No new model semi trucks?

[metalhead]

I'm about to order a couple more of the Moebius Prostars and I got to thinking about how long it has been since they were released. Have licenses gotten too expensive that kit manufacturers just don't want to go through all of the trouble just to produce a plastic kit legally? The Prostar and Lonestar are really the only kits of new semi trucks that we have gotten in the last ten years. Is there really no market for them? Don't get me wrong, I love the older trucks. But, it would be nice to see some more modern trucks being kitted. Moebius gave us two good kits in my opinion. But, did they find out that it just wasn't worth the hassle of securing the licensing rights? What are your thoughts on this? I really don't know much about how expensive licenses are. I have heard that some manufacturer's licenses are very costly and some are more friendly towards kit manufacturers. It would be awesome, though, to see some more modern semi truck kits being produced. Modern trailers would be very welcome, as well. Thanks for reading and I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

[Force]

The sales of the Pro Star and Lone Star kits were maybe not enough for them to justify and continue develop and produce new truck kits.
I belive if they had done a Kenworth W900L or Peterbilt 379-389 kit they would have sold a lot more of them, because they are a more popular than the Internationals.
Maybe even a Freighliner Cascadia and Coronado wich many racing teams use today to haul their transport trailers would have sold more than the Pro Star.
But who knows, these International kits might come back one day.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Force

[Luc Janssens]

10 hours ago, Force said:

The sales of the Pro Star and Lone Star kits were maybe not enough for them to justify and continue develop and produce new truck kits.
I belive if the had done a Kenworth W900L or Peterbilt 379-389 kit they would have sold a lot more of them, because they are a more popular than the Internationals.
Maybe even a Freighliner Cascadia and Coronado wich many racing teams use today to haul their transport trailers would have sold more than the Pro Star.
But who knows, these Internationla kits might come back one day.

The Pro Star kits albeit in a Revell wrapper, sat on the shelves of a major toy retailer here in my neck of the woods, so eventually they blew them out at 1/3rd of retail.

[Force]

The Pro Star and Lone Star kits are nice kits, but they might not have been that popular due to they are Internationals...the Lone Star is cool but maybe not for everyone due to it's bold design wich everyone doesn't like, and the Pro Star is more like a boring fleet truck, not very popular to customize.

[niteowl7710]

Truck kits are expensive to produce as their at least 2x and sometimes 3x as many parts as a normal car kit, not to mention having the obviously large main body tooling parts. Post-Covid you're talking about an investment of at *least* a half million dollars. The reason the ProStar & LoneStar exist is because other than the hoods/grille/front end and some specific trim items they're the same kit so the tooling amortization worked out better. There really aren't any other trucks made by any other company that share that much content across two models of trucks. The W900/990 might work, but I'm not sure how many "Aero 900s" you'd move and while the Pete 379/389 (etc) is the other PACCAR long nose, beyond the chassis and drivetrain they don't have a lot of shared parts. So you're looking at separate body tools and interiors plus all the associated trim pieces. Italeri can pull of the new tool Euro Trucks because they put out each truck in what seems like at least 3 sleeper variations, and then several show truck "decal variant" releases. Again while the W900 comes in at least 3 sleeper variations I'm not sure you'd sell enough of each of them after the Studio Sleeper to make the investment workout. A flattop W9 would be popular for flatbedding and custom trucks I guess.

As far as the Moebius sales it took them a significant amount of time to sell out of their run of ProStars. Changing the LoneStar into the later model truck and/or converting the ProStar to any of the later LT versions could have both been done with minor additional part inserts, but are clearly not worth that investment in their opinion.

[Force]

Of course it would be cheaper if the truck kits could share things but as most trucks are very different it's not that easy to do, the PACCAR trucks doesn't share much but maybe the Freightliners do, I believe the Cascadia and Coronado shares most things except for the hood like the International Pro Star and Lone Star.
But I still think a Kenworth W900L or a Peterbilt 379-389 would sell better than the Internationals as they are lot more popular trucks.
It's interesting to see that Round 2 did a completely new tool and did the International CO4070A wich has been lost since ERTL did the CO4070B Transtar II, and they also did the Garwood refuse load packer body wich never saw the daylight until now...so a few kits are coming

If we take Italeri as an example they take a lot of shortcuts when they do their truck kits and most of them are not correct at all, some not even close except for the outside apperence.
For the various US truck kits they did they only used 2 different chassis and drive trains, one for the Peterbilt's with a Detroit Series 60 engine and Peterbilt Air Leaf suspension, and one for the other manufacturers like Freightliner, Mack, Ford and Western Star with a Cummins NTC and Freightliner Airliner suspension (formerly Peterbilt Stabilaire), the Freightliner FLD has Airliner II suspension, and the Volvo VN has it's own chassis wich is a curbside tho'.
Same goes for lots of the other truck kits where they did a new cab and put in a few new parts to an old outdated chassis and drive train to do the model kit.
For example the Scania kits still has the old outdated DS14 engine with it's distinctive V shaped valve covers wich originally was in the Scania T142H kit and that engine left the market in the year 2000 and was replaced with the DC16 wich Italeri never did, not even for the latest R730 Highline, it still has the old DS 14 but they added new DC16 heads to it instead of doing a new correct DC 16 engine.
And the Volvo F12 and F16 kits had the old outdated TD120F wich came in the first F12 kit but the engine was replaced in 1999 with the D12, and the F16 should have had the TD162 wich came 1987 but it still had the TD120F, the FH series should have the later D12 or D16 but still had the TD120F,  the latest Volvo NH4 kits has the newer D13 or D16 tho'.
So that will probably make it cheaper but most of them are not correct and you have to go to the aftermarket to look for correct parts.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Force

[RoninUtah]

I would love to see a 1:25 Freightliner Cascadia kit.  About 40% of U.S. trucks on the road are Cascadias and it drives me nuts that I don’t have one in my “fleet.”

[Muncie]

A couple of random thoughts -

Western Star may also be very similar to Freightliner underneath - they are part of the same corporate family...  DTNA is more vertically integrated now with their own components (engines, transmissions, axles) under the Detroit brand. -

I think it would take some money up front from the truck manufacturer to get a new kit, but I don't think it is in their marketing plans.  It wouldn't surprise me if Navistar did that to get the new kits.  Navistar was solidly into market share then but that was different times.

[tim boyd]

1 hour ago, RoninUtah said:

I would love to see a 1:25 Freightliner Cascadia kit.  About 40% of U.S. trucks on the road are Cascadias and it drives me nuts that I don’t have one in my “fleet.”

Me too, Ronald.  TB

[1930fordpickup]

I think the model companies (for a lack of better word) are guessing what New trucks will sell in scale. They build the International and people wish they did a new Kenworth or a Freightliner.  

[vincen47]

I think the vast majority of future modern full-kit subjects will be from the small cottage industry, aftermarket resin and 3d printed guys, like A&N, just like today. As tech improves and costs gradually decrease, 3d printing will become the mainstay of our truck modeling world.

Being such a (comparatively) niche market, the high development costs of a traditional big rig kit from the typical manufactures - I don’t see it happening very often. Those costs are not going down. 

Italeri has a decent thing going, (not without accuracy issues) but the European model truck market is bigger than the North American market.

Edited June 13, 2023 by vincen47

[vincen47]

On 6/11/2023 at 12:20 AM, Force said:

The Pro Star and Lone Star kits are nice kits, but they might not have been that popular due to they are Internationals...the Lone Star is cool but maybe not for everyone due to it's bold design wich everyone doesn't like, and the Pro Star is more like a boring fleet truck, not very popular to customize.

Indeed. I believe Dave from Moebius said that the Lonestar outsold the Prostar 2 to 1. Even then, the sales were not as high as they would have liked.

[Fabrux]

The Cascadia is unique compared to the rest of the Freightliner line so no shared cab components there. The new Western Star X-series trucks share the Cascadia cab but have different door skins and the obvious hood differences. They are different enough that doing a traditional-style kit body would require two tools. Even for an Italeri-style body the rear cab walls are different as well. The rest of the truck, however, is the same as the Cascadia. If the body was designed so that the roof above the window line was a separate piece they'd be able to get high and mid roof variants.

As for the Moebius Internationals, the kits represent an oddball configuration what didn't sell well at all; the Maxxforce 15 engine required a filler panel between the hood and cab that the other engine options didn't have. Were Moebius to update the kit to reflect the current LT with either the A26 or Cummins X15 engines, they'd be able to use the same base to do the HX as well. Were they to tool up a day cab and shorter chassis the rest of the International lineup (minus the GM-cab CV) could be offered with the same core kit components, giving them six total truck kits. Toss in both wheelbase HX trucks, body options.... Endless variations. 

I would love to see Italeri update the Volvo VN to the VNL that I drive these days. Another kit that could yield many variants with different hoods for the VNL, VNR, VNX, and VHD lines as well as a couple-three cab lengths.

I think the biggest stumbling block to new truck kits is that modern trucks have integral, high-roof sleepers. Old trucks and thus truck kits could be done with a separate cab and sleeper and get several kit variants for less investment. A modern truck kit would require two different body tools for long haul and vocational configurations for all brands. Toss in the various sleeper lengths and roof heights and it's a losing game. Even if the kit builds up the same way as the real trucks do with the various body components, which wouldn't be popular with the Average Modeler.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Fabrux

[niteowl7710]

On 6/11/2023 at 3:47 PM, Force said:

Of course it would be cheaper if the truck kits could share things but as most trucks are very different it's not that easy to do, the PACCAR trucks doesn't share much but maybe the Freightliners do, I believe the Cascadia and Coronado shares most things except for the hood like the International Pro Star and Lone Star.
But I still think a Kenworth W900L or a Peterbilt 379-389 would sell better than the Internationals as they are lot more popular trucks.
It's interesting to see that Round 2 did a completely new tool and did the International CO4070A wich has been lost since ERTL did the CO4070B Transtar II, and they also did the Garwood refuse load packer body wich never saw the daylight until now...so a few kits are coming

If we take Italeri as an example they take a lot of shortcuts when they do their truck kits and most of them are not correct at all, some not even close except for the outside apperence.
For the various US truck kits they did they only used 2 different chassis and drive trains, one for the Peterbilt's with a Detroit Series 60 engine and Peterbilt Air Leaf suspension, and one for the other manufacturers like Freightliner, Mack, Ford and Western Star with a Cummins NTC and Freightliner Airliner suspension (formerly Peterbilt Stabilaire), the Freightliner FLD has Airliner II suspension, and the Volvo VN has it's own chassis wich is a curbside tho'.
Same goes for lots of the other truck kits where they did a new cab and put in a few new parts to an old outdated chassis and drive train to do the model kit.
For example the Scania kits still has the old outdated DS14 engine with it's distinctive V shaped valve covers wich originally was in the Scania T142H kit and that engine left the market in the year 2000 and was replaced with the DC16 wich Italeri never did, not even for the latest R730 Highline, it still has the old DS 14 but they added new DC16 heads to it instead of doing a new correct DC 16 engine.
And the Volvo F12 and F16 kits had the old outdated TD120F wich came in the first F12 kit but the engine was replaced in 1999 with the D12, and the F16 should have had the TD162 wich came 1987 but it still had the TD120F, the FH series should have the later D12 or D16 but still had the TD120F,  the latest Volvo NH4 kits has the newer D13 or D16 tho'.
So that will probably make it cheaper but most of them are not correct and you have to go to the aftermarket to look for correct parts.

Freightliner stopped making the Coronado in 2010, it was basically just a Century/Argosy styled version of the Classic XL. After 2010 they sold a truck called the 122SD as a glider kit (just a truck cab and a frame, you supply the engine/transmission, et al). The "SD" stood for Severe Duty and it was aimed at Heavy Haul and Vocational Applications. At this point you can't even option a 122SD (or it's successor the 114SD) with a sleeper. Freightliner only sells one on-highway "Class 8" truck now and that's the Cascadia.

Edited June 14, 2023 by niteowl7710

[martinfan5]

Another option for a current truck would be the new refreshed Volvo VNL ,  Italeri would need to update the hood/bumper/fairings/wheels and maybe some interior bits but the core of the kit would stay the same,  it'd be nice, I like the current refresh VNL 

[dodgefever]

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I can't find much to like about modern trucks.  I'd rather see some '50s and early '60s stuff.

[Bennyg]

As mentioned already, the future of big rig models is looking like the cottage industry will be it. Mind you, that cottage industry is producing more accurate trucks and better fitting parts. There is a price premium, but you’re getting what you pay.
 

I love the kits that Moebius produced. They’re so good. I’m surprised to hear the sales weren’t as good as expected. I know in Australia, the LoneStar was used as a base kit for the Auslowe Kenworth T904. 
 

Ben

[iamsuperdan]

I think part of the problem is something Stu mentioned above. A lot of builders who are a little older, just don't care about the modern, aerodynamic trucks. They want the old Petes and Kenworths, and those kits have kind of been done. 

Having said that, there are indeed plenty of older, more classic, truck options that have yet to be modelled.

And then the cost of licensing vs the demand for trucks.

Is a new kit worth it? Probably not, otherwise we probably would have seen them by now.

 

[Force]

21 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

Freightliner stopped making the Coronado in 2010, it was basically just a Century/Argosy styled version of the Classic XL. After 2010 they sold a truck called the 122SD as a glider kit (just a truck cab and a frame, you supply the engine/transmission, et al). The "SD" stood for Severe Duty and it was aimed at Heavy Haul and Vocational Applications. At this point you can't even option a 122SD (or it's successor the 114SD) with a sleeper. Freightliner only sells one on-highway "Class 8" truck now and that's the Cascadia.

I'm not that familiar with Freightliner, I know about the Cascadia and many racers use that truck, most likely sponsored, and the German company Daimler owns Fereightliner and Western Star.
I wouldn't mind having a Cascadia model myself...and of course a Featherlite style racing transporter trailer to go with it.

[iamsuperdan]

I'd build a Cascadia for sure.

[metalhead]

They're nice trucks for sure. I would love to build one, which is what got me to thinking about this topic. Old trucks certainly have their appeal. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I do like the looks of the new semi trucks on the road today. I'll have to look into some of these resin kits. May have to save up to get one.

[chuckyr]

It seems Moebius is the only one offering new tool big rig subjects.  They last totally new tractor was the Prostar.  the last new trailer was the spear axle flatbed.   AMT Round2 has offered a new Transtar and Ford with trash body.  They have also reopped several Italeri kits.  

Even Italeri has been slow to offer Euro truck subjects.

 

We'll see about the future.