Anyone know the real inside story on JoHan / IMC?

[Monty]

From what I have been told on other forums, a person named Okey Spaulding supposedly bought out the remains of what was left of JoHan. There are numerous stories about missing/destroyed tooling, which may explain why Okey never seemed to have much in the way of product to release.

Now I see that a new company (IMC - no relation to the original Industro-Motive Corp) is planning to relase a JoHan snap Chrysler Turbine car, a snap '74-ish Cutlass, and another item that escapes me at the moment.

As the alleged owner of all remaining JoHan product, how did Okey not have access to these? How did these guys happen to gain access to them?

(I don't know Okey or anyone involved with the new IMC venture - I'm just curious what's really going on).

[Rob McKee]

Hey Monty,

There is a little information on Wiki here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo-Han

[Monty]

Hey Monty,

There is a little information on Wiki here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo-Han

Thanks, Rob. I was already aware of much of what transpired through 2010 or so. The IMC thing is a fairly recent issue.

[Chuck Most]

IMC is a venture between Dave Burket (Model King) and Ernie Petit (formerly head of Lindberg). From what I understand, the they're leasing the usable old JoHan tooling, much like Round2 did from RC2 before they took over AMT,MPC, and Polar Lights.

[Monty]

IMC is a venture between Dave Burket (Model King) and Ernie Petit (formerly head of Lindberg). From what I understand, the they're leasing the usable old JoHan tooling, much like Round2 did from RC2 before they took over AMT,MPC, and Polar Lights.

Leasing from whom? Okey? (Not questioning what you've said - just curious)

[Junkman]

The Jo-Han story changes with each and every source.

[weasel]

well, Okey NEVER got all he was supposed to tooling wise from the get go...oh, "that's lost, that's damaged, etc,etc"!! but, $$ had changed hands kinda thing and Okey kinda got 'used'...

[Junkman]

well, Okey NEVER got all he was supposed to tooling wise from the get go...oh, "that's lost, that's damaged, etc,etc"!! but, $$ had changed hands kinda thing and Okey kinda got 'used'...

Well then. Where did the tooling go he didn't get?

I always hear that he got the shaft end of a deal, but wouldn't anybody with half a brain make an inventory before he purchases anything and then check the delivery against it?

[iBorg]

I spoke with Oakey about this about five years ago. I can only add what he told me and can remember from that conversation. What he was told he was buying and what he recieved were two different things. Not only was listed tooling not received (it was shipped from Detroit to Northern Kentucky) but a lot of it was either incomplete or damaged. For example, he did do test shots of the Mustang funny car. What I bought from him was quite nice with much less flash than what had been sold the last few years under either the Jo-Han or the Seville label. Only problem is the molds for the chrome couldn't be located. A lot of the tooling was for items of little interest. For example there were several smaller scale air planes with full molds and little commercial value.

I think the amount of molds Oakey got was massive. Too many to reasonably inventory as a one man operation. The same for parts and decals. The parts and decals were more or less thrown into large boxes and shipped. Absolutely no organization.

One thing to be remembered is that Jo-han often reused their molds for other things. They made promos as a main part of their business. Kits were much less their concern. Sadly a lot of their three and four year old molds were worth more at the time as scrap than any anticipated future use.

[Casey]

More IMC info here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49120

[Chuck Most]

Leasing from whom? Okey? (Not questioning what you've said - just curious)

That's what I've heard from a couple of people. I haven't seen anything concrete, but nobody has said IMC bought any molds from Okey as far as I've seen.