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?