niteowl7710

Well considering how dubiously out of date Round 2's website tends to be, they may have never updated it to reflect the ownership change after Lowe bought the companies from Tomy. Now I want to look at the bottom of a new reissue and see what the copyright information says, curse being at work....

Can I, on behalf of all modelers, who live North of I-40 and paint outside just say ENOUGH WITH THE FREAKIN' SNOW ALREADY?!?! We're apparently going to entirely skip Spring, and go straight into the equally useless humidity of summer.

I thought Learning Curve is the overall holding company that was created to license the tooling from RC2. In the current legal notices part of Round 2's website they are still listed as the owners of the company names (AMT, MPC, Polar Lights) that are then produced in a DBA (Doing Business As) called Round 2.

I don't want to sound completely negative on the reissues, I've gotten several things I missed in the part of life where real cars, women and work interfered. I could suggest a place to stick the rest of that orange dye, but I was happy to get the '70 1/2 Camaro (how about the B-M Edition with proper decals?), and I just picked up the '67 Shelby GT that I totally missed back in the '90's. Have plans to get the Opel when my LHS can keep one in stock long enough. In full disclosure I have one of the Gremlins too, along with a bunch of other things since Round 2 took over. I just think (especially since Round 2 outright owns it all now) they're sitting on too much capital - both in a financial and marketing sense not to use it. If they can afford to license a Steven King Movie, Elvis, Texaco, Pepsi, all the new tires, AND buy Lindberg, there's gotta be room for "The First All New AMT Kit in 25 Years". Or at least a new body insert to correct the banana-mobile quality of the '58 Fury. I was an AMT kid growing up, and it was painful to watch what RC2 did to my "beloved" model company. They don't need to go head-to-head with Revell, but I think there's something to be said for a Moebius approach. One or two carefully crafted new tools a year that offer several variations to amortize the cost over a couple of years, paid for with the GIANT tooling catalog of 6 model companies. In the mean time I'll be over here in line for the Demon reissue...

The Chevy Van doesn't concern me that much as it's aimed at an entirely different market than the Vantasy is/was, there are plenty of people who want to build the Fire/Police version of the van with the period equipment that came in that kit back in the day. I more interested in how much positive sales they get out releasing things in multiple colors. Didn't the first run of the Manx come in like 2 or 3 colors AND white. Now the Christine Fury is being molded in white and red, and the Opel GT in white and yellow. How well are those "in-color" kits selling? I know for me it's not 1988 and they're not Monogram, and that plastic is not "Real Metal - Flake!"

Well for new kits for the Automotive genre other than the Batmobile are the CoT NASCAR Snap kits (another release that went no where in a fast hurry). Sure they did the series of Challengers, Corvettes & Camaros, but those are basically unassembled promos, which they are just selling in pieces rather than in promo form. That's not really a "new" kit per se when you are already producing the car anyways for the promo use. That tooling was bought and paid for by GM & Chrysler. Sure they own AMT, but I refute the idea that AMT is part of that pile of old model companies. It was a perfectly functional and current model company until RC2 trampled all over it. The Lindberg part of Lindberg while under a miserable stewardship in the past half-decade is also a current model company in that it produced new tools in this century. You want to reissue the entire catalogs of the IMC, MPC and old AMT tools be my guest (the Palmer/Pyro stuff should be melted down into a Kia). There are things there I will buy, but you have at least two marquees that should be kicking out at least one new model kit a year. At what point does restoring all of these old tools outstrip the ROI of the reissue? They've obviously started with the easiest, quickest turn around stuff first, and then it's sorta down the slope of quality and ease of fixing the tools. Learning Curve = Round 2, not RC2.

Not automotive, but still a new tool. Clearly Round 2 doesn't believe there's a good ROI on anything automotive. The Gremlin Craig brings up is a good example of how retro nostalgia goes wrong. Everyone was soiling their Depends with excitement, then the kit came out and everyone remembered how iffy at best the model really was, and the newly retooled front end didn't actually fit the model, and there's huge gaps where the chassis and body meet. When they released the follow up Gremlin this year...man that was like a fart in church quiet, I barely saw any in the What Did You Get thread, and it's been given a universal yawn and shrug by all but the 8 militant AMC guys in the hobby. There was a huge outcry that Round 2 save that tool and backdate it to stock, then no one was happy with the results. There wasn't any other piece of tooling they could have modified into a "new" kit (ala Revell's business model) instead of resurrecting the Gremlin. I have to wonder how many people bought it just for the box art and large print that came with it...

That's not true they just did a very comprehensive new tooling for Star Trek that allows you to build the Enterprise pretty much anyway it's ever been featured from the TV Pilot through the movies via "parts packs", decals and fiber optics. It also has a hefty price tag that would frighten everyone out of their rockers around here. There again is the cliche - automotive modelers are cheap, and for some reason that defies logic (cause let's face it, nostalgia only goes so far before you remember the good ole days weren't that great after all) everyone would rather fight with 50 year old model kits than pay the freight for new tools.

I would presume it's the same reason that Asian kits and Revell AG kits are $35 or more here in the States. Revell & Round 2 aren't making kits for International Sales, they're making them for domestic (or North American - Canada/U.S./Mexico) consumption. The middle man has to make a living too!

I say "blow 'em up" to 1:25 scale and make real models out of them. I'd like to have those trucks, the Greyhound Bus, et al as "real" models rather than little static/slot car bodies.

http://dmetzner.smugmug.com/Other/Ford-Pick-ups/28571412_PSntcL#!i=2422228443&k=mC79F8D

The hardtop tool hadn't been run lately, I think the last time was the Amigo Pack that came with the 1:87 diecast car. If you don't absolutely have to have it, I'd wait til May and see if Revell doesn't reissue it this fall, as it's about time it came around again after the reissued the Convertible kit a few months ago.

The only time I used FedEx is the International Express that HobbyLink Japan offers, and almost always - unless it's coming in over a weekend - they manage to deliver it a day before the tracking says it's supposed to be here. 3 days from Japan, the world's a lot smaller than it used to be.

I don't think they do a big public thing like Revell, but it seems like there's always more stuff that pops up on the Tower Hobbies pre-order pages around that time. Wonder if the tooling for the Dodge Rampage was ever finished...Lindberg had said it was a Skill Level 3, so that would be a full detail glue kit in the vein of the Chargers. It's long past when that vehicle would be relevant to build, but if the tool is cut, shoot some plastic through it! http://lindberg-models.com/land_model73055.html

Why do I have to wait til then? There be Late Fall/Winter Release Announcements lurking a few months on the horizon!

The Toyota Tacomas were molded in a variety of "unique" shades, but the Nissan was molded in black. Considering the prices they are fetching on eBay you'd think these were the most popular kits EVER and there aren't piles of them lying around unbuilt. That being said the 1/20 tools while somewhat replicating the annuals that AMT and Revellogram were putting out were of different versions of the vehicles. There was a Firebird Firehawk, Camaro SS Convertible, Camaro F-1, the 4x4 Sonoma, Sonoma Sportside, S-10 SS, 4dr Blazer & Jimmy, an Explorer Sport, and the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. One Run of Fun them all, then pack the tools into a corner of the basement just to get these delusional people who think a Baywatch Toyota is worth $120 a dose of reality.

There is no statute height of bridges off of the Interstate System. Even then it's 14', which only clears a semi by a half-foot. If you get a Motor Carriers Atlas it has a section in front that lists major roads that have clearances lower than the state's individual statute minimum (usually 14'). It's up to the vehicle operator to effectively preplan their route for clearance & weight limit issues (not to mention knowing the height of their vehicle). Every rental truck I've ever come across has the height marked on the front corners in reverse so the driver can read it in the mirror. There are a system if warning lights and audible warnings at the Lincoln and Holland tunnels in NYC, but someone usually stuffs an overheight vehicle into the mouth once a week or so. The excuse, is usually "That's the way the GPS said to go". Of course the GPS is not a Motor Carrier GPS and therefore doesn't care about low clearance issues.

And yet I have more than a dozen of those kits - I tended to buy every '64 Dodge I could find for the Slant 6 - and not a single one smells the least like smoke. I'm not going to come off like a fire expert, but having worked my fair share of house fires two things are universally true. EVERYTHING smells heavily of smoke, and almost everything is a wet sodden mess. Unless it was a minor fire, in which case they didn't need to liquidate anything if it wasn't damaged. The reason that so many people don't believe there was an actual fire-fire is that suspiciously just a few months after the warehouse "burnt down" and they sold off the inventory to Ollie's and other wholesale outlets the four-year overdue long promised Dodge Charger Police kits MAGICALLY appeared on the market. It's almost like they needed that cash infusion. Plus if you talk to people who were involved with Lindberg closely they tend to talk about that time with a wink and a nod and you can't ever find anyone who will deny that something hokey didn't occur.

Seems that Testors funded the initial tooling costs, but when Lindberg was purchased from Testors I would have assumed (dangerous I know) that the tooling came with them. All of the Testors Chargers I have say "Molded for Testors by J. Lloyd Inc" on the side. I think the only Charger tooling that Testors kept was the diecast tooling which it released in the police variation literally YEARS before Lindberg burnt their warehouse down to finally run the plastic kit.

I would imagine it's because they don't want trucks on that road in the first place. If you notice, with the exception of that tour bus - who was probably lost on a GPS and the one larger truck that had the skid steer attached to the back, almost all of those trucks were non-CDL local contractor/rental trucks who were more than likely trying to take a short-cut through town rather than going around town on the designated truck route. Part of the reason you don't see more CDL trucks in those videos is because drivers of vehicles requiring them realize that "No Thru/Through Trucks" means all TRUCKS, not just some trucks, but not really MY truck because I don't have to have a CDL to drive it. Requiring a CDL is all about the GVW (and the braking system) of the vehicle, not it's dimensions. That being said not knowing the height of your vehicle is ignorant.

This has been my background for awhile now...

Depends on the station, but Saturday nights prior to the regular show (6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern) they do a "Coast to Coast AM - Art Bell Somewhere in Time" where they play an old show from the archives. Plus Art still does the show on Halloween & New Years Eve, along with the exceptional random fill-in for Noory. Who I have to admit I never really cared for, it's his show now and all of that, but it's not the SAME show that Art started all those years ago.

The rear bumper on this kit is a mess in general. I've fought mine through several attempts to get it level and attached on both sides correctly. Fortunately you can assemble the rear bumper on prior to paint so I've been able to do all my massaging prior to committing to paint.

It's coming out in April, Revell just featured it today on their FB page. It's the Lara Croft "Tomb Raider" diecast in plastic.

I fall into that "I have way too many to build multiple versions" camp. The exception to this is police car "blanks" which are just new decals on a kit I've built so many time I can probably sleep through everything up to the decal application. Also do we consider different variations of the same tool building the same kit? I mean I have all three of the Nova kits, they're all essentially the same kit