The Wonderfest Flyer has been posted on their website!    Make your reservations now for the show in Louisville on May 26-27, 2006 in Louisville.

CultTVman will be sponsoring the appearence of Star Trek's Robert Picardo!

Wonderfest website

updated 2-12-07

4/7/07

Phebus Creation has introduced their first series of 1/35 scale resin figurines -   U.S. COLONIAL  MARINES from the movie ALIENS.  The first seven figures are now available.  Each finely detailed figure has 27 parts!

For more information visit the Phebus Creation website

4/7/07

Monarch Models has launched a website and are promoting a new styrene kit of Nosferatu, sculpted by Jeff Yagher, emulating the Aurora style.   The website is showing an image of the box art for the kit and they are promising the kit will be available in June.    Pricing has not been announced.

Monarch Models are also is listed as a dealer at Wonderfest this year.

Visit the Monarch Models website

4/7/07

There have been a number of significant developments with regards to RC2 since the company announced that they were shutting down a number of their divisions to focus on more profitable product lines.

First, the company is changing its name to Learning Curve.   If you recall, back when Racing Champions purchased Playing Mantis, they also purchased Learning Curve.  Learning Curve produces infants and children's toys and apparently this is the most profitable part of the toy industry.   The company is now clearly focusing their business on this market.

Second, RC2/Learning Curve is currently liquidating much of their Star Trek and Star Wars inventory.   All of the Trek kits and most of the Star Wars line have been heavily discounted to retailers.   Don't be surprised if you see many of these kits popping up at discounters this summer.  The refit Enterprise, both NX-01 kits, and the two Enterprise ship sets are no longer available through RC2.  In the past, when RC2 has cleared out product like this it was because the licenses were expiring.

Finally, the company sales reps are telling retailers they will still continue to produce kits but no new tooling would be created.   That's not a significant change from the last couple years.  However, as late as December, the company was supposedly in negotiations on the Trek license and wanted to product more product including additional Trek diecasts in the Johnny Lighting line.  That will not be happening now.

It's not secret that RC2 has their model division for sale and are getting out of the model business.  They are apparently holding on to the Johnny Lightning brand.

It's not a bad thing that AMT is for sale.  The company has actually been bought and sold a number of times over the last 25 years.   RC2 did not really develop the Star Trek license after they purchased Polar Lights.    They did pursue the Star Wars license, but mostly they reissued old kits.   To their credit, they brought out models of the Jedi Starfighter, but those kits did not arrive until 6 months after the movie came out!   With any luck, whoever buys AMT/Polar Lights will realize what they have and actually re-release some of the good kits and pursue new ones.

4/7/07

Cult of Personality has several aftermarket products in development that should be out for Chiller.    These include a new replacement head for the Moebius Jekyll kit, a new Kirby style Hulk head for the Polar Lights kit, a set of resin teeth for the Moebius Jekyll kit, a deluxe set of Robin parts which includes photo etch detail parts for the computer base, and new Godzilla parts.

4/7/07

IPMS Germany has released news of upcoming Star Wars kits from Revell-Germany. Look for these kits in Sept. 2007.

• Slave One will be about 10 inches long, prepainted, 35 parts and will include a figure. It will have movable wing and turret.
• The Y-Wing will be a prepainted 30 part snap kit, also including a figure. It will be about 9 inches and have a moveable gun turret.
• The Snowspeeder will be 8 inches long, and include 2 figures. It will have 26 parts and be repainted.
• The AT-AT is supposed to be 16 inches with 72 parts and moveable legs!

4/14/07

Concept Space subject: The Rockwell C-1057 "Breadbox" Space Shuttle - Patterned by Scott Lowther and cast by Controlled Energy Designs (CED), this 1:144 solid-cast resin kit comes with 13 pressure-cast parts and an extensive full-color decal sheet by JBOT.

Princess Ardala's Launch from "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" is now available for purchase. Patterned by Alfred Wong and cast by Blap Models, this 1:72 kit features 13 pressure-cast pieces and builds into a model 10 inches long.

Other releases for 2007: Colonial Marines Dropship from "Aliens", Barnes Wallis "Swallow" SST, A-Wing Fighter, Orion CEV, Polaris II from "The Space Explorers", T/Space CXV, Phoenix Warp Ship from "Star Trek: First Contact", Northrop Nuclear-Powered Flying Wing 1:144, Rheinmetal-Borsig VTOL, Douglas DCX "Delta Clipper"

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com

4/14/07