The Future of Revell...for 2024 at least.

[DiscoRover007]

I’d really love to see a company take on the 4x4 market there are so many untapped subjects that would sell like hotcakes.

Land Rover Discovery 

Mitsubishi Montero (03 and up)

Modern Toyota Tacoma’s, Land Cruiser’s,  4 Runner’s

Nissan Patrol

 

Edited January 16 by DiscoRover007

[tim boyd]

8 hours ago, DiscoRover007 said:

I’d really love to see a company take on the 4x4 market there are so many untapped subjects that would sell like hotcakes.

Land Rover Discovery 

Mitsubishi Montero (03 and up)

Modern Toyota Tacoma’s, Land Cruiser’s,  4 Runner’s

Nissan Patrol

 

Model Cars magazine #221 (corrected - thanks Dan) had an in-depth article on the surprisingly large number of SUVS that have been kitted over the last five decades.  As the author of that article, I was surprised...no maybe more like almost shocked....at the number of kits in that category that have been produced, particularly from overseas manufacturers.  Granted, most are historical topics now (i.e. kits of 1/1 vehicles no longer produced as new) but there number of relatively current offerings as well.  

Those of you who have not already read the article should check it out!   Best...Tim 

PS - though the list in the article is extensive, and was cross checked against several reputable sources, I am sure that there are yet more SUV kit tools that were not mentioned in the article...TB  

Edited January 16 by tim boyd

[Justin Porter]

On 1/6/2024 at 2:10 PM, Max H. Kuykendall said:

I would love to see one of the major manufacturers step out in faith and issue any number of long overlooked subjects:

Kiaser, Studebaker, Packard, 1970'sand 80's Full size Ford's and others. Not every model year, but a representative of each styling change. For those of us who build or collect, these are glaring omissions. One kit with additional option parts often can spur the collector/ builder to purchase multiples of one SKU if their goal is to have a representative of each model year. Have you been on line to see the prices of printed kits, resins and vintage survivors?

Mobeous must have been successful with their line of Hudson's and F series Ford pick ups long and shamefully ignored by the industry.

So many are alleged to be "all NEW" releases and I have had the very kits in my collection for many years. 

I suppose many decision makers are intimidated by boards of directors who care only about the bottom line, and nothing about the industry,

but no one gets ahead by playing it safe. If that weren't the case, the world would never have seen a Mustang.

 

 

 

 

The Mustang was a very safe bet.

Let's take our successful and profitable compact car, put a sporty coupe body on its platform, give it a name that's evocative both of the national fascination with the Old West AND Victory in Europe, price it affordably, and then give it a huge marketing campaign that kicks off at nothing less than the World's Fair. The biggest risk was if the public saw through the marketing ballyhoo and realized they were getting sold a Falcon in a frock, and Ford and Madison Avenue knew there was no chance at that. 

Now, as to your recommendation. Who's buying? Classic American obscura is a NICHE subject which dictates niche model kit pricing. You're talking cars like Kaiser Manhattans and Packard Caribbean Clippers. Cars that the bulk of non-retired people have only seen as museum pieces. Fascinating and lovely cars to be certain, but you cannot tell me that globally there's more sales potential in a Studebaker Lark than there is in a modern WRC subject like the Citroen C3 and surely you've seen what builders are willing to pay Belkits for a WRC kit? 

As such, the price MUST reflect the lowered demand and the relatively restricted geography of the market, and all you have to do is see the number of builders salivating over the chance to grab a reissue of the Monogram Rampage Camaro at their local Ollies just because it's less than $20 to know that there is no genre of builders who are more obsessively price conscious than builders of American classic cars. They shriek and stomp their feet and bellow about "I remember when -name of defunct department store- sold models for -single digit dollar price tag- and that's why there's no kids building models today" despite the fact that there's someone a third their age in line behind them at the counter with an armload of Gundam kits.  

[Tom Geiger]

On 1/6/2024 at 2:10 PM, Max H. Kuykendall said:

I would love to see one of the major manufacturers step out in faith and issue any number of long overlooked subjects:

Kiaser, Studebaker, Packard, 1970'sand 80's Full size Ford's and others. Not every model year, but a representative of each styling change. For those of us who build or collect, these are glaring omissions. One kit with additional option parts often can spur the collector/ builder to purchase multiples of one SKU if their goal is to have a representative of each model year. Have you been on line to see the prices of printed kits, resins and vintage survivors?

Mobeous must have been successful with their line of Hudson's and F series Ford pick ups long and shamefully ignored by the industry.

"How To Bankrupt A Model Company In One Easy Lesson"!

None of what you mentioned would sell in anywhere the numbers to justify cutting new tooling.  Do not use the Moebius Hudsons as an example of success, they only got done because the company owner Frank was a Hudson fanatic. It's good to be king.

The Ford pickups are the kind of kit that sells. The real trucks are always the top selling vehicle in America. Huge fan base.  I remember Dave Burket talking about this 20-30 years ago.  He finally got the Moebius ear and added in some of his own money to make those happen.  One of the big factors that made those feasible was the similarity of the trucks year to year.  

And why do you think Round 2 rushed out their 1960 and 1964 Ford Pickups?  To beat Moebius to the punch.  They had planned on doing the entire series.

[iamsuperdan]

2 hours ago, tim boyd said:

Model Cars magazine #121 had an in-depth article on the surprisingly large number of SUVS that have been kitted over the last five decades.  As the author of that article, I was surprised...no maybe more like almost shocked....at the number of kits in that category that have been produced, particularly from overseas manufacturers.  Granted, most are historical topics now (i.e. kits of 1/1 vehicles no longer produced as new) but there number of relatively current offerings as well.  

Those of you who have not already read the article should check it out!   Best...Tim 

PS - though the list in the article is extensive, and was cross checked against several reputable sources, I am sure that there are yet more SUV kit tools that were not mentioned in the article...TB  

You're right! But it's actually issue 221.

Excellent article, but it really only covered the North American kit manufacturers. AMT, MPC, Revell, etc.

Other than a short paragraph, it made no mention of kits from Aoshima, Tamiya, Hasegawa, Italeri, ESCI. And those would have covered brands like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Jeep, Land Rover/Range Rover, and Mercedes; to name a few.

[oldcarfan]

42 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

You're right! But it's actually issue 221.

Excellent article, but it really only covered the North American kit manufacturers. AMT, MPC, Revell, etc.

Other than a short paragraph, it made no mention of kits from Aoshima, Tamiya, Hasegawa, Italeri, ESCI. And those would have covered brands like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Jeep, Land Rover/Range Rover, and Mercedes; to name a few.

The market has moved away from the subjects we know and love. It feels like the only kids who build muscle cars are the ones who watch Vin Diesel abuse them on the screen. If they build, they're more likely to build something Japanese. My oldest son will go to the hobby store with me sometimes and he heads straight to the Gundam, or Transformers area. My youngest does have some interest in vehicles, but it's more for 90s Ford or Chevy trucks which to him are 'classics'. Right now, he drools over mid 90s F-250 4x4s from the OLD days before he was born.

I've been a collector more than a builder over the last 15 years, a byproduct of raising two boys. With time now, I'm unpacking all those kits and have found a lot of trucks that I don't remember buying. Among them are the Tamiya Jeep Grand Cherokees, a Montero/Pajero, two Land Cruisers, several ESCI G-Wagens one of their fire Jeeps, and a Land Rover, and several more.

I don't say this to brag about my luck, but to say that the companies could tool up some modern accessories, wheels, tires, bumpers, winches, and roof racks with cargo and rerelease these kits to a market that wants to build such subjects. For that matter, they could offer similar parts to fit some of the car kits, as people are jacking them up and using them off-road now, too.  Revell could reissue their excellent F-350 Duallie with a lift kit, some shiny chrome wheels and tires, a bull bar and updated graphics. Maybe they could even tool up a 7.3 diesel!

AMT has now redone their OBS Chevy trucks and they could do the same sort of thing with them.

Granted these accessories are available from the aftermarket, but if they were all part of a kit sold on the hobby store shelf it might tempt a lot of new buyers to give them a try. Plus it would get a bunch of us old-timers to buy new stuff!

[tim boyd]

5 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

You're right! But it's actually issue 221.

Excellent article, but it really only covered the North American kit manufacturers. AMT, MPC, Revell, etc.

Other than a short paragraph, it made no mention of kits from Aoshima, Tamiya, Hasegawa, Italeri, ESCI. And those would have covered brands like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Jeep, Land Rover/Range Rover, and Mercedes; to name a few.

Thx Dan for catching the issue error...fingers did not type what the mind was thinking!  I've corrected my post. 

The article started out as primarily domestic kits, but at Tim K's suggestion we added info on kits from overseas makers.  

Here's the text of the paragraph Dan mentioned above...

But Wait, There’s More…

I don’t have sample kits of the following to show you, but there are yet more SUV-themed kits for you to explore.  These are mostly curbside style offerings rendered in 1/24^th scale, and the quality and level of detail varies from kit to kit.  Some were not actively offered in the North America hobby trade but they will be familiar to our overseas readers.   Some of these kits include:  Italeri Mercedes-Benz G230, Italeri (first generation) Range Rover, Hasegawa Suzuki Jimny, Tamiya Mitsubishi Pajaro, Tamiya Toyota Land Cruiser 80, Tamiya “YJ” Wrangler, ARII Nissan Safari, Aoshima Nissan four door JDM Terrano R3 (aka Pathfinder SE V6), and Aoshima Range Rover and Aoshima Toyota Hilux Surf Wide (aka 4Runner).   

I really appreciated Tim K's flexibility and follow-up as I continued to update the sidebar text in the magazine layout about 5 different times as I kept adding more and more of those primarily overseas manufactured kits!   

We also showed box art images images of the Fujimi Toyota FJ, Toyota Hi_Lux Surf Wide (the JDM version of the 4Runner) kits, the original Monogram Land Rover (c. 1980 and apparently never reissued), and the current Revell Germay Land Rover Series III LWB kits.  

Best...TB

 

 

  – Tim Boyd

[peteski]

There was also Tamiya Isuzu Vehicross.

[iamsuperdan]

1 hour ago, tim boyd said:

Thx Dan for catching the issue error...fingers did not type what the mind was thinking!  I've corrected my post. 

The article started out as primarily domestic kits, but at Tim K's suggestion we added info on kits from overseas makers.  

Here's the text of the paragraph Dan mentioned above...

But Wait, There’s More…

I don’t have sample kits of the following to show you, but there are yet more SUV-themed kits for you to explore.  These are mostly curbside style offerings rendered in 1/24^th scale, and the quality and level of detail varies from kit to kit.  Some were not actively offered in the North America hobby trade but they will be familiar to our overseas readers.   Some of these kits include:  Italeri Mercedes-Benz G230, Italeri (first generation) Range Rover, Hasegawa Suzuki Jimny, Tamiya Mitsubishi Pajaro, Tamiya Toyota Land Cruiser 80, Tamiya “YJ” Wrangler, ARII Nissan Safari, Aoshima Nissan four door JDM Terrano R3 (aka Pathfinder SE V6), and Aoshima Range Rover and Aoshima Toyota Hilux Surf Wide (aka 4Runner).   

I really appreciated Tim K's flexibility and follow-up as I continued to update the sidebar text in the magazine layout about 5 different times as I kept adding more and more of those primarily overseas manufactured kits!   

We also showed box art images images of the Fujimi Toyota FJ, Toyota Hi_Lux Surf Wide (the JDM version of the 4Runner) kits, the original Monogram Land Rover (c. 1980 and apparently never reissued), and the current Revell Germay Land Rover Series III LWB kits.  

Best...TB

 

 

  – Tim Boyd

Thanks Tim!

As I said, excellent article.

And really, the import kits are plentiful enough that you could have done a full part II just on those!

Darn those space limitations!

 

 

 

[av405]

8 hours ago, oldcarfan said:

The market has moved away from the subjects we know and love. It feels like the only kids who build muscle cars are the ones who watch Vin Diesel abuse them on the screen. If they build, they're more likely to build something Japanese. My oldest son will go to the hobby store with me sometimes and he heads straight to the Gundam, or Transformers area. My youngest does have some interest in vehicles, but it's more for 90s Ford or Chevy trucks which to him are 'classics'. Right now, he drools over mid 90s F-250 4x4s from the OLD days before he was born.

I've been a collector more than a builder over the last 15 years, a byproduct of raising two boys. With time now, I'm unpacking all those kits and have found a lot of trucks that I don't remember buying. Among them are the Tamiya Jeep Grand Cherokees, a Montero/Pajero, two Land Cruisers, several ESCI G-Wagens one of their fire Jeeps, and a Land Rover, and several more.

I don't say this to brag about my luck, but to say that the companies could tool up some modern accessories, wheels, tires, bumpers, winches, and roof racks with cargo and rerelease these kits to a market that wants to build such subjects. For that matter, they could offer similar parts to fit some of the car kits, as people are jacking them up and using them off-road now, too.  Revell could reissue their excellent F-350 Duallie with a lift kit, some shiny chrome wheels and tires, a bull bar and updated graphics. Maybe they could even tool up a 7.3 diesel!

AMT has now redone their OBS Chevy trucks and they could do the same sort of thing with them.

Granted these accessories are available from the aftermarket, but if they were all part of a kit sold on the hobby store shelf it might tempt a lot of new buyers to give them a try. Plus it would get a bunch of us old-timers to buy new stuff!

Yep. This is why something like the Stranger Things Blazer is such a good bet. There's still plenty around and not uncommon to see on the streets, they're seen as "classics" by the youngsters and even by me (I"m 33), they appeal to different crowds (police/emergency, stock builders, those looking to modify them into off-roads, etc.) and most importantly of all, they're tied into a long-running and popular tv show that is seen by multiple generations. 80's nostalgia has been the thing for a while now, Revell is playing it smart by cashing in on it and building something that hasn't been done yet.

[oldcarfan]

22 minutes ago, av405 said:

Yep. This is why something like the Stranger Things Blazer is such a good bet. There's still plenty around and not uncommon to see on the streets, they're seen as "classics" by the youngsters and even by me (I"m 33), they appeal to different crowds (police/emergency, stock builders, those looking to modify them into off-roads, etc.) and most importantly of all, they're tied into a long-running and popular tv show that is seen by multiple generations. 80's nostalgia has been the thing for a while now, Revell is playing it smart by cashing in on it and building something that hasn't been done yet.

You make a good point. I think one of the things that keeps Round 2 viable is their tie-ins with Coke and other brands. A lot of kits get sold to people who don't build, but collect items from a particular brand. That's great in that they help support those of who are builders. I can't imagine Round 2 tooling up that 63 Nova wagon or the 60 and 63 F-1-00s without the thought of rereleasing it them in Coke versions. Same thing with Revell. I doubt we'd see a new tool Blazer, or Camaro for instance being tooled up without the guaranteed sales from those collectors. Here's hoping they'll eventually do a modified Blazer with the Amity Island markings!

[av405]

22 minutes ago, oldcarfan said:

You make a good point. I think one of the things that keeps Round 2 viable is their tie-ins with Coke and other brands. A lot of kits get sold to people who don't build, but collect items from a particular brand. That's great in that they help support those of who are builders. I can't imagine Round 2 tooling up that 63 Nova wagon or the 60 and 63 F-1-00s without the thought of rereleasing it them in Coke versions. Same thing with Revell. I doubt we'd see a new tool Blazer, or Camaro for instance being tooled up without the guaranteed sales from those collectors. Here's hoping they'll eventually do a modified Blazer with the Amity Island markings!

Blazers of different years/grills, Suburbans, pickup trucks; the posibilities are endless if Revell is willing. 

[oldcarfan]

Since it's Canonball season again it's started me thinking, which is never a good thing!

This idea could apply to Revell or to Round2, but how about a duallie Chevy/GMC 4 door truck? Revell's has released Monogram's old tool Chevy and GMC many times over the last few years and it seems to be a consistent seller. Maybe they could do one of this as well. Maybe they could do it like they did the F-250 and F-350 getting a straight side and a duallie out of the same tooling.

If they made it compatible with the Monogram 1/24th GMC, I can think of a lot projects this might spin off. We could even use the long bed and combine it with the regular cab and a stretched frame for a long wished for Fall Guy truck to go with the old series and new movie that's coming out.

I'm sure it's more complicated than I make it seem, but this is sure a good looking truck.

[BlackSheep214]

Revell Dualie is a posibble repop of the old MPC kit...  going from Chevy to Ford. 

[disconovaman]

All signs are pointing to a re-issue of the Foose 1:12th scale 69 Camaro. Although they're doing a good job of keeping the cat in the bag on the Boxart, I see the Revell website shows the specs and kit number for the upcoming release. 

[Jordan White]

I’m sort of hoping it’s not the Foose version again, but rather the original 3n1 version. Either way though, glad it’s returning!

[Rob Hall]

14 hours ago, BlackSheep214 said:

Revell Dualie is a possible repop of the old MPC kit...  going from Chevy to Ford. 

 

 

Huh?  Not remotely.  Revell and MPC have always been two different companies.  The MPC kit was based on the full detail annual, while the Revell kit was a snap kit from 1980. 

[Rob Hall]

16 hours ago, oldcarfan said:

Since it's Canonball season again it's started me thinking, which is never a good thing!

This idea could apply to Revell or to Round2, but how about a duallie Chevy/GMC 4 door truck? Revell's has released Monogram's old tool Chevy and GMC many times over the last few years and it seems to be a consistent seller. Maybe they could do one of this as well. Maybe they could do it like they did the F-250 and F-350 getting a straight side and a duallie out of the same tooling.

If they made it compatible with the Monogram 1/24th GMC, I can think of a lot projects this might spin off. We could even use the long bed and combine it with the regular cab and a stretched frame for a long wished for Fall Guy truck to go with the old series and new movie that's coming out.

I'm sure it's more complicated than I make it seem, but this is sure a good looking truck.

 

There is a nice 3D printed mid 80s Chevy crew cab dooley available--a nice piece (design by Andy Bezrodny, printed by Andy Lesiak).   A regular kit would be nice not likely to happen. 

[stavanzer]

On 1/18/2024 at 3:17 AM, Rob Hall said:

There is a nice 3D printed mid 80s Chevy crew cab dooley available--a nice piece (design by Andy Bezrodny, printed by Andy Lesiak).   A regular kit would be nice not likely to happen. 

NIce Crew Cab.

Front end looks almost 'Too' sharp to be real, though.

[Luc Janssens]

On 1/18/2024 at 12:17 PM, Rob Hall said:

There is a nice 3D printed mid 80s Chevy crew cab dooley available--a nice piece (design by Andy Bezrodny, printed by Andy Lesiak).   A regular kit would be nice not likely to happen. 

Could make it as some Pro-Street version, like Amt did with their OBS

 

[oldcarfan]

On 1/17/2024 at 3:03 PM, BlackSheep214 said:

Revell Dualie is a posibble repop of the old MPC kit...  going from Chevy to Ford. 

Neither of those represents a legitimate stock dually, but the Chevy has some nice wheels on it that might be good for a project!

[mikemodeler]

The Jeep CJ-7, the Bronco half cab, the '57 Bel Air, the 64 Impala and the 68 Firebird are all due out next month.

[slusher]

The Ford does not look bad…

[stavanzer]

Nice to see the Bronco Half-Cab by itself.

That Bronco is a sweet kit.

Too bad there is Zero Chance of Revell tooling up the Roadster style Step through doors, like the ones Olsen's offered before they went down. Too many mold changes needed to make it practical for Revell. But, they make for a neat looking Bronco.

[Fabrux]

Iceman Collections is going to be offering the Bronco roadster parts, designed by Fireball. Or, if you have a printer, join Joseph's Patreon and get the files directly from him like I did. 😁