Justin Porter

HUGE news on that Kenmeri! Both the Fujimi and the Aoshima kits are pretty well aged and pretty rough tooling. That's an important car that needed to be represented in a modern kit.

My point is that unless they have standing IP rights that another company does not have and cannot acquire more cheaply through negotiations (as in my Atlantis example) then Johan has absolutely NOTHING OF VALUE and no one should consider buying them. A sufficiently motivated individual who had the IP licensing rights from Stellantis could contract T-Rex Studios (the independent kit design firm utilized by Meng, Takom, and a slew of others) and have the CAD of the kit within three months, and test shots in 9 especially since something along the lines of a '68 AMX or a '70 Superbird is significantly less complicated than a full interior King Tiger. You don't need a bloody thing from Johan in the world of modern kit development. The only possibly beneficial thing is if they offer a cheaper way to get the license to produce domestic car kits than to negotiate a new licensing deal with the manufacturers themselves.

It's not a matter of permission from Johan at all. Round 2 wouldn't need the licensing from Johan because they already have operational licensing from Stellantis, General Motors, and Ford Motor Company. A company like Atlantis that currently has only the General Motors licensing is in IP negotiation with Stellantis so that they have the IP rights to release Stellantis product based kits. On the other hand, if Johan had a legacy IP contract with Stellantis or one of its forebears, purchasing Johan becomes a potentially cheaper end run around those IP negotiations. The Pegasus buyout of Moebius was motivated by EXACTLY this sort of IP license possession on the sci-fi side. But, if Spaulding doesn't currently hold any usable IP rights then all he has is worthless old tooling that should be replaced by something modern.

Funny thing to me is that in truth if Spaulding actually HAS anything of value it would lie in whether or not he's maintained any sort of IP Licensing rights to AMC products. The tooling is meaningless at this point. If he's not running it, it can't be either usable or complete and it's all archaic garbage anyways. But legacy licensing rights that are already negotiated, set in stone, and paid for? Now THAT is something worth buying out.

Which - with the baffling exception of the '66 Malibu nostalgia release - are all reasonably modern full detail kits priced competitively with other mainstream manufacturers such as Tamiya, Moebius, Aoshima, Salvinos JR, and Hasegawa. The issue isn't that Round 2 is raising their prices. The issue is that Round 2 is pricing FOR HOBBY SHOPS SPECIFICALLY as if it were a premium brand (genuinely, Hasegawa non-Limited Edition curbsides that still have metal transfers have lower MSRP's than Round 2's Surf Shark) when it's not offering a competitive product and then turning right around and putting the same product on palletized shipper displays for outlets for less than wholesale.

Genuinely great looking E-Type!

Another build wrapped up and this one is a major one for me. This is the Aoshima 1/24th scale MGB roadster converted to a GT coupe using the resin transkit by C1 Models. It's painted in Tamiya X3 Royal Blue and is meant to be a replica of how I wanted to restore the MGB GT that I owned in high school. I am really pleased with not only how it turned out, but also how easy the C1 transkit was to work with.

These made to my shelves and I must say I'm pretty pleased. The box is appropriately tiny so four kits on hand is about the same shelf space as two Moebius kits. Looking forward to seeing how they go out the door.

Definitely looks good regardless of the fight. These kits and their Mclaren and Penske sisters are full of strange engineering choices on AMT's part.

Rear end done and looking great. Just a bit of embellishment left to go. The MGB GT emblem done in PE by C1 Models really is a nice touch to have.

Glass is in, front end is mostly done. Rear details, PE, door handles, mirrors, and chrome side trim left to do. This one is on its home stretch!

Stevens International just gave us official kit numbers for the RoG boxings of a slate of new releases and opened preorders. Here are some of the ones that seem to be the big attention getters. 1971 Ford Mustang Boss 351 - RVL #7699 1971 Oldsmobile 442 Coupe - RVL #7695 1/8th scale 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am - RVL #7710 1969 Camaro SS - RVL #7712 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 - RVL #7708

Agreed entirely. The New Tool '57 100% obsoleted the Trophy Series kit and the Trophy Series tooling should have remained retired. That the Trophy Series kit came available under Round 2's management tells us more that Round 2 isn't concerned about detail or accuracy minded model builders and instead are wholly focused on nostalgia collectors.

Oh I'm under no delusions that Round 2 truly cares what dinky 300 square foot Haven Hobby in just off the lake Ohio does as far as our purchasing habits compared to the Walmart contract. I am also completely aware that it's likely connected to Johnny Lightning continuing to get peg space in the toy car aisle. They are welcome to do with their business as they like. I will do what's in my business's best interest and that is to not clutter my shelves with half-baked reissues no one asked for at nosebleed prices that will be undercut by half by the big box up the street.

Oh I'm aware it's how business works but this is one of those things that truly TRULY gets under my skin. How often do we see or hear "I'd shop at the LHS but they gouge on prices" as a refrain? I price on a roughly 5% below MSRP matrix on my shelves. Net result, Tamiya's all new and fully detail Toyota GR86 kit carries a smaller price tag than this rehashed Ecto-1 but somehow I'M the gouger, not sweet innocent Round 2.

So glad to know that Round 2 is selling so cheaply to Walmart. My WHOLESALE COST per kit on the Surf Shark is $32.31 with an MSRP of $54.95 from either of my AMT distributors. So what's my choice guys? Cut my margin to the bone and still be higher than the inevitable Walmart shipper/Ollies sell off OR stop stocking Round 2 products entirely unless it is a guaranteed nuclear hot, no one will wait to buy it release like the Nova Wagon?

Fantastic build in a really suitable color for the car!

Sold out our stock of the Gassers and the SS Coupes and restocked on the coupes. Waiting on more supplies of the Gassers. Definitely a winner on my shelves. Thanks Moebius!

The joy of an older project is the number of subassemblies you had already put together so wrapping this up actually went fairly quickly. After a bit of a tussle that included choosing to ditch the forward tilting hinges of the nose, my MPC 1/25th scale Mako Shark II is all finished. Wheels and tires are from the Revell '67 Corvette roadster kit and paint is Gunze Sangyo Mr Metallic Icy Silver and Dark Blue under Tamiya TS-13 clear.

Arrived at my distributor yesterday so they should be on my shelves for the end of the week. Quite excited for this one!

This is the MPC "Custom Corvette" reissue of their 1/25th scale Mako Shark II kit. I picked it up at some point over ten years ago as a partially built kit and decided I'd try and knock something presentable out of it. I did an homage paint scheme to the original Mako Shark II without following it exactly using Gunze Mr Metallic Icy Silver and Dark Blue.

So apparently the big announcements of 2022 are a 100% new tool 2021 Dodge Charger and a full retool of the classic 1966 Mustang fastback kit in the same vein as the '64 Olds and the Nova Wagon.

It's genuinely impressive to me how much buzz a kit with proportion issues this bad is generating. According to Scalemates it has been ten years since the last time the Revell '68 Roadster was issued and I am certain that if Revell announced it was coming back out third quarter this year it would barely register.

If Aoshima can give us photoetch badges, multiple wheel options, and die-cut window masks in a sub-$40 reissue of a 30 year old kit then Round 2 can be expected to offer similarly competitive products.

Gunze Sangyo tooling also available reboxed for Airfix around the same time that Airfix was reboxing Gunze's E-Type Jag.