Hobbico - BANKRUPT!

[Daddyfink]

49 minutes ago, niteowl7710 said:

What update? Was that an update? That's a restatement of facts that have been known for 2 months. 

New facts - albeit not Revell related - would be Hobbico's Debtor in Possession people settled with Traxxas in regards to the copyright infringement issues for $10.5 million.

I never claimed it was an update, just something I read

[niteowl7710]

21 hours ago, Daddyfink said:

I never claimed it was an update, just something I read

I know you didn't, but someone thanked you for the "update".

[peteski]

2 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

I know you didn't, but someone thanked you for the "update".

It's quite possible that to that person it truly was an update.

[SfanGoch]

As the old saying goes, "If I didn't hear it before, it's news to me."

[niteowl7710]

The tattered remains of Hobbico have filed to have their case converted to Chapter 7 to finish bleeding out the accounts.  Pretty sure if you read back the original pages of this thread several people swore that this was a re-organization and never going to be a liquidation.  What a backwards slide into the end it's been since January.

[mikemodeler]

8 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

The tattered remains of Hobbico have filed to have their case converted to Chapter 7 to finish bleeding out the accounts.  Pretty sure if you read back the original pages of this thread several people swore that this was a re-organization and never going to be a liquidation.  What a backwards slide into the end it's been since January.

Would this be what remains of Tower Hobbies and the website Plastic-Models.com? If so, I wonder if that means we will see this stuff at an Ollie's soon?

[tim boyd]

16 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

The tattered remains of Hobbico have filed to have their case converted to Chapter 7 to finish bleeding out the accounts.  Pretty sure if you read back the original pages of this thread several people swore that this was a re-organization and never going to be a liquidation.  What a backwards slide into the end it's been since January.

I received a letter from the bankruptcy court yesterday with a similar message.   I'm not a bankruptcy expert, and I found the message to be very confusing.  

I have also learned that the Revell US assets could have gone a very different route that would have been great for the hobby.  These decisions boil down to a judgment call, but based on the limited information available, my impressions are that the Bankruptcy court took the route of least apparent risk, rather than the route of optimizing the future business potential, with their decision to honor the approve the bid for the US Revell business to the Revell Germany holding company.  I am not privy to much of the hard facts here, so this is nothing but an outsider's impression.  But if I am correct, this is very, very disappointing, and a huge missed opportunity for the hobby.   

Still, I am an optimist and hope for the best from Revell Germany. 

TIM  

  

 

 

Edited June 24, 2018 by tim boyd

[SfanGoch]

Checking out the meager selection of kits of any genre available on the RoG website, we be in some deep poop if they maintain the status quo regarding their inventory.

[Bugatti Fan]

As auto modeller we tend to forget that the core market of  the big manufacturers are the aircraft and military modelers. RevellI are sure to survive one way or another..

[SfanGoch]

As primarily an armor modeler, RoG's  current selection of armor kits sucks big time. Ditto with cars, planes, etc.

[niteowl7710]

On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 11:01 PM, mikemodeler said:

Would this be what remains of Tower Hobbies and the website Plastic-Models.com? If so, I wonder if that means we will see this stuff at an Ollie's soon?

Tower Hobbies was sold to Horizon along with Great Planes with all of the R/C manufacturing.

[niteowl7710]

16 hours ago, tim boyd said:

I received a letter from the bankruptcy court yesterday with a similar message.   I'm not a bankruptcy expert, and I found the message to be very confusing.  

I have also learned that the Revell US assets could have gone a very different route that would have been great for the hobby.  These decisions boil down to a judgment call, but based on the limited information available, my impressions are that the Bankruptcy court took the route of least apparent risk, rather than the route of optimizing the future business potential, with their decision to honor the approve the bid for the US Revell business to the Revell Germany holding company.  I am not privy to much of the hard facts here, so this is nothing but an outsider's impression.  But if I am correct, this is very, very disappointing, and a huge missed opportunity for the hobby.   

Still, I am an optimist and hope for the best from Revell Germany. 

TIM

From everything I've read the other bid options required financing, whereas the Blitz deal was paid in cash.  The bankruptcy court, yes could have decided not to approve the deal and send the ball back to Hobbico's court - but at the same time Hobbico is the one that chose the bidder, not the court.  I'm suspect of any individual and/or group that couldn't come up with what amounts to 3.1 Million in cash up front AND then have any sort of viable future thereafter.  I mean if you think about it, if they didn't buy the existing inventory, and make a play for RevellAG - then the purchase price of Revell was $100,000.  

[Tom Geiger]

7 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

 - then the purchase price of Revell was $100,000.  

plus whatever it will take to get the tooling out of Chinese debtors prison!

From what I understand, the company that was doing the production was owned a whole lotta money. The tooling would be held on a workman's lien. 

[niteowl7710]

2 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

plus whatever it will take to get the tooling out of Chinese debtors prison!

From what I understand, the company that was doing the production was owned a whole lotta money. The tooling would be held on a workman's lien. 

Except when you buy something at a bankruptcy auction you receive the property free of all liens, holds and encumbrances.  Its not like if you buy a car at a Repo auction you pay back the car note, or if you were to buy a house out of a bankruptcy auction, you wouldn't be responsible for the prior owner's mortgage. 

The "estate" of Hobbico is responsible for settling the financials, and everyone had the ability to file injunctions with the court through the process (like Ford has done) if they're not happy with the amount their receiving.  I also suspect that RevellAG has a relationship with the same H.K. facilities since they were also using them prior to trying to tool things in Poland - which begat us the subpar Panamera.

[Reegs]

Don't intend to restart this thing, but has there been any specific mention of Monogram models in this thing? Or is it assumed that they're part of the Revell product line?

[Mark]

Monogram and Revell are brand names, both owned by the same company.

[Mr mopar]

is there any good news yet?

Edited August 2, 2018 by Mr mopar

[Dave Van]

IMHO.......no good news.....yet

[250 Testa Rossa]

Hopefully we can still get replacement parts. 

[Force]

I have tried that, everything goes through Revell Germany now but they could not help me with parts for a recent kit issued less than a year ago.
So I would not hold my breath asking for something.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Force