Model King '59 Imperial.

[W-409]

Great to see this kit being reissued. The older versions are not easy to find around here, and this kit is a perfect starting point for a Mild Custom. So I'll be surely buying one when they're out.

[Motor City]

I wonder if the tooling still exists for the '60 Imperial?  It probably would have been issued by now if it did.

[Casey]

On 11/6/2018 at 6:57 PM, Motor City said:

I wonder if the tooling still exists for the '60 Imperial?  It probably would have been issued by now if it did.

It took a long time and some effort by Dave B. from Model King to get the '59 back up and running, so who knows. There's a really nice unbuilt SMP '60 Imperial on some auction site with a reasonable asking price, so originals are still out there:

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by Casey

[MJStyline]

The built-up ‘60 I purchased a few years ago was less than $20; this was at a general car show flea market. Still in its as-found state unfortunately.

I recall buying the first round of the ‘59 reissue from Dave at Carlisle; he almost had me convinced to buy a case at the time, I couldn’t believe the tooling still existed.

[Bob Ellis]

On 5/9/2013 at 8:46 PM, Eshaver said:

Now if they could add a 60 Lincoln , a 59 Mercury, a 59 Pontiac , 58 Ford ..................

Very wishful thinking . I would buy a dozen 58 Fords if that happened

[Bob Ellis]

On 5/9/2013 at 7:58 PM, Nxr said:

Okay i never even knew this kit existed until today, while browsing ebay i thought what the heck and typed imperial and saw this as the first result, it was the only one on the website and i could barely find any info on this one, it was about 44$ so i bought it right away, its not here yet but will post pictures of whats inside once it gets here, has anyone ever built this kit? When i google model king i can never find anything about them online whatsoever, wish more kits of this type would exist because Imperials are just so cool, only one i ever saw in real life was as a child in Finland.

 

I have a couple of those kits. You spent your money wisely.

[Tom Geiger]

Reissuing old kits like these are a double edged sword for manufacturers!

First we all recognize that this is a 60 year old tooling, and represents where injection molding was in the industry at that time. We are happy with our purchase.  We are a very small part of the model car buyer pool though.  The majority of the potential kit market are new or occasional modelers who are not as astute as we are.  They see this on the shelf in a hobby shop and assume it's a new kit.  After all it's shrink wrapped and has a bar code and all on it!   The last Model King kit they bought was the Moebius Ford pickup and they thought this was a mighty fine kit!  Of course it is, and state of the art 2018.   They get this one home and oh-my-GOD!  They are shocked. There are what... a dozen parts in the box? It's thick and clunky!  They feel robbed!  The manufacturers get a lot of complaints and hobby shop returns.  Not good.

In fact not that long ago there was this exact same deal.  A guy posted on one of the boards that he wanted to order a Moebius Ford pick up and ACCIDENTALLY ordered a Model King one.  The last Model King kit he bought was this Imperial and he swore he'd never buy another one of their products!   The responses assured and educated him, but that's just one guy.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Tom Geiger

[Justin Porter]

I agree a ton with Tom. 

One of the biggest stumbling blocks new adult builders have in the hobby is the road to good results. As a shop owner, I can do all I can to educate on tools and paints and glues and the pitfalls of different kits (provided I either have good first-hand experience OR recent reviews to work from) but every first model that results in a frustrated adult staring at what they've built and thinking "All that time and money and it turns out like this?" equates to one more person who doesn't go from their first model to their second model. 

Just this past month, Tamiya announced a brand new 1/48th scale MkI Spitfire kit. Their existing MkI Spitfire kit only dates back to 1993 and is generally regarded as "pretty good" but the new kit will offer more options, better fit, and better detail. 

We in the automotive world would be quite fortunate if every 25 years a kit manufacturer was willing to shelve tooling and say "You know what? We can do better."

[Casey]

23 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

 They get this one home and oh-my-GOD!  They are shocked. There are what... a dozen parts in the box? It's thick and clunky!  They feel robbed!  The manufacturers get a lot of complaints and hobby shop returns.  Not good.

I think Round2 has tried to eliminate this by including a silhouette of all the included parts on the box bottom, but that requires people to turn the box over and look there...no guarantee that will happen 100% of the time. 

Here's Sean Svendsen's post announcing the Model King reissue (with the nice box art) from 2007:

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 11/6/2018 at 8:38 PM, Casey said:

... There's a really nice unbuilt SMP '60 Imperial on some auction site with a reasonable asking price, so originals are still out there:

Yeah, I bought a supremely clean '60 built-up within the last 30 days for reasonable money.

[Dave Darby]

On 11/9/2018 at 12:28 PM, Justin Porter said:

I agree a ton with Tom. 

One of the biggest stumbling blocks new adult builders have in the hobby is the road to good results. As a shop owner, I can do all I can to educate on tools and paints and glues and the pitfalls of different kits (provided I either have good first-hand experience OR recent reviews to work from) but every first model that results in a frustrated adult staring at what they've built and thinking "All that time and money and it turns out like this?" equates to one more person who doesn't go from their first 

We in the automotive world would be quite fortunate if every 25 years a kit manufacturer was willing to shelve tooling and say "You know what? We can do better."

Not if you want a 59 Imperial. Let's put it another way. New tools cost money. And we live in a shrinking hobby. Fewer people are building model cars, and consequently fewer retailers are carrying them. We almost lost Revell, even Round 2 seems to be tightening their belts. A 59 Imperial, as cool as a subject as it is will not support the investment it would take for a new tool. So if you want one, it is and likely always will be the only game in town. Does it have an engine and detailed chassis? No. But in all other ways it is an excellent representation of of a 59 Imperial. Plus it comes with some terrific authentic period custom parts. It's a winner in my book and I am up for at least two.

Edited November 17, 2018 by Dave Darby

[Bob Ellis]

On 11/9/2018 at 12:02 PM, Tom Geiger said:

Reissuing old kits like these are a double edged sword for manufacturers!

First we all recognize that this is a 60 year old tooling, and represents where injection molding was in the industry at that time. We are happy with our purchase.  We are a very small part of the model car buyer pool though.  The majority of the potential kit market are new or occasional modelers who are not as astute as we are.  They see this on the shelf in a hobby shop and assume it's a new kit.  After all it's shrink wrapped and has a bar code and all on it!   The last Model King kit they bought was the Moebius Ford pickup and they thought this was a mighty fine kit!  Of course it is, and state of the art 2018.   They get this one home and oh-my-GOD!  They are shocked. There are what... a dozen parts in the box? It's thick and clunky!  They feel robbed!  The manufacturers get a lot of complaints and hobby shop returns.  Not good.

In fact not that long ago there was this exact same deal.  A guy posted on one of the boards that he wanted to order a Moebius Ford pick up and ACCIDENTALLY ordered a Model King one.  The last Model King kit he bought was this Imperial and he swore he'd never buy another one of their products!   The responses assured and educated him, but that's just one guy.

The past is usually not as good as we remember. I have another take. I would rather have a reissued styrene than a resin copy. Just easier to work with in my opinion.

[Justin Porter]

On 11/16/2018 at 6:15 PM, Dave Darby said:

Not if you want a 59 Imperial. Let's put it another way. New tools cost money. And we live in a shrinking hobby. Fewer people are building model cars, and consequently fewer retailers are carrying them. We almost lost Revell, even Round 2 seems to be tightening their belts. A 59 Imperial, as cool as a subject as it is will not support the investment it would take for a new tool. So if you want one, it is and likely always will be the only game in town. Does it have an engine and detailed chassis? No. But in all other ways it is an excellent representation of of a 59 Imperial. Plus it comes with some terrific authentic period custom parts. It's a winner in my book and I am up for at least two.

Revell was nearly lost because their parent company made poor decisions elsewhere in the business, not because Revell wasn't selling model kits. I can assure you, the model car building hobby has actually been quite stable in terms of sales for the past ten years (according to my wholesalers). 

Yes, mainstream retail availability has been supplanted by online shopping and specialized shops to a near 100%. This is not a bad thing. This actually ALLOWS the kit manufacturers much more product control in terms of release dates, content, and price point. Walmart would never have allowed the $30 Moebius kits to share shelf space with $17.99 Revell kits and under the previous business model Moebius would not have been able to thrive as a company focusing on offering premium kits of niche 50's and 60's American automobiles exclusively.

We have finally arrived at the point in time where American model car builders will have their manufacturers analogous to armor and aircraft companies like Eduard, Dragon, and Rye Field. It's about time.

[Casey]

[Paul Hettick]

Wow I love the new box art!

[Merc-57]

I´m sorry if I'm asking something that's already stated above but when will this kit be out?

Rocking regards from a snowy Finland

[unclescott58]

Another one where the box art sells me, if nothing else. And I like contents in the box too. Yea the kit was designed 60 years ago. But, I don't mind that. I like the simplicity of those old kits. They build into beautiful renditions of the real cars. I too would love to see the '60 Imperial reissued if possible. Any of the original 58's, 59's, 60's or old Craftsman kits would be welcome in my collection. 

[Casey]

On 11/26/2018 at 11:55 PM, Merc-57 said:

I´m sorry if I'm asking something that's already stated above but when will this kit be out?

First quarter of 2019, probably late February or early March or so?

[Junkman]

11 hours ago, unclescott58 said:

Another one where the box art sells me, if nothing else. And I like contents in the box too. Yea the kit was designed 60 years ago. But, I don't mind that. I like the simplicity of those old kits. They build into beautiful renditions of the real cars. I too would love to see the '60 Imperial reissued if possible. Any of the original 58's, 59's, 60's or old Craftsman kits would be welcome in my collection. 

I keep saying this for forty years now. When I started, I was looked at like I'm a bloody lunatic.

[Junkman]

Besides, this ad nausea repeated bollox regarding this phantom called "The Bloody Casual Buyer" - I didn't give a flying monkey about it the first time.
What I want counts for me, nothing else.
And if it were such a big problem (no, I'm NOT using this newfangled 'issue' nonsense), what would it take to print "Reissue - Made With the Original 19XX Tooling" on the box?
An Einstein?

[StevenGuthmiller]

40 minutes ago, Junkman said:

I keep saying this for forty years now. When I started, I was looked at like I'm a bloody lunatic.

Shhhh.

Quiet Christian.

We don't want every Tom, Dick & Harry queuing up to purchase our precious annuals.

Personally, I think being able to build a respectable model from one of these very simple kits is a good measurement of a modelers skills.

It's infinitely easier to finish a nice example of a modern kit.

 

Steve

[niteowl7710]

33 minutes ago, Junkman said:

Besides, this ad nausea repeated bollox regarding this phantom called "The Bloody Casual Buyer" - I didn't give a flying monkey about it the first time.
What I want counts for me, nothing else.
And if it were such a big problem (no, I'm NOT using this newfangled 'issue' nonsense), what would it take to print "Reissue - Made With the Original 19XX Tooling" on the box?
An Einstein?

The product manager at Aoshima?

Their fresh reissues of their older kits say so on the side of the box.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

How 'bout a manufacturer you might have heard of - Airfix?

For a while they indicated newer tooling with CG-illustrated gray prototypes on the sides of the box.  They've now moved on from that to give you the specific year of the boxing and the year the kit was designed(!)

[Richard Bartrop]

Hey, I'd love nothing more than a 1959 Imperial kit built to modern standards, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

[Stef]

Just saw hpiguy's 1959 Imperial build and review:

 

Now I want one more than ever.

Something about the rear got me thinking it was time for a ghetto-quick PhotoChop™:

 

 

Thoughts?