Round 2 news – October 2020
We’ve got a bit of news from Round 2 this week. First off, there are several new kit announcements for products coming in early 2021. The USS Excelsior is a reissue of the 1:1000 scale kit that came out a few years ago. The model has been unavailable for a couple years so this is a welcome reissue. The Creepy Coupe is the third of the four Wacky Races kits. Finally, the Area 51 UFO will be reissued. This was produced by Testors in the mid 1990’s and later reissued by Lindberg. These are up for preorder in the CultTVman Hobbyshop
- USS Excelsior reissue 1:1000 from AMT/Round 2
- Area 51 UFO reissue 1:48 from Polar Lights/Round 2
- Wacky Races – Creepy Coupe from MPC/Round 2
Earlier this week, Jamie Hood, brand manager at Round 2, posted a photo of his desk on Instagram. The photo offers a few nice hints about various projects. The image on the screen is the box art for the upcoming reissue of the Excelsior. You’ll notice a built up Speed Racer. To the left of the chair are a few model parts, hinting at one possible upcoming project. A few people were excited by the poster on the right, showing the Akira, but Jamie has stated this is just a leftover from a show display and the kit is not in development.
Finally, Jamie Hood also appeared on the Amazing Scale Modeler podcast on Saturday, October 3. He talked about several projects
- The USS Excelsior reissue, as noted above, is coming out in early 2021.
- An interior for the Galileo has been designed, but they don’t currently have the funds available to tool it. They plan to offer it in the future. As designed, it is not something that can be inserted into an assembled model
- The final Haunted Manor kit will be coming in early 2021
- There will be a new 1:1000 scale Star Trek kit in the first half of 2021
- They are working on future projects, asking for tooling quotes for a possible 1:350 Star Trek kit, so this is very early in the development process
- They are also asking for tooling quotes for a new Space 1999 kits. Again, this is very early in development
- Jamie said he was working on a second 1999 kit, but did not give any details.
They hope to have more news to announce before the end of the year. Some of the other things talked about were other licenses including other Trek shows, Gerry Anderson shows, etc. Jamie noted they are currently focused on Star Trek and Space 1999. With limited budget for tooling, any other projects would mean taking funding from Trek and 1999 models. He also discussed some of the decision making that goes into choosing subjects and scales. I would recommend everyone view this podcast.
And last, we have the box art for Speed Racer shown above. That is also available to preorder in the CultTVman Shop
