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Archive for October 1st, 2010
Polar Lights Model Kits: Rolling out the Batmobile!
The 1:25 scale 1966 Batmobile was one of our biggest new kit announcements last year. We were thrilled to sign the license and motivated to get started on it right away. We brainstormed ideas on how to get the most out of the subject and put our plan into motion to put out a kit that would give the subject its due. It was a kit most people thought could never be done… but we were up to the challenge.
It seems like the only thing we can depend on around here is that a project will take longer than expected or hoped. The nature of the problem is simple, we are working with partners overseas who are on the opposite side of the clock form us, (most) don’t speak the same language and were not brought up on American pop-culture. How does that cause a delay?
Time difference- means little direct communication. It takes a full day to turn around an answer to any question from either side.
Language barrier- though the CS reps we email to write English very well but if I word something strangely or if I’m not giving direction clearly enough, there is a breakdown in our game of telephone. I tell them, they tell someone else who does the work.
Pop-culture- anyone familiar with our products knows of them inside and out. They grew up looking at books, magazines and TV shows. The people working on our projects overseas have never seen or heard of the Batmobile let alone a Bat-ram. (The CS girls took great delight seeing for the first time how Batman handles being dipped in the ocean on a rope ladder with a shark biting his leg when I showed them the DVD on my trip in earlier this year)
After tons of emails, pictures of the mockup, hair lost and weight gained, we end up with something that looks like something we know and here we are rolling out the Batmobile. Originally, we hoped to have it out last Spring. Then it got pushed back to Christmas time. And here we are pushing it back to early 2011. It should hit stores in February now. But I’m betting no one cares about the long sob story and you just want to see the pictures. Well, here ya go…
The 1:25 scale 1966 Batmobile snap kit
