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Round 2 Models: And the winner is…
Believe it or not, I’m still here working away on Round 2 Models of all kinds. Just like you I wish I could have posted sooner than this. Many people have been clamoring for a 1701 Club update. Of course so much time and work has gone by that I have a lot to write about. So much so that as I’ve been writing it, I’ve come to the realization that I will probably have to find a way to break it up into two reports. Besides the 1701 Club, many people are waiting with baited breath to hear what ship won the poll I talked about in my last blog post. More on that in just a bit…
I have a sliver of time this week where I think I can write up several blog posts showing progress on some of the projects I mentioned at Wonderfest. I’ve already got some test shots on the Motion Picture Cadet kits, a few versions of the Wolverine kit digital files and I’ve have reviewed he mockup for the Robby the Robot kit featuring Altaira. I should also be seeing the 1:144 C-57D mockup soon. I look forward to sharing some behind the scenes looks at these kits similar to what I’ve been sharing in 1701 Club updates. I’m not sure I’ll have time to get quite as in-depth as those reports have been, but there will still be plenty to share. Once I get them written, I’ll schedule them to release once or twice a week.
Back to the poll results… as you may know, we recorded video footage of this year’s Wonderfest presentation just like we did last year. We had hoped to get it finished and posted some time ago (like before the poll went live) but as things usually happen, other fires got in the way. That isn’t to say we haven’t been working on it all along. Modelman Tom is well known for his Youtube model kit reviews and he has been putting in all kinds of time on our video to make it extra-special and much more entertaining than last year’s edition. As production on the video has wrapped up, the poll has also come to a close. So like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, two great things have come together. So as they say… WITHOUT FURTHER ADO… Check out the 2012 edition of our Wonderfest presentation video to find out the poll winner!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIbgnXVOZDU
After you’ve viewed it, give us some feedback and let us know what you think.
Round 2 Model Kits: And away we go…!
A month has gone by since Wonderfest and this is the first sliver of time that I’ve been able to quickly jot down some vital info to recap. (as usual, things are super busy in my wing of Round 2 Models) I know everyone has been waiting to hear the details of some of our announcements. Right now, I’m going to give a quick rundown. I’ll be able to go into more detail later on as the kits progress. So without further delay away we go…
New kits-
Dirty Donny’s Two Much – As announced in our last enewsletter, we will be producing a kit based on this Kar Kulture artist’s character design. He’s a crazy-kewl creature that will include several decal options to decorate him with.
Forbidden Planet Robby the Robot Movie Poster Edition- This kit will recreate the classic poster. It will consist of several parts from the existing kit, but with new legs, Altaira (as depicted in the poster) and base with cardboard standup.
Forbidden Planet C-57D 1:144 scale- We are happy to offer the classic flying saucer in a size that will fit on your bookshelf. The model is based on all new research and will not be based on our 1:72 scale kit. It will feature parts for a landed or flying pose including opening and closing landing ramps.
Marvel Comics Wolverine- The fan favorite character gets the treatment he deserves in a plastic model kit. He will be offered in his yellow costume as depicted in the early days of the character. He comes with two head options, masked and unmasked.
Star Trek TMP Cadet Series 3 ship set featuring new tools of the U.S.S. Enterprise Refit, U.S.S. Reliant & Klingon K’tinga as 1:2500 scale snap kits. The Refit and Reliant will come with the surface decals just like previous Cadet kits. The hope is to release at least one kit or themed set like this one each year to expand on the Cadet Series.
New licenses-
Elvis- Yes, he seems to have returned to the building. We are exploring an HO scale Graceland and possibly figural kits. We will see what the future holds for the king.
Wizard of Oz- The first kit we will look at doing is the Wicked Witch of the West in 1:8 scale. Depending on the reaction to this kit, we will take a look at doing the rest of the cast of characters from the iconic film.
DC Comics- Our approach to the Wolverine kit should give some indication into how we plan on creating new figural kits of some of the most widely recognized characters in the world. They will be well posed and detailed, but with a hint of nostalgia mixed in. Our initial ideas are for Superman and Batman kits inspired by some classic comic scenes and artists.
Iron Giant- Though this isn’t technically a new license for us, it was the first we had announced the possibility that we could do a kit form the animated film.
What comes next?
Our biggest announcement is that we are reaching out to the modeling community to decide one of our 2013 kit releases. The audience in attendance at our presentation took an active role to determine who the candidates will be. Everyone is eligible to cast their vote. Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6HFNN6Zto answer a few questions for us and vote for one of the following kits
1:1000 scale U.S.S. Reliant
1:1000 scale Klingon K’tinga
1:32 scale TOS Galileo shuttle
1:2500 scale U.S.S. Akira
I2” tall Iron Giant
We are putting the finishing touches on our youtube video of our presentation. We have a lot more in the mix this year so please be patient as we get it all tidied up. We hope to have it ready in the next couple weeks. I’ll let you know as soon as it is finished.
Round 2 Model Kits: Wonderfest – All This Is Ready To Be Won…
Sci-fi and figure modelers everywhere are scrambling to finish their entries for the annual sci-fi modeling contest at Wonderfest and it is no different for us here at Round 2 Models. The show is being held May 26 & 27th in Lousiville, KY and we have our work cut out for us as we prepare. We won’t be entering the contest, but we are sponsoring a couple model contest awards this year and that is just the beginning of the fun!
We will issue special awards for the best use of a Round 2 brand model kit by an adult and another for the best use by a junior/teen. Any AMT, MPC or Polar Lights kit can qualify. We know you guys do a lot of kit bashing and modifying. To qualify, the use of our kit has to be easily recognizable.
On top of that, we will have our usual display of product, our annual modeling survey and have a special little giveaway. But wait, there’s more…
First test shots of our new 1:350 scale TOS U.S.S. Enterprise will be fresh off the press and we will be making two available to the public at the show. Members of the 1701 Club that attend the show can enter a drawing for one set. The second set will be available to anyone through the show’s silent auction. Take home an Enterprise before anyone else and support a great charity at the same time! But that’s not all…
Come to our presentation at 12 noon on Saturday to hear about the progress of the big E, be the first to hear about other new kits coming by the end of 2012 and find out how you can help us decide the next new kit we will put into development. That’s right, the crowd in attendance at our presentation will have an opportunity to help us decide what brand new kit will be added to our 2013 release list!
We look forward to seeing you there!
Round 2 Model Kits: Defying Expectations
I’ve been hinting at new Round 2 model kit product announcements from time to time. I don’t take any joy in being coy or secretive. I’d rather let you guys know what we are up to, but history has shown we are better holding off on announcing development plans until we have something substantive to show for it. Generally, we like to hold off on making most of our major announcements for shows like Wonderfest or iHobby where we can see your immediate reactions. Wonderfest is just around the corner (May 26 & 27) and we can’t wait to reveal some pretty exciting plans for later this year. We’ve decided to let one small tidbit out now to give you a taste of things to come.
I asked a while back for some input about the scale of the Deep Space 9 kit. We have already let it be known that the kit is coming back and we are looking at a Fall release for it. The kit will be injected in clear ABS plastic and will come with window templates to benefit modelers that feel like lighting it up. For those that don’t want to take that step, window decals will accompany the kit for the first time. That might all seem kind of “ho-hum.” That is the kind of treatment we give all of our re-releases. The exciting news is that we will also be including a 1:2500 scale U.S.S. Defiant this time around! (and not just a glow in the dark copy of our U.S.S. Enterprise kit) This will be a brand new snap-together model of the Defiant as featured in the Deep Space 9 TV show. It will measure approximately 2 5/8” long and will be comprised of 6 pieces. The images show the first look at the digital model the factory will use to cut the tool.
Like I said, this is just a taste of things to come. We will have plenty more to talk about at Wonderfest. We made one of the biggest announcements in modeling last year. What are we going to do next? Let me just say, you will want to be sure to attend our panel session this year. I’ll be talking more about that, as we get closer to the show.
Round 2 Models: How The Magic Happens (Episode 1)
I recently asked for some ideas to post about and it seems one of the most requested bits you want to hear about is how things work here day to day at Round 2 Models. I decided to keep a log of what I did over a four-day period. Why four? Because I got too far into one day without taking any notes.
Keep in mind that more than anything, my job is to “art direct”- give thoughts on the progress of a sculpt, assemble and review test shots, review a tooling plan to make sure every part is accounted for, create or advise an associate on a packaging design or instruction sheet, give management an update on product progress, assemble documents to generate cost estimates and figure out what we are going to do next and who I can find that would best help with that, write these blogs and generally just keep all of the balls in the air or make sure they get thrown into the proper basket complete and on schedule.
I fear this won’t seem like the exciting time you might imagine it to be. All in all, things may seem to happen at a snails pace. I can assure you I always have too much going on to make daily dents in my “to do list”. I’ll try to explain about some things along the way.
DAY 1
7:30 – Arrive at the office. I’m the third person in today. One other creative is usually here by the time I arrive. The other person is from accounting. Our day doesn’t technically start until 8:00. Most people are out by 5, but a devoted few tend to stay past that most days.
7:30-8:30 – Check email. This usually eats up most of my morning and it gets checked regularly during the day. Some days email completely distracts from actually getting the work done that I might have intended to do in a given day.
The majority of the email traffic is me answering questions or keeping balls in the air on various projects with a few factories and vendors (sculptors, digital modelers, etc). This particular morning covers hearing that pre-production samples of our upcoming Incredible Hulk are on their way. I’ll need to review them. If they look correct, the factory will produce the product exactly way I see it. I will need to note any corrections that might be necessary. I also reviewed the progress of laying out the 1:350 TOS Enterprise tooling. Answering emails such as these can be a huge time sink. I need to capture images and make notes of every problem I see. When reviewing a sculpt or mockup from the factory, this can take up the majority of a given day.
8:30- 9:10 – weekly product development team meeting. With a few people out, this one is relatively short. They usually take 1-2 hours. Our department (10 full time designers) meets to review what we are currently working on. It is a time for the Creative Director to present anything to the department he needs to. We get a chance to see and hear about what each of us are working on and give critiques and pointers where needed. We are each generally pretty isolated to specific lines. As you know, I am the primary line manager for Polar Lights. Another designer splits his time between my line and the automotive line. We have a part time intern assist on the Polar Lights line as well. On the automotive side, John manages that line up. We have one additional designer splitting his time between automotive model product and our new line of model rockets. Everyone else is spread over our Forever Fun, slot car and die cast lines.
9:10-10:10 – I’m back at my desk and continue responding to email.
10:10-11:45 – We have two people out sick in the department and Forever Fun has a huge bunch of package mockups due by the middle of the week for a large retailer. Mockups are basically fake packages. Most of them need to look as close to the final product as possible, which includes putting actual product in the package. It is a huge pain and takes a lot of time. We have one part timer who comes in and does nothing but mockups. With one of the missing people being one of the Forever Fun peeps and the other person being one that would normally pitch in on such a crunch, the effort is short handed. So the rest of us are enlisted to help out. For my part, I cut out a few of the more complicated patterns and assemble the boxes. It is a pain and takes a sizeable chunk out of my day, but we gotta do what we gotta do sometimes. This situation rarely happens, but we are all prepared when the call comes.
11:45-12 – check more email. This time I answer some questions for one of our sculptors for one of the projects he is working on. (details for which will be announced at Wonderfest)
12-12:45 – lunch. I run to a local Meijer supermarket to pick up lunch provisions to cover me for the next couple weeks. Other than this, I rarely leave the premises for lunch.
12:45-1 – You guessed it, check my email.
1-4 – I do some research for a few new projects we have planned. This mainly consists of researching online, checking with consultants and in one case finding the answers in a book I already had on my shelf. I won’t get into specifics, but basically I’m looking for reference images for one kit, a beauty shot of another ship to use for our sell sheet for another project, and determine the length of a couple ships. Among my search I stumbled cross Steve Neill’s YouTube series about his 66” scratch built Enterprise. That ate up a good 20 minutes just checking that out. Fascinating…
4-5:50 – I work on an RFQ (Request for Quote) for a kit coming out in the fall. This document will be sent to the factory for them to determine their cost to produce the kit. The RFQ pretty much covers every aspect of the kit from the parts included, color and packaging. If a test shot is already in hand, tooling revisions or problems will be recorded to gauge the difficulty and cost for necessary tooling work.
5:50 – I’m out the door and on the road for a 40 minute drive home.
Here are a few pics I snapped throughout the day.
A look at my desk the morning of day 1. It would continue to accumulate more mass for an additional week before I break down and come in on a Saturday to clean it up.
This is our mockup area in the warehouse. Mike G. (American Muscle and Custom & Premium) and Ken H. (model kits) stand at the left of the pic. Monica (model kits intern) and Jen (mockup contractor) are seated at the table.
This shows the mockups that are complete at noon. I estimate that this is about half of what is required for one retailer’s request.
This shows a package mockup that has had all of the straight edges already trimmed down.
This shows what it looks like after I trim out the window. The box will go on to be assembled with an acetate window installed and have last year’s product put inside to give the closest indication possible of how it will look on the shelf.
This shows an overall view of a vintage copy of the Star Trek Exploration Set. This photo gets installed in the RFQ to show what parts are needed and an estimation of their size.
Whew. That is a mouthful. I guess I’ll have to write up each day individually. So, to be continued…
Round 2 Models: Whadaya Want From Me?
A few weeks back one of this blog’s voracious readers asked what I was up to. Even a photo of my desk would be enough to sate him. I obliged and readers had fun pointing out objects of interest around my desk.
A couple weeks after that, I posted some of the steps we go through when we clean up box artwork and it seemed like a few people were genuinely interested in the process. I’m in a place right now where what I am working on is new and exciting stuff, but I can’t talk about it until we here at Round 2 Models make a formal announcement about these projects. Stuff that I was working on months ago is almost ready to go out on the shelf for sale. It is all stuff that while at one point, I was excited about, but now I’m on to the next thing.
My question to you, dear readers, is what kind of behind the scenes insight would you like to see on this blog? There are things that I do (nearly) every day that I take for granted that you guys might want to know more about. So, I’m throwing this out there. If there is something you are curious about or would like more behind the scenes dirt on, give me your questions/suggestions and I’ll work through them as time allows. Want to know more about my battles with Batmobile model development? I got plenty to share. Want to see some old control drawings from the AMT and Polar Lights archives? We’ve got some things in a file cabinet that I could pull out. The only things that are off limits are the 1:350 Enterprise and future product announcements. Those will come when the time is right.
Round 2 Models: Things Are Getting Exciting!
Have you ever had news that you wanted to shout to the world but you couldn’t? That’s kind of where I’m at right now. Things are getting exciting here in Round 2 Models-land. We’ve got a couple great shows coming up.
We will be setting up at C2E2, in Chicago, IL April 13-15. I’ve attended the show the last couple of years and I love it personally. The show focuses on comic books, movies and pop-culture of all kinds. We are looking at a show exclusive to sell at the show. We’ll see what we can do. Besides model kits, we’ll be displaying our other lines like Forever Fun seasonal products, Captain Action and Silver Screen Machines die-cast cars as well.
We are also gearing up for Wonderfest in a big way. I cant wait to unveil this year’s product announcements. I’ve stated that I don’t want to announce anything that we don’t have a sculpt or mockup for. I’m working hurriedly to be sure I don’t have to bite my tongue about anything. If all goes well, we will have more new kits out by the end of the year than just the 1:350 scale U.S.S. Enterprise™! I really, REALLY wish I could say more!
Round 2 Models: Muscling Through Packaging
A lot of our development team’s time is spent on our product packaging. It is a key marketing and sales tool and in some cases, it makes the kit much more desirable. If you read our blog regularly, you are probably familiar enough with our products to know what to expect from us in this regard. I figured I would show you some of the steps we go through and what we encounter as we work.
For this example, I’ll be using our upcoming release of the Incredible Hulk. In the case of this kit we started with what we had, a tattered copy of the kit released in 1978. The plan was to ditch the old packaging style completely and shift it more towards an Aurora style long box but keep a modern sensibility about it. Comparing the proportion of the art board to the long box style, I found we could center more in on Hulk and let the rest of the scene actually wrap around one side of the box to give the effect of “okay, here is the Hulk. He is mad” then as you turn to the side of the box, you get the reveal of “oh, this is what he is mad about”.
In order to start, the old box featured a giant violator that covered a major part of the background. An image of the buildup cut into Hulk’s knee. All of this is besides the fact that our box is nice and worn with plenty of cracks and stains in the image. The decision was made to break it down to just the line art and recolor it as I had done on the Spider-man and Captain America kits. This would give it the updated look I mentioned. The instruction sheet featured the same line art in pure black and white so I figured this would be a great head start. The problem was that the art on the instructions did not perfectly match the box lid. It wasn’t a complete redrawing but a few embellishments had been made to the artwork. A few lines were thicker here or there.
Once I broke it all down and mixed and matched the parts of the line art I wanted from the two illustrations, I set to filling in the gaps created by the violators. The only clue I had to the contents were an overturned car and smoke coming from it and who knows what else. There were also a few building tops peaking up from the behind the legal line on the instruction sheet. I found the look of the TV news style helicopters to be a little ridiculous and decided to embrace that a little bit. I decided to shift their color scheme to a more military look and drew in one of General Ross’ “Hulk-buster” tank on the ground to give him something to really get angry about. Filling in the rest of the cityscape background was logical to complete the rest of the scene.
So here it is, a sneak peak at the upcoming Incredible Hulk packaging. (All images are currently under licenor review and are subject to change) we will feature a build along article by Mark McGovern covering both the MPC Incredible Hulk and Spider-man kits on our website when we approach the release dates.
Polar Lights Model Kits: Be Careful What You Wish For.
I had just completed writing my congressman about SOPA when I received the following message to my last blog post…
Jamie – It’s been 6 weeks since there was anything new here. Can you tell us what you got for Christmas? Screen shot of your work desk? Throw us a bone, please!
I had just been saying I needed to do a new blog post. How could I deny a request like that? 6 weeks? I’ve got no excuses other than the usual… Just been busy. Can’t help that. Anyway, here I am now.
I’ll figure out something more substantial to write about soon but I’m going to fulfill that request with this post.
For Christmas, I mostly received books and movies. Generally through the year I don’t buy much for myself other than a monthly batch of comics so usually by Christmas I have to go through the painful process of determining my wish list. My wife and family usually do right by me. This year, I got the following Blurays- Sucker Punch (still don’t get what people don’t like about it. It has everything a 3 year old boy should be looking for in a flick), Inception, Limitless, Alien box set, The Matrix, Goodfellas, Independence Day (apparently the worst movie I personally enjoy) and 300. I got books by and about Syd Mead, Raymond Loewy, Andrew Loomis, Alien Vault, making of Blade Runner, 41 American illustrators, an overview of the top fashion illustrators, and a novel length comic named, Habibi. I got an awesome looking Gundam kit. I can’t remember his name but he’s got a Gatling gun and rocket pack. I’m sure there was much more.
You should see photos of my desk in its current state. I’ve thrown in some descriptions of what you see there. It is usually not as exciting as it might seem. I have a medium amount of clutter today. I’ve covered anything referring to the 1:350 TOS Enterprise to keep that between the 1701 Club members and me. Btw, The club is filling up. We have right around 200 spots left. Join now if you have been debating whether or not to dive in. You will see a copy of the MPC Incredible Hulk kit on my desk. If you happen to won a copy of the MPC Spider-man kit and happen to have the instructions for it. Let me know if you are interested in lending them to us for a little while in exchange for a few kits. That kit is hard to find. If you look close, you may find some clues or “bones” to upcoming product.
Round 2 Models: Shine On
I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. The holidays come quicker every year, don’t they?
We, at Round 2 Models, continue to see what we can do to improve our product wherever we can and one thing we’ve been keeping an eye on is the appearance of our chrome parts. I don’t usually deal with as many chrome sprues as John does with the car stuff but back when we were working on the Pilgrim Observer, I made sure to pay special attention to the chrome parts in that one. There is a fine balance we need to strike to hold the details and also keep a nice shine on the parts. Compounding our concern is that the nature of applying the chrome and gloss coat is environmentally sensitive. (heat, cold and humidity, etc all have to be carefully controlled) We have done our best to strike that happy medium for keeping detail and also having a nice high gloss shine.
As I compared the old Pilgrim Observer vintage example to the fresh new test shots, I found that the detail wasn’t quite as nice but it was sufficient in that if you didn’t compare the two side by side, the new ones still looked pretty good. The new ones were very shiny though. Actually, they were too shiny for my taste. I think such high gloss on chromed plastic looks a little too “toy-etic”. Besides, the nature of the gloss, itself, hides or at least camouflages details and I really picked up on that. The gloss had greatly lessened with age from the vintage example and I personally found them much more appealing. They looked more scale accurate and I didn’t think any ‘70s era space agency would go through the expense of chroming parts to a high gloss just for the sake of looks. The parts might have looked like bare metal be it stainless steel or aluminum but not chrome plated. In any case I settled for what we had and let it go.
Fast forward a year or so… I’ve begun taking a look at the AMTronic kit and I was wondering if we absolutely HAD to use this high gloss coat on the chrome parts. So, I asked the factory about it this time to see if they could do a semi-gloss or flat finish on the chrome parts. They said “sure” and ran a few examples. I really like the results. The semi-gloss finish looks scale accurate. They look almost like the aged vintage sample we have on hand. The detail is all nice and crisp. The matte finish copy is also very intriguing. It really looks like brushed metal or aluminum at scale. I am very excited by the possibility of using this finish on the retro-futuristic AMTronic.
I passed the idea along to John and showed him the examples. He really liked how they looked. He agreed that the result was more scale accurate and showed detail very well, but he was concerned that if we included what looked like 30 or 40 year old chrome parts in our kits that some modelers might not appreciate it as much as we do. I felt that was a valid concern as well.
In the end we figured we’d show you guys and get your feedback on the idea. By no means would we want to use these finishes in every case but sometimes an aluminum wheel is more desirable than a polished chrome one. So, take a look at the photos and tell us what you think?
