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Round 2 Models: 1701CLUB T-shirts
The delay has been inexcusable, (sorry, it was out of my hands) but the 1701CLUB T-shirts started shipping out this week. Something was discovered as they were being packed up though. It turns out that we received 500 blue shirts from the printer instead of 250. I’m not sure why, but it is obviously too late to go back now. So congratulations to members 101-600 on getting the blue shirt. The last of the blue shirts will go out today and bundles of red shirts will be shipped out daily until we get caught up with the most recent members.
We’ve still got slots open for anyone who hasn’t signed up yet. We haven’t reached our goal of 1701 members yet but the number of people who have indicated they want duplicate kits is getting within striking distance of a sell out. We will continue to take memberships until we have 1701 members though.
I am planning on sending out the next club update in early September. We’ve got some exciting news to report.
Polar Lights Model Kits: This and That.
Our first 1701CLUB update has been sent out. If you signed up for the club but did not receive it, just drop us an email through the contact page of our website. Please be sure to check your spam filters. In a few cases, we have had members’ correct email information in our system but they did not receive the update. We will still be able to show the first update to them using an alternate method but we will not be able to do that every time going forward.
If you haven’t seen it yet, we finally got our Wonderfest presentation set up on our Round2ForYou YouTube Channel. Be sure to check it out! Thanks to Modelman Tom for putting all the polish on the clips.
Thanks for all of the feedback to my last post. It will really help us decide what to do next in our Star Trek Cadet Series line. Feel free to keep responding to that thread with more comments or suggestions.
I was going through my bookmarks the other day, doing some house cleaning and organizing and came across the Polarpaedia page. Someone had pointed it out to me way back at our first appearance at Wonderfest. It was a site I thought would be a good reference about the history of the Polar Lights Model Kits brand. I knew there was a lot going on the PL message boards back in the day and had heard some of what went on back then from some of the folks that carried over from PM to R2. As I looked at the site again, I took note of traditions that had been begun but had fizzled through the years. I know bringing back the glory days is impossible but I’m wondering what little things can we bring back that were worthwhile back then? What are we missing? What can we bring back? The one particular thing that I took notice of was the Golden Frankie awards given out each year at Wonderfest to celebrate one individual’s impact on the hobby. Though we don’t currently have the license to pop a Frankenstein, maybe we could do something similar. I’m open to any thoughts or ideas.
Round 2 Models: Things They Are A Changin’
Sorry for the delay in posting once again. We are just beyond the peak of a hill of changes going on around here at Round 2. In the last two months, we have moved the entire creative team into one central area, added two new creatives and a creative director, a creative department intern and two staffers for our new marketing department along with a couple more interns to help them out.
So how will this affect us and me and the sci-fi model kit development specifically? I have been able to hand off marketing responsibilities so I don’t have to sink time into advertising and the marketing people can assist in copywriting for packaging. They have also taken over all publicity and handle some of the execution of the 1701 CLUB stuff too. I will continue to write blogs, check in on message boards and supply content for our newsletters and 1701 CLUB updates. In addition to the marketing help, one of the creatives and the intern has been assigned to work on the model kit lines. Between John and myself we’ve got plenty of stuff to keep them busy. This brings our total number of people working full-time on model kits to four (not including the intern). The end result will be better quality, on time product and more product releases. Thanks to the influx of talent, I’m nearly caught up with my workload. I haven’t been able to say that in well over a year. The new workspace seems to be working out great too. I had to sacrifice an office of my own to move into a cubicle but I never needed that much privacy to begin with. We still have some settling in to do and work to do while we do it.
Let’s run down some product updates so this post has a little bit of news.
Barnabas Collins– Tooling adjustments have delayed the release but the changes made ended up being a lot nicer than I had envisioned. Both Barnabas and the werewolf should arrive in August or September but not necessarily at the same time.
Leif Ericson– I need to finish up the packaging and as soon as it is done, it’ll be on its way. All of the tooling adjustments have been made and it looks great.
Batmobile (Glue Kit)– I’m refining the decals a bit today. Otherwise it is done and should arrive on time.
We’ll be adding more kits to our website soon like the Enterprise C and some returning kits like the Strange Changes and Bigfoot (finally).
I should have my first update out to 1701 CLUB members by the end of the month as well. If you haven’t signed up for the Premiere Edition 1:350 TOS Enterprise kit yet, don’t delay. Slots are going fast.
Round 2 Models- Wonderfest Recap
So, how was your weekend? If I can count my day off after Wonderfest as my weekend, I can say mine was restful. The week of the show was incredibly busy working day and night to prepare for it. As always, it was a good show. I really get an energy boost from it by being able to talk to all of our customers out there that enjoy the product I pour so much time and effort into.
This year, we had our usual display of buildups and our annual survey. This year’s version had quite a bit less of letting us know what you want as far as specific model subjects go (we have a pretty good handle on that by now) and focused more on your process.
On Saturday at noon, we held our panel in Theater A. Everyone that had come to the booth asking what our big announcement would be, attended the panel. I was happy to see all of the familiar faces. I hate the idea of getting up in front of a crowd and speaking but I stumbled through the first part where I talked about all of the more boring stuff about the company without losing anyone. After a very short Q&A I read a letter from Tom Lowe. Those who weren’t there can read it here.
So we will be producing a 1:350 sale TOS Enterprise and we’ll be presenting it a couple ways. I will summarize our plans here.
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1:350 TOS Enterprise Standard Edition
This will contain everything you need to create the production version of the ship including shuttle bay and will be available through all of your usual model retailers for an SRP of $124.95.
TOS Enterprise Accessory Pack
This will include weathering decals, photo-etched parts and a light kit including motors to turn the Bussard fan blades. We have a target price for this but will announce it once the time comes to take orders on it.
1:350 TOS Enterprise Premiere Edition
This was the kit we were talking up the most and for obvious reasons. It includes everything in the standard version plus parts to make the 1st & 2nd Pilot versions. It comes in a commemorative box and includes a serial-numbered certificate of authenticity. The kit is a limited edition of 1701 pieces for the price of $149.99 and is scheduled to arrive before the standard version hits stores. The kit is really aimed at all of you Star Trek modelers who have been waiting patiently for the kit to come out. It is available exclusively through Round 2 and we started the pre-order sign-ups at the show. As an added bonus, everyone who pre-orders is invited to join what we are calling the 1701 CLUB. Membership in the club gets you a t-shirt to wear as a banner to tell everyone that you were there on the ground floor of this kit. The shirts themselves are also limited editions. We have 100 gold, 250 blue and the rest are red. Members will be sent email updates about the development as well as some interviews and a few never before seen pics of the filming model. This will be the ONLY place we will be giving out development updates. So past this post, this blog will be mum on the subject until the standard kit is ready to hit the stores.
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I’m sure you’ve got questions. Hopefully these are the answers…
The kits will be out sometime in 2012. It could be anytime between March and October.
You can reserve up to 5 Premiere kits right now but if we have 1701 members, 1701 people will get kits. If we fall short of that number we will come up with a system to allocate the rest.
Only one shirt per member regardless of how many kits you want to buy.
You can register for the 1701 CLUB and reserve your kits here.
We still had some gold shirts available after Wonderfest but the people who have found the sign up page have taken us well into the blue ones.
If more than 1701 people register for the presell, anyone over that number can still signup and may be offered the chance to buy a kit if someone else decides not to buy their kit.
We will likely release the pilot parts separately once all of the Premiere Edition kits have been sold out. The combined SRP for a standard kit and the extra parts will be no less than the price of the Premiere Edition.
We taped the whole presentation and hope to have it edited to put up on You Tube. It wasn’t much of a site as far flashy graphics goes. It was just me and then me and Gary Kerr talking. I did show the first images of the digital mockup from the factory. They made some pretty glaring mistakes but they also got a ton of it right to my surprise. I credit Gary for that one. So here are the pics of the mockup in its current form. I’ll let you know when the You Tube video goes up and then it will be radio silence. Go sign up for the CLUB, if you please.
Marvel Comics Model Kits: The New Face of Freedom
Let’s face it. Sometimes things just don’t turn out right. If you are lucky enough you can get a makeover. If you are really lucky you get to put on a brand new face… okay, I’ll can the puns and get on with it. Let me show you the new face parts we’ve come up with for our Captain America kit.
We were pretty excited to land the license to do Marvel Comics model kits. As I’ve said before, I’m a comic book collector and so is Bob and Andy, our web manager. Hard core comic collectors tend to think of themselves as either Marvel or DC fans. I can’t say I love one more than the other. My two favorite characters are Batman and Wolverine. Having to choose between the two depends on how the publishers handle them in a given month. So to say the least, I’ve been overjoyed to work on THE Batmobile and now I get a chance to work on some other iconic superheroes.
Spider-man will be out in the next couple months. We’ll follow him up with Captain America shortly after that. In reviewing the kits, it was pretty obvious what Cap needed. The original face sculpts though roughly reminiscent of the vintage kit was just… eew! I really can’t find words to describe it. One word that could not describe any of them was “heroic”. So that’s what we set out to change. It was a tricky job to capture just the right amount of realism and still keep a silver-age Marvel comic style. We found that going all the way Jack Kirby didn’t quite work out. It wouldn’t allow a “realistic” build. Plus, the rest of the body didn’t necessarily carry the chiseled look of a Kirby illustration. We settled it down to a John Buscema or Jim Steranko level and added just a touch more real life to temper it a bit. Hope you like it.
Round 2 Model Kits: This just in…
It seems like I can go on for months doing packaging artwork for our Round 2 model kits or working up PR plans and not have anything of great import to share on the blog. It sucks because I like to show the progress on stuff when I can. I received a package in the mail today that I thought would draw a little interest. Then I looked at what else was sitting around on my desk and thought, “hey, that’s not a bad lot of this and that.” So, there it is.
First, the thing that came in today is the mockup of the Lief Ericson. This is essentially the proof of concept model that the factory developed. Essentially, what it shows is that they understand and can execute all of the tooling changes I asked for to the UFO tooling. Usually, no tooling work is done at this point but this case may be an exception. I believe they are showing test shots for the first time of the clear parts. I hadn’t seen them before now but they’ve had the file long enough and the parts look crystal clear. I’ll be checking on that over night.
I’m also showing the Batmobile snap buildup that arrived the other day. Mike Wherry put this together from a resin mockup and parts from the early test shots. He did an awesome job especially the way he handled the striping. I’ll need to touch up some spots in photoshop including adding the doorbats, etc. The Corvette came in the same shipment. The Batmobile snap box is a package mockup that you’ve probably seen before (Makes for a bigger picture though).
Lastly, you see the Dark Shadows boxes. Barnabas comes from Tom L’s collection. The Werewolf is new to us. We found it just as we needed it. I haven’t started retouching the werewolf yet but I did Barney a while back. Anyone with appreciation for photoshop work should note that I edited out all of that type on the side of the box in order to re-typeset it. It was a bit of a challenge. Like I said. Some of this stuff isn’t so exciting…
Oh, one more thing. We like to put up polls on our website but we haven’t updated it in a while. The Batmobile buildup inspired one that will let you give us a little input on the final kit. Check it out on the Round 2 Models homepage.
Polar Lights Models: 1966 Batmobile Snap Kit Update
After a month of work, our factory has revised the tooling of our new 1966 Batmobile snap kit. The first test shots had their share of problems that was to be expected from a brand new tool. There is still work to do. The body still needs some blemishes worked out and more polishing. There are still a few fit and assembly issues to work out but all in all, the kit is really starting to shape up.
So here it is folks, for all intents and purposes, this is what it looks like. Like I said, we’ll still do some refining here and there. I also forgot to go ahead and glue in some parts that weren’t snapping. So fear not about the missing fire extinguisher. You know it’ll be there.
Star Trek Model Kit: 1:350 Refit Decal Set At Long Last
At last year’s Wonderfest we announced that we would be releasing our 1:350 U.S.S. Enterprise Refit decal set. Modelers have been clamoring for them since we first released them in our re-release of the Star Trek model kit. We thought we would be able to release them in the fall of last year. The timing didn’t quite work out for them to make it back then.
Well, the stars have aligned and we have finally been able to finalize our plans and release the 1:350 Refit decals set at long last. As a bonus for those that have been waiting so long, we are including a fifth large sheet of registries and engineering colors. We have even made an attempt to make them look more like the Motion Picture version in color and design.
The product is beginning production now and should arrive in April. Here’s a preview look at the final fifth sheet. The printed colors are more subtle than their onscreen appearance.
1966 Batmobile Model Kit: Here’s your chance!
Hi folks. I got word yesterday that 1966 Batmobile model kit test shots are on their way here. Like I did with the 1:1000 scale U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 Refit kit, I’m giving one of these test shots away.
I’ve been working with Eric Seltzer who runs the 1966 Batmobile website on the Batmobile model project all along. He has been my go-to guy for information on the car. His website holds a wealth of information on the car. In return for his help, I’ve been sharing exclusive pics and info on the kits. So I’ll be using his message board as the contest site. Just go here… http://1966batvehicles.yuku.com/topic/4157 …to for the details to sign up. You’ve got about a week to register so don’t wait and miss out. Good luck.
Polar Lights Model Kits: iHobby Recap!
Our shows for the year have wrapped up with our attendance at the international iHobby Expo last weekend in Chicago. October has been a busy month for us with our two biggest shows of the year falling within the same month. iHobby covers the entire gamut of the hobby industry and is open for industry days on Thursday and Friday and open to the public on the weekend. For the past few shows, I’ve ended up working on consumer days which suits me because I’d rather talk to the guys building the kits than sitting around a conference table talking to guys with ties on. It turned out that I was assigned to help set up the booth and then return to work the last day of the show and tear it down again. Overall the show seemed less attended than previous years and I was surprised to see many booths close up mid day on Sunday and some had closed up even before consumers even had access. (Shame shame on a couple of our distinguished competitors…)
At the show we announced our plans through mid 2011 and gave a sneak peak at a couple things beyond that. Let me run down the highlights…
Batmobile– With the kits going to tooling, we were able to unveil our packaging plans. All are still subject to licensor final review. Of course we showed off the beautiful Alex Ross painting in support of the kits. Many have asked about prints of the poster. Sorry to say that that is not allowed under our current agreement. We gave a hint at what will be included in the deluxe version of the kit. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, ask your friends who did. (yes, that is a tease)
Star Trek– As usual we had plenty of buildups and box mockups and/or preproduction samples on display. We featured a buildup of the Klingon Bird of Prey sitting comfortably atop its new landing gear as well as other buildups previously on display at Wonderfest. We announced the classic Klingon Battle Cruiser would return this year. We are looking into what little bits of accurizing we can do to the kit. Also announced was a re-release of the classic AMT Enterprise. Sure we brought that one back once already but we have put a nice spin on this one. We are calling it the Tholian Web Commemorative Edition. The kit comes injected in glow in the dark plastic along with the usual decal sheet complete with decal dressing to create the ship as the U.S.S. Defiant. To cap it off, we are including two new Tholian Web Spinners. We showed a buildup of the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-B and showed a coupld of the revised parts, specifically the lower saucer and rear deck. We had no announcement regarding the 1:350 TOS Enterprise though the kit is still under consideration. Though we did have a prototype of the new movie Enterprise, it could not be displayed due to an error in the output. I’ll be showing that off in my next blog post though and explaining why it couldn’t be displayed.
Marvel Comics- We showed a buildup of our re-release of the Captain America kit. We will also be bringing back Spider-man (actually sooner than Cap) and a few other Marvel surprises later in the year. We will be doing these kits in Comic Scenes style boxes complete with cardboard backdrops and full color comic book instruction sheets. The faces in the Captain America kit will be resculpted. One of the resculpts is shown on the buildup but is subject to licensor approval.
Strange Change- We’ll be bringing back the Vampire and Mummy versions in the first half of 2011. The buildups on display showed how great they look when a great modeler gets ahold of them. The kits function really well (though I had my doubts as I was putting together test shots.) Look for the Time Machine version later in the year probably. And please also note that these kits will be made in the USA.
Dark Shadows- All three kits will return in 2011 with Barnabas Collins leading the way. We had great looking buildups of the figure kits on display. We are planning on reproduction boxes and glue parts just like the good ol’ days and we’ll throw in both soft PVC and styrene sets of arms.
Leif Ericson- When we brought back the UFO kit, most people asked if or when we would bring back the LE. Here it comes complete with reproduction box art, clear engine parts and lights (this time LEDs.) What I would like a little bit of feedback on is would you guys like the engines injected in red or clear so you can paint them whatever color you want? Or maybe a couple different color options. I’m listening for feedback on this.
Man In Space set- This set of historic NASA spacecraft will return with its original packaging art as well as the cardboard gantry that had been included in the first release of the kit. We had a mockup of the gantry on hand but just ran out of room to display it.
KISS and Yellow Submarine- We’ll be bringing back the stars of each band in a series of pre-painted model kits. As you may see in the photo the packaging offers a different twist to appeal to collectors. We’ll be doing the Yellow Sub in a lunchbox tin later in the year and we are exploring the possibility of doing prebuilt models of these subjects as well.
So that’s the plan Stan… or Bobby… or Richard… or Steve… (I’m getting slap happy now after so much planning and work) Thanks to everyone who stopped by and were universally complementary of our display.
