why did round 2 switch tire brands

[michelle]

i was so use to them doing the white pad printed goodyear polyglass gt tires and i just realized the new kits of cars from the 60's and 70's  they have either repoped or have newly made now only come with firestone wide oval  white letter pad printed tires 
was it a licensing issue or some other reason  
i am curious  anyone know 

[1930fordpickup]

I think you are spot on with the licensing cost. 

[Mark]

The '69 Galaxie kit (which came out earlier this year) has Goodyear tires.  Round 2 isn't selling Goodyear tire packs anymore, but some of the kits do still have them.

[Mike 1017]

Soon E-Bay sellers will be asking for $100.00 for the Goodyear tire packs. I hope that Goodyear does not go after Fireball because he sells Goodyear tire decals. It might to time to stock up on them.

Mike

[bobss396]

Modelhaus used to have Firestone on his tires, until he got a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer. This is why I believe that tire lettering sources like Shabo have gone away. I have a few of those AMT parts pack tires to fall back on.

[Robberbaron]

I seem to recall hearing that Goodyear was becoming more of a pain to deal with.  But as stated, some of their kits still include Goodyear branded tires.  The bigger issue is that, for whatever reason, they can't get the licensing for the "Polyglas" name, which is pretty much mandatory for an accurate muscle-car era white letter Goodyear tire.

That's the reason the '68 Camaro kits started out with 2 complete sets of properly printed Polyglas GT tires, but more recent runs deleted the "Polyglas GT" lettering and only have "Goodyear".  Looks kind of strange to me, since pretty much any Goodyear white letter tire I've seen has the tire model name (?) in white 180° apart from the Goodyear branding.  Makes them look unbalanced.

I think that's the main reason for switching to Firestone: they can put both the brand and the model name so that they appear correct.

I've been getting a chuckle from some of the rivet counters complaining that Firestone Wide Ovals didn't come from the factory for XYZ muscle car.  Considering how fast those tires got smoked when those cars were new, within a couple months they could have been rolling on anything else.

Edited July 13, 2024 by Robberbaron

[Rodent]

29 minutes ago, Robberbaron said:

The bigger issue is that, for whatever reason, they can't get the licensing for the "Polyglas" name, which is pretty much mandatory for an accurate muscle-car era white letter Goodyear tire.

It may be hearsay, but I heard the same thing although I forgot the source. It isn't that Goodyear won't license the name, it was because they no longer own it. They probably don't own most of their other non-current tire names either.

[Robberbaron]

3 hours ago, Rodent said:

It may be hearsay, but I heard the same thing although I forgot the source. It isn't that Goodyear won't license the name, it was because they no longer own it. They probably don't own most of their other non-current tire names either.

Not hearsay, straight from Steve Goldman himself:

No explanation for what the licensing issues are.

[Dave Van]

I held a GoodYear license for model car tire transfers when I ran DNL Hobbies. I required a signed liability release, $25 a year fee and a product sample of each item we made.

GoodYear hears that Harley Davidson makes more off licensing than motorcycles. GoodYear raises the fees to a per item fee making it impossible to do. This is when Monogram removed the engraved GY off all tire molds. We 'sold off inventory' for a while. 

GoodYear then finds they are making AERO from licensing and have a bad 'branding'. They go back to allowing reasonable license fees but too late......Monogram asks for fees from GY to put GY back on tires. 

I got out of the hobby biz for a while and only heard RC2 and R2 had worked out a deal for GY. If that has ended now we'll have to ask those in the know. 

That's my dealings with GY.  

 

UPDATE: the newest AMT truck kits have GoodYear tires.......

Edited July 14, 2024 by Dave Van

[michelle]

Thank you everyone who answered my question at least now I understand why 

Edited July 14, 2024 by michelle

[espo]

Don't understand why Good Year or Firestone would get their shorts in a bunch since the scale tires we deal with aren't something they sell anyway. The popularity of the brand name could be like an unpaid advertisement for their full-scale tires.  

[peteski]

18 hours ago, espo said:

Don't understand why Good Year or Firestone would get their shorts in a bunch since the scale tires we deal with aren't something they sell anyway. The popularity of the brand name could be like an unpaid advertisement for their full-scale tires.  

What I read on the Interwebs is that the companies making the 1:1 items are worried that if some tyke swallows a tire or otherwise hurts themselves by playing with a branded model, because the brand name is on the model the lawyers will sue the company making the 1:1 products for millions  of dollars in damages.  We live in litigious world, so that doesn't seem too far fetched for me.

[stavanzer]

29 minutes ago, peteski said:

What I read on the Interwebs is that the companies making the 1:1 items are worried that if some tyke swallows a tire or otherwise hurts themselves by playing with a branded model, because the brand name is on the model the lawyers will sue the company making the 1:1 products for millions  of dollars in damages.  We live in litigious world, so that doesn't seem too far fetched for me.

Sounds Plausible, I guess.

Sad what our World is turning into.

[SteveG]

Good news is we recently signed a new agreement with Goodyear so the Polyglas tires will be back in future kits along with some others you might not have seen before.  

-Steve

[Tim W. SoCal]

2 hours ago, peteski said:

What I read on the Interwebs is that the companies making the 1:1 items are worried that if some tyke swallows a tire or otherwise hurts themselves by playing with a branded model, because the brand name is on the model the lawyers will sue the company making the 1:1 products for millions  of dollars in damages.  We live in litigious world, so that doesn't seem too far fetched for me.

2 hours ago, stavanzer said:

Sounds Plausible, I guess.

Sad what our World is turning into.

 

  Unfortunately, this IS true. When I was the Service Manager at a large, multi-line Powersports Dealer, I witnessed this several times. Tort lawyers aren't looking to go to a court trial, they just want to write threatening letters and settle. I've seen motorcycle crash cases where the rider was completely at fault and there was no failure of any part of the vehicle, yet the injured operator contacted a law firm who then filed suit on everyone from the selling dealer, the motorcycle manufacturer, tire manufacturer, component manufacturers, safety gear manufacturers, up to and including the makers and retailers of the clothes and shoes the rider was wearing. If the general public would figure out that in these cases the only winners are the lawyers and cease these frivolous lawsuits, our society would be much better off.

[Straightliner59]

5 hours ago, SteveG said:

Good news is we recently signed a new agreement with Goodyear so the Polyglas tires will be back in future kits along with some others you might not have seen before.  

-Steve

That is better than good news! Especially if we will see the parts packs, again.