Old Revell "double" parts-pack-based kit trio

[Greg Myers]

15 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

We old guys are constantly berated for living in the past

Aircraft ? Trains ? Armor ? Monster kits ? Ships ?

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

7 hours ago, Mr. Metallic said:

"Why do guys always say this"??? Because that's the fact of the matter. No company who wants to be around very long goes forward with a plan knowing they will lose money. All I said was that it needs to make financial sense for them to proceed. Obviously, Moebius did that financial evaluation of their projects before they spent dollar one on tooling. And they are very forward thinking about how many different versions they can get out of their tooling, with minimal expense to make subsequent version factored into their decision making. They seem pretty savvy when it comes to this aspect of the financial analysis, which is what keeps them viable. I don't forsee any one and done kits in their business plan for automotive subjects 

And when talking about these parts packs specifically, if the tooling is sitting somewhere ready to go, I say RUN IT! If the tooling is ready (or requiring minimal cleanup or repair to be ready for production) with a small investment in packaging, marketing and materials, they have a viable product. But as soon as you get into cutting new molds, that's where the expense of the project escalates exponentially.

Exactly.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[boss 302 mustang]

The engine parts packs that were reissued did not sell.  As a result, Revell, which had been considering reissuing the motorcycle parts packs, said forget about it.  I would think that management would be thinking about that in regards to doing anything with any other thing to do with the parts packs and those double kits, which probably would not sell except to old-time members of the lunatic fringe.  There were also rumors back in the day that some of the parts pack tools may have gone to Japan.....and could be lost like the old IMC tools like the Lola T-70 that went to Union.  

And before you flame, I would buy the double kits myself.....I had the Fiat/Thunder Charger kit as a kid.  But I've also accumulated enough stuff to build the Bantam, Fiat , T-bucket, and Mooneyes from existing kits and parts packs.

[GaryR]

The parts packs were "poor sellers" because, according to shop owners, they were difficult to display, mostly because of size.The AMT packs bright red )seem to be doing fine and I am talking about complete kits, not the small box packs! I think maybe the reissue packs were over produced, estimated demand WAY too high?

Marketing is key to selling anything, good BOX ART has sold millions of kits, arguably more than the subjects themselves.

There's no shortage of great pics of "old drag cars".
AND, if nobody wants "old drag cars", why the Slingster, The Henry J, Anglias, the various Willy's,  The AMT Swamp Rat reissues, the Tony Nancy cars and a bunch of others. Why the drag car section here?

if there is little demand, why the high prices for the originals?

I don't get why the negativity. Jeeeeesh. Modelers. PLENTY of popular models that ain't "passenger cars", these are the same arguments that said a lot of present offering couldnt / wouldnt be done.What are model companies going to do, just sell reissues and Mustangs and Camaros from now on? This constant "but they might have to spend money on tooling, therefore not feasible" thing is just irrelevant! NO kit is guaranteed to sell, ALL new kits cost tooling ( and other) money. For crying out loud, I'm 66, retired after a successful career and I get that model cars are a business that needs to make a profit!!!

Here's just a few of the hundreds I could post? nobody finds them interesting? REALLY?

Enough said in my opinion. Go to "George Klass Remembers" site.

Edited October 10, 2019 by GaryR

[Ace-Garageguy]

55 minutes ago, GaryR said:

...Here's just a few of the hundreds I could post? nobody finds them interesting? REALLY?

Well sir, how many of that type of car do you see being built here on the forum?

Vintage altereds or competition coupes or street-roadsters (the drag-racing class) or old front-engined, short-wheelbase rails, which is what these Revell kits are for.

Here are two of mine. Like I said...there's plenty of stuff available CHEAP to build this type of car. How many do you see being built??

 

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[GaryR]

Bill, that's just silly. Why are you arguing about this?
You have no idea ( nor I ) of how many of any given subjects are built or how many kits sold.

And the fact that other cars MAY be bigger sellers is irrelevant.

So I guess only dukes Of Hazzard kits should be made from now on, and that model cars isn't a niche industry these days anyway.

What really are you going on about?

This makes no sense at all. I think it's arguing for the sake of arguing, which I don't get.

In any case, I'm done on this subject, any further comments seem pointless. Man!

no more.

[Dave Ambrose]

I wonder if we couldn't turn the funding model around. What if someone like Atlantis says, we could do some set of interesting kits. They need X to make a run. People sign up, pay for them, and they either get to enough to run, or some time limit runs out. Kind of like GoFundMe without the 3% skim. 

They can injection mold them in the US. These are limited run kits. 

Keeping with the low-cost theme, packaging would be a plastic bag containing parts and instructions. Deluxe kits get a white cardboard box. 

I could see this working for all kinds of hobby stuff. 

 

I'll go back to my server room now. Please turn out the light. 

[Richard Bartrop]

Even if vintage dragsters aren't your thing, the wheels and running gear are useful for vintage hot rods, but Bill is right that there are other sources.  The recently reissued Orange Crate is practically a vintage dragster parts pack all by itself, as is the Tony Nancy two in one kit..

That still doesn't mean that additional sources of parts wouldn't be welcome if they can somehow make the numbers work.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Richard Bartrop

[GaryR]

1 hour ago, Richard Bartrop said:

Even if vintage dragsters aren't your thing, the wheels and running gear are useful for vintage hot rods, but Bill is right that there are other sources.  The recently reissued Orange Crate is practically a vintage dragster parts pack all by itself, as is the Tony Nancy two in one kit..

That still doesn't mean that additional sources of parts wouldn't be welcome if they can somehow make the numbers work.

There is much more than you think, check out the roadster parts pack,friction shocks, fruit jar master cylinder, two front axles, various suspensions, pedals, accurate backing plates etc, same for the dragster speed parts pack, There is a wheel pack that is the ONLY scale certain dragster Halibrand wheel ever kitted, the Nancy kits are great, an Ivo chassis, a Fuller, but the PP's have a Dragmaster and a Chassis Research. The Bantam and Fiat bodies are the best made.

Cal Custom fiberglass seats. Big and little Roadster tires and wheels!

ALL this stuff could be combined ( by Revell ) with the Model A's, Deuces etc , I could think of at least 15 variations using the packs and combining with other existing kits.

They could be used on the 22Jr cars for example. If they had and threw in etra stuff like the Show Display, Custom Seats,  and other stuff, even the custom stuff where useable, it would be an bonus incentive to buy.

OBVIOUSLY it would be up to Revell! Jeeeesh! i'm simply pointing out what I think a lot of you aren't seeing.

Edited October 11, 2019 by GaryR

[Richard Bartrop]

2 minutes ago, GaryR said:

There is much more than you think, check out the roadster parts pack,friction shocks, fruit jar master cylinder, two front axles, various suspensions, pedals, accurate backing plates etc, same for the dragster speed parts pack, There is a wheel pack that is the ONLY scale certain dragster Halibrand wheel ever kitted, the Nancy kits are great, an Ivo chassis, a Fuller, but the PP's have a Dragmaster and a Chassis Research. The Bantam and Fiat bodies are the best made.

ALL this stuff could be combined ( by Revell ) with the Model A's, Deuces etc , I could think of at least 15 variations using the packs and combining with other existing kits.

They could be used on the 22Jr cars for example.

OBVIOUSLY it would be up to Revell! Jeeeesh! i'm simply pointing out what I think a lot of you aren't seeing.

It's been a while since I looked at a Parts Pack, but yes, lots of useful stuff.

[SfanGoch]

4 hours ago, GaryR said:

And the fact that other cars MAY be bigger sellers is irrelevant.

Tell that to the payroll department of Round2, etc.

This reads like a Regular Guy thread.

[GaryR]

1 minute ago, SfanGoch said:

Tell that to the payroll department of Round2, etc.

This reads like a Regular Guy thread.

Well, I guess all of you are experts and accountants that know what sells, how much and production costs.

i'm done with this BS. Not much of use here anymore. Proceed with sarcastic replies now.

[SfanGoch]

3 hours ago, GaryR said:

OBVIOUSLY it would be up to Revell!

Looks like Revell made its decision by not reissuing them. I'd say they knew what sells, how much and production costs.

[GaryR]

13 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

Looks like Revell made its decision by not reissuing them. I'd say they knew what sells, how much and production costs.

Gee, I wonder why they went bankrupt then LOL
You negative know it all make me laugh. Bye.

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 minutes ago, GaryR said:

Gee, I wonder why they went bankrupt then LOL
You negative know it all make me laugh. Bye.

It was their parent company Hobbico that went bankrupt. The Revell division was operating in the black.

[Mr. Metallic]

13 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

This reads like a Regular Guy thread.

THANK YOU! I've been thinking that all along. Along with the thread about the 74 RoadRunner 

[Toner283]

27 minutes ago, Mr. Metallic said:

THANK YOU! I've been thinking that all along. Along with the thread about the 74 RoadRunner 

You are far from the only one. Is it a full moon out or something?

[1930fordpickup]

14 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

Looks like Revell made its decision by not reissuing them. I'd say they knew what sells, how much and production costs.

After the chrome engines did not sell I don't think they did know what sells.  I personally think they dropped the ball  on the marketing and the chrome plating of the engines. They would have saved money on the plating because the ones that people have used 90% seem to say they strip these parts anyway. 

 

[1930fordpickup]

18 hours ago, Dave Ambrose said:

I wonder if we couldn't turn the funding model around. What if someone like Atlantis says, we could do some set of interesting kits. They need X to make a run. People sign up, pay for them, and they either get to enough to run, or some time limit runs out. Kind of like GoFundMe without the 3% skim. 

They can injection mold them in the US. These are limited run kits. 

Keeping with the low-cost theme, packaging would be a plastic bag containing parts and instructions. Deluxe kits get a white cardboard box. 

I could see this working for all kinds of hobby stuff. 

 

I'll go back to my server room now. Please turn out the light. 

I think this would be a good idea for the companies to look into. Like the Blueprint series from back in the day. 

 

[1930fordpickup]

If the molds still exist for any of the parts pack it would be nice to know what the condition is. (Yes I know they don't have to tell us anything.)  They are a low parts count / very few spurs if there is even more than one  so repair would be much less. 

 

[SfanGoch]

None original early '60s Parts Paks, were big sellers. Because very few bought them back then, they are scarce and now command premium moola on ebay and elsewhere. The 1998 reissues (engines) weren't either. If there was an actual interest in them, the plating would have been a non-factor in deciding to purchase one. Sure, they were cool, loaded with all kinds of period parts; but, nobody bought them. It seems like everyone reminiscing about how swell they were, but passed on purchasing them when they had the opportunity, has a bit non-buyer's remorse. I'm not knocking anyone for feeling that way because I'm also a card-carrying member of the "If you're slow, you blow" club.

[1930fordpickup]

Back in the day most of the builders were kids. These parts packs seem to me to be over the head of the kids they were marketed to back in the day. I was not around when they were first on the scene and I do have more than a couple of the latest release engine kits. I even picked up a few Chevy packs. 

I get that I am a little younger than most here, so I am chasing the older kits and parts. I never had the chance to get them. Do I think they could sell 20,000 of these no. But there is only a few parts to the Pack so they should not require the higher costs to break even. 

[Dave Ambrose]

1 hour ago, 1930fordpickup said:

Back in the day most of the builders were kids. These parts packs seem to me to be over the head of the kids they were marketed to back in the day. I was not around when they were first on the scene and I do have more than a couple of the latest release engine kits. I even picked up a few Chevy packs. 

I get that I am a little younger than most here, so I am chasing the older kits and parts. I never had the chance to get them. Do I think they could sell 20,000 of these no. But there is only a few parts to the Pack so they should not require the higher costs to break even. 

That's an interesting point. The market itself has shifted. Now days, most modelers start when they're adults; something that hasn't registered on the hobby as a whole. 

There might be a market for the parts that wasn't there before. Model King is able to do short runs of modified kits. It's worthwhile for the bigger manufacturers because they remove all the financial risk of doing so. I don't have any insight into their dealings so it might not be quite that simple. 

[OldNYJim]

21 hours ago, Dave Ambrose said:

I wonder if we couldn't turn the funding model around. What if someone like Atlantis says, we could do some set of interesting kits. They need X to make a run. People sign up, pay for them, and they either get to enough to run, or some time limit runs out. Kind of like GoFundMe without the 3% skim. 

They can injection mold them in the US. These are limited run kits. 

Keeping with the low-cost theme, packaging would be a plastic bag containing parts and instructions. Deluxe kits get a white cardboard box. 

I could see this working for all kinds of hobby stuff. 

 

I'll go back to my server room now. Please turn out the light. 

That's a great idea! 

[Casey]

3 hours ago, 1930fordpickup said:

If the molds still exist for any of the parts pack it would be nice to know what the condition is.