Why Aren’t Companies Rescanning Old Kits?

[Jordan White]

This was something that just crossed my mind: for the kits where they can’t find the original tooling, what is stopping them from purchasing a sealed kit and rescanning everything? Or has this been done already?

[bobthehobbyguy]

Round 2 has done it with the Chevy Nova wagon and the 1968 dodge Coronet.

[Jordan White]

Just now, bobthehobbyguy said:

Round 2 has done it with the Chevy Nova wagon and the 1968 dodge Coronet.

I remember seeing those, but did they say what they scanned specifically?

[Mark]

The entire kit, in both cases.  Both are all new tooling, the original Nova wagon still exists but has been extensively altered.  The Coronet underbody was later altered and reused in another kit, and the body was updated through 1970.  So no tooling from the original kits exists intact to be reused.

Don't forget too, the bodies in the '64 Olds Cutlass and 4-4-2 kits are new, scanned and cleaned up from original bodies, and packaged with the remaining parts from the original kit tooling.

[Mark]

Also, the Pro Stock Chevy Vega bodies are new tooling, matched up with the remaining parts from the original kit.

[Jordan White]

Okay so its more a matter of it is just getting started. What brought up the thought is the 1989 Chevy C1500 longbed kit that was converted into the monster truck kit. I was thinking, why don’t they just get ahold of a sealed kit and rescan it to bring back the stock version.

[iamsuperdan]

If a company were to go through the trouble of scanning an entire old kit to reissue, why not just scan an actual 1:1 version, using today's equipment, and come up with a new tooling that is more accurate? 

[Jordan White]

13 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

If a company were to go through the trouble of scanning an entire old kit to reissue, why not just scan an actual 1:1 version, using today's equipment, and come up with a new tooling that is more accurate? 

I feel that scanning a full real vehicle, figuring out how the parts go together, and designing the trees would be way more work and cost than just scanning the existing trees (the assembly procedure is already done), doing some touchups in the 3d model, and sending it to the cnc machine.

Thats not to say that I wouldn’t want a newly tooled, accurate kit of the OBS GM trucks.

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

If a company were to go through the trouble of scanning an entire old kit to reissue, why not just scan an actual 1:1 version, using today's equipment, and come up with a new tooling that is more accurate? 

Several possible reasons, depending on the model in question. Here are two.

1) Some of the earlier kits had extremely accurate bodies, because when they were the basis for promos, they were developed from OEM blueprints and had few measurement and scaling errors we often see today, or the creative "artistic" interpretations of proportions.

2) A significant expense incurred in tooling design is the layout of parts and runners, injection points, the need for sliding elements in some cases, and other esoteric things directly involved in the molding process. Scanning a known-good sprue eliminates a large part of this design and development labor.

We could hash out the relative benefits and drawbacks of doing things several ways, but we have to assume the tooling and design guys know what they're doing, and will make the rational tradeoffs between accuracy, cost, potential market size, etc.

[Mark]

Round 2, in particular, is in the nostalgia business.  The aura and mystique surrounding the original kit will occasionally be overlooked to get better detail here and there, but overall when they do a new/scanned kit they are going to keep it much the same as the original.

Atlantis is in the nostalgia business too, but they are a smaller company.  They'll probably have to scan parts in order to restore a kit, but it's probably less likely they will attempt an all-new kit anytime soon.  But their people have expressed interest in doing so, so maybe they will...

[Dpate]

1 hour ago, Jordan White said:

I feel that scanning a full real vehicle, figuring out how the parts go together, and designing the trees would be way more work and cost than just scanning the existing trees (the assembly procedure is already done), doing some touchups in the 3d model, and sending it to the cnc machine.

Thats not to say that I wouldn’t want a newly tooled, accurate kit of the OBS GM trucks.

So in other words......Be lazy and slap a price tag of $40 whap bam thank ya mam

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, iamsuperdan said:

If a company were to go through the trouble of scanning an entire old kit to reissue, why not just scan an actual 1:1 version, using today's equipment, and come up with a new tooling that is more accurate? 

Isn't that how they are doing new kits of old subjects these days?

I assumed that short of having actual original blue prints, or just breaking out the ruler, that this was the most likely way that it was done.

 

However they're doing it, it needs improvement.

There have been oodles more modern kits to come out with inaccurate body proportions in the past few decades than there ever were in the era of the annual kit.

 

 

 

Steve

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 minute ago, Dpate said:

So in other words......Be lazy and slap a price tag of $40 whap bam thank ya mam

And why would that be an issue when the entire reason that you're in business is to make money?

 

Same reason that McDonalds slaps a frozen patty on a bun with reconstituted onions instead of Wagyu beef with truffle butter.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Dpate]

9 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

And why would that be an issue when the entire reason that you're in business is to make money?

 

Same reason that McDonalds slaps a frozen patty on a bun with reconstituted onions instead of Wagyu beef with truffle butter.

 

 

 

 

Steve

This attitude is the reason companies do what they do and get away with it.  A burger at Mcdonalds isn't $40 either. No one goes to mcdonalds expecting quality, but I'm glad you agree that AMT isn't quality. I guess that's why moebius dropped the ball on there recent release.  Guess they where hoping it wouldn't blow up as big as it did, because like good ole Luca C would say:" It's part of the hobbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Dpate

[Ace-Garageguy]

8 minutes ago, Dpate said:

So in other words......Be lazy and slap a price tag of $40 whap bam thank ya mam

So, ummm...how often do you go way beyond the minimum necessary to do the job you get paid for?

Just curious. I'm far from lazy, but I only do professionally what I'll get a return on these days, having learned the value of time and the futility of going above-and-beyond what's realistic...for free.

Business decisions require careful analysis of things like "how do we get the maximum return on the minimum investment?", and if you don't think in those terms, you don't remain viable.

[StevenGuthmiller]

6 hours ago, Dpate said:

This attitude is the reason companies do what they do and get away with it.  A burger at Mcdonalds isn't $40 either. No one goes to mcdonalds expecting quality, but I'm glad you agree that AMT isn't quality. I guess that's why moebius dropped the ball on there recent release.  Guess they where hoping it wouldn't blow up as big as it did, because like good ole Luca C would say:" It's part of the hobbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" 

People go to McDonalds expecting exactly what they get, and believe me, nobody wants to pay $10.00 for a Big Mac meal either, but that's what you're gonna pay.

Round-2, (as the name clearly states) is a company devoted to returning old kits from days gone by to the market.......which is exactly what they do, and exactly what I expect.

 

I always have to laugh when I hear people complain about kit quality and expect every new kit to be a modern marvel, and then in the very next breath, start moaning about prices.

You get what you pay for, and if you don't think that's the case, it's a pretty easy operation to close your wallet.

 

If Round-2 can continue to do business, and make a profit with what they're currently doing, then that's what they're going to do.

It's not their concern to make every critic happy.

If they can make enough people happy to continue to operate and make a profit, their doing it right.

 

 

 

 

Steve 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by StevenGuthmiller

[Tabbysdaddy]

47 minutes ago, Dpate said:

So in other words......Be lazy and slap a price tag of $40 whap bam thank ya mam

Sounds good to me, if they would do it with something I'm interested in, like mentioned C1500. They don't even have to scan the body, they have that.

[keyser]

I doubt cars/trucks are majority profit centers. R2 has expansive line of sci-fi and licensed kits. I’d think they pay a lot of bills for the expensive licenses and enable reworks, new kits, and repeat. 
The price  complaints have been around for decades. Advice? Don’t buy it, somebody will. The -40% kits aren’t $40. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

29 minutes ago, keyser said:

I doubt cars/trucks are majority profit centers. R2 has expansive line of sci-fi and licensed kits. I’d think they pay a lot of bills for the expensive licenses and enable reworks, new kits, and repeat. 
The price  complaints have been around for decades. Advice? Don’t buy it, somebody will. The -40% kits aren’t $40. 

Agreed.

It’s pretty easy to find most of Round-2’s car and truck offerings for less than $30.00 if you put a little effort into it.

Still cheaper than the average green fees for an afternoon of golf.

 

 

Steve

[Dpate]

The price isn't the issue or point i was trying to make.  Even if they sold a box of flash people would still buy it lol.  I'm not gonna continue in a losing battle that's been going on since before i was born.  Deuces!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Hmmmmm...???

[Tabbysdaddy]

46 minutes ago, Dpate said:

The price isn't the issue or point i was trying to make.  Even if they sold a box of flash people would still buy it lol.  I'm not gonna continue in a losing battle that's been going on since before i was born.  Deuces!

If you knew it was a losing battle why did you pick the losing side?

[bobthehobbyguy]

 Back to the original subject. Round2 does have another project that will be using to restore another kit but they aren't ready quite yet to let us know what it will be. Been lots of speculation on the subject.

[Bills72sj]

I am grateful that Round 2 is doing what it does good or bad. If they hadn't, filling my closet with kits would be quite an expensive proposition. If they have a subject I want, I will get it. Price matters sometimes other times it doesn't.

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 minutes ago, Bills72sj said:

I am grateful that Round 2 is doing what it does good or bad. If they hadn't, filling my closet with kits would be quite an expensive proposition. If they have a subject I want, I will get it. Price matters sometimes other times it doesn't.

Exactly. There are some kits that got so expensive as unmolested virgins, I really had little interest in acquiring them if they weren't real high on my subject-of-interest list, but the very reasonable prices (to me, anyway) for the repops have put kits on my shelves I wouldn't have had otherwise.

And having acquired a few skills over the past 6 decades, I don't get frustrated and cry "it's junk, mommy" by any of 'em.