Coming Soon from Atomic City's JoHan line of new kits

[thatz4u]

8 hours ago, WillyBilly said:

Do they have a web site? For those of us who do not do FB, what is the alternative?

email is easy too, jhigginsjr@yahoo.com, ask questions, Jack will help..

[dodgefever]

On 7/28/2025 at 9:08 AM, sidcharles said:

a mere pittance to the man who wants a piece of automotive history

In that case, I would procure an original Jo-Han kit.

[Big Messer]

On 7/27/2024 at 3:35 PM, Tabbysdaddy said:

Wow! It almost looks real.

We know that the actual car is realistic and super detailed, hopefully the model will be good enough.

[thatz4u]

Coming in September from Atomic City...replacement tail lights for 74-75 JoHan Cutlass..

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

19 hours ago, thatz4u said:

Coming in September from Atomic City...replacement tail lights for 74-75 JoHan Cutlass..

Why? Is there huge demand for these?

Edited August 28 by Perspect Scale Modelworks

[Stef]

17 minutes ago, Perspect Scale Modelworks said:

Why? Is there huge demand for these?

We all have a huge demand for the FULL KIT

[Mark]

The parts will be a less expensive way for potential buyers to get acquainted with the quality of the parts.  If they are satisfied with those, they'll be more likely to lay out the bucks for a complete kit later on.

[SfanGoch]

If one doesn't have a Cutlass kit/built up with missing tail lights in the first place, why bother? I'm not likely....no, I won't lay out two large for what amounts to a curbside model if a Cutlass kit is ever produced. I have better things to do with that kind of money.

[Stef]

6 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

If one doesn't have a Cutlass kit/built up with missing tail lights in the first place, why bother? I'm not likely....no, I won't lay out two large for what amounts to a curbside model if a Cutlass kit is ever produced. I have better things to do with that kind of money.

I agree 99%, but I just know one of these days I'm gonna pull the trigger on something stupid expensive just because it's rare, I want it, been chasing it for decades, and I want the glory of the kill!

[Justin Porter]

It makes sense to an extent. A huge piece of Modelhaus's business was replacement parts for promo collectors rather than aimed specifically at model builders. For folks wanting to restore old Johan promos for display purposes, having the small, often lost parts commercially available is a godsend. You see the same things in the die cast world.

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

32 minutes ago, Justin Porter said:

It makes sense to an extent. A huge piece of Modelhaus's business was replacement parts for promo collectors rather than aimed specifically at model builders. For folks wanting to restore old Johan promos for display purposes, having the small, often lost parts commercially available is a godsend. You see the same things in the die cast world.

Now that makes sense.

[Mark C.]

Are those taillights prone to go missing?

[Mark]

Any small part that snaps into place has a habit of eventually separating itself from the model.

[ChrisBcritter]

When they announced this on FB I suggested a 3-D printed correct '75 grille/front cap as Jo-Han dropped the ball on the original promo/kit; no comments yet.

[mikos]

On 8/27/2025 at 11:39 AM, thatz4u said:

Coming in September from Atomic City...replacement tail lights for 74-75 JoHan Cutlass..

Nice, but those are actually incorrect for the “‘75” Olds Cutlass.  

[mikos]

On 8/28/2025 at 1:56 PM, Mark said:

Any small part that snaps into place has a habit of eventually separating itself from the model.

That part snaps in from behind with a horizontal runner connecting (molded) with the two tail lights together.  I’ve never seen a missing tail light assembly from a ‘75 Johan Cutlass unless it was an opened snap kit with missing parts.  It’s kind of bewildering that they would choose this particular part to have done in 3d print.

Edited Saturday at 05:09 PM by mikos

[mikos]

I would love to see some of those old kits from Johan cloned again.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Edited Saturday at 06:35 PM by mikos

[Justin Porter]

There are subjects that Johan did that I would love to see released as MODERN kits. As builder AND as a retailer, I would be thrilled to see a Salvinos JR tooled NASCAR 1970 Plymouth Superbird, or a Moebius tooled 1971 AMC Javelin, or an ICM tooled Mercedes 500K. 

No. I do not want the Johan kits back. No. I do not want the Johan brand back. No. I do not want another backwards gazing vintage (or faux vintage recreation) brand on my shelves. We have Round 2. We have Atlantis. We do not need Johan beside them. 

You want me to be excited about the prospect of Johan injection molded kits? Okay, tell me that Johan will start to use polycaps for wheel attachment instead of wire axles. Tell me that Johan is sublicensing slide-molding technology from Bandai. Tell me that Johan is hiring the T-Rex CAD studio that's subcontracted by major kit manufacturers like Takom and Meng. Tell me that they want to deliver products that will be relevant - both in subject and design - to builders under the age of dirt.  

Otherwise, it's just not a product I see a future in. You seem to think otherwise, but I'm willing to bet no piece-for-piece reissue of the '68 Plymouth Fury police car is going to match the sales of the upcoming all-new tool Aoshima 1/24th scale F&F MkIV Toyota Supra.

[mikos]

1 hour ago, Justin Porter said:

There are subjects that Johan did that I would love to see released as MODERN kits. As builder AND as a retailer, I would be thrilled to see a Salvinos JR tooled NASCAR 1970 Plymouth Superbird, or a Moebius tooled 1971 AMC Javelin, or an ICM tooled Mercedes 500K. 

No. I do not want the Johan kits back. No. I do not want the Johan brand back. No. I do not want another backwards gazing vintage (or faux vintage recreation) brand on my shelves. We have Round 2. We have Atlantis. We do not need Johan beside them. 

You want me to be excited about the prospect of Johan injection molded kits? Okay, tell me that Johan will start to use polycaps for wheel attachment instead of wire axles. Tell me that Johan is sublicensing slide-molding technology from Bandai. Tell me that Johan is hiring the T-Rex CAD studio that's subcontracted by major kit manufacturers like Takom and Meng. Tell me that they want to deliver products that will be relevant - both in subject and design - to builders under the age of dirt.  

Otherwise, it's just not a product I see a future in. You seem to think otherwise, but I'm willing to bet no piece-for-piece reissue of the '68 Plymouth Fury police car is going to match the sales of the upcoming all-new tool Aoshima 1/24th scale F&F MkIV Toyota Supra.

Johan got it done with WW1 era tooling technology and wire axles.  Crisp engraving with a well proportioned body.  Don’t forget the Gold Cup series which had detail that equaled even some of the best kits made today.  I don’t know how those poly caps work, but the peg and stem method used by some makes the wheels tilt in with severe camber which looks unrealistic. I’ve been known to scrap them and use an aluminum rod and tube reengineering effort just to get the wheels to sit right.  I’ll gladly sacrifice some suspension detail to get the model to sit right on the shelf without too much work
 

Reviving the Johan name and cloning some of their kits would be great.  Round 2 has proven you can enjoy strong sales, as you always like to remind us of, with old simple snap kit style cloned kits.  They’re making money so why wouldn’t it be successful for Johan?  You just have to get the right people together to make it happen.  
 

For me, I’m not interested in another variation of the MKIV Supra or some endless JDM Skyline variant.  I want to see some of those old big Detroit icars again like those wonderful old Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles and Plymouths.  I don’t think I’m older than dirt, but even when I was much younger, I still liked those old Johan kits and the subject matter they did.  
 

I do wish they were healthy enough (back in the day) to have done a ‘79-‘85 Eldorado variant and update their ‘77-‘79 Deville tool to the restyled “notchback” Cadillac for 1980.  However, I know they were barely on life support at the time and the promo contracts (which would be the only way they would be done) were nearly all dried up.

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 07:59 PM by mikos

[Mark]

There's enough of us out there who couldn't care less about F&F type cars, and consider polycap wheel attachment more suitable to Hot Wheels than to model kits.  Not that we don’t want that market to be served, but it's just not anything we will ever have any interest in.  

Then again, the parties currently locking horns over the Jo-Han brand name are niche/boutique manufacturers at best.  One in fact hasn't manufactured anything in a bunch of years.  The other is a resin caster, dress that up however anyone will.  Neither will ever get up to a level where they will have products on store shelves anywhere but in their own store.  There's simply no comparison between them and any company selling typical injection molded plastic model kits.

[stavanzer]

5 hours ago, Justin Porter said:

Otherwise, it's just not a product I see a future in. You seem to think otherwise, but I'm willing to bet no piece-for-piece reissue of the '68 Plymouth Fury police car is going to match the sales of the upcoming all-new tool Aoshima 1/24th scale F&F MkIV Toyota Supra.

Note a bet I would feel safe making! As badly as I want the '68 Plymouth, that Aoshima kit will outsell it walking away. And I say that having owned and built many Johan kits. They were nice, but seldom Spectacular (with a couple exceptions, {Turbine Car, Cough,Cough}). 

Justin is correct. Johan is not coming back. May not be dead, but not coming back either. Niche Products for a Niche Audience.

[Mark C.]

These discussions seem to become more debate than anything else, though I don’t understand why.

An F&F Supra and a ‘68 Fury cop car are not competing for the same hobby dollars.  Therefore, why are we comparing them, and why do we assume that they both couldn’t exist in the same world?  Not a zero sum game, really it’s just about whether each could capture enough interest to be profitable in whatever business model is chosen for each of them.

FWIW, I also don’t understand why any hobby shop would care whether someone introduces a product that they are not interested in selling.  Don’t think it will sell?  Don’t stock it. Simple.

[niteowl7710]

7 hours ago, Mark C. said:

These discussions seem to become more debate than anything else, though I don’t understand why.

An F&F Supra and a ‘68 Fury cop car are not competing for the same hobby dollars.  Therefore, why are we comparing them, and why do we assume that they both couldn’t exist in the same world?  Not a zero sum game, really it’s just about whether each could capture enough interest to be profitable in whatever business model is chosen for each of them.

FWIW, I also don’t understand why any hobby shop would care whether someone introduces a product that they are not interested in selling.  Don’t think it will sell?  Don’t stock it. Simple.

He didn't say they couldn't coexist, he said the Supra would sell more, which is more than likely true just from the basis that it would appeal to a global audience that demographically is in entering it's prime earning years and would be reissuable for 20+ years, especially given all of the Mk4 Supras Aoshima has ever released are reboxed AMT kits. A '68 Plymouth - particularly a direct clone of the existing kit without the upgrades Oakey wanted to do, but couldn't finance - might sell the run into distribution within a near 100% U.S. audience, but I suspect would be one of those kits that would linger in back stock for eternity. My LHS had one of their collection sales this weekend which gave the chance to shoot the bull with the owner and wander around the back stock room and the amount of effectively unsellable kits he has of recently done subject matter that *HAD TO BE DONE BECAUSE OMG THE ORIGINALS ARE SO EXPENSIVE* is pretty staggering. 

As I often tend to say, the opinions of this forum do not often reflect the retail reality of hobby sales, nor things that would be coherent decisions to make as a manufacturer. We are the the top half of the 1% here and the casual builder that still makes up the bulk of sales would recognize the hero car of a movie (of which the existing kit was a hot mess of blah made during the Racing Champion Ownership of AMT) over a Plymouth Cop Car that has little relevance to someone who's not nearing the age of 70.

Edited 13 hours ago by niteowl7710

[gtx6970]

On 7/26/2025 at 9:07 PM, Brutalform said:

I don’t remember where I saw it, and I may be wrong, but the price is $150.  For a curbside kit, IMHO, I think that’s a bit steep. 

Agreed

 

And I have to ask,, Is a 1966 Fury kit really that hard to come up with ?  

To justify such a price point for a resin curbside kit ?  

The subject matter isnt in my wheelhouse so I have no idea . 

[Mark]

Yes, original '66 Fury kits (even rebuilders) are that difficult to find.  The original Jo-Han company was, size-wise, a pimple on the backside of AMT, MPC, Revell, or Monogram back in the day.  They just didn't have the same distribution and weren't available in as many places.  Plus, the subject matter wasn't as desirable back then.  So an all-new injection molded kit of a '66 Fury would not be a smart business proposition.  It wouldn't have been even in 1966.  The only reason it appeared then was that much of its development cost was borne by Chrysler Corporation because they wanted promos.  But apparently enough people still want one to justify a resin kit.  Whether enough of those people are willing to lay out 100 times the original kit's retail price for a kit with no plated parts has yet to be proven, pro or con.

Edited 11 hours ago by Mark
D--- spell check