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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: DO… YOU… WANT… TO…PLAY… A… GAME…?
This may not turn into “Global Thermal Nuclear War” (well at least I hope it doesn’t), but I always like to post about things I’m kind of jazzed about when I’m working on Round 2 model kits. Usually when there is a lull in posts, it is because I’m busy working on a package or instruction sheet. Both are major time hogs but generally aren’t much to talk about. So when inspiration hits, I always try to write something out real quick.
Anyways, I’ve been working on some decals this week that have been pretty fun. Rather than come right out with it, I figured I’d make a game out of it. (Michael, our new creative director LOVES games. I hope he is proud of me.) So, the pic shows what I’ve been up to. I’ll give you twenty guesses as to what it is. Whoever correctly guesses first is the winner. I’ll send the winner a proof of the decal sheet when it arrives.
UPDATE: OUR WINNER… CHIANGKAISHECKY
I knew it wouldn’t take long but I figured I would have to drop at least one hint. We are bringing the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C back out by the end of the year and it will feature a nice size decal sheet featuring ALL NEW battle damage decals based on the original filming model. When I first started figuring out how much I would be able to include, I discovered that the ship was pockmarked with relatively small spots of damage. Once I had a map established, I discovered that if I concentrated on the hull opening itself but not include the black burn marks, I would be able to include every spot I could detect in the reference I had on hand. I figured most modelers could handle the little bit of freehand airbrushing that would be needed to complete the look. Even without the additional airbrushing, they look pretty good on their own. I’m showing one of the decals below along with the reference shot and how it will look with a little airbrushing.
Besides revised Enterprise-C registry markings, U.S.S. Yamaguchi registries will also be included. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I will have room on the sheet for the U.S.S. Excalibur registries. The sheet size is determined by the bottom of the box and it looks like it will be pretty well packed. We will have a product page up our website soon.
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.
Star Trek Model Kits: The Great Debate
We made a promise not to discuss the development of our 1:350 TOS Enterprise Star Trek model kit outside of our 1701CLUB updates. This blog post won’t talk about it directly but it does address a significant concern among modelers that seems to have turned into a great debate. This post won’t be about what we will do or what we won’t do, but explains the kinds of things that we have to keep in mind when making decisions about our new kits.
Two words seem to strike fear into the hearts of model builders everywhere… GRID LINES. So, let’s ask the question. Why in the universe would we consider adding such a detail to a hyper-accurate model kit? I don’t have to remind modelers that until we came along, no AMT Enterprise model was ever built without a modeler having to slave over meticulously sanding the stupid things off the saucer… Wait, none of them were ever built without doing that…? Well maybe as kids we never removed them. There was no way to accomplish that at that age and get it to look right. With time, our skills improved and we found ways of improving things as best we could and every build any of us ever did came out looking great… Didn’t it? Well, maybe there were some cases where incredible effort was put forth but some builds weren’t quite as nice as the next. Is that all on the modeler? Or is the manufacturer responsible to some extent? How many kits were made back in the day with saggy nacelles? If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.
So here’s the quandary, do we appeal to a core demographic of the really amazing modelers out there and leave something like the top of a saucer smooth or should we consider adding VERY fine engraved lines that would really help out everyone else to make their build look as accurate as they can manage? What if we could do lines so fine that when viewed from an arms length look like they’re drawn on…
Let’s break it down further…
REASONS AGAINST:
1) it is not accurate to the filming model. The lines were drawn on with a pencil, not engraved.
2) Talented modelers are capable of drawing the lines on themselves.
3) … well… See reasons 1 & 2, I guess.
4) SEE REASONS 1 & 2! (Expletives mercifully deleted)
REASONS FOR:
1) The model kit should represent the TOS U.S.S. Enterprise… as in the one with Captain Kirk standing on the bridge and Scotty in the back screaming that he needs more time. The ship has a deflector grid on the saucer that falls between metal plating resulting in narrow valleys on the surface of the hull. (Or did Apollo’s green hand draw them on with a giant space pencil?). The filming model had some other wonky stuff that we wouldn’t want to copy exactly either. So, we aren’t completely beholden to the filming model, our mission is to create a representation of Matt Jeffries’ design in support of what was shown onscreen.
2) If handled correctly, the engraved lines would look just like penciled on lines.
3) Drawing concentric circles on a 14” curved saucer is not an easy task for anyone. More often than not, most modelers will struggle with it.
4) Star Trek has a wide appeal beyond the modeling market. Tons of Star Trek fans would be interested in building such a kit even if they aren’t modelers or even artists. If engineered well and thought through, the kit should allow them to be able to build an accurate representation of the ship for themselves.
5) If we don’t keep in mind that any kit could be someone’s first kit, we as model kit manufacturers wouldn’t be doing our due diligence.
6) Most modelers who really work over the details of a build to achieve their vision of perfection have the skill to eliminate the lines without much trouble. Or at least they would not have nearly as much trouble removing them, as another modeler would have with drawing them on.
All this is considered without a firm decision in mind at this point. We’ll see how it goes. 1701CLUB members will be the first to find out the answer.
