Jo-Han Models

[Horrorshow]

I have an opportunity to purchase a couple of Jo-Han models, I have never built one. Are they nice to build, are there issues with them. One is a late 60’s Rambler and the other a Petty Superbird.

[Greg Myers]

Several pluses, very nicely detailed engines and headers, crisp clean, well scaled bodies, kits covering subject matter not covered by others. Now the minus, most of their kits come with promo style chassis. Later issues came in some rather wonky colors.

Edited March 12 by Greg Myers

[37 caddy]

Everything greg said is true,i made the petty superbird years ago,it was my first jo-han i ever had.I was impressed with them,always liked them since too.I only wish they had made Semis,i am more into them then cars,im sure they would have made some obscure stuff.Get them you will not be dissapointed. 

[stitchdup]

the plastic can be more brittle than other kits but thats down to most of thems age, so if you get them take care when you're building them. The biggest plus for jo-han kits is the more obscure subject matter but other than that i dont feel theres much difference than other similar age kits.

Edited March 12 by stitchdup

[Bainford]

Many of the later JoHan kits have a ton of flash and require a lot of clean up. The Superbird and the Rambler are among these later issues. Not to discourage you, just so you will be aware. I like them myself, but they can require some clean-up.

[Greg Myers]

Cheep price to pay for subjects unavailable elsewhere 

[StevenGuthmiller]

For some subjects, such as the Super Bird, there are probably better, more detailed kits available, although, in my opinion, the body proportions and accuracy of most Johan kits is unmatched.

That said, for much of Johan’s subject matter, there is no option.

Where else are you going to find a 60s Rambler?

Everything else is secondary as I see it.

 

 

 

Steve

Edited March 12 by StevenGuthmiller

[bobss396]

I have an old built up '64 Caddy I am one day going to resurrect. I have taken it apart carefully, at the worst I may not be able to salvage one of the tail light lenses. I built a bunch years ago and they were good kits. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

I have 14 finished Johan kits on my shelves right now, and probably 15 to 20 still waiting to be built.

Most of these 30 to 35 kits are of the very rare "flat box" variety, along with a few scattered "USA Oldies" kits.

 

I love these kits, and value them more than anything else in my collection.

They are true collectors pieces as there is almost zero possibility that any of them will ever be reproduced.

 

If you're a Mopar fan, you absolutely have to love Johan!

They produced more interesting Mopar subjects than any other manufacturer, including a full line of Chrysler 300 kits from 1962 to '68,  Plymouth Furys from '59 to '68, and full sized Dodges from 1959 until 1964.

They also produced the ONLY Desoto model kit ever produced in styrene with the 1960 Desoto Adventurer kit.

Of the 14 finished Johan kits that I have in my collection, an even dozen are unusual Mopar subjects, from Dodge Royal Lancers and Dart Phoenixes, to Plymouth Furys, and Chrysler New Yorkers and 300s.

 

The same thing could be said for Cadillac, Oldsmobile and AMC.

 

The bodies are absolute works of art, rivaling any modern kit, and exhibiting remarkable accuracy, especially when you consider their age.

While the chassis, and interiors can often leave something to be desired, they lend themselves very well to kit bashing parts from modern kits to produce something finely detailed and truly unique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

Edited March 13 by StevenGuthmiller

[Richard Bartrop]

Their Gold Cup classics are beautiful kits.  The rest rest vary widely in quality.

[Carmak]

On 3/12/2024 at 10:17 AM, Greg Myers said:

Several pluses, very nicely detailed engines and headers, crisp clean, well scaled bodies, kits covering subject matter not covered by others. Now the minus, most of their kits come with promo style chassis. Later issues came in some rather wonky colors.

To appreciate some of the wonky colors and flash it is important to understand that Johan was operating on the edge for the last couple decades. They would acquire whatever plastic they could if it was inexpensive, so color was not a concern. They are could not afford proper mold maintenance which resulted in all the flash.

It is my understanding that one of the car companies discovered they were not getting royalties which shut Johan down. The employees stopped getting paid, so they started taking and scraping molds as payment. Very sad. 

[Horrorshow]

Thanks for the advice. I decided against purchasing these kits, I figured I have approximately 25 in various stages of build so I don’t need any more. They were both opened, but appear complete. $50 for the rambler and 55 for the Superbird. Canadian prices, if anyone is interested I can give more info. 

[Horrorshow]

?

Edited March 14 by Horrorshow
Placed in wrong topic

[Bugatti Fan]

I remember building their Chrysler Turbine car kit many years ago and spraying it with an AMT lacquer colour that looked very much like the prototype's colour.

It was quite a nice kit to build as I recall from way back when it was first issued.

Would like to build another. Has Atlantis or someone else got the moulds ?

[StevenGuthmiller]

44 minutes ago, Bugatti Fan said:

I remember building their Chrysler Turbine car kit many years ago and spraying it with an AMT lacquer colour that looked very much like the prototype's colour.

It was quite a nice kit to build as I recall from way back when it was first issued.

Would like to build another. Has Atlantis or someone else got the moulds ?

You can still find this kit relatively cheap.

There’s a ton of them out there.

 

 

Steve

[Bugatti Fan]

Thanks for the feedback Steve.      I thought that the Turbine car kit would be a bit of a rarity these days.

[Bainford]

22 hours ago, Horrorshow said:

I figured I have approximately 25 in various stages of build so I don’t need any more.

Ummm... I don't understand.

[Horrorshow]

23 minutes ago, Bainford said:

Ummm... I don't understand.

25 kits all partially built 

[Little Timmy]

No, I think he meant he didn't understand why you don't "need" anymore.

You can never have too many.

 

[Bainford]

Haha

Cheers Timmy

Sorry for the confusion Jack. I was just being silly. 

[W Humble]

I have a fair percentage of JoHan models (in a small collection) and all are MoPars, c. 1960-61.  Revell did Plymouth-Dodge in '62, also.  They were brittle, and the 'kustom' stuff was a bit behind the curve, but nice kits overall for sure.  None of mine had engines, but all had the funny pseudo-torsion bars up front, and very thick metal axles.  The most notalbe thing was that our local '88-cent store" carried only Johan kits, and at that price they were much cheaper than AMT-SMP 3 in 1 kits (usually marked on the box at 1.39, which helped my budget.  MoPars of the Exner era!  Wick

[niteowl7710]

On 3/14/2024 at 10:19 AM, Carmak said:

It is my understanding that one of the car companies discovered they were not getting royalties which shut Johan down. 

Jo-Han operated almost solely (Gold Cup kits of 30s era cars excepted) on Promo contracts from the Big 3 and the release of those annual promos as model kits. When the promo contracts went away in the early 70s, so did Jo-Han. Royalties didn't exist back then like they do now, considering Jo-Han was being paid to produce the products in the first place on the promo side.

The later Golden Oldies kits are in a slew of...unique...colors because Seville was a 1:1 Car Part Supplier, so they shot the kits in whatever color plastic they had lying around from their main production lines. 

[Carmak]

16 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

Jo-Han operated almost solely (Gold Cup kits of 30s era cars excepted) on Promo contracts from the Big 3 and the release of those annual promos as model kits. When the promo contracts went away in the early 70s, so did Jo-Han. Royalties didn't exist back then like they do now, considering Jo-Han was being paid to produce the products in the first place on the promo side.

The later Golden Oldies kits are in a slew of...unique...colors because Seville was a 1:1 Car Part Supplier, so they shot the kits in whatever color plastic they had lying around from their main production lines. 

It was in the 90's when it was noticed that Johan (Seville) was not paying royalties.

[W Humble]

Colored plastics; reminds me of another very trivial thing about JoHan kits -- usually if you stripped the chrome parts, they were molded of a marbleized-like mix of various colored styrenes.  Never noticed any other kit maker recycling plastic scraps that way -- and not a bad idea, either!  When I toss a big handful of sprue, I often wish there was somewhere to recycle it in a practical way.  Oh well...  Wick

[niteowl7710]

On 3/17/2024 at 10:25 PM, Carmak said:

It was in the 90's when it was noticed that Johan (Seville) was not paying royalties.

But the mold "stealing" the employees did when they weren't paid took place back in the mid-late 70s when John Handley still ran the company. It's the reason all the subsequent Golden Oldies kits came out missing all of the "flat box" additional parts and often times the wrong later interiors in earlier versions of the same car.