lindberg

[modelman71]

just got some bad news the other day.

lindberg is now closing their doors no roumors on who or if anyone buying their moulds

[gasman]

guess where never getting the Charger Police car :lol:

[caine440]

I am sorry to hear that.

[Harry P.]

Is this rumor or fact?

[modelman71]

this info came straight from one of my distributors who mainly deals with plastic

[modelman71]

guess where never getting the Charger Police car :lol:

yeh i have been waiting for that one well over a year now

[RJWood]

Maybe Big Lots will be selling kits for $5.00 again.

Sad news. Just a few years ago we were celabrating the sucess of the 53 Ford kits.

And the 61 Impala is a great kit as well.

[Aaronw]

I'll believe it when I see it (or actually don't see it ). Last week there was a rumor started by a distributor that Revell of Germany was shutting its doors.

It seems to be common practice regardless of the product that when a store or distributor can't get somethig they claim the company is out of buisness, rather than admit their short coming.

Edited April 26, 2010 by Aaronw

[Junkman]

I'll believe it when I see it (or actually don't see it ). Last week there was a rumor started by a distributor that Revell of Germany was shutting its doors.

It seems to be common practice regardless of the product that when a store or distributor can't get somethig they claim the company is out of buisness, rather than admit their short coming.

Not only is Revell AG alive and well, they just announced this:

http://www.revell.de/de/produkte/modellbau/modellbau/produkte/?id=210&KGKANR=0&KGKOGP=10&KGSCHL=4&L=0&page=2&sort=0&nc=1&searchactive=&q=&SWO=&ARMAS4=&PHPSESSID=62c1cdc5f3301a73c0fcd39c12104515&KZSLPG=&offset=12&cmd=show&ARARTN=07100&sp=1

[Billy Kingsley]

I would hate to lose Lindberg. Yeah, they may not have been as great traditionally as AMT, Revell, Monogram et cetera. But they still had a lot to offer to the modeling world, and their plans for 2010 and beyond seemed to me to be very ambitious and long reaching.

If it is true, I hope the tooling is saved. Maybe Round2 can get their hands on it and work some of the magic they have with the AMT/MPC/Polar Lights company(s). That would be ironic too in that it would reunite the 1934 Ford pickup with AMT.

[Jairus]

I doubt the molds will be destroyed. I am sure some enterprising braintrust will purchase them or at the very least... lease'em!

[Jordan White]

Well if anyone wants to contact them, here's some info:

Sales Contact:

Jody Keener

Phone: 319-365-5842

jlloydimports@aol.com

[mackinac359]

Straight from Cedar Rapids "We are Alive and Well."

Tim

Well if anyone wants to contact them, here's some info:

Sales Contact:

Jody Keener

Phone: 319-365-5842

jlloydimports@aol.com

[Guest Johnny]

Straight from Cedar Rapids "We are Alive and Well."

Tim

Thanks Tim!

[Ken]

Glad to hear that, thought I was gonna have to go broke stocking up on the Dodge COE trucks.

[modelman71]

sorry not trying to start roumors i hope my informant is wrong,,, cus im still waiting for those darn charger police cars

[RodneyBad]

Thank Goodness, I've got a case of cop Chargers on Pre-order.

Mercedes SLS AMG

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.

[modelman71]

Thank Goodness, I've got a case of cop Chargers on Pre-order.

Mercedes SLS AMG

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.

hopefully we see them

[mackinac359]

I received an email from the parent firm for Lindberg today. Ernie Petit has retired, and all production and product development has been suspended.

This is not good news at all.

Tim

hopefully we see them

[Greg Cullinan]

So,are we leaning towards fact now?

If so that's a shame for all the employees,our hobby and so on.

[sjordan2]

Other than my initial comments I haven't added anything else, though I have followed the threads about Lindberg on the SH board.

I do want to add this about some prior history regarding Lindberg's owner that dovetails neatly with some comments made on SH by someone "in the know":

Several years ago, (roughly 1999/2000 IIRC), a diecast company called First Gear bought out Revell/Monogram from Binney & Smith/Hallmark. The owner of that company was Jody Keener, the owner of J Lloyd, which the current parent company of Lindberg/Hawk. Prior to the purchase of R/M by First Gear, R/M had been on a roll & had taken over as the domestic kit naufacturing leader, bypassing AMT/Ertl, (especially with their buyout by RC2 & the subsequent disaster it turned out to be).

Once First Gear took over. R/M tumbled just as AMT was doing. Why? Simple. The combination of First Gear not having any investment capital for new or revised tooling crippled R/M, as before, they were a part of a larger organization that had the money to invest in them. R/M stagnated badly, along with the rest of the modeling hobby ast that time. I'm not sure how many here recall the slim pickings we had domestically from around 1999-2006/2007, due to AMT being ruined by RC2, Lindberg having been bought out & basically ran under, & R/M having no investment capital.

It took a buyout of R/M by a consortium it's employees & then a subsequent buyout of it by Hobbico before they began to have venture capital to invest in new tooling again. Complain about Hobbico's pricing structure all that you want, without them there might very well likely be no Revell/Monogram to speak of, let alone complain about if not for them.

Shortly after the employee buyout of R/M, Mr. Keener went through what appeared to be a very nasty & a very public divorce, (which I heard about from Iowa hobby people, [Jody's companies are based in Cedar Rapids IA], & which can be looked up online to get the gist of it, enough info is public knowledge to present a very clear & relevant picture), & also began buying up mostly defunct &/or moribund toy & hobby companies such as Marx, Lindberg, Hawk, Big Wheel, etc., seemingly just to get the intellectual property rights in some cases.

Anyway as far as Lindberg/Hawk goes, he just kept churning out the same old, same old reissues, some of which were indeed very nice, (such as some of the Testors tooling & the latter Lindberg tooling), but so much of which was sorely dated. (the Pyro kits leap to mind), along with a tiny smattering of new tools, (themselves soon reissued over & over), in an attempt to turn a fast buck. The trouble is that the hobbyist is only going to buy so many of the "same old, same old" before growing tired of it, & they didn't have a large enough or modern enough product line to sustain them long term.

I hope Mr. Jeener doesn't get involved in the hobby for a third time personallly, & that's not a knock on him, just an observation based on what's transpired twice so far.

I've heard a lot more rumors, some from people I trust to know & to be honest, but neither I nor they can verify them, so I won't add to it.

Even though Lindberg reissued some of the worn-out old Pyro kits, you've got to give them credit for doing a little upgrading to them, such as chrome plating on the Auburn Speedster (a favorite of mine, which I remember painting using my Mother's bronze nail polish and brush applicator). Thanks for the insights into some of the reasons why some of their kits aren't as could as we would like them to be. Real life facts tend to muffle rants.

Edited April 30, 2010 by sjordan2