 3% skim. 

They can injection mold them in the US. These are limited run kits. 

Keeping with the low-cost theme, packaging would be a plastic bag containing parts and instructions. Deluxe kits get a white cardboard box. 

I could see this working for all kinds of hobby stuff.

Interesting idea, and I'd certainly subscribe to help fund limited runs of all manner of subjects.

NOTE: The "3% skim" that GoFundMe gets or Kickstarter's 5% off the up-front funding are FAR CHEAPER than conventional venture-capital sources that usually own a piece of your backside and bottom line forever.

PS: When I got back into this hobby, I bought Revell chrome engine repops by the boatload when they were cheap (around $2-3 each) as well as any of the dragster and accessory kits that came up for anything like reasonable money. Even today, it's possible to get smoking deals on the drag chassis kits, the Fiat body kit, the Bantam, and others...but you have to put some effort into it.

The last few I got for decent money (compared to the usually stupid asking prices on eBay) were test-shots that came from Ed Sexton himself.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I asked Ed Sexton of Revell (not sure if he is still employed by them) about bringing back some of the old parts packs a couple of years ago when he was at the NNL in Atlanta. He said the poor selling of the re-issued engine parts packs drove the nail in the coffin of any other parts packs ever being re-issued. The way he said it made it sound like an open and firmly shut case. -RRR

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm thinking that at best, parts packs are living in the past and would have a one run and done production run.  Revell probably sees that it's better to spend money to develop new products that will have return on investment in other future products that can have more production runs.  Past or future... The future is going to come out ahead.  Same with an expensive retooling for the 1972 Road Runner for MPC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The original parts packs failed becuase kits were two dollars. The Revell parts packs were 69 cents and required purchasing a body, frame, engine, pack with axles and suspension pieces, and tire pack. Almost twice what a full kit ran for. Only extra pieces were suspension bits. The double kits were an attempt to bring the overall price down. I don't think they sold all that well maybe Tim Boyd might have more info.

Yes the suspension pieces would be nice to have but I really doubt the sales numbers can justify the rest. 

A good source of parts are the Roth outlaw, beatnik  bandit, kits. The 29 ford pickup also has some great parts. Also the orange crate. Lots of kit bashing material.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When originally issued, the parts packs were not "failures".  Thumb through issues of any of the period model car magazines, and you'll see them in use on many of the models pictured, be they in contest coverage, articles, or reader submitted models.  Revell would not have issued new packs into 1965 had they been "failures".

Some individual packs were not successful and could be found cheaply many years later.  The custom parts fell victim to quickly changing tastes, and the availability of customizing parts in nearly every kit out there.  The dragster chassis were pretty much obsolete when they hit the shelves, that's why you can find bare chassis but not the accessory packs.  But overall, Revell moved a lot of the parts packs over the three and a half or four years they were available.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Mark said:

... But overall, Revell moved a lot of the parts packs over the three and a half or four years they were available.

Yeah, when I was a young, I bought every one I could get my hot little hands on. They were a great way for somebody who was highly motivated to get into the nuts and bolts of how rods and engine swaps and suspensions worked, and I retained my fondness for the fine detail Revell provided way back when. Between reading the real-car rod mags and building stuff up from parts packs, you could get a pretty solid basis for going into the business. Some of the stuff was disappointing, like the upholstery kits that you really couldn't do much with, but most of the good ones moved off the displays with regularity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I started a collection of Revell parts packs in the mid-Seventies when a bunch of them turned up at a local flea market.  I had to dig through the whole pile to come up with some of the better ones.  My older brother, who did build models when the packs were "current", told me I'd never find a couple of the cycles, particularly the Harley.  That one was in fact the last one I found, several years later.  

The dragster and roadster accessory packs (the ones with the axles and radius rods) were used on everything from early funny cars, to gassers, to scratchbuilt balsa bodied dragsters.  So it's no surprise that you can still turn up the chassis but the accessory packs are tough to find.  

If whoever now has the tooling for the remaining (not cannibalized for othet kits) parts packs is thinking about reissuing them, my advice would be to forget the custom parts and recently reissued engines, and focus on the chassis accessories, display accessories, bodies, and maybe a shorter run on the bare chassis.  Maybe package them in twos or threes, like a chassis and a chassis accessories pack together.  No fancy package needed, those buying these will know what they are getting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Greg Myers said:

So why does RC2 keep producing parts packs if they don't sell ?

images (2).jpg

Generic tires and custom stuff is one thing, but this particular thread is primarily about the very specific vintage drag and roadster chassis kits, and the Fiat, Bantam, and T bodies, as well as the chassis goodies that made up the double kits from Revell.

It is a fact that the last run of chrome engines from Revell sold poorly. That's why there are still bazillions available pretty cheap...though not as cheap as they were a few years back. The first few generations of the AMT parts-packs are also still widely available much cheaper than the recent repops...if you know what you're looking at.

The Revell roadster and drag accessory packs (chassis goodies) might very well sell OK in small numbers, but once again, they're only really of any use to more highly-skilled modelers who understand the workings of cars, and are able to use them in situations that require building almost entirely without instructions...and often requiring at least basic scratch-building ability.

The fact that many builders want to know what engines "fit" what kits with no fabrication or modification is in itself evidence that even minimal reworking and parts-swapping isn't high on the list of general modeling abilities today.

I'd think the wheel and tire packs Revell used to make would be an easier sell, but they're also very dated period pieces in general.

I'm sorry if this comes off as "negative" or "argumentative" or "know-it-all", but these are simple facts that would surely be considered by any manufacturer considering running these tools...if they even exist.

That said, I'd personally LOVE to see them return, and I'd buy multiples of each, as I stated previously.

But I won't be holding my breath.  B)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do buy the AMT tires fairly regularly, because those are fairly useless, and you can use them on anything.  Now if Revell wanted to put the big 'n little tires and vintage steel wheels that came with the '29 pickup in their own box and sell those,  I know I'd buy a bunch, and I suspect I wouldn't be the only one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I'm sorry if this comes off as "negative" or "argumentative" or "know-it-all", but these are simple facts that would surely be considered by any manufacturer considering running these tools...if they even exist.

That said, I'd personally LOVE to see them return, and I'd buy multiples of each, as I stated previously.

But I won't be holding my breath.  B)

Not to worry. Fact as you say. Wonder if the Blueprinter thing or Model King would be the answer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Greg Myers said:

Not to worry. Fact as you say. Wonder if the Blueprinter thing or Model King would be the answer.

Here's a thought...and it's been brought up before...but a more relevant parts-pack might be a newly-tooled collection of bits to build "traditional" hot-rods: multiple dropped axles (designed to be easily made pose-able), brake backing plates and drums, hairpins and wishbones, quick-change rear-ends and buggy springs, all on one sprue...or in a bag.

With the imminent reintroduction of Revell's model-A roadster and coupe kits, now's the time.

Frankly, if I were a few years younger, knowing what I now know about CAD, CNC, rapid prototyping, short-run tooling, and desktop injection-molding, I'd tool up and run a few thousand myself. I've already researched the expenses involved, and it would be entirely feasible for ONE guy to do it if he had all the required skills...and motivation.

Imagine if all the parts coming out of this little rig were finned brake drums or dropped I-beam axles...

 

 

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting discussions here. 

One factor I have been told about the original parts packs was that the small packages were prone to shoplifting and that may have been a factor.  But as mentioned above, changing tastes, new and more complete/up to date kit introductions, and the onslaught of slot cars at the same time, were probably key factors in the disappearance of 1960's parts packs.  

One other point, may have been made but I don't recall it from what I recall of the posts in this thread. 

That is, for the famous three double kits, it turns out that Revell did tweak some of the existing parts pack trees to assist builders in piecing together the kits.  I was dumbfounded to discover this when I built the Bantam Altered for an article in Model Cars in the early 2000's.  For that reason alone, not to mention the enhance value of getting all those parts packs parts in a kit that builds two complete cars, I'd prefer to see these parts resurface as part of the production re-run of the three original Double Kits.  I was also disappointed that the Bantam body was not surfaced very well and needed a LOT of work to prepare to a presentable appearance. 

At the NNL Nats yesterday, there was some discussion going on that the company that bought all the old, unused Monogram tools had discovered some car kits amongst the tooling they acquired.  Don't remember the details, and as they say, the proof is in the pudding...or....show me the styrene, bub!   

Bottom line, I'd sure be surprised to see the Double Kits, or even just some of the Parts Packs resurface as production items...but then again I never dreamed we'd see a series of Hudson kits, a chopped Merc, nor some of the rediscovered tooling and kits coming out of Round Two...

TIM 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little OT, but earlier posters praising the Revell Cadillac engine caused me to search one out. It just arrived and looks great! Seeing the old Revell tooling with the internal engine parts showing is nice. For $10.50 including shipping and tax from a seller on that famous auction site, it's a fair deal. The package is a Revell-Monogram with a 1998 copyright date. I've been building since a kid in the '60s but I never paid much attention to the parts packs then. I could barely afford a $1.49 kit and a can of $0.69 spray paint at the time. Sometimes I'd get kits as gifts and might rarely splurge on a $2 kit. Those $2 kits would usually include a separate engine and enough parts to spiff up a $1.49 kit if I wanted something different.

As a current-day builder, I don't care about whether an out-of-catalog item gets re-released so I have no interest in trying to persuade a company to do that. There are so many on the secondary market that it just doesn't matter to me.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...