niteowl7710

Remember that these Round2 videos are always a month off...so February is going to be a break for your wallets. This month you have to pick up the Demon, both Ford P/Us, the Warlock, the Mach Won and the '59 Caddy that's finally a proper Ambulance...

As far as I've seen it hasn't actually arrived in-stock anywhere yet to be sold out. The most recent Round2 kits anyone has got in since the 1st of the year are the Omni-based Shelby Charger and the old IMC Dodge L700 w/Race Trailer.

I'm sure it would be feasible for the right price. But I'm just saying a whole slew of people have a small pile of the Ford kits sitting unbuilt and if they sold the parts to the wrecker ahead of the kit itself - a lot of people would side step a $45 model kit for $25 worth of "parts".

That would all be dependent on how the tooling was designed to fit the mold machine. Some stuff is designed to be run on smaller machines and can be individually produced like the dually wheel sets which Moebius via Pegasus sells separately (along with the plow, and the gun rack). Some stuff is designed to be modularly plugged into the larger tooling that spits out the whole truck and can't be run without producing an entire Ford. Maybe at some point they could consider doing some over-runs, but with the wrecker bed and it's axles - I'd presume you'd want the front axle and the shorter (than the wedge hauler) differential set up, and you'd get the PTO parts too whether you want it or not - you'd have to wait until after that whole kit has actually been released and sold for a while. Otherwise, I suspect they'd do a brisk business in axles, wheels, and wrecker beds and have several thousand relatively unsaleable model kits as a result.

Yeah Aoshima had a few kits in that time frame that for some reason switch fitment compared to their normal order of operations. The Kei "ABC" cars (AutoZam, Beat. Cappuccino) all have male fitment wheels, and they were all tooled up in the same 1991-1993 time frame.

As you found with the HiLux Surt, the LHD parts are included in the Terrano (Pathfinder) kit as well. The only thing SATCO did was include a decal sheet for the U.S. trim/names for both of them, as both kits have always had LHD & RHD set ups from the time they were tooled up in 1992.

While it is a Lexus LS400, it's NOT a rebox of the Tamiya kit. It's a rebox of the Aoshima kit. The Tamiya kit has a full engine, and the Aoshima is a curbside.

In regard to the 1970 Shelby, if you translate the web site into English the listing for it mentions the chin spoiler and hood decals. I'd like to think that means they'll spend the $2k or so it would cost to add the chin spoiler.

That would be correct, the annual January 1st listing is for RevellAG (or Revell Home Office at this point I suppose) kits. They're getting their own Euro boxes of the Stranger Things licensing for example, while we'll never see - unless you have a really well stocked hobby shop or acquire the kits from Europe yourself - the majority of the Armor/Aircraft/Ship/Figure kits on the list.

Sure, but is the new one a recreation of the old one with the newer safety instructions added? Like they scanned a 1978 instruction sheet and modified it. Or is it an entirely new creation that mimics the original? If it's rhe latter than making new art work can't be substantially more expensive than re-drawing the old one all over again. That's a legit question BTW to anyone that has an original as I was a whole 1 years old when the Warlock was released the first time.

I think a little grace might be granted to anyone reviewing this kit if they didn't build models as a kid. I think some of you are forgetting that none of the D-100/150 kits were available after the early 80s other than the Little Red Express and the last LRE reissue was over 16 years ago. If someone didn't buy the prior '78 D-100 reissue, how would they know what all the parts are (to compare the multiples of 2WD/4WD parts)? Given that the 4x4 parts haven't been seen in a kit since 1982 and in stepside form since 1979. The instructions are only going to vaguely show what parts are kinda sorta used to build the Warlock. They're not going to mention all the extra parts, nor what size the engine is vs. what it should be. By the way Steve if happen to skim this, can we please stop with the "nostalgia" direction sheets? The box art and all of that are way cool, but it's about to be 2024, can we just get nice, BIG, modern technical drawings of things? Nobody has their eye sight from childhood nowadays and the old instructions with their mount this blob of thing over there *arrow points vaguely at the front of the vehicle* weren't adequate when the kits were new.

Nothing AMT/Ertl did prior to "the end" (being bought out by Racing Champions) was ever in CAD/CAM form, which means any modifications to Mueller-Era kits have to be done the same old fashioned way you would if you were modifying any other old piece of tooling. It can be done, but it involves a lot of fiddle-farting around making the new stuff fit the old kits as seen in the travails of the Full Bumper 70.5 Camaro and make the sedan pieces for the 67 Impala. Or going back further, making the new stock front end for the Gremlin.

I do have to appreciate your unilateral decisions of where I've been. Is this ability only scrying into the past, or do you also have the power of far sight to tell me where I'll be going in the future? My point about the three shows is that people attend them over and over and over again because they are the mass gatherings of their best friends that they most likely only see that *ONE* time each year. So sure there is a model contest taking place, and yes the work on the table is of excellent quality and quantity - thats how these individual shows become the "must attend" events in the first place. But to someone going to ACME for 20-25+ years it's a social gathering first and foremost because there are model contests all over the South if you just want to build a model and enter a contest.

This month's actual HLJ shipment (which is about 2 1/2 months of stuff - gotta love the Personal Warehouse storage)

This box has been sitting around for a few months unopened (since I knew what was in it), but cleaning up the basement this morning I finally emptied it out. BeeMaNuNu kits have grown to have that annoying "went out of stock so now it's made of unobtainable platinum pricing" thing that happens. So these 5 Audis along with the others purchased brings my stock of them level with the amount of aftermarket decals. It's always easier to sell them later than it is to buy them later...

No Steve said the tooling didn't cost $250k, but so far he's never argued against my supposition that his all-in cost from R&D to the end box on the shelf was that much. I happen to know first hand the "Master" License for Beemax to produce their first BMW product cost them €250k for JUST the license. Now they've amortized that across over a dozen kits spanning an M3, M6, M8, and three different 2000s era 320is - not counting individual licensing costs associated with each of those kits to the racing teams, sponsors, BMW, et al. Domestic Licenses don't cost that much, but they're not exactly "affordable" either, plus you're usually paying a per unit percentage royalty, and have to carry a high rate liability policy so in case little Timmy chokes to death on that new Jo-Han Oldie AMX steering wheel Stellantis won't get sued for it. Another thing to remember right before Round2 started down this blistering track of new tool new kits and 3D cloning a bunch of old kits they sold 49% of the company to an Investment Group. It's a lot easier to do things when you suddenly have millions of dollars of operating capital.

I'm almost positive that both the 57 300C and 71 Charger never carried their Custom/Street Machine parts in any kits that weren't branded that way specifically. Otherwise, they only built out factory stock like the original kit. There were 3 releases of the "Custom" 300C and that makes it around 18 years since the last time it was reissued with those parts. It's been about the same length of time since the Street Machine '71 Charger parts have seen the light of day too.

I love John, I've been buying from him since I was a teenager, and he runs my local hobby shop. I've probably spent more time with him in hobby related settings than nearly anyone else, so I will say he looks at model shows from purely a vendor prospective. So it makes me wonder if DAAM is getting more General Admission Floor Traffic, or people are more mentally focused on buying stuff in the vendor area than some other shows. It is pretty much the last show of the year North of I-40 until the Spring. John regularly sets up at 1:1 Autoramas, World of Wheels, et al rather than going to comparably distanced Model Shows because he sells more stuff at the 1:1 car events. Atlanta, NNL East, the old NNL in Toledo all seem like social functions that someone happens to be holding a model show during, rather than a MODEL CONTEST that attracts people to attend.

Revell's 2CV has over 120 parts, plus they tooled up the square headlights to match the movie car. Something that otherwise only exists in a sketchy old Heller kit. Plus like Matt said, 007 ain't cheap.

I know several people from the Cleveland area that make the pilgrimage up there, and when I lived in Cleveland I also once interviewed for a job (based in Ohio) in Detroit and never really though that much about driving up there and back in one half day. Seems like you never hear it mentioned around Pittsburgh...we aren't that much further away, but that might just be 25 years of driving for a living talking 🤣

And Round2 is the one giving them the information...because Steve is going to show the stuff over the weekend. There's no faster way to annoy your distributors than debut a product in public before they know about it. Monday morning they're going to get a flood of their downsteam customers - who are all hobby shops and other retail buyers - wanting to know about when/how to get the kit and their answer can't be - "What kit?"

It's a nice regional show for sure, but it's not really - at least within my spheres of influence - graduated to the point it's a "destination" show the way NNL was in Toledo. Or NNL East, NNL West, Acme, the former GSL, et al. Nobody has bragged to me they're taking vacation to go to Detroit...yet 🤣

At this point Round2 is showing products 3-5 times a year, they're never going to outright admit to something that would fall beyond the first half of next year right now.

Making it known to a limited number of modelers - DAAM isn't *that* big of a show, it's just convenient to get to for Steve/Round2 (and usually Moebius) - doesn't make something "official". It's official when it's got an item number and gets pushed out to Distributors as a future item. The number of people who sit around and check Steven's website is near 0 and even this forum represents maybe 3-5% of the hobby. When the 68 H/T is released there will be a bevy of stunned people who never knew it was coming. Look at any comment section to any Round2 video and people routinely ask for kits that AMT/MPC never made to begin with or are fervently demanding a reissue of something that in fact just WAS reissued 6-8 months prior.

Another flight from Hong Kong, another batch of freshly released race cars. The E90 shares the chassis plate, interior floor plate, and tires with the earlier 2001/2004 320i kits, the entire rest of the kit is new tooling.