News of Revell molding preparing in US

[stavanzer]

Tony, over at Round2's Collector Model website they have 6 (or maybe 7) posts covering in exhaustive detail, the design, molding, tooling, assembling & painting of the newly tooled K'Tinga class Klingon starship. See also, all the effort put into the Space 1999 Eagle kits. Just because we are not seeing any cars, does NOT mean that Round2 is not doing any new tooling. It just means that they are not focused on car kits right now.

[Richard Bartrop]

Seeing what Atlantis is offering in the way of car kits,  dare we hope for the return of some of the vintage Aurora and Monogram car kits?

[martinfan5]

2 hours ago, alexis said:

Tony, over at Round2's Collector Model website they have 6 (or maybe 7) posts covering in exhaustive detail, the design, molding, tooling, assembling & painting of the newly tooled K'Tinga class Klingon starship. See also, all the effort put into the Space 1999 Eagle kits. Just because we are not seeing any cars, does NOT mean that Round2 is not doing any new tooling. It just means that they are not focused on car kits right now.

They really havent been focus on doing new tooled automotive subjects besides the Camaro kits for some years now,  its pretty clear the reissuing of long OOP kits is working just fine for them at the moment,  of course it would be nice to see some new tooled auto stuff from them, but at the same time, its cool to see what old kits they decide to run again.

Edited September 3, 2018 by martinfan5

[Dave Van]

15 hours ago, ZTony8 said:

I see this as another company only cranking out reissues ala Round 2 with no money or urge to develop new models. But I hope I'm wrong.

100% correct and I am so happy someone is willing to save this tooling!!!! Thanks Atlantis........you saved this tooling from become just another KIA!!!!

[Bucky]

On 8/31/2018 at 8:40 PM, Casey said:

I guess for me, for the most part, Revell stuff worth keeping starts in '88 or so when they started putting out better engineered kits.  There are a few kits, some of which have been SSP reissues (Datsun 510 and 240Z for example) which are worth keeping, but the '53/4 Chevies, '56 Ford Pickup, etc., not so much. Looking at the current Revell catalog online, there's only one 'vintage' Revell car kit-- the Porsche 914. I think Blitz will be just fine with the '88+ subjects making up the bulk of their future catalogs. Let Atlantis' niche be the former Revell SSP style releases.

I have six of the Revell "Big Ten Ford" pickup kits, and only one, maybe two of the cabs are usable. Very brittle plastic in those kits.

[Tom Geiger]

5 hours ago, alexis said:

Just because we are not seeing any cars, does NOT mean that Round2 is not doing any new tooling. It just means that they are not focused on car kits right now.

I believe it means that there's a lot more money in genres other than cars!

[niteowl7710]

37 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

I believe it means that there's a lot more money in genres other than cars!

Within the automotive genre I see the most amount of money being sunk into 70s-90s race car subject matter right now.  For manufacturers it's almost a given that any customer who buys one of a given kit, is going to buy SEVERAL of them once the aftermarket decal support spools up for them.  Say what you will about the accuracy and quality of the Salvino JR Oldsmobile there are almost a dozen different livery sheets either available or coming in the next 45 days. 

[ZTony8]

I wish  both Atlantis & Salvino good luck but unless I've been asleep and things have changed, the market for those old stockers dried up several years ago. Check out any toy show and you'll see those kits at $5 to $10 and most of them go home with the vendors. You'll notice that Round 2 isn't cranking up their old NASCAR tools for re-release.

[Dave Van]

49 minutes ago, ZTony8 said:

I wish  both Atlantis & Salvino good luck but unless I've been asleep and things have changed, the market for those old stockers dried up several years ago. Check out any toy show and you'll see those kits at $5 to $10 and most of them go home with the vendors. You'll notice that Round 2 isn't cranking up their old NASCAR tools for re-release.

They reissue the 69 Mercury, 76 Chevy Laguna S-3, 71 Mercury and 71 Allison Monte Carlo in the past 2 years....not sure what you mean???

And a birdie tells me of another one at least.......

Yes...the old RM kits, some with 35 year old decals, sell in the $10 range. But Salvino's is going to retool and modify this tooling along with much improved decals for cars not kitted and printed by Cartagraph. (sp). I get their plan. We did the AMT & MPC  kits at   Model King and sold out fast. IMHO only!

[dshue76]

I think Revell tooled too many new automotive kits too fast and we see what happened to them. AMT, on the other hand, is bringing back some old tooling and they are doing fine. I love what Revell was putting out in the way of new tooling and supported them as much as possible and will continue to do so. But the car end of our hobby seems to be going towards collecting old out of production kits so repops are selling like hot cakes to guys who want to build a subject but can't bring themselves to build a vintage kit.

As far as the 80's & 90's NASCAR kits go, I'm not sure why there are so many on the market, I have bought and built them all since they were new releases. In fact, I'm getting ready to buy a few Lumina and Grand Prix kits. But I do remember buying all I could afford of the AMT NASCAR kits at Big Lots in the mid to late 90's for dirt cheap, like buying 3 kits for the MSRP of 1. I bought more than I could ever build or part out. I still use bodies from those kits as paint and weathering test beds. As far as Revell/Monogram NASCAR kits I've built most of them out of the box and many more were built to replicate local racers. I've built kits of drivers that I don't even like. My most recent kit purchase was the Danica Patrick Aspen Dental car. Unless I get a free set of Harvick or Bowyer decals for it I'll build it box stock.

[fumi]

1 hour ago, dshue76 said:

I think Revell tooled too many new automotive kits too fast and we see what happened to them.

Hobbico's demise has nothing to do with Revell tooling too many new car kits too fast.  Quite the contrary, Revell was supposed to be Hobbico's few bright spots.

[ZTony8]

To be more specific- Round 2 hasn't reissued the late 80s-early 90s NASCAR kits. If those were any bigger dogs on the market they would shed.

[martinfan5]

Just now, ZTony8 said:

To be more specific- Round 2 hasn't reissued the late 80s-early 90s NASCAR kits. If those were any bigger dogs on the market they would shed.

You understand the big reason Round2 hasnt been reissuing them is probably because of licensing over anything else,  make's zero sense from a business standpoint to reissue those kits,  just because those old kits are not selling does translate into no one is going to buy new kits with new tooled parts ( bodies) and decals never done before.

What I think you are missing is they don't plan on reissuing the same kits, they plan on reissuing stuff that HAS NOT BEEN KITTED yet,  meaning new bodies and decals using the old chassis tooling.

Will it be successful, only time will tell.

Edited September 5, 2018 by martinfan5

[ZTony8]

Round 2 could reissue the 80s/ 90s kits like they did the majority of the older ones-by using  fictitious major sponsors and drivers. I think they realize that those kits flooded the market back when they were new. So no one would buy new issues now when the old ones are available so cheap.

Edited September 5, 2018 by ZTony8

[Richard Bartrop]

On 9/3/2018 at 4:18 PM, Tom Geiger said:

I believe it means that there's a lot more money in genres other than cars!

True, the Trek stuff has always been a license to print money, but also, how do the new Trek kits compare in complexity with your typical car kit?  I know the old ones didn't have a lot of parts to them, and those parts didn't have any undercuts, so no need for moulds with moving parts.

[martinfan5]

Just now, ZTony8 said:

Round 2 could reissue the 80s/ 90s kits like they did the majority of the older ones-by using  fictitious major sponsors and drivers. I think they realize that those kits flooded the market back when they were new. So no one would buy new issues now when the old ones are available so cheap.

I think they know the market is still saturated with the kits,  people that would be buying them, already have them, its all surplus.

[Casey]

Update added to the earlier CultTVman post regarding the Atlantis news:

"Earlier this year, the assets of Revell USA and Revell Germany were purchased by a German firm. The German company owns all the tooling in China and Europe. The new company also took ownership of the tooling that remained at Revell Elk Grove, IL warehouse. They kept some of this tooling an offered the remaining molds to Atlantis. Atlantis purchased hundreds of toolings. 

Much of the old Aurora tooling that still exists has been reissued by Revell.  Most of that tooling is in China and is owned by the new Revell Germany. Atlantis has purchased what remained in the U.S. They have not specifically said what they have."

[mikemodeler]

15 hours ago, ZTony8 said:

Round 2 could reissue the 80s/ 90s kits like they did the majority of the older ones-by using  fictitious major sponsors and drivers. I think they realize that those kits flooded the market back when they were new. So no one would buy new issues now when the old ones are available so cheap.

Unless there would be a movie tie-in (see Days of Thunder) what purpose would it serve to reissue an old Nascar kit (that is admittedly readily available rather cheaply) with a fictitious name and sponsor? Do you want to build a 90's Lumina kit with Ben Dover as the driver on the door and Hillary's Hard Drive Warehouse as the sponsor? 

If they were to re-issue any kits, it would be the ones without decals and let the aftermarket supply driver names and sponsors. The licensing fees would then be the problem of the decal company, not the model company.

[Mike999]

On Sept. 3 (three days ago as I write), Scale Modeling News covered the Atlantis side of this story.  Here's a photo showing a display case. Disappointing for car modelers, but lots of sci-fi, critters and figures.  I wonder if this is what they have molds for and might release, or maybe some old factory in-store display build-ups.

I'm wondering because of the figure kit at bottom center:  the AURORA John F. Kennedy figure.  Unobtainium for many years and very expensive.

http://www.scalemodelnews.com/2018/09/revell-kits-go-to-atlantis-models.html#more

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Mike999
omit

[Casey]

Welp, Atlantis appears to have acquired the molds for the Revell H-138 H-16 Twin Rotor Helicopter:

 

1:144 Apollo Saturn Rocket:

And these:

 

[stavanzer]

So, maybe they'll have somehow gotten the Adams tooling?

I want one of these!

https://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=27416&manu=Adams&erl=Adams-1-40-Cessna-YH-41-Aerial-Hawk-Missile-Transporter-K-158-98

Cessna YH-41 Helicopters.  Man, what a Machine!

[SfanGoch]

3 hours ago, Mike999 said:

I'm wondering because of the figure kit at bottom center:  the AURORA John F. Kennedy figure.  Unobtainium for many years and very expensive.

I got it, and a Sealab kit, out of a construction dumpster about 20 years ago.

[Mike999]

20 minutes ago, alexis said:

So, maybe they'll have somehow gotten the Adams tooling?

Good question.  According to the Old Model Kits site: "In the late 1950s Adams entered into a joint venture with Revell, and several of the military kits were released under the Revell label, such as the Jeep among others.  Around 1960 there was a disagreement between Adams and Revell and the agreement was terminated. Sometime after this, Adams quit the plastic model business and Life-Like purchased most of the Adams molds."

Nice to see those old Revell missile kits back at (I hope) less-than-nosebleed prices.  In May 1968 the USS Long Beach (may have) shot down TWO MiGs with a single Talos missile.  The Talos hit one MiG and the debris field as it exploded took out a second one.

[Nacho Z]

Man, I just LOVE that box art in Casey's post, (a few post above this one).  I can't help but think the box art alone sold many, many kits.

Edited September 7, 2018 by Nacho Z
Corrected spelling

[niteowl7710]

Revell's U.S. FB page has come back to life under it's new ownership.