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Round 2 Model kits: It’s a brand new year
So it’s the middle of January already. Needless to say I’m embarrassed that I haven’t been able to keep up with blog posts like I would have liked. As usual we are buried with responsibilities split between our model kit lines and our Forever Fun holiday line. Every time we see a light at the end of the tunnel, it caves in again. Maybe one of these days we’ll get to take a breath.
We ended up with 13 sci-fi (genre) releases in ’09. We’ve currently got 36 on our plan for 2010 including new subjects from the latest Star trek movie and a 1/25 scale Batmobile among other possibilities. We’ll be bringing back spiffed up fan favorite ships from Star Trek and a couple that haven’t been seen in decades including the K-7 Space station (another long lost kit is scheduled for later in the year…). We’ve got plans to bring back other long lost non-licensed model kits including the Pilgrim Observer and haunted Glo-heads. We’ll be gearing up for Wonderfest soon where we’ll make some schedule announcements for the second half of 2010.
I’m looking forward to another great year. Here’s to 2010…
Round 2 Model Kits: It’s been awhile…
Have you ever had, I dunno, one of those years when you just can’t seem to catch up to your workload? We at Round 2 know how that is. Keep in mind that Bob and I work on two of our brands, Forever Fun holiday product and Round 2 model kits. Like most companies trying to survive in the current economy, Round 2 is run on a skeleton crew. We’ve got less than 20 people running things. (We could use 20 more.) To say the least, things have been hectic. (I don’t think I’ve ever written an understatement as massive as that one right there.) So, I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks… check that, a month.
For Forever Fun, our year starts with the Hong Kong toy fair, so product planning starts months in advance for that. Once that’s over, there are numerous sales appointments with buyers that require tons of product and packaging mockups and other sales information. Also during that time, we finalize product mockups, spec colors, etc and generate revised RFQs (Request For Quote). That leads into finalizing packaging and reviewing test shots in the late spring and early summer. Production is done during the summer. Basically as soon as (or before actually) we get done with one year, we start planning the next. We hold our sales summit in late summer and head directly into show season based on feedback from that meeting. We do our two biggest trade shows in the fall (which requires catalogs, signage etc) and start sales presentations in the late fall which again require tons of mockup work. Keep in mind, that’s just Forever Fun. Bob and Terri, another art director, and I cover all of that plus more. (this paragraph doesn’t even begin to cover it)
While that is all going on, we also have to develop our model kits and as fun as “Forever Fun” is, sci-fi is my kind of thing so I’m always anxious to get to it. With everything that goes on, that’s almost impossible to do sometimes. We try to work as far ahead as possible but that has turned into 3-6 months and that should ideally be a year. I’ve had test shots sitting around for so long that I couldn’t find some of them when I found the time to review them. (which I do at home) We get buildups done just in time for our shows and we hardly even get a chance to enjoy actually looking at them. Preparing for a show whether it is Wonderfest, iHobby or any other trade show takes about a month of planning and at least two solid weeks of work which usually goes right up to the panicked day before. One or two of us goes off to work the show for a weekend only to come right back to work to give attention to all the stuff that had to be put aside while doing the show prep. Hundreds and thousands of emails are received and written each week in our department to further distract us. We work long hours and weekends (others even more than me).
I hope I don’t sound like I’m venting. I’m not looking for sympathy. These are all good problems to have these days. It is all worthwhile when I see or hear how much our fans enjoy the product. I finally had a half a day today to clean my office and assemble a big batch of test shots to take home for review. I think I can devote the next week to model kit development that is sorely behind.
Despite our very best efforts, our two highest profile kits may not be out for Christmas. The Enterprise Refit looked like it would make it in time but delays completing the package and instructions seems to have set it back a bit. Buying, shipping and refurbishing the original Batmobile tool is the cause of that kit’s delay. We’ve been further hindered in getting its packaging artwork approved by the licensor. These aren’t indefinite delays. The refit will leave the orient well before the end of the year. All of the materials have been handed in and approved. I think we should have a breakthrough on the Batmobile soon too. It shouldn’t arrive any later than sometime in January. Believe me this news hurts on many levels. I worked as hard as I could to get my part done on time. I felt physically ill the morning I read the email telling us the latest “closing” (shipping) date of the Enterprise. These things happen and we’ll learn from them to keep it from happening again in the future.
I may seem like Uncle Scrooge but I’m actually just a tired monkey…
Round 2 Model Kit Preview- iHobby
If I said our workload here at Round 2 is unbelievable right now, that would be an understatement of epic proportions. I barely have time to write this blog entry. I promised myself it would get done last week. Anyway, here it is now.
I just have minute to tell you about the Round 2 model kit preview we have going on at iHobby. We will be releasing our plan for the first half of next year. We’ll be bringing out around 50 kits by the middle of 2010. Around 20 kits will be genre (sci-fi/ pop culture) kits. Some have been mentioned in passing before and of course many have not. This just sets us up for a great 2010 with many more high profile releases to come later in the year. We’ll also be releasing our first print catalog showcasing all of our model kit brands.
Amidst our display, we will have a built mockup and hopefully a built test shot of our new 1/1000 scale Enterprise Refit. I hope to see everyone come out and take a look. To add to the incentive of just coming out and taking a look, I’ve got something special for a lucky sci-fi modeler- a test shot to take home of the new Refit kit. The only catch is that you have to write a review of it here and everywhere else on the internet that sci-fi models are discussed. So how will I know who to give it to? Just reply to this post. I’ll draw one of the names from the posts. Cut off for sign up will be Friday morning (when I leave for the show- no hard deadline so sign up sooner than later) You must be present to win Sunday at 1:00cst at the show.
I’m showing some pics of our finished mockup. It turned out well for being cast in all opaque resin. The decals you see are prototypes and will be tweaked to lighten them considerably. Notice the strongbacks are greenish gray, that’s why we keep calling this one the “Refit”.
http://www.ihobbyexpo.com/Consumer.html
Star Trek models: U.S.S. Enterprise Refit 1/1000 scale
I have to admit, I’m hesitant to show this off. Not because I don’t want anyone to see it, but because I don’t want to hear any feedback at this point. The kit will undergo some revision before tooling that will correct some of the eyesores that may be pointed out. I’ll address a couple things up front but it is not a comprehensive list of issues. All issues are being ironed out as I write.
I’m sure everyone can see the chasm-like panel lines. I had the same reaction when I saw the images of the mockup come in from the factory. That is the primary reason I blurred the last set of images. After seeing it first hand, it isn’t as bad as it shows in a photograph. They will be worked on believe me.
The other huge issue to be resolved is the deflector dish. It is way too thick. I’m really not sure why it was so hard for the mockup folks to grasp. Like I said, it will be corrected. No worries.
The part breakdown will have a few revisions too but nothing that won’t be appreciated. Special attention is being paid to this kit from a painter’s perspective. I’ve tried to make it as paint friendly as possible given the size of the kit. I’m betting we will get some requests on these areas to revise the 1/350 kit to build the same way to make it easier to paint. These are the kinds of things we will really pour over in the development of our 1/350 TOS kit.
The mockup builds up great I think. If all goes well, we will have a U.S.S. Enterprise Refit 1/1000 scale buildup at iHobby in October.
Model Kits: Drama on Altair 4 (in Glorious 1/72-Scale)
Here’s another sneak peek at our upcoming Forbidden Planet C-57D model kit re-release. We unveiled the Id Monster a few days ago – heightening the drama is the crew of the C-57D, laser rifles in hand; Commander Adams barking orders into his communications device and the lovely Altaira suitably distressed by the whole situation.
The figures, along with the ID Monster, really bring the kit alive by presenting a bit of the drama that is at the heart of the plot of Forbidden Planet, rightfully hailed as a masterpiece of mid-century sci-fi cinema. In addition, the small size of the in-scale figures really serves to highlight the massiveness of the C-57D. A true sense of scale is something we felt was somewhat lacking in the last release of the kit, in spite of the inclusion of Robby and the detailed interior. Adding the human element somehow really puts everything into context, and helps bring the story of Forbidden Planet back to the forefront.
As with the Id Creature, Jamie directed the creation of the sculpts, starting with a series of turnaround drawings for the sculptors to use as a guide, and then providing comments and further direction as the sculpts progressed. As with the Id, we received approval on the sculpts just last week, and gray resin castings were photographed, retouched and incorporated into the packaging graphics on the box bottom.
New insight on Star Trek model kits gleaned from Wonderfest part 2
Further comments upon data regarding Star Trek model kits… On we go.
Disclaimer: This post refers to survey results. We make no promises to produce any subject mentioned at any time. Be good and we’ll see what happens…
The next segment of our survey asked about repopping some grey area AMT kits. Grey area from the standpoint of “would they worth doing?”. I was interested to get some feedback on these because they seem like good subjects to us but the kits do have many issues with accuracy. We are trying to determine which can be released with some adjustment to detail and which should be started from scratch or is it possible that people want them with warts and all. We found that some had lovers and haters and some were kind of “myeh” across the board. One interesting one was the 1/2500 ships. This had the nearly the least amount of “no” votes and by a huge margin had the most “yes” votes. Another interesting result was the Enterprise Cutaway. It was pretty even from “no” to “maybe” then shot up to a pretty substantial “probably” ranking then fell again to land second to last in “yes” votes. The others rated highest in the “maybe” category. 70% of people said the kits would at least need some work. So, this tells us these kits we felt kind of lukewarm about might get a lukewarm reaction if released. One of them is on our 2010 plan and had been before the show.
Then comes the juicy part. We asked about some general ideas for “smaller” kits meaning kits that would fit in a normal size box or maybe a double sized box. These would kind of be our bread and butter kits that would ideally come out at $20 – $30 price points. The possible answers came from some poles I saw on modeling forums. I kind of picked some of the higher-ranking results from those polls. Then Bob and I kind of threw in a few ideas we hadn’t seen batted about that we thought might be interesting. So, in no particular order the top five were… 1/1000 Klingon BoP, Kelvin, 1/1000 Reliant, 1/1000 K’tinga and 1/1000 Romulan BoP. Here was another case where there was a head and shoulders winner and quite frankly I had no idea what to expect. The 1/1000 Reliant was way ahead of all of the others. By my (unscientific) calculations, it scored 100 points above all others. The next three scored within 40 points of each other.
There was a more than 100-point drop between #5 and #6 rankings. #6-8 scored within about 10 points of each other.
Moving along to the big guns. These would be kits that would need to retail at higher dollar amounts. These would be more 1/350 scale kits or larger ships in 1/1000 scale for the most part. From all previous indications, I figured the K’tinga would walk away with this one. I just wanted to be sure this was the case when other kit possibilities were offered side by side with that one. While the results weren’t as drastic as the smaller kits, the Reliant won again by a respectable percentage. So the K’tinga had to settle for second… well, not quite, more like tied for second. The K’tinga actually came in third for the most “yes” votes. What other option would give it a run for its money? The 1/1000 scale Enteprise D. What about the Akira? It landed behind an accurate K-7 at 1/2500 scale. I was curious about the exploration set. The original kit is tiny, made for kids hands and inaccurate. Yet we often get people asking for it. So I threw out the idea of doing a full sized set. I wasn’t hoping for much and didn’t get much. I’m guessing the best plan is to stick to the ships. Oh, I also threw out a 1/12 scale bridge. Not very popular either. I’m wondering if no one picked up on the scale which would be a perfect set to go along with your old Mego figures…
To wrap up, we had asked what popular ships were left off of our “smaller” ship list. Seems like the Excelsior/ Enterprise B and Defiant from DS9 were the leading write-ins.
I’m probably pointing out the obvious when I say that I see a bit of a trend in these results. Regardless of the outspoken few who crave ships from certain series, it looks like subjects from the early movies win out over all other “generations”. I can see the charm of the early films. They might be my favorite incarnation if I had to choose. But I see outspoken fans out there that declare their love for the original series and likewise there are fans of later series that are also outspoken. I see people wondering about the Vulcan Ring ship and the Andorian Kumari from ST: Enterprise. General consensus is that it was the weakest series but it had some decent ship designs in it. (I’ve been watching some episodes and I don’t think its all that bad other than the whole idea that everything looks newer than it should timeline wise.) Likewise, there are big fans of Voyager and DS9 that didn’t focus as much on a ship named Enterprise and other fans who want more adversary ships. Just for fun, I’ve posted a poll on Starship Modeler to gain more insight into this. Again, this won’t keep us from exploring all of the different series. It’s just an observation.
Model Kit: Tidbits shmidbits Vol.2
And a moment you’ve all been waiting for… a first glance at the 1/1000 Enterprise Refit model kit. Ahem… a little technical difficulty here… damn camera. Well, if I could, I’d show you a nice clear image. But I wouldn’t want anyone to be disappointed. Keep in mind that this is the very first draft. The overall shapes are good but many details need work.
The kit is being mastered from equal parts 1/350 kit and a set of Gary Kerr’s drawings (which are considerably more accurate, btw). We’ll see how much detail can be captured in a version of the ship at this scale. Whatever isn’t formed plastic will be supplied as decal. More images when the model kit gets further along.
Round 2: Putting It All Together
Round 2’s Creative Team consists of a small, fiercely dedicated group of individuals who juggle a variety of responsibilities. As most folks know, we don’t just make models kits (AMT, MPC and Polar Lights), but also have a holiday figural line (Forever Fun), a slot car line (Auto World), a 1:18 die-cast line (American Muscle) and a custom die-cast line (Auto World Custom & Premium). As you can imagine, with such a variety of projects, there’s never a dull moment at Round 2. (Maybe our mascot is a kangaroo because we’re always jumping from one project to another!)
In any case, I’d like to introduce you to the people behind the products. (In future entries, I’ll plan more detailed individual biographies of my fine cohorts.) As seen in the photo above, from left to right:
Jamie Hood is Art Director for Forever Fun and Model Kits, and on occasion contributes to Auto World as well. Jamie’s primary focus is product development, and he has a particular talent for reviewing sculpts, test shots and dealing with production-related issues. (If you’ve been following Jamie’s excellent entries on our model kits blog, you already have a fair idea of Jamie’s many talents.) With our Forever Fun holiday lines just starting to get under production, Jamie has been reviewing test shots and pre-production samples of Rudolph, Peanuts and Little Drummer Boy on an almost daily basis the past month or so. In addition to those responsibilities, Jamie is an accomplished artist; his most recent contribution, art-wise, at Round 2 was his stellar illustration of the Enterprise-E for our Star Trek model kits line.
Bob Plant (that’s me) is Creative Director at Round 2. Mostly that seems to mean that I get loads of e-mail and sigh a lot. (For variety, some cursing is involved occasionally, as well.) Other than that, well, I guess describing my job is a little tricky — mainly I try to make sure that things keep rolling and that I provide any support the creative team needs to get their job done. My background is in graphic design, so I still design some of our packaging as well, and recently have particularly enjoyed working on model kit boxes and instruction sheets. I’m a Trekkie/Trekker from way back, too, so it’s been a thrill being involved with the Trek kits. I can’t tell folks how exciting it is to be bringing back some of this vintage styrene — the Mr. Spock kit and the UFO Mystery ship are particularly thrill-worthy and absolutely make my geek heart jump for joy.
Terri Rach (that’s pronounced “rock,” and she, indeed, does) is Art Director for Forever Fun, but she also contributes to our other lines as well, particularly in a graphic capacity. Terri’s background in graphic design and advertising has been invaluable — she’s equally adept at designing a poseable holiday figure blister card as she is putting a model kit ad together. Terri ran her father’s ad agency, Impact, for many years, before striking out on her own as a freelance designer. Among her many clients were Playing Mantis and Round 2. At last, we convinced her to come on board full-time, and, in addition to her fine graphic skills, she’s proven herself to be an excellent conceptualist and product developer, working on Peanuts, Rudolph and Little Drummer Boy, developing both product and packaging. Terri posts Forever Fun progress reports on our sister blog, www.foreverfunblog.com — check it out!
Mike Groothuis is Art Director for Auto World, American Muscle and Custom & Premium. Mike’s focus is packaging design, but he also has his hand in the development of product as well, and is responsible for much of the beautiful and highly accurate pad print artwork that can be seen on our 1:18-scale American Muscle die-cast, as well as our Custom & Premium vehicles, which cover a wide range of vehicle types, from vintage delivery trucks to dragsters to funny cars. Mike is a fantastic photographer, and recently completed photography and packaging design for our line of classic automotive kits. Mike also specializes in photo-realistic renderings of automotive subjects; his illustrations have graced packaging art for Playing Mantis, RC2, and Greenlight. Be sure to check out Mike’s Auto World progress reports (and his excellent product photography) at www.autoworldblog.com.
John Greczula is Art Director and Brand Manager for the automotive segment of our model kits. A styrene kit fanatic from way back, John knows more about the history and the many permutations of MPC and AMT car kits than anyone I’ve ever met. His knowledge has been invaluable in restoring (“backdating”) these classic kits to their vintage glory. John’s obsessive attention to detail has helped ensure that the kits we release meet even the most serious model kit fan’s expectations. John is also a graphic designer who handles his own packaging, having a particular knack for accurately recreating vintage model kit boxes. John’s obsession with styrene car kits is nearly equaled by his peculiar fascination with the Gorn, from Star Trek the Original Series.
Tony Karamitsos is Brand Manager for Auto World, American Muscle and AW Custom & Premium. Tony has serious real-world experience with automotive restoration (specializing in muscle cars), which makes him perfectly suited for our automotive lines. Tony’s unparalleled attention to detail and intimate knowledge of many makes and models of cars have helped ensure that Auto World’s die cast and slot car lines are the most detailed and accurate on the market. Tony is one of the hardest-working individuals I’ve ever met – Tony runs a successful business as a DJ on weekends, restores cars in the evenings, (and occasionally drag-races them!) while still finding time to spend with his wife and three sons. (Three weeks ago, I saw him doing some serious partying with his wife in Vegas, but perhaps that’s a story for another time…)
Andy Jewett is Art Director Web Services and manages our many websites and blogs, from Forever Fun to Custom & Premium to Model Kits and everything in between. Andy is the most recent addition to our team, and his sardonic wit and enthusiasm helps keep us entertained. Andy is one of those multi-talented individuals who can handle the intricate inner-workings of our many websites while still making sure that everything looks pretty on the outside: he’s a true tech with taste. Andy has a great sense of design, and is also an accomplished comics artist, whose work has a distinctly indie (as in “independent comics”) bent. In the jack-of-all-trades department, Andy recently completed a couple of illustrations for our Rudolph packaging.
There you have it folks – a small taste of the personalities behind the product, and a big, big part of the reason why I look forward to coming to work every day.
Round 2 says, “HEY… YOU… GUYS!”
You know, like the beginning of the Electric Company? Man, that headline may suck, but it’s actually relevant so please read on…
So, if you’re reading this blog you probably have enough web savvy to know about our Round 2 model kit website. We do our best to update it but with everything else going on, that kind of happens in spits and spurts. That isn’t to say that it isn’t important to us and we love finding new ways to make it pertinent to modelers as a spot to regularly come back and check out.
What I’d like to do is throw a feeler out to see if anyone wants to contribute articles to the site. If you check it out, you’ll see we have spots for articles and a workbench area. We’re interested in finding contributors to help fill out these areas. Contributions to our “articles” area could be historical in nature whether it relates to any of our licenses, individual kits or even our brands. Or, an article could be a review of one of our kits. Workbench articles should be more educational. Workbench articles could touch on general modeling techniques, build-alongs or similar kinds of topics. All content should be specific to our product and should paint us in a positive light, obviously.
So what would be in it for you beyond the fame and glory of being featured on our company webpage? Why, model kits of course. Just give us your pitch and if we like it, we’ll figure out what and how many kits we can give in return. Just go to our site and click on contact. Put “WEB ARTICLE PITCH” in the first line of the comment box or put it in the subject line of an email to the given address.
But don’t fear that if we don’t get any contributions no other web content will be coming. We still have lots of stuff coming down the pipe. We’ve got great Jim Small articles, upcoming interviews and more.
Speaking of more, just like everyone else, we are hopping on the social networking bandwagon. Become a fan on facebook to get notifications of blog and website updates and other news. You can also keep up with us on twitter.
Why didn’t they ever let Spiderman talk on that show by the way?…
Round 2: Everyone’s 2 favorite words… “Container Arrival”
When our staff at Round 2 receives and email with that title, cheers can be heard rising from every corner of the office. Oh the joy of a new container arriving. (Tongue planted firmly in cheek here) While it is actually good news that model kit product like a Robby the Robot reorder or brand new stuff like the huge 1/350 Enterprise 1701A has arrived, it throws a wrench in the works from a productivity standpoint. No, we don’t all just run out with mouths watering and dive right into a trove of new model kits Scrooge McDuck style. We actually have to got to work for an hour or more.
You see, we’ve only got a dozen people give or take on staff that handle more than half a dozen brands. We all wear many hats. Brand managers have to handle their own customer service issues for example. On those great days when a container arrives, we cobble together enough able bodies to go out and unload the truck by hand. Usually it takes a minimum of seven people and usually nine when we get the truck pretty fairly unpacked. Trucks used to be a rare thing, coming every couple months but it’s getting to be a weekly thing. We’ve even had a couple trucks in one day. It gets to be tough work when you are unloading 500 25lb boxes of Enterprise from the front (back) of a 45 foot trailer. Throw in 25 degree winters and 100 degree summers and it really becomes quite a treat. Ultimately, it is all done out of love.
