mikos

What kits you never dreamed of? ‘71-‘73 Riviera? Nope, not in plastic. ‘73-‘77 Grand Prix? Nope, the closest we got was the ‘77 Monte Carlo from Revell. 69-‘72 Grand Prix? Nope, not yet until Round 2 clones it or fixes the original “Kotter” tooling if it can be done. ‘70-‘73 Trans Am? Not in 1/25th scale except for the expensive MPC 1971 annual if you don’t count the Revell version. What about the ‘80-‘81 Camaro Z28 in 1/25th? Not yet until the ProStreet ‘81 Camaro gets here, if it ever gets here. The Atomic City resin kits will be just another boutique resin effort that has been done before by other resin casters. $150+ for no chrome is steep. There are resin casters that sell on ebay that offer chrome bumpers/wheels and contrasting colored chassis parts (black) at that price point. The only difference I see here is the name rights ownership that Atomic City will have concerning the “Johan” name. I don’t think their expensive “made to order” resin kit offerings on Facebook is going translate into them making plastic kits from cloned tooling of the originals in the future. I just don’t see it.

There’s a lot of appeal for those old Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles and the American Motors stuff like the Javelin and AMX. Remember, those Cadillacs can be made into low riders if that building option exists. Look at the Revell Caddy Coupe deVille or Lindberg’s hopping’ ‘79 Caddy. Yeah, the Revell version is diecast based I believe, but they saw enough ROI to do it in plastic and in 1/25 scale which is not common for diecast.

Now we just have to fix that pesky ROI excuse. Since we now know clone kits do not cost $250k to tool up according to Steve G. at Round 2 or need to sell in the hundreds of thousands like in the old days, we just need to pick the best subject matter from each manufacturer and run with it. I think having some of those old classic Oldsmobiles, Cadillacs, Mopars and American Motors models back again would be great. The made to order resin stuff offered through Facebook is nice, but the price point is steep and leaves a lot of people who like to build those models out of the picture. $35-$40 in styrene is a lot better than $150+ for resin with no chrome/vacuumed formed glass. Just my $.02.

Rob, steal or beg to get the money for the ‘68 GTO. I got two already with more planned in the future. It’s a really nice kit if you like the simplified promo-style “Craftsman” style kits. Like the promo for 1/10th the cost. I plan on getting a few ‘65 GTO’s as well.

That’s good to hear. I hope the clone kits do very well so you can do even more clone kits from the past. What I would like to see is molded in color clone kits as well. Made in a plastic that can be polished out or clear coated. The City Slicker (molded in blue metallic) and the Coca Cola (molded in red) Dodge Chargers were done this way and they were great. I bought two of each. Another thing that would be great is offering prebuilt (promo style) Craftsman kits again. You know, like the pre-assembled pre painted or molded in color friction drive model cars they used to offer back in the ‘60’s. Since new car and new retro promos are basically dead these days, it would give promo collectors something to be excited about in addition to the cloned model kits. A pre-painted or molded in color prebuilt ‘68 GTO “Craftsman” style model would be very exciting. You could do small runs in various colors to encourage people to collect them like they do with diecast cars. Just some ideas….

I remember when Illinois Model Company was going to reissue the ‘75 Cutlass, ‘59 Rambler Wagon and the Chrysler Turbine Car over a decade ago. There was a pic shared online that showed the preproduction built models and the proposed box art sitting on a table at a trade show. I think Steve G. (now at Round 2) was part of the original team that was working on this. That means the tooling for those models should still exist today unless they were destroyed. I think this would be a great start to getting this new Atomic City/JoHan back on the hobby scene. If Okey owns the actual tooling, he could lend it out to Atomic City/JoHan so they could make the models in styrene. Or, if they just want to concentrate on the expensive (made to order) resin stuff through Facebook, he can lend the tooling to Round 2 so (Steve G.) can produce them in plastic. As for the old excuse that the Johan tooling inserts wouldn’t work in a modern plastic injection molding machine. Well, they seemed to have solved that problem back when they about to reissue them again during the Illinois Model Company period. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they were not able to get it done.

That’s a shame. I was hoping Round 2 would have a lot of success with that kit. More sales would create the justification to do more clone kits from the muscle car/classic car era. I do like the Gran Turismo and tuner cars, but after 10-12 slightly different variations of the same car it can get a little boring. Sales are sales though, so I can’t argue that.

That’s a little concerning. I thought the Coronet would be sales success. However, me thinks the Grand Prix would do a lot better. I wonder how the ‘68 GTO is doing?

I don’t know if we should use the example of original kit/promo prices for these new resin kits. They should be at a price point under what the original kits/promos go for. The reason those original kits/promos are expensive is because they are not being made anymore in plastic and there is a high demand for them in the hobby. A resin kit, even though they can get pricey, is just not the same as an equivalent vintage kit made in styrene. If they charge what the originals are going for, it’s probably better just getting the original. Either way, you’re the spending the same amount of money for either one. I was hoping they could get enough capital investment to do small runs in styrene. Of course, that would take money for tooling and distribution. However, we have a lot of smart people on here that could do it. What they need is someone to clone the original kits/ promos like what Round 2 is currently doing. Make some parts a little different as to not step on the toes of avid collectors like Round 2 is doing with their cloned kits. Then, it would just require an investment in tooling to have it done in styrene plastic. I hate to sound pessimistic, but this “made to order” Johan kits in resin on a Facebook page with no chrome and vacuumed formed glass for a hundred and a half sounds a little dubious.

Atomic City now owns the Johan LLC rights that Okey used to own?

The subject matter they offer is more desirable than the Tamiya example you provided. If Round 2 cloned (or fixed the Kotter tool) the ‘72 Grand Prix and offered it for $37.99, would it sell better than the Tamiya Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA in sales? I’m thinking it would be a land slide over the Alfa Romeo kit here in the U.S. No doubt the Tamiya kit would offer more detail since it’s a more modern kit. However, what would sell better? A kit that hasn’t been reissued in stock form since the early ‘70’s annual or the Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA? I’m thinking it would be the ‘72 Grand Prix hands down. I would love to be proven wrong, though.

The last version for that tooling would be the Canadian RCMP 1973 Caprice tool. Mounting holes were added to the roof for the light bar. If they could find the original body mold, we could have the ‘73 Caprice back again. Unfortunately, for the ‘71, that was modified into the ‘72 and then that was modified with even more changes to the ‘73 Caprice. Of course, they could always clone them and we could possibly see the ‘71-‘72 Impala again. The question would be, would it be the ‘71 or the ‘72? They could do both, perhaps. However, I don’t really see that happening. The question remains, whatever happened to the original 1973 Caprice body tool? The ‘74-‘76 is a completely different body mold. Since the ‘74’s had so many changes done for that model year, MPC just decided to make a brand new body tool for that car. The ‘75-‘76 Caprice was based upon the new for ‘74 body tool.

I was hoping to see the “ProStreet ‘80/‘81 Camaro Z28” that was promised several months ago. I guess they couldn’t find the molds or they were damaged or something. Oh well…

I hope they follow this up with a curbside/promo style version as well.

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.