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REVELL Germany to stop model production? [Unsubstantitated Rumour Warning]


spruecutter96

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Hi, Folks. 

 

According to a post on Large Scale Planes, Revell Germany are planning to bring their model production to a close in the next few years. He says a German friend of his has heard this from Revell sales-reps who are in contact with the country's model-shops. The poster goes on to say that Revell will be concentrating on making toys and radio-controlled products from here on. Maybe their split from Revell US has not seen the dawn of a new age that we had hoped for (the pandemic probably hasn't helped at all).  

 

A responder to the original post stated that the last new kit that Revell actually instigated was the 1/32nd Me-262 a few years ago. He also stated that everything else "new" recently marketed by Revell has been re-pops of other makers' mouldings.  

 

Anyone else heard anything about this? A sad story, if it turns out to be true.     

 

Cheers. 

 

Chris. 

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It wasn't "split from Revell US". Revell's new owners took over all the assets:

 

Quote

Hobbico, the owners of several hobby brands has been broken up and the individual companies and assets have been sold to several different parties.   The company filed for bankruptcy in January.    On April 3, 2018, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Great Planes, which is the RC airplane division, along with Tower Hobbies, their online sales division, to Horizon Hobby for 18.8 million dollars.   Estes, the model rocket division, was sold to The Langford Group for 7 millian dollars.

 

Another auction was held on April 13, 2018, to sell off the remaining brands including Revell USA and Revell Germany.    Both companies were sold to a German firm identified as Blitz in court documents.   A separate press release identified the company as Quantum Capital Partners.   Blitz acquired all of the assets including toolings and molds, trademarks, and other assets for 3.9 million dollars.    The new company will be managed by the Revell Germany management team and operated out of Germany.   The offices in Elk Grove, Illinois closed on April 13 and at least 15 people were let go.  There were other US hobby companies interested in acquiring Revell, but both companies were sold to Blitz in Germany.

https://culttvman.com/main/revell-update-revell-usa-and-revell-germany-have-new-owners/


New kits announced for 2021 can't be reboxes only. I'm not sure how about two 1/24 Porsche 911s but they announced few more new tool kits:

  • 04967 - 1/48 - SR-71 Blackbird
  • 03841 - 1/72 - McDonnell F-15E Strike Eagle
  • 05176 - 1/72 - US Navy Swift Boat Mk. I
  • 06781 - 1/72 - Razor Crest [starship from Star Wars The Mandalorian]

That last one can't be rebox of old kit because whole series started in 2019.

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I cant imagine that Revell will stop the production, model kits are still a important leg of that company, perhaps a stop of production in Germany because the high salary level in Germany, and go into a cheap level country, but a totally stop i cant imagine,

 

they also want release a nice VW T2 Bulli

 

revellt2bullidhj32.jpg

 

 

Edited by Harry Callahan
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Panic buying is fuelled by rumours, might give the firm a lift

Im away to buy all the u-boats and Mig-31s I can find 😂

Hope this doesn’t happen..

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Do we mean models or kits? The OP mentions models first, then refers to a kit too.

 

I'd imagine model production wouldn't affect most on this forum, but loss of kit production would be huge.

 

However, bearing in mind the massive back-catalogue which Revell has, essentially free-of-charge, stopping kit production would be pointless. Or common sense might point one to that assumption...

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I truly hate posts like this. They are just idle gossip and bring nothing of value to any discussion. 

 

If someone has definitive news and evidence to back it up, fair enough. But just throwing a dangerous rumour out into the void is downright irresponsible, in my opinion.

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2 hours ago, Harry Callahan said:

I cant imagine that Revell will stop the production, model kits are still a important leg of that company, perhaps a stop of production in Germany because the high salary level in Germany, and go into a cheap level country, but a totally stop i cant imagine,

 

they also want release a nice VW T2 Bulli

revellt2bullidhj32.jpg

 

Are they actually producing any kit in Germany? My understanding is that all their own kits are made in Poland and this country name appears on all Revell boxes I have, reboxes excepted

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2 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

 

Are they actually producing any kit in Germany? My understanding is that all their own kits are made in Poland and this country name appears on all Revell boxes I have, reboxes excepted

 

I had a closer relationship with Revell Germany some years ago. Maybe due to the ownership changes some of the information mentioned below is obsolete but AFAIK Revell (Germany) HQ in Bünde only houses:

  • administration
  • distribution and warehouse
  • product development (catalogue wise) and marketing department
  • packaging
  • mould archive
  • one last injection moulding machine for testshots

Actual plastic production is located as you say in Poland, whereas original Revell USA moulds are (AFAIK) mainly located or shipped to China and produced over there. Reboxes of kits of other manufacturers such as ICM, Italeri, Zvezda, Academy and Hasegawa (in the past) are delivered as sprues in polybags from their production sites, so there is no transfer of tools to RoG.
The actual kit development and moulding process is contracted to other companies, mainly in South East Asia, the tools are then shipped to Europe.
Decal design is made either by own designers or different freelance artists outside the company, decal printing is mainly done by Cartograf.

First I don't wanted to comment on this statement originated from LSP forums, I just consider it as rumour and wait for further signals to verify or falsify...but ...

EDIT: What would be the effect anyway? Most modellers I know (me included) have stashed up so many unbuilt kits that they could survive a multiple lifetimes without buying any further kit. If this rumour becomes true, the moulds wouldn't be lost. Someone will most certainly buy and re-release them. Last not least RoGs contribution to the new kits list wasn't that big in the last 3-5 years as it was before. Of course it's a matter of personal choice and preference but other manufacturers are far more innovative and interesting.
Furthermore, in Germany (I cannot speak for other regions of the earth) shelf space for plastic modeling have declined considerably, if not disappeared completely in department stores such as Karstadt/Kaufhof and also in a large number of toy stores. Sometimes I think that we have to accept that plastic modeling is a descending branch, at least if you consider the masses and not the well-organized and -informed folks here on forums and the net.

Edited by troschi
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2 hours ago, spruecutter96 said:

Looks like I might have stirred up a small hornet's nest, here....

 

Chris. 

 

To be honest, if you post things like this...

 

A responder to the original post stated that the last new kit that Revell actually instigated was the 1/32nd Me-262 a few years ago. He also stated that everything else "new" recently marketed by Revell has been re-pops of other makers' mouldings. 

 

...expect some pushback. It's balony.

 

https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?fkSECTION[]=Kits&q=revell*&fkAVAILABILITY[]="1"&fkTYPENAME[]="Full kits"&fkORIGIN[]="1"&fkYEAR[]="2019"&fkYEAR[]="2018"&fkYEAR[]="2020"&fkYEAR[]="2017"

 

 

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Admittedly, I didn't look any further in to this apparent information.... Still, maybe the lesson here is that there are some things on the Tinterweb that might not be entirely accurate. 

 

Chris. 

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Hobbico takeover( and consecutive price hikes ) killed the brand in Europe, and/or heralded the end of what was best quality-price brand in the business.

They won't stop production, but current management does not show that it learned anything form its predecessors, mainly that Revell did well when it catered

to hobby instead of toy markets( key problem ), chasing extra profit led to demise of numerous profitable lines, from Metal line to balsa products, not to mention huge slash of new plastic tools.

All mentioned when plastic kit market is never healthier due to number of reasons, but also do radical change in age when people first enter the hobby, from 5-7

to 25-30 y.o -meaning quality is paramount. 

 

1. Outsourcing tooling conception/production to the lowest bidder with consequential poor research and tooling execution from cca.2006-2007, 

2. Sitting on huge number of excellent tools without  re-issuing them  ( Alouette II, Piper Super Cubs, F-86D, Rafale B, Ju 290, He 162, RF-4E, Bo 105, G.38, FW 200, SB2C-4,

    Hunter, Me 410, Seaking, F-101, F-89, Halifax etc... not to mention automotive related subjects...Isetta, Karman Ghia...

3. Sitting or large number of excellent tooling without upgrading them, plenty of Monogram toolings that even today would be highly competitive to those of PRC provenance  

    if positive details were to be replaced with engraved ones.( F-100, F-89, F-101, A-6, B-58 etc...) for a fraction of new tooling cost.

4. If and when they decide to re-issue, QC issues dominate, quality of styrene and shortcuts in injection process mean that decades old castings still have better

     quality then the new ones.

5. For the time sub standard toolings ( 32nd Mustang, Spitfire,Me 262 )catering to diminishing pocket money buyers which would be fine if 32nd scale 

    did not see prices skyrocket by 100-120%, as most of the other lines.

6. While German owned concerns did start to implement extremely dumb and shortsighted US imported license policies related to hobby manufacturers,

     wanted sums are still fraction of those wanted in the US, even with those numbers vast number of German subjects mostly related ti military and automotive ranges

    were - are not tooled ( MB U 404,5000, W462 based G-Wagens, Puma, Buffel, L2A1-3, Strv122b, Munga, Mammut, Bison, Iltis etc...etc...)

7. Not all is black, Shackleton and Beaufighter , hopefully SR-71 and F-15E show what they can produce when knowing about competition ( either as developed product or

   one still in development ), getting back to hobby mindset instead of toy centered one is the sole way to survive, enhanced manufacturing processes and huge shift in 

   toy-hobby manufacturing from Asia back to Europe will hopefully facilitate mentioned above.

 

 

 

 

 

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Your point number 3, update the tooling, has been somewhat of a mystery to me as well. One would think a reissued B-29 or B-58 with engraved panel lines could sell enough to be worth it. 

 

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22 minutes ago, Thomas V. said:

3. Sitting or large number of excellent tooling without upgrading them, plenty of Monogram toolings that even today would be highly competitive to those of PRC provenance  

    if positive details were to be replaced with engraved ones.( F-100, F-89, F-101, A-6, B-58 etc...) for a fraction of new tooling cost.

Hardly practical.  Raised panel lines on a kit (made by recessed panel lines in the mold can't just be replaced by recessed panel lines on the same model.  Recessed panel lines on a model require raised panel lines on the inside of the mold.  If the mold has already been cut with recesses for molding raised panel lines, the options for "replacement" are:

 

weld a new layer of metal over the inner surface of the mold and make a new master die for the spark erosion process to resurface the mold, leaving raised lines.  The metal that forms those lines would be the remnants of the welded-on metal and would certainly not last through the resurfacing process let alone a production run of any quantity.

 

Or,

 

Make a new master die with recessed panel lines that is slightly overscale, and use that to spark erode the mold surface down past the bottoms of the recessed panel lines in that mold, and then keep going past that depth all around those panel lines in order to leave raised panel lines in the mold.

 

Monogram did the latter with their 1/48 P-51B kit back in the day, for the Promodeller release.  The resulting kit was widely derided for being a "fat" Mustang, although with recessed panel lines.

 

You can "fairly easily"  convert a mold for a kit with recessed panel lines (on the kit) to one with raised panel lines (on the kit).  You cannot easily do the reverse without serious sacrifices to the quality of the final kit.

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 Italeri did it with their Do 24 and Cant Z506 models, don't know about other aircraft kits, aside from Italeri, Gunze Sangyo and Fujimi were first to implement such tech. in the mid 1980-ies

46 minutes ago, LanceB said:

weld a new layer of metal over the inner surface of the mold and make a new master die for the spark erosion process to resurface the mold, leaving raised lines.  The metal that forms those lines would be the remnants of the welded-on metal and would certainly not last through the resurfacing process let alone a production run of any quantity.

Right you are but the process works, how I don't know, but it works.

P.S. Did ask, after welding, and filling cavity, same CNC machine grinds positive welding spot into panel line, again specs I don't know, in hobby it was first implemented in die cast tech.

Edited by Thomas V.
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51 minutes ago, Thomas V. said:

same CNC machine grinds positive welding spot into panel line

 

Well, basically 100% of these "large number of excellent tooling" were made with traditional methods, not modern CAD. Without the entire CAD design, there is not much where to get the data for the CNC machines to correct anything in the mould. As @LanceB explained, there is no "fraction cost" here. Revell would have had to invest considerable sums to achieve a very average result. There would be more sense in a larger investment that would lead to the development of a completely new kit, in line with the standards of the 2020s.

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Revell would do well I think from a "classic" line of 1/48 monogram kits like airfix is doing, as well as rereleasing some of the great luftwaffe stuff from the 90s and early 2000s that you cant get anymore ( I really want the 48th Lippish P13) and I would snap up a couple of the 32nd Erla G-10s as I kinda thought that kit would hang around and didnt get one on release.

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8 hours ago, Thomas V. said:

All mentioned when plastic kit market is never healthier due to number of reasons, but also do radical change in age when people first enter the hobby, from 5-7

to 25-30 y.o -meaning quality is paramount. 

I think that is the key. Market (in Europe!) has changed. Craft manufacturers from Central and Eastern Europe reign the market of adult modellers and make seemingly good business while mass producers of childish kits are in clear decline. 

 

Seems the situation on the Far East is different which helps local manufacturers maintain high outputs. But in Europe we are clearly witnessing market shift. 

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6 hours ago, Phas3e said:

Revell would do well I think from a "classic" line of 1/48 Monogram kits like Airfix is doing.

I'd really be very interested to know how well all of those 'classic' kits are selling and to whom. I built pretty much all of them in my youth as did any of my friends who are into modelling and none of us have any interest in revisiting them now, either out of nostalgia or for any other reason. Life's simply too short at this stage (we've all seen our 60th birthdays come and go) and there are far too many more recent kits out there still to be built to waste time re-doing all of the old stuff.

 

Genuinely puzzled as to what market they're aimed at.....

 

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3 hours ago, hopkp said:

I'd really be very interested to know how well all of those 'classic' kits are selling and to whom. I built pretty much all of them in my youth as did any of my friends who are into modelling and none of us have any interest in revisiting them now, either out of nostalgia or for any other reason. Life's simply too short at this stage (we've all seen our 60th birthdays come and go) and there are far too many more recent kits out there still to be built to waste time re-doing all of the old stuff.

 

Genuinely puzzled as to what market they're aimed at.....

 

Im 50 and I guess there aimed at me ? I build every Monogram kit I can get a hold of. I grew up less than 40 minutes from the factory/offices and still think dollar wise the kits are still quite good compared to what I've seen in some modern tooling’s. Don't misunderstand me I enjoy the likes of Tamiya, Hasegawa, Airfix, Eduard, or other companies. But I’ll take an F-106 or F-102 from them in 1/48 over Trumpeter’s $69.00 kit. There P-47D BT is still decent in my eyes, and cost 70% less than a Tamiya kit.  In the end please understand I mean no offense, I'm just explaining why I still prefer older kits by using Monogram as an example.  

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I

5 hours ago, hopkp said:

I'd really be very interested to know how well all of those 'classic' kits are selling and to whom. I built pretty much all of them in my youth as did any of my friends who are into modelling and none of us have any interest in revisiting them now, either out of nostalgia or for any other reason. Life's simply too short at this stage (we've all seen our 60th birthdays come and go) and there are far too many more recent kits out there still to be built to waste time re-doing all of the old stuff.

 

Genuinely puzzled as to what market they're aimed at.....

 

I've bought some, and I'll be 60 this year. It's not been out of nostalgia but because (a) the subject appeals to me and (b) I prefer simpler kits in any case. Oh, and (c): I'm tightfisted. So I've laid in 7 or 8 Demons as a basis for modelling other Hart variants, though I already had an Osprey and Hector in the stash. I bought the Jetstream (which I never had in the old days) because I wanted a Jetstream to fit into a 1970s RAF theme, and I'ld have bought the Dominie if I hadn't already got one. Similarly, the Matador and 5.5" gun for a collection of late war British AFVs and vehicles. I do wonder why anybody would buy some of the other stuff that's been reissued, though. The Panther is a good example: it's a piece of old junk and much better renditions are available. Even the Armourfast kit aimed at wargamers will give you a better model, doesn't cost much more and you get two in the box. Although I model WW2 British warships, I've got no interest in the ones in the classic range because (excepting HMS Belfast) I think they're overpriced for what they are, plus 1/600 has become an 'oddball' scale and I prefer waterline models.

 

I also bought several examples of the Revell B-47 when they did a programme of reissuing classic kits, a good few years ago now, together with the 1/78 Rotodyne and the ex-Matchbox Heyford. Again, because the subjects appealed. But I couldn't tell you why I bought the box scale B-57, given that I had two Airfix ones in the stash. It looks cool built up, though!

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