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!

[niteowl7710]

2 hours ago, drksd4848 said:

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.

No offense, but exactly how many kids are you attracting to the hobby with a kit of a car that's so old you'd have to be born prior to 1960 to appreciate? I was born 5 years after the car was made and can count on the hand of a bad wood shop teacher how many 72 RRs I've seen in real life.

Plenty of kids in "the hobby" as a whole, but they build Gundam and anime stuff that interests them. Or cars, tanks & planes they can relate to from all of those video games - stuff that the U.S. legacy manufacturers couldn't care less about. People can blame screens (which have existed in some form or another for every modeler starting with Gen X) all they want, but thinking a 53 year old car is going to get them excited is a fallacy of epic proportions. 

[drksd4848]

As opposed to what? A model of Robbie Robot?  

And when did I ever say I was expecting a 53 year-old car to attract young kids to the hobby? You’re putting words in my mouth.  We all know who these cars are really marketed for.

I’ve just noticed in - in general  - that the kids don’t seem to be going towards the scale models with the paint and glue much anymore or noticeably as much as they used to. But Legos now are wildly popular. Why is that? Put a scale model of Godzilla with paint and glue in front of five preteens, along with a Lego model of Godzilla. They go for the Lego model every time. It wasn’t always that way. Times are changing I guess. Which actually is fine as long as they’re building things with their hands and not with their… Thumbs.

 

 

Edited Friday at 10:05 PM by drksd4848

[Can-Con]

OK, I gotta ask, and don't take this as putting you down or anything like that but, ,I gotta ask,

What's the deal with the personal crusade about getting this particular kit reissued? You say you got yours but you even use "Please re-issue the 1971/1972 Plymouth Road Runner" as your screen name.

You've been here for almost 9 years. If you had put away one buck for every day you've been here you could easily have had enough to buy a dozen sealed ones even at the prices you say they've been going for.

So, seriously, what's the deal? Just , , , why? 🤨❔

Edited Friday at 11:17 PM by Can-Con

[OldSkool81]

1 hour ago, drksd4848 said:

As opposed to what? A model of Robbie Robot?  

And when did I ever say I was expecting a 53 year-old car to attract young kids to the hobby? You’re putting words in my mouth.  We all know who these cars are really marketed for.

I’ve just noticed in - in general  - that the kids don’t seem to be going towards the scale models with the paint and glue much anymore or noticeably as much as they used to. But Legos now are wildly popular. Why is that? Put a scale model of Godzilla with paint and glue in front of five preteens, along with a Lego model of Godzilla. They go for the Lego model every time. It wasn’t always that way. Times are changing I guess. Which actually is fine as long as they’re building things with their hands and not with their… Thumbs.

 

 

I'll take the risk and reply...  Lego's are more popular than ever because they're low-effort. We now live in a fast world, where people want their stuff right now, as fast as possible with the least amount of effort. And Lego's are just that; just follow the plan and put it together, nothing else to do. No prep, no trimming, no test fit, no painting and no glue. To each their own I guess, but I'm 44, and as a kid (like 3 to 7), Lego's where the first step before graduating to models. I worked with a young guy a couple of years ago; great kid raised by his grandparents with old school values, he's around 22 or 23 now. He once built 2 or 3 models, and told me he quit because of the work involved, and also because of recent model prices. His main hobby is now PC gaming. When I was an early teen, my available hobbies where TV, car magazines, model building and R/C cars. Video games only became more addictive more in my mid twenties, so yeah my childhood mosty revolved around model kits. Also, I think one has to get pulled into model making; me, and every modeler I know were brought in the hobby because their parents or someone bought them their first model. I still don't know anybody that got into the hobby on their own, deciding on it and buying themselves their first model, from the people I know at least.And to finish, I think it's an important hobby on many points; reading plans, spatial viewing, learning about the different components (on vehicle models at least), develloping manual skills and observation, imagination, and most important: patience! If you devellop the patience it takes to build a model, chances are that you might be able to actually finish a real-life project such as restoring a car, for example...

Edited Friday at 11:26 PM by OldSkool81

[Justin Porter]

4 hours ago, drksd4848 said:

As opposed to what? A model of Robbie Robot?  

 

 

I get a lot more sales out of nicely engineered snap kits of robots to people under the age of 30 than I do out of sales of badly engineered glue kits of old muscle cars to people over the age of 30.

I give credit to Round 2 that they're finding the kits their market segment wants and throwing in more features and restored components and improved decals and even fixing known problem children like the '65 GTO. 

But if we want to talk about bringing kids into the model car company, that's Aoshima's gig, not Round 2.

[Rodent]

1 hour ago, Justin Porter said:

restored components and improved decals and even fixing known problem children like the '65 GTO. 

Interesting that you brought this up. I am happy that they brought this back, along with the '68. What I don't understand is why they retooled a blobular chassis with molded in exhaust when they could have used the old kit chassis with the separate rear axle and exhaust. I believe that the promos had separate parts like the kits, at least the '68 did. Way easier to paint and detail even for a curbside. I didn't buy either one and they both seem to have disappeared from the LHS.

[Luc Janssens]

4 hours ago, Rodent said:

Interesting that you brought this up. I am happy that they brought this back, along with the '68. What I don't understand is why they retooled a blobular chassis with molded in exhaust when they could have used the old kit chassis with the separate rear axle and exhaust. I believe that the promos had separate parts like the kits, at least the '68 did. Way easier to paint and detail even for a curbside. I didn't buy either one and they both seem to have disappeared from the LHS.

More bang for every buck invested, plus, to see how the market reacts.

Let the Kats work their magic...who knows what they have in the works...

Also we're a niche in a niche market, where every manufacturer tries to finds it revenue in the product's they release , no need to argue about it, cus in the big scheme of things it's just plain silly. 

[Mark C.]

20 hours ago, drksd4848 said:

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.

Hope you understand that there was no offence intended in my post.  Just pointing out that in these days of economic and societal uncertainty, a “big picture” viewpoint is necessary.

While I do understand that your intense interest in this subject matter would cause anyone to be hyper-focused on it, Steve reassured us that it has not been cancelled, and in the meantime there’s lots of other cool stuff in the works that we can look forward to.  He also hinted that the whole tariff situation has the potential to blow up potential projects like this, but I will refrain from further comments to avoid the inevitable uncomfortable conversations that are sure to follow.  That is my doom and gloom at the moment.

IMHO, for older hobbyists, these are good times as we see companies investing in subjects that appeal to our tastes.  As far as the kids go, they will find, and have found, their own niche, so in some ways, everybody’s happy, which is just fine by me.

[drksd4848]

12 minutes ago, Mark C. said:

Hope you understand that there was no offence intended in my post.  Just pointing out that in these days of economic and societal uncertainty, a “big picture” viewpoint is necessary.

While I do understand that your intense interest in this subject matter would cause anyone to be hyper-focused on it, Steve reassured us that it has not been cancelled, and in the meantime there’s lots of other cool stuff in the works that we can look forward to.  He also hinted that the whole tariff situation has the potential to blow up potential projects like this, but I will refrain from further comments to avoid the inevitable uncomfortable conversations that are sure to follow.  That is my doom and gloom at the moment.

IMHO, for older hobbyists, these are good times as we see companies investing in subjects that appeal to our tastes.  As far as the kids go, they will find, and have found, their own niche, so in some ways, everybody’s happy, which is just fine by me.

None taken at all!

And I truly appreciate Steve G always chiming in.  I also believe when the time is right and things fall into place they will figure out a way to get a reissue of this kit on the shelves, they will.  The time just isn’t right yet. This kit in particular is a bit of a heavier lift than others, so it’s pretty impressive that it is still actually on their radar. 

And it’s nice that Steve G is willing to pop on here and explain that. 

I wS just checking in to see what was going on. It had been a little while. 

Edited Saturday at 04:00 PM by drksd4848

[Radretireddad]

Reading about what Sir Goldman is hinting at has me all tingly with excitement 🤩! Man do I wish I could be a fly on the wall where he works.

Edited Sunday at 04:42 AM by Radretireddad