niteowl7710

Unless something pops up in the filings in Monday (there were some random financial paperwork filed on Friday for staffing and monthly operating expenses) there were no objections to the Revell sale filed before yesterday's deadline. So the next date to watch will be the closing of the sale on May 8th.

Finally rattling this thing around to a release date sometime this summer. This is the built display model for the Shizouka Hobby Show in 3 weeks.

The only speculation there really is at this point is to what the new company is going to have the newly German Unified Revell do with the US tooling and US Market. Because this morning the current RevellAG pushed out pre-orders on some up coming kits for the early summer, combined with their press release from earlier this week clearly indicate they're operating as if nothing happened other than who writes the checks.

FWIW several Japanese vendors have listed the Pirelli Golf GTi and Shelby Series I, RevellAG kits for July release. So business as usual over there for those guys.

I believe the issue was one that with Ferrari they had to have licensing for RevellAG to do the kit to begin with AND have one for them to sell the kits into North America. We've seen several occasions were RevellAG kit have not been re-boxed by Revell USA because of "licensing issues" (aka money issues) with things like the SLS AMG & AMG GT, McLaren 570S, the Golf & Beetle Cabrio, etc etc. All of which has less to do with the modeling world as it does with all of the 1:1 auto makers and their lawyers vs. Hobbico encumbered Revell not wanting to pay for anything because it was too busy hemorrhaging cash into the R/C pit of doom.

Are we coughing because you agree or disagree? Because the Panamera might be decently rendered in terms of proportions, the actual tooling on it is rife with the evidence of how much of a strangle hold on cash Illinois was putting on things. The sink marks, parts of the kit that seem engraved by a separate team than the rest of the kit, the start and then total abortion of engraving the adaptive cruise/lane change/rear park system... Every kit that wasn't actively under development when Hobbico bought Revell GmbH is a ghost of a kit when compared to what the former management had going on with the DTM kits, Beetles, Golfs, 2CV, Mini Coopers, Trabant, SLS AMG, 918s & i8. Since the new management team has directed kit development from scratch and lurched things into being "easier" - the parts count has dropped, things are molded in bright dayglo colors, and the parts are tooled in an awkward manner. They went to Knockin' on Tamiya's back porch to...ehhh this is allllright...I guess...it's not terrible, but it's not what we were getting in the 5yrs prior.

They would have the financial ability to obtain one again. It can't be THAT expensive, Fujimi kept theirs after all. Right now the only two companies that have an active Ferrari licensing are Tamiya & Fujimi.

I understand Horizon doesn't deal with plastic, but they ALSO bought GP & Tower Hobbies (and by-proxy Omni Models). Unless they'e planning to end them both as distributors and fold it all into Horizon while jetisoning all the kits, supplies, etc. But Tower is still showing kit release dates into the early Fall over there. The mass email I got from Omni said they were continuing business as usual with no mention of ending model related sales.

Well we in the States don't pay Customs on models regardless as to where they're manufactured. When the Yen gained a bunch of ground against the dollar in the Spring of '17 it was actually cheaper to buy Tamiya kits from my LHS than it was to direct import them via HLJ. The same thing goes for RevellAG kits. I'm not sure where you people are regularly getting hosed at, but I haven't paid more than $28 for any automotive kit going back to the SLS AMG kit which I think was $33 out of my Brick & Mortar LHS. Frankly if the U.S. kits were "price matched" up $5 to around $30-$33 they could put a little more R&D into them and stop gaffing the proportions. Belkits has quietly proven you can charge upwards of $60 for a model if you make a good kit of something people want. I see a lot of people - all over the Interwebs - acting like Revell hasn't made any new xyz or too many abcs, out of some malice rather than the budgetary reality they won't pay the freight. Then out of the otherside of their keyboard demand to know "Where will we get our cheap kits at?"

The...new?...improved? Tower lists it as a Late September release with a price tag of $47.95 on the AG side of the ledger.

In this day and age I'd assume they'd just name a few people (such as you guys/Stevens, Squadon, Horizon (via Tower) as U.S. Distributors, and then work direct deals with the likes of Hobby Lobby and Walmart (which has and still does carry Revell models online) since both those places are already pulling trailer loads of freight out of the ports.

Blitz is just a holding company owned by Quantum.

The LHD version has the pieces from the HiLux Surf (nee 4Runner) in that ONE edition only that was specifically sold in the U.S. back when American SATCO was their distributor.

I wasn't implying funny business I just see a guy who obviously buys kit collections on the cheap and resells them, no harm, no foul. I just hate to see anyone's eyes glaze over at prices around $10 and get "burned" because they didn't read the fine print.

Hope everyone's reading the fine print at the bottom about those "great deal" kits Open Box - kit has been opened. I sell these as Parts kits as I can not inventory every single item in the box for all of the kits I have in stock, and my prices reflect that. That sounds like a bigger shot in the dark than a random eBay purchase, and at least with eBay you have recourse if you get half a kit when you were promised a whole one.

Well one thing is that Blitz didn't shut anything down, it would be the Bankruptcy Administration for what's left at Hobbico that pulled that move. I know it strikes everyone as harsh, and the way they handled it at least was, but they have one job - liquidate Hobbico and collect a huge fee. Part of that is shedding all the payroll of the employees.

FWIW the CEO of Quantum is a German National, but got his MBA at NYU, so he might have a passing fancy in unifying Revell as a "plaything" (similar to Tom Lowe at Round2) and had a soft spot for American subject matter.

It was borderline strong armed robbery. The tooling alone had a book value over over $2 million...and they paid $50k. More over they bought Revell Germany and all of its tooling and hobby related businesses for what amounts to $800k and some promises to repay loans in 2019. The only thing they paid market value for is the inventory.

There seemed to be a couple of other bidders, but Blitz had what they didn't - CASH. The other bids were all contingent on financing, while Blitz was able to cut a check for $295,000.00 for the deposit yesterday probably without even breaking a mild sweat.

Intellectual Property Regarding Tools/Molds Print Files (Packaging, Stickers, building plans) For pre-decorated models - Tampo Print Files & Hand Spray Files Bill of Material & Production Files Picture archive of products 2D Mold Layouts 3D Design Files Prototype Models

The Blitz people get control of the domains when the sale closes in May. I would expect nothing will change on the website until then, since as pointed out earlier there's nobody left to edit it.

Some fun FACTS about the sale - because despite what some keep implying, reading a legal filing isn't speculation, it's simply reading comprehension. Sales price - $3.9 Million Dollars Breakdown as Follows - Intercompany Loans (Loans Revell GmbH got via Revell/Hobbico) $1.00 - those have a 1 year grace period from the close of the deal (5/8) before the first payment is due Controlling Interest in Revell GmbH - $800,000 Revell US Tooling - $50,000 IP/Trademarks - $49,999 Current Revell US Inventory - $3,000,000 The entire thing smacks of this company wanting - perhaps with current/former management of Revell GmbH on board in some form, since Blitz has no filings to peruse in relation to it's make-up - to purchase the German Division and release it from the shackles of Illinois. Then decided - well since it's so cheap - I mean they bought business end of Revell/Monogram in effect for $100,000 - lets just go ahead and get all the tooling, licensing, and IP/Trademarks so we don't have to worry about trying to obtain someone to run US derived tools for European sales (for the Revell US stuff that Revell GmbH was going to release during 2018). I had thought the were maintaining the lease on the Elk Grove Village property, which might imply a US arm at a later date, but further pouring through forms shows they're only obligated to pay the flaming tatters of "Hobbico" rent & lease in EGV and Champaign for as long as it takes from the completion of the sale to go in and transfer all the inventory and tooling which is still located in the U.S. over to Germany (or perhaps Poland since that's were Revell GmbH's manufacturing takes place). I guess at this point there is no more Revell GmbH anymore either - it's just a monolithic REVELL. It creates a Tamiya-esque company that has a huge tooling catalog and of course manufactures paints, glues, and hobby tools in Europe.

My viewpoint would be - concerned until further clarity in May. I mean if I showed up and bought your workplaces' inventory, domain name, trademarks, contracts, licenses and the building you were inside of, you wouldn't have a job at the original company anymore. You would (as all the Hobbico R/C and Mail Order employees did with Horizon) have to apply to the new company. The new company in this case might not exist fully until after the sale completes on 5/8. I can't see any reason to assume the lease on the EGV building if they don't plan to do something with it in the future. I've been downsized before, so I'm empathetic with the employees from Revell, but at the same time the flaming dumpster fire that is what's left of the bankruptcy assets - I don't think you can call it Hobbico in a technical sense since Horizon bought that name - can't keep them employed at a place that in it's present "in-between stasis" doesn't technically exist anymore.

Court hearing on the sale is over and the sale is approved. Sticking points would be Ford & GM throwing individual hissy fits about their licensing not being transferable to the new company and new deals needing to be done. Objections to the sale can be filed until April 20th, and earlier today the court gave Ford until May 17th to see if they can come to an agreement over the licensing rather than having the court decide the matter. The sale is to close by May 8th, at that time whatever exactly is left of Hobbico at this point is no longer permitted to use, identify or otherwise claim the Revell logos, trademarks, Web domains, etc.