the testor's johan reissues

[niteowl7710]

  On 1/3/2019 at 7:32 PM, SteveG said:

Ernie Petit told me on several occasions that he was sure he got those Johan tools from Seville and moved them to a Chinese Vendor when he was with RPM/Testors.  Later when he was with Lindberg he said acquired the rights to all of the Testors Plastic kits with the intention of running those old Johan tools again.  After that point he says he couldn't locate the tooling. He tried find them again when we worked together on the stillborn IMC project.  You would think there would be some paper trail if that what happened.  

Personally I don't think they will ever turn up again, I'm betting they were scrapped at some point.  If they did by some miracle,  AMT could probably make a claim for them as they acquired all of Lindberg which includes the Testors kits. 

-Steve

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But what "rights" to Testors have to the vast majority of the kits they made?  There are only a handful of things, the Boyd Coddington stuff that Lindberg later do reissue generically. that they actually "made" themselves.  Everything else they offered was simply a purchase of bulk kits from Union, Fujimi, Italeri, SeVille, etc.  Even the modern Dodge Chargers that were released under that weird Lincoln Mint line were produced by Lindberg post RPM ownership by J. Lloyd for Testors.

Edited January 4, 2019 by niteowl7710

[Force]

As long as Testors didn't buy the tooling from Jo-Han/SeVille I can't see they have any right to them at all, the tooling may have leased to Testors for their runs but I don't think they were sold to them, if that's the case Lindberg and now Round 2 can't claim ownership to the tooling either.
However, I think it's sad that the only tooling left that are usable from the Jo-Han era are gone and no one seems to know where it is.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Force

[Khils]

  On 1/2/2019 at 4:21 PM, Casey said:

Does anyone have an image of a Testor's HSO box they could share?

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Casey,

This is a HSO '71 Cuda box image....does not say the pertinent information you're looking for.

[SteveG]

  On 1/4/2019 at 12:52 AM, niteowl7710 said:

But what "rights" to Testors have to the vast majority of the kits they made?  There are only a handful of things, the Boyd Coddington stuff that Lindberg later do reissue generically. that they actually "made" themselves.  Everything else they offered was simply a purchase of bulk kits from Union, Fujimi, Italeri, SeVille, etc.  Even the modern Dodge Chargers that were released under that weird Lincoln Mint line were produced by Lindberg post RPM ownership by J. Lloyd for Testors.

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I know that RPM/Testors paid a significant portion of the design and tooling cost for the Dodge Charger kits J. Lloyd/Lindberg produced.  Al some later point RPM/Testors wanted out of the Plastic kit business and canceled any remaining orders including the Police car version of the Charger.  That got the ball rolling for J, Lloyd to make a new deal to get whatever Plastic kits RPM/Testors owned and or had the rights too.  That was well over ten years ago around 2007, at the time my only interest was seeing the Charger Police Car kits completed.  Beyond that I can't tell you what that deal included because I never asked.  Ernie Petit later told me that deal included those old Johan tools that were in the HSO boxes.  Ernie was once an Executive at Testors before he went to work for J. Lloyd so he must of known what they had.  

Did RPM/Testors buy or lease the tooling from Seville before they went under ?  I don't know as Ernie never gave me the details.   I know Okey Spalding didn't get them.  Did they really get moved to China ?  I don't know but that's what Ernie claimed, considering he was well into his Seventies when we had these discussions.  Maybe his memory wasn't as good as he thought. 

-Steve

[iBorg]

Sadly I think the only way we'll see the JoHan kits reissued is if they're reverse engineered like the Monogram Dragon Wagon and Rommel's Rod. Is that likely? I can't see any one kit with enough buyers to make that happen.I'd love to see the AMC stuff reappear but to be realistic, AMC is quickly fading into memory such as Packard. The funny cars would be nice but both MPC and Revell have Mustangs in their inventory. AMT has a Pinto. MPC has a Challenger. While all of these are lesser quality they're available. MPC and Revell have Cudas. 

The Maverick and the Comet would be nice but I'm not waiting for it to appear.

[Force]

This is the only clue on the HSO box, no copyright date or anything else...and no mention of China what so ever.

[garagepunk66]

  On 1/4/2019 at 12:41 AM, Casey said:

It seems like only he knows, and he's not interested in letting anyone know, which is completely his choice and business to do or not do.

There was a seller in Romeo, MI selling original JO-HAN artwork, but who knows who it was or why and/or how they acquired what they did. I'm just glad some of it survived and (hopefully) got into the hands of those who will protect, share, and enjoy it. I'm 99% sure these printed boxes were that seller's items:

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I believe the same seller had decal sets and odd lots of loose spares for the X-EL Promos

 

[Casey]

[keyser]

Wonder where this tool is. Need Sox and Martin scoop. ??

[1972coronet]

One of Johan's finest efforts was the Sox & Martin 1971 Barracuda Pro Stock. 

Not only is the body sans the 'Cuda-specific fender gills, but the rest of the kit is darned near to perfect: separate suspension (okay, moulded-on K-Member, but at least the torsion bars and trans crossmember are separate), separate fuel tank; a decent Dana 60 assembly; smooth P/S underpinnings; "blank" interior tub; "plain" dashboard; correct equal-length runner induction; nice Holley Dominator atomisers; and sp forth and so on.

I built one for a coworker some 27 years ago. He bought the kit and paints, and I built it for him over the course of two weeks (ah, to be twenty-five again...). Even with all of the flash of a then-24 year-old kit, it was a pleasure to assemble. 

Wish that I'd have bought one-each of those c.1995-c.1999 Testors reissues...

[slusher]

  On 3/14/2022 at 8:23 PM, Casey said:

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I would be nice to see it reissued..

[Bills72sj]

Reading through the thread, I am going to consider myself lucky to have the 70 Olds 442 kit (with a resin twin scoop hood too).

[Tabbysdaddy]

I have the AMX with the metal parts. I didn't even know it was that desirable. Someone at the old SA forum traded it to me.

[Mark]

The AMX and SC/Rambler kits were probably the last produced in decent numbers by SeVille/Foremost, so those were the last to move up price-wise, other than the classic cars.  So those were "easy to get" for a long time, relative to other Jo-Han kits.  Now that it's universally assumed that none of this stuff is coming back, those kits have started moving upstream too.