Do you want to participate in a positive way by giving Round-2 some useful re- and modified release ideas?

[MrObsessive]

21 hours ago, Paul Hettick said:

Take the AMT 49 Mercury and give us a 51. Build stock or custom. A no brainer big seller.

I'd like the same to the Ford too! Turn the '50 Convertible into a '51 Victoria Hardtop. No super big changes would be needed------the roof could be separate as I believe the Victoria was nothing more than a convertible with a hardtop bolted/welded on. Of course a new bumper/grille (no huge change there), new seat patterns and IIRC the taillights were slightly different.

Another no brainer (at least to me) would be for Round 2 to take the '56 T-Bird, and turn it into a '55. For the life of me, I don't know why that one's been ignored in 1/24-1/25 scale.

As far as Mustangs, a '67-'68 Coupe would seem to be a no brainer as well as a convertible based off of that.

Maybe someday....................

[Luc Janssens]

This would be awesome

Link to a post by Casey

[Jordan White]

I just want them to bring back more of the AMT/Ertl-era truck kits. Things like the 90s C1500, F150, Blazer 2dr, S10 and Sonoma, Ranger, Explorer, etc. 

[Casey]

On 12/30/2017 at 11:42 PM, niteowl7710 said:

A lot of these "restored tooling" parts that we've been getting are things like wheels - which just need to be the same size as the tire they're going into and the wheel mounting system from the kit.  Or little bits and pieces from custom parts for the tooling inserts.  But nothing quite an undertaking as back-dating a body shell or creating an entirely new "xyz" based on this "abc" base kit.

Not to kill Luc's topic, but I agree with James here, and in fact, I am 100% fine with them doing what they've been doing since 2008. A new set of wheels here and there, "lost" insert re-inserted to get some oddball parts back into a kit, etc., but don't go re-working anything, period. Spend the money on producing known strong selling kits, the occasional oddball money loser (Hi Depth Charger Aqua Rod!), and new items like updated tires and decal sheets. They could continue like this for another decade plus, easily.

[Luc Janssens]

6 hours ago, Casey said:

Not to kill Luc's topic, but I agree with James here, and in fact, I am 100% fine with them doing what they've been doing since 2008. A new set of wheels here and there, "lost" insert re-inserted to get some oddball parts back into a kit, etc., but don't go re-working anything, period. Spend the money on producing known strong selling kits, the occasional oddball money loser (Hi Depth Charger Aqua Rod!), and new items like updated tires and decal sheets. They could continue like this for another decade plus, easily.

Et tu, Brute?

Anyway...Casey, it doesn't prevent you and other participants on this forum,  from making suggestions to improve some of, past Amt/Mpc/Lindberg products, like the engine dress-up parts that were in kit x, which was a dog, but would be a major improvement when included in kit Y, also wheel and tire suggestions, decal suggestions, are welcome in this tread, just about anything to help the powers at Round-2 so they get more ROI and (more) interesting products for us plastic junkies.

In a nut shell, there's so much knowledge here, let's put it to good use...

 

Thanks

Luc

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2018 by Luc Janssens

[HomerS]

The MPC pick up kits of the 70's......4x2, 4x4, standard bed, step side, etc

With the Ford Econoline van reissue, I was hoping for the Off Road 4x4 version.

[Eshaver]

NOT to sound pessimistic , but I'm tired of responding to posts here on Model cars magazine begging , pleading for old annuals to be re released . I see the same ole stuff cranked out . it's as bad as FM radio in too many small markets . Clear Channel owns the stations and somehow , ONLY the TOP 150 songs in the last 40 years are heard . The same goes for Round 2 .

[Rob Hall]

Round 2 will reissue what they reissue.  If the tooling exists and is in good order, they will reissue it if they think it will sell.    I can't see them radically retooling or back dating end-of-line tools to a previous year, too much investment would be needed.   They know their market--they can reissue the same set of kits every 5 years, and if the box art and decals are different, they will sell.  Over and over until the older crowd stops buying kits...

[Casey]

7 hours ago, Luc Janssens said:

it doesn't prevent you and other participants on this forum,  from making suggestions to improve some of, past Amt/Mpc/Lindberg products

No, it doesn't, so, to reply to your original idea...

1/25 AMT '60 Chevy Custom Fleetside - include some of the Street Machine parts (lowered suspension, dual exhaust, engine bits) but NOT the SM's versions chrome parts (custom bumpers and grille, "billet" directional wheels and matching steering wheel) nor the lo-pro tires. Tool up and include a set of more modern (whatever people are running on their slammed pickups etc. these days) large whitewall tires and matching steel wheels, add in some rat rod vintage style graphics on the decal sheet, and done. I think Round2 would be able to amortize the cost of a new set of steel wheels and tires by including them with, well, just about any 'pre-'70 or so kit in their lineup.

[Luc Janssens]

19 minutes ago, Casey said:

No, it doesn't, so, to reply to your original idea...

1/25 AMT '60 Chevy Custom Fleetside - include some of the Street Machine parts (lowered suspension, dual exhaust, engine bits) but NOT the SM's versions chrome parts (custom bumpers and grille, "billet" directional wheels and matching steering wheel) nor the lo-pro tires. Tool up and include a set of more modern (whatever people are running on their slammed pickups etc. these days) large whitewall tires and matching steel wheels, add in some rat rod vintage style graphics on the decal sheet, and done. I think Round2 would be able to amortize the cost of a new set of steel wheels and tires by including them with, well, just about any 'pre-'70 or so kit in their lineup.

Thank you my friend.

Strange that this one hasn't been re-released, pickups seem hot in today's market, or so I'm being told.

[Rob Hall]

As far as truck kits go, surprised the '34 Ford truck and '55 or '57 Chevy Cameo or stepside versions haven't been reissued lately. 

[Casey]

2 hours ago, Luc Janssens said:

Strange that this one hasn't been re-released, pickups seem hot in today's market, or so I'm being told.

Yeah, I'm puzzled by it, too. It's a great kit, with a nice inline six cylinder engine, and RC2 reissued it, at least once, too.

 

1 hour ago, Rob Hall said:

As far as truck kits go, surprised the '34 Ford truck and '55 or '57 Chevy Cameo or stepside versions haven't been reissued lately. 

The '55 Cameo is being reissued this year, and Round2 HAS to be planning a '34 Ford pickup reissue. That's got to be a matter of when, not if.

Now that you mention it, I would suggest the same for the AMT '50 Chevy pickup kits as I did for the '60 pickups, especially since the '50 has been reissued twice by Round2 in the last six years or so.

Edited January 6, 2018 by Casey

[mikemodeler]

1 hour ago, Casey said:

Yeah, I'm puzzled by it, too. It's a great kit, with a nice inline six cylinder engine, and RC2 reissued it, at least once, too.

Absolutely! That engine is worth the kit alone!

 

Now that you mention it, I would suggest the same for the AMT '50 Chevy pickup kits as I did for the '60 pickups, especially since the '50 has been reissued twice by Round2 in the last six years or so.

Very surprised they haven't caught on to this, much too easy!

While I would love to have a lot of the kits I screwed up as teenager from the '70's, I realize some are lost and not going to happen. As I have decided to scale back my purchasing, I am making choices of what I will buy and it has to be more than just some retro graphics to get my $$. I will buy that '86 El Camino only because it has the mini bike and might build the Elky, might not.

[Can-Con]

Speaking of wheels and tires, 

Most of the large diameter ones included in the "Resto Rods" serise looked pretty good, especially thier Torque Thrusts in the Mustang kits and the 3 rib Raders in the '66 Galaxie.  [I could use another set or 2 of those if anyone has any to trade??] And the ones in the '66 Nova are dead ringers for some I see a lot on pickups around here.

Nice thing is they're mostly self contained on seprate sprues and could be dropped in any kit that uses metal axels or similar small pin mounting systems.

Edited January 6, 2018 by Can-Con

[Casey]

2 hours ago, Can-Con said:

Speaking of wheels and tires, 

Most of the large diameter ones included in the "Resto Rods" serise looked pretty good, especially thier Torque Thrusts in the Mustang kits and the 3 rib Raders in the '66 Galaxie.  [I could use another set or 2 of those if anyone has any to trade??] And the ones in the '66 Nova are dead ringers for some I see a lot on pickups around here.

Nice thing is they're mostly self contained on seprate sprues and could be dropped in any kit that uses metal axels or similar small pin mounting systems.

Those tires, though...I don't think there exists a word in the English language to describe how awful they are.  I agree 100% about the '66 Mustang and Galaxie wheels, though. 

I think we tend to forget that even using an existing set of wheels requires them to fit the subject kit properly straight out of the box, so that may eliminate a few candidates right off the bat.

[Casey]

On 1/6/2018 at 12:49 PM, Rob Hall said:

As far as truck kits go, surprised the '34 Ford truck and '55 or '57 Chevy Cameo or stepside versions haven't been reissued lately. 

I went back to the Collector Model blog "What's a Hanger Shot?" post and figured this might be of some value to share:

JohnG says:

August 4, 2014 at 1:32 pm

Hi Walt,

We hope to reissue the ’34 Ford pickup eventually as an original AMT kit but the Lindberg version is a current item with one of our vendors, so it could be some time before it all happens.

[440 Dakota]

I'm thinking things that follow the current trends in hot rodding would be great sellers, go to any show and you see lowered and pro touring style cars everywhere and its been that way for many years, the kits with the large diameter tasteful styles wheels have been ok but don't represent the proper stance without  reworks to the chassis, coil over and air ride style suspensions would be welcomed on most any of the popular car models, as would modern drivelines things like big turbos and LS engines even modern Hemis, I hate to buy 2-3 kits to build something so I don't buy much these days cause the reissues just don't interest me been there done that kind of thing

also someone there should follow completed auctions and see what consistently sells for decent money the 1st gen S-10s and late 60s-early 70s C-10s come to mind as examples

[Sledsel]

I think upgrading existing kits would make sense.

I'll use the AMT 73 Mustang as an example: The body is very nice, but the interior was converted to "race car" and needs a new, multi-piece interior and seats. With this, a good firewall, shock tower and core support. Cheat and use the 68 Shelby chassis with scribe marks to remove the front wheel wells.

Different bumpers and grills would yield separate kits, even offer a sprint or standard fastback with non Mach hood. 

All this would immensely improve the kit.

Do the same on some of the old annuals updating the chassis and under hood accuracy. Many of the old annuals have really nice bodies compared to many NEW offerings.