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Round 2 Models: Get ‘em While They Are Hot!
Sorry for the long gap between posts but it has been a busy month here at Round 2 Models. We have been super busy wrapping up our new model kit catalog and our national sales meeting. With all that behind us, it is back to work.
One thing dawned on me while working on the catalog… Well, two things actually.
1) The Bigfoot and Strange Change Mummy and Vampire are in production as I type and they are being manufactured here in the US. With a couple hiccups overcome, I hope to see pre-production samples soon. We hope to have the kits released by the end of October. That leads me to…
2) We are starting a new initiative that we are calling “1 RUN OF FUN”. Basically, what we have found is that there are certain kits in our tooling banks that we get requests for that are too cool not to bring back out, but they won’t necessarily appeal to everyone. So we will be running the kits once and that is it! In the case of popular kits, we might do several runs as our inventory gets low and sales on a kit continue steadily. We have seen some cases where we soon find out that after the first batch, they will never be run a second time. With history on our side, we can predict which kits will likely fall into this category. In a few cases, there are kits that we might run because we want to backdate the tooling to an earlier version so we’ll first run it one last time in its current condition for anyone looking for a later version. Then, we’ll rework the tooling to its original condition with no hope of changing it again. So, from now on whenever you see a 1 RUN OF FUN sticker on one of our kits that means “get ‘em while they are hot” or you might miss out. The Strange Change Mummy and Vampire and Bigfoot are our first kits released under this program.
The Strange Change Vampire: It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine…
I think this is a great idea! I would love to see the old MPC Fundimension Six Million Dollar Man Kits re-released under this program!
do you have the Black Hole model kit tooling
Great idea! Looking forward to some more name dropping soon! (Eagle cough-cough. V.I.N.CENT-cough-MPC artoo/threepio-cough) 😀
AAaaahhhh…The Monkeys are back!
Seriously, glad to hear things are back on track. I like the idea of the “Run of Fun” stickers, but I wonder if you might not be creating an eBay bonanza/snafu? A Bonanza for some, a snafu for most others.
Good point, Bats. It’s one of those “double edged sword” things – scalpers buy up all the stock and re-sell it on eBay for inflated prices claiming it’s “RARE! VHTF!” Well of course it’s rare and hard to find – scalpers like you MADE it rare and hard to find by buying up all the stock in the first place!
If the 1Run kits are also available direct thru R2’s site then it might not be so bad, but if your only shot at them is 3rd party distributors and LHS stock, it could become a scalping problem.
The production runs will be no less limited than kits we’ve already run. With that said, we have no control over what happens once they leave our warehouse.
It’s good to hear that finally something is being made in the U.S. I for one would pay a bit extra for kits made here in the U.S. knowing it’s keeping people working.
Off the topic. Does the new glue Batmobile come with a detailed undercarriage and chassis, or is that just on the deluxe kit
BatmoGlue comes with a full big block engine and regular automotive undercarriage like most would expect in a glue together car kit.
Love the idea for Black Hole and Eagle ideas. Two kits I’d like to see are actually car kits, though.
1-rerelease of Herbie, the Love Bug
2-Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (had one as a kid and had hoped with the stage production having been made, this would have popped up). Have always wanted to see this in a larger scale.
Fraley: There were Six Million Dollar Man kits????
so it has the exhaust pipes as separate pieces, or molded on to the bottom?
eimb1999-http://www.vectis.co.uk/AuctionImages/50/119_l.jpg
jaws- exhaust pipes are separate.
@eimb1999 Yes, there were four 6 Million Dollar Man kits and one Bionic Woman kit if I recall correctly. The Bionic Bust out kit was the first figure kit I ever built. Not terribly good likenesses, but fun kits. I’d like another crack at em for nostalgic reasons.
How about the 1976 King Kong model to commemorate the Jeff Bridges film? Geez thats a rare gem that commands some bucks on Ebay, complete with WTC towers no less.
The Buck Rogers models would be cool , as well as the Black Hole models.
Who has the license on the old MPC Star Wars kits?
Just seeing the box art again on those old MPC Star Wars models would be a blast from the past.
A competitor currently has the Star Wars license.
So far as I can tell, there was no MPC King Kong model. I would be thrilled to find out that there was.
The Black Hole and Buck Rogers would be most welcome.
Jamie – it may not have been MPC/AMT/Ertl but there WAS a ’76 Kong model of him standing one foot on each WTC tower just like the movie poster.
http://coolandcollected.com/king-kong-model-kit-commercial/
http://www.megomuseum.com/kingkong/index.html – scroll down about halfway to “Kong’s Last Stand”
’76 Kong model… umm… I’m going to say… no…
Why would anyone want a model commemorating such a dog of a movie? The ’76 Kong is the worst of the bunch unless you consider the Japanese versions. Good call Jamie!
The Buck Rogers kits were Monogram, so unlikley available to R2… It’s unfortunate but it’s highly unlikely that those would ever be re-released again by Monogram either. Too bad, too, as the Marauder could be improved a bit (but I don’t think I trust Revellogram to do it right anyway), as it’s missing a lot of detailing, especially on the bottom. The Starfighter is very close but some panel lines are slightly off. Would be cool to retool them so the cockpit canopies were separate. Both are exactly half the size of the studio models.
I suppose there’s no way R2 could acquire those molds or license and do ’em? Aw, well, I can dream, can’t I?