It’s on! For those of you who would like to see the 1971/1972 MPC Plymouth Road Runner re-issued. Now is your chance to let them know!

[drksd4848]

21 hours ago, GMP440 said:

Getting back to the original topic of the 71/72 Roadrunner.  Maybe there will be an announcement of that kit at the show that Steve G of Round 2 will be attending tomorrow?

Looks they’re reissuing the ‘71… Dodge Charger.
 

Well… now I have a tub with seats and a chassis I can use for my ‘72 RR resin body I suppose.  Heck, I’ll take what I can get. 

Edited March 25, 2024 by drksd4848

[drksd4848]

It has been over two years since this thread was started and… nothing. No 71-72…

What happened? (Or… what didn’t happen?)

[Justin Porter]

58 minutes ago, drksd4848 said:

It has been over two years since this thread was started and… nothing. No 71-72…

What happened? (Or… what didn’t happen?)

Round 2's limited budget and need to sell in reasonable volume meant that whatever evaluation they performed on a factory stock release of the MPC '71-'72 Plymouth Roadrunner led them to believe other projects were better investments at this point in time. 

I will say that the Mueller-era '71 Charger reissue has been a mild success in my shop BUT that's a highly detailed kit from AMT's best era and an MPC clone isn't likely to be comparable. I can genuinely point to the Mueller-era Plymouth Duster outselling the MPC Dodge Demon clone in my shop as indication that the Roadrunner would likely be a similar situation.

[drksd4848]

1 hour ago, Justin Porter said:

Round 2's limited budget and need to sell in reasonable volume meant that whatever evaluation they performed on a factory stock release of the MPC '71-'72 Plymouth Roadrunner led them to believe other projects were better investments at this point in time. 

Yeah….  That’s what I figured. I was under the impression that how well the Coronet would sell would be a good indicator of whether we’d see the RR. I guess it do as well as they hoped, huh? 

 

1 hour ago, Justin Porter said:

will say that the Mueller-era '71 Charger reissue has been a mild success in my shop BUT that's a highly detailed kit from AMT's best era and an MPC clone isn't likely to be comparable. I can genuinely point to the Mueller-era Plymouth Duster outselling the MPC Dodge Demon clone in my shop as indication that the Roadrunner would likely be a similar situation.

The Duster and Charger were straight reissues, correct?  As in, no new tooling, no cloning no making stuff from scratch to resurrect them?

I have to say, all this makes me feel really gloomy for scale modeling in general. Yet, as a side note, Lego kits keep going strong. 

[stavanzer]

43 minutes ago, drksd4848 said:

The Duster and Charger were straight reissues, correct?  As in, no new tooling, no cloning no making stuff from scratch to resurrect them?

I have to say, all this makes me feel really gloomy for scale modeling in general. Yet, as a side note, Lego kits keep going strong. 

No need to be gloomy at all, Dude! This the best time to be a Modeler! The Recently Cloned Barracuda, and Chevy Wagon, the resurrected SSlasher Chevelle, and many others make this a Great Time. Are they kits I want? Not all of them. Would I rather see something besides the Fourth re-issue of the 1953 Ford Pickup? (the Baja Patrol issue). You bet I  would. I think there are a dozen different existing kits that should be on sale rather than the '53 Ford.

But, I don't run Round2. I don't see the Sales numbers, the Budget numbers or the Manpower numbers. I would speculate, that unless you are Self-Employed, where ever you work, has more full time staff than Round2 does. I cut them some slack.

Man, I'll take a Back Seat to Nobody about griping about what and how Round2 does some things. However, They sell, & I buy. (or not, as the case may be). So, at the end of the day, I give them props for all they Have Done, Are Doing, and Will Do in the future, even if it is not to my exact taste.

So, hunt up a vintage '71-'72 Roadrunner, buy it, and see if that will cause Round2 to bring one out. Seems to work on some other vintage kits that have been cloned, like the '61-63 Ford Pickups!

LOL.

[CapSat 6]

These cars could very well be on Round 2’a list to do “retro retools” but since the Revell (ex Monogram) ‘71 GTX is still pretty plentiful, it might not be at the top of said list. 

The MPC ‘71 Road Runner was last available new around 1988. It looks like Ertl did some mild retooling at that time to bring that kit out. A bit after that (1991-ish?) a NASCAR Petty Road Runner was announced but never brought out: it could be that they planned on revising the stock body for the NASCAR version and then thought better of it. I have to imagine the ‘71 tool is still there somewhere, although there were rumors that the tool was damaged. I would certainly say that there was more demand for the ‘68 Coronets and ‘71 Demons that we eventually got, than there would be for ‘71-‘72 Road Runners. Not hating, just saying it like I see it. 

Maybe Few Sprues Loose (found on eBay) can work up some grilles and bumpers for the ‘72’s that would fit the Revell kit? They do some really nice stuff. 

I owned two ‘71 Satellites, and personally, I have to give the Revell kit props for being just a bit better than the MPC kit. When the Fast and Furious car was coming out, I really hoped Revell was going to tool up a new ‘72 Rear bumper for that kit, but they never did. 

Maybe get in touch with Few Sprues Loose and see if they have plans for ‘72 parts for the Revell kit? 

[Mark C.]

I agree that we have no idea whether or not this is in Round 2’s list and where it may reside on that list.  I hope it makes it, complete with ’72 parts, but personally am willing to be patient as there are already a number of future kits in their works that interest me.

I’m just happy that we can talk about this as actually being a possibility for a future release.  The hobby is so much more interesting and hopeful than it was a mere 10 years ago, IMHO.  

[drksd4848]

6 hours ago, CapSat 6 said:

These cars could very well be on Round 2’a list to do “retro retools” but since the Revell (ex Monogram) ‘71 GTX is still pretty plentiful, it might not be at the top of said list. 

I don’t think it has anything to do with the Revell kit. I think a lot of it is what Justin said.  Round2 probably determined that the return on this particular reissue kit would not be worth the investment in cloning and remaking the damaged tooling.  Maybe if the tooling was complete a la the 74 RR, it would have already been reissued. But I imagine Round2 has limited resources and a limited budget. There isn't much room for error; they need reissue kits that get them the most return with the least amount of over-head.  They must feel that a 71-72 RR reissue is not one of those kits  
 

That’s what I guess anyway. I’m not an expert in the scale model business. 

[stavanzer]

1 hour ago, drksd4848 said:

They must feel that a 71-72 RR reissue is not one of those kits

A Flat, Blanket statement like this is just wrong.

The Budget and List of Kits to be re-issued is always changing.

Nobody really predicted a '68 Coronet, let alone Drop top and Hard top versions. Yet, here we are. So, don't be in a hurry to tell Round2 how they feel about certain kits.

No need to be pessimistic.

[CapSat 6]

18 minutes ago, stavanzer said:

A Flat, Blanket statement like this is just wrong.

The Budget and List of Kits to be re-issued is always changing.

Nobody really predicted a '68 Coronet, let alone Drop top and Hard top versions. Yet, here we are. So, don't be in a hurry to tell Round2 how they feel about certain kits.

No need to be pessimistic.

True. And for that matter, I remember when the AMT ‘71 Charger R/T came out. That was not on my bingo card! And the upcoming ‘72 Duster from the Demon tool…I never would have guessed that one, either! 

You never know for sure what will eventually get done. It does take time though- the remaining model companies have to dedicate their somewhat limited resources to fuel releases that they know will make money, in order to fuel even more releases down the line. 

I know what it’s like to yearn for a particular kit. It took a long time for me to eventually come across certain old kits for reasonable money, and then it seemed like several more were available just after that. I had to learn to shop for the right builts or projects, strip paint, disassemble them carefully, and send things out to get rechromed, and then I saw lots of those kits eventually get retooled or reissued. 

Before that, I remember getting several old MPC General Lees, and making standard roofs out of the 500 roof bodies, with Plastruct plastic, putty, and carefully chopping down the trunk lids. I used John Heyer conversion parts on them, and kitbashed the heck out of them, just to get (nearly) the Gen 2 Chargers I wanted. The MPC General Lee was literally the only game in town, unless you had lots of cash AND knew the right people, because original MPC Annuals just couldn’t be found back in the early 80’s. Now, it’s too easy to find those kits, and get much better results than I ever saw in the early 80’s. This was well before eBay, or even internet access of any kind. 

The ‘68 Coronet is one of those kits for me. It took forever for me to find one that was even remotely buildable, that didn’t cost as much as a cheap real car (I paid less for my 3rd car than I did for some of those individual models). I still bought a few of the new Coronets to play around with, even though I probably didn’t need them by the time they came around. 😡
 

 

[SteveG]

On 5/26/2025 at 8:33 PM, drksd4848 said:

It has been over two years since this thread was started and… nothing. No 71-72…

What happened? (Or… what didn’t happen?)

It certainly hasn't been forgotten about or canceled.  There's a lot still coming, currently it's a matter of prioritizing.  We have over thirty items on our current list of model tooling projects which gets reshuffled at least twice a year.  That includes all new items, cloning projects, and tooling that need to have parts restored.  The later can be from just a few parts to significant retools.  

This is not the first project to be pushed back for me and certainly will not be the last.  Besides obvious things like budget constraints, there's licensing to consider.  If we've paid for the rights to make a specific item, that will go right to the top of the list.  We've also been Mopar heavy the last few years and this is not the only Mopar on the list. 

There're also several unexpected and outside factors we have to deal lately like the tariff issue.  Uncle Sam isn't giving us 60 or even 30 days to pay up, that current 30% is paid before anything leaves the US port. That's money that could be going toward new tooling.   In the end we will adjust like we always do so hang in there. 

-Steve

[stavanzer]

41 minutes ago, SteveG said:

It certainly hasn't been forgotten about or canceled.  There's a lot still coming, currently it's a matter of prioritizing.  We have over thirty items on our current list of model tooling projects which gets reshuffled at least twice a year.  That includes all new items, cloning projects, and tooling that need to have parts restored.  The later can be from just a few parts to significant retools.  

This is not the first project to be pushed back for me and certainly will not be the last.  Besides obvious things like budget constraints, there's licensing to consider.  If we've paid for the rights to make a specific item, that will go right to the top of the list.  We've also been Mopar heavy the last few years and this is not the only Mopar on the list. 

There're also several unexpected and outside factors we have to deal lately like the tariff issue.  Uncle Sam isn't giving us 60 or even 30 days to pay up, that current 30% is paid before anything leaves the US port. That's money that could be going toward new tooling.   In the end we will adjust like we always do so hang in there. 

-Steve

Thanks , Steve.

Fresh Information, straight from the source.

We can all calm down now, and wait to see what will be shown next.

[slusher]

What makes me scratch my head is Round 2 goes a whole quarter with just Herbie released and bring out the 53 Ford and 69 GTX again.  I don’t believe an AMT Pinto will ever be made again or roadrunners or ther than 68 and 70’s.

Edited Thursday at 12:28 PM by slusher

[gtx6970]

I was told years ago by someone who used to build AMT boxart kits

 

The 1971 RR tooling was damaged 

Thus would never see the light of day again

 

As to whether or not thats changed in the past 10-12 years, Ive no idea 

[drksd4848]

1 hour ago, gtx6970 said:

I was told years ago by someone who used to build AMT boxart kits

 

The 1971 RR tooling was damaged 

Thus would never see the light of day again

 

As to whether or not thats changed in the past 10-12 years, Ive no idea 

Yep, that seems to be the story that has been repeated here many times before. It happened some time after the ‘87 reissue. If Round2 were to reissue it, it would have to be a clone. 

So essentially what this boils down to is a return on investment. If the return isn't there for this kit at the point in time, who could blame Round2 for not reissuing it?  It stinks but… it is what it is.

[Fat Brian]

1 hour ago, drksd4848 said:

Yep, that seems to be the story that has been repeated here many times before. It happened some time after the ‘87 reissue. If Round2 were to reissue it, it would have to be a clone. 

So essentially what this boils down to is a return on investment. If the return isn't there for this kit at the point in time, who could blame Round2 for not reissuing it?  It stinks but… it is what it is.

Yeah, something happened in that late 80s to early 90s period where a lot of tools were damaged. The 71 Roadrunner, the chevy truck parts not in the USA-1 kit, the International cabover, and the brick nose Bigfoot kit all haven't been seen again since they were run in this period. I would be interested to know if there is anything else that had a similar fate.

[Stef]

It's been over 2 years; am I the only one thinking we should each put in $5 and just buy darkside a mint 71/72 RR and lock this thread?

Heh.

[Robberbaron]

[stavanzer]

7 hours ago, Stef said:

It's been over 2 years; am I the only one thinking we should each put in $5 and just buy darkside a mint 71/72 RR and lock this thread?

Heh.

Indeed!

I think you have found the answer, Stef.

[1972coronet]

I wonder if the damage to the 1971 Road Runner , et al., happened when the tooling was being moved from the U.S. to "another place" ? 

[Luc Janssens]

53 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:

I wonder if the damage to the 1971 Road Runner , et al., happened when the tooling was being moved from the U.S. to "another place" ? 

Damage or no damage, sometimes it's better to start from an unmolested original and incorporate alternative versions in the design process. The time that one needed to find a tool first, to see if a past kit could again be produced are behind us.

Let the Kat's at Round2 surprise us.

 

Cheers.

[Dave Darby]

18 hours ago, gtx6970 said:

I was told years ago by someone who used to build AMT boxart kits

 

The 1971 RR tooling was damaged 

Thus would never see the light of day again

 

As to whether or not thats changed in the past 10-12 years, Ive no idea 

I built box art cars for AMT during the Ertl era, and as I understand it, the tool is missing. I've never heard of it being damaged.

[drksd4848]

10 minutes ago, Dave Darby said:

I built box art cars for AMT during the Ertl era, and as I understand it, the tool is missing. I've never heard of it being damaged.

Wow…. They’d have to completely start from scratch.
 

Good news is much of parts of the 74 RR were similar if not completely identical to the 71-72 RR kit.  But, correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t think you can mix and match tooling. So it sounds like bringing back the 71–72 RR is a pretty heavy lift.  Seems like it would be costly. Maybe one day. Always nice to check into the form every once in a while, though. You learn something every day. 

Edited Friday at 06:00 PM by drksd4848

[Mark C.]

Lots of doom and gloom, yet even a post by Round 2’s Steve G saying that it’s delayed, not cancelled or impossible, isn’t enough.  I would suggest that we don’t give up hope, and just wait to see what comes.

In the meantime, those of us who absolutely have to have one could get an old release from the auction site, or even get one of the 3D printed options that are already out there… just food for thought.

[drksd4848]

49 minutes ago, Mark C. said:

Lots of doom and gloom, yet even a post by Round 2’s Steve G saying that it’s delayed, not cancelled or impossible, isn’t enough.  I would suggest that we don’t give up hope, and just wait to see what comes.

In the meantime, those of us who absolutely have to have one could get an old release from the auction site, or even get one of the 3D printed options that are already out there… just food for thought.

No doom and gloom here at all. Just checking in to see where they’re at and being real. It’s good to see it’s on the list. It’s a little disappointing that It’s been on the list for as long as it has.  

However, there are relevant reasons - as we have learned - why it’s still on the list and not on the shelves. I totally understand that. And it is nice that Steve G answers questions. 

There is no way I would even consider spending $300 on a unmolested 72 Roadrunner kit from the original issue. Or even $100 for that matter. (plus I already have the reissue 71 from 1987)I’d rather wait and spend $300 to buy 10 Round2 re-issues. 

However, the 3-D printed ones seemed very interesting. I think there are 1/25 scale 3-D files of a 72 RR that are ready to print. If the price was reasonable I’d consider buying one of those. Anybody buy one of those 3-D printed kits? I’m curious as to how it would go together and how it would look finished.

if I have any doom and gloom at all, it’s just related to the fact that young people aren’t into scale monitoring like they used to be. It’s hard to get the kids into it these days with so many video games, screened tech, etc. It is a wonderful hobby that unlocks the imagination like nothing else can.

I do find it interesting that Legos are more popular than ever, but anything that needs paint or glue isn’t.

Edited Friday at 07:04 PM by drksd4848