Round2 Dec 2024 youtube

[blubaja]

 

.

[mikemodeler]

Wonder how much they have improved the SSlasher kit? It had some issues IIRC with body proportions and the grille was kinda wonky.

 

[stavanzer]

26 minutes ago, mikemodeler said:

Wonder how much they have improved the SSlasher kit? It had some issues IIRC with body proportions and the grille was kinda wonky.

 

I think, all that was done to the SSlasher was clean the tool & run it. But, I could easily be wrong.

 

Edited to add:

Only One set of Wheels?  Not even the Extra 5 Spokes that are thrown into the Weekend Warrior Dodge dart????

I want to like the SSlasher kit, but C'mon, meet us halfway. The value proposition looks poor on it so far. Nostalgia only goes so far.....

Edited December 4 by stavanzer

[Mr mopar]

a bit disappointed in the Decals for the weekend warrior ,something flashy would have been cool to see . 

Edited December 5 by Mr mopar

[Stef]

Really stoked for the SSSSSSSSlasher; butchered that one as a kid.

Built it in the style of Hemi Hunter (ex LA Dart).

I opened up the trunk, stuffed in the engine, relocated the gas tank inside the engine compartment, and jacked the rear up super high, heh.

This time, I'm gonna butcher this kit in all-new ways!

[thatz4u]

My wallet is safe for yet another month....

[stavanzer]

4 hours ago, Mr mopar said:

a bit disappointed in the Decals for the weekend warrior ,something flash would have been cool to see . 

The Decals for both of the Car kits are really disappointing. The Replica Stock Guys will be very happy to have the factory decals for the Dodge Dart, but as Mr. Mopar says there is nothing flashy about the decals. In fact the sheets looks excessively tame, and shows nothing "Weekend Warrior" in any way. The decals for the SSSlasher are equally uninspiring. Again the Rep Stock guys will be happy to have the stock SS markings as called out on the box, but the kit cannot be built stock, so that will cause heartache on the internet.

I give both kits, a B- grade. Nice to see but, could've been much better.

[stavanzer]

And the SSlasher Instructions, for comparison purposes.

https://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/mpc-instructions/1-sort/mpc-the-sslasher-ch/?view=roll

 

[P51Mustang]

I'm happy for SSlasher and will get more than one kit.  Really like the old MPC kits glad they keep coming...

[DJMar]

21 hours ago, stavanzer said:

I want to like the SSlasher kit, but C'mon, meet us halfway. The value proposition looks poor on it so far. Nostalgia only goes so far.....

Agreed. Personally, I have trouble shelling out current retail for yesteryear's kit design & tech. Nostalgia is cool, but for me, the money to fun ratio just isn't there with a lot of R2's recent releases.

[Ragtop Man]

This would probably be a great place for Steve G. to step in and give a little testimony to what has been cleaned up / updated on the SSlasher and Weekend Warrior.

I'll also go out on a limb to suggest the 3D industry will be on the case for grilles and decals to do the many versions of these classic Chevys (if they are not on the water already.) 

[RSchnell]

2 hours ago, DJMar said:

Agreed. Personally, I have trouble shelling out current retail for yesteryear's kit design & tech. Nostalgia is cool, but for me, the money to fun ratio just isn't there with a lot of R2's recent releases.

Agree 100%.   It's really interesting how Revell can put out new tool kits that are vastly superior to anything Round 2 has in their catalog and retail around $23-26. Round 2 is pumping out stuff that should've been retired or retooled with a selling price that far exceeds the quality. Aside from the '60 & '63 Ford pickups, I haven't bought anything put out by Round 2 in the past year or so. It's easier to go to a model show/swap and find an older issue of said kit for a third of the price & usually not as many problems with warpage, flash etc.

[1972coronet]

I've never had / built the SSlasher (nor any of its iterations), so I'll have to grab one or two this time around. 

The 1975/1976 Dart Sport Weekend Warrior will make it into my collection (along with a handful of other, fairly-recent editions of the kit, plus one of the c.1977 Smokey Chaser version), as I'm planning to make a Spirit of '76 with the Dart Lite decals - and here's to hoping that someone will 3D resin a '73 / '74 grille & tail lamp panel filler for the ol' MPC kit. 

One of the Dart Sport kits' weak points dates to the 1971 Duster annual : the front wheelbase is off side-to-side . That's a PITA if one wants to build OOB.

[stavanzer]

Here is a Kit that is a Home Run, for parts & decals, IMHO. The New 1977 Mustang II kit. It hits all the right notes 10 (!) Tires, awesome decals, and three distinct versions. And, it is a really old school, simple MPC kit, no more complex than the SSlasher. Yet, look at the difference in presentation. No One is really going to balk at paying the cost for the Mustang kit.

I know the SSlasher is a rare old kit, but so is the 'Stang. Once again, we see my "A Team" vs "B Team" theory play out. The Stang "A Team" looks like it got more love (and possibly budget $$) than the Chevelle "B Team". Now this may not be true, but the finished products sure look that way to me. The 4'n'1 Dodge Dart falls between the two Teams. On the Plus-side: Three wheel Options, Two engines, One a Hemi, Large Decal sheet, extra slicks. On the Negative side: Bland decal sheet looking like it is meant to upgrade the Demon or Duster kits, rather than the Dart. Very nice to have, but really pretty Bland. No "Weekend Warrior" decals. Again, the Rep Stock guys are happy, but nothing on the sheet for a Drag Racing car. Only 6 tires. Better than the SSlasher, but not by much. It looks like this is the same plastic as the 4 year old Dodge Dart shown in this HPI Guy Video.

Thanks, HPI Guy for sharing the Mustang II kit with us.

 

[Mark C.]

I’ll provide a counterpoint and point out that nobody else is making ’72 Chevelle or ‘76 Dart Sport kits.  While we would all like to have newly tooled detailed kits of everything, for most subject matter it’s just not going to happen.

So I’ll offer my opinion that I’m happy to see reissues of these old annuals with updated parts and decals because that’s the only way I will have a chance to get the subjects in 1:25.  It would be nice to not have to fix legacy errors when building them, but at the end of the day, if I can have a built model that was fun to do and looks great on the shelf, I’m happy.

[Daddyfink]

Why Round 2 or Revell have not made a new tool Chevelle is beyond me! They have retooled the '57 Chevy, '32 Ford, '67 Camaro and so on, why not an early 70's Chevelle? 

 

[fairlane1320]

Chevys and Mopars as usual. 👌

And the Ford guys get a Mustang II...... yay.👌

[SteveG]

8 hours ago, stavanzer said:

Here is a Kit that is a Home Run, for parts & decals, IMHO. The New 1977 Mustang II kit. It hits all the right notes 10 (!) Tires, awesome decals, and three distinct versions. And, it is a really old school, simple MPC kit, no more complex than the SSlasher. Yet, look at the difference in presentation. No One is really going to balk at paying the cost for the Mustang kit.

I know the SSlasher is a rare old kit, but so is the 'Stang. Once again, we see my "A Team" vs "B Team" theory play out. The Stang "A Team" looks like it got more love (and possibly budget $$) than the Chevelle "B Team". Now this may not be true, but the finished products sure look that way to me. The 4'n'1 Dodge Dart falls between the two Teams. On the Plus-side: Three wheel Options, Two engines, One a Hemi, Large Decal sheet, extra slicks. On the Negative side: Bland decal sheet looking like it is meant to upgrade the Demon or Duster kits, rather than the Dart. Very nice to have, but really pretty Bland. No "Weekend Warrior" decals. Again, the Rep Stock guys are happy, but nothing on the sheet for a Drag Racing car. Only 6 tires. Better than the SSlasher, but not by much. It looks like this is the same plastic as the 4 year old Dodge Dart shown in this HPI Guy Video.

 

With the exception of Sci-Fi, TV and Movie subjects, there's only one team working on the car and truck kits.  Content depends on a lot both what's in the tooling and the packaging concept chosen.  In the case of Hell Drivers Mustang, the tooling was in relatively good condition and had a lot of optional parts that worked well with the packaging so giving you a true 3n1 kit was easy. 

The Weekend Warrior Dart is supposed to represent either a stock looking daily driver or summer cruiser that also gets raced on the Weekends for fun, not a serious race car with a lot of fancy graphics. I think the new decal sheet fits that concept well and adding the 5 spoke mags to the existing content made good sense for this version. 

As for the MPC SSlasher Chevelle, there was a good reason it disappeared for 40 years.   A portion of the tooling containing the engine parts was removed for use in something else, making it totally unusable. To top that off any the inserts that might be useful were on the other side of the world.  I was lucky to get the budget approval to retool up the missing parts.  I did my best to try and find a set of stock looking wheels that we could easily add make it a true 2n1 kit, but it wasn't in the cards.  Honestly, I didn't think of adding the adding the same 5 spokes that are in the Dart, but I guess I could of.   Still, if it sells well enough as the SSlasher kit there a good chance I'll get to spend some more money on it for a future release, maybe something close to the '71 annual but without the Spoof parts.  

-Steve

[Stef]

31 minutes ago, SteveG said:

I did my best to try and find a set of stock looking wheels that we could easily add make it a true 2n1 kit...

Your efforts are greatly appreciated, Steve! IIRC, not all MPC kits from the early 80s had a full set of stock parts to create true 2n1 versions.

Night Prowler, Monza "Pro Street", and I'm pretty sure there are a few others.

What's really interesting about this new release is, it seems to have preserved the side exhausts and at least some of the parts for the optional twin turbos, last seen circa 1983-1984.

Keep the hits coming, Steve, and we'll put your kids through college!

[stavanzer]

1 hour ago, SteveG said:

As for the MPC SSlasher Chevelle, there was a good reason it disappeared for 40 years.   A portion of the tooling containing the engine parts was removed for use in something else, making it totally unusable. To top that off any the inserts that might be useful were on the other side of the world.  I was lucky to get the budget approval to retool up the missing parts.  I did my best to try and find a set of stock looking wheels that we could easily add make it a true 2n1 kit, but it wasn't in the cards.  Honestly, I didn't think of adding the adding the same 5 spokes that are in the Dart, but I guess I could of.   Still, if it sells well enough as the SSlasher kit there a good chance I'll get to spend some more money on it for a future release, maybe something close to the '71 annual but without the Spoof parts.  

Steve, Thank You so much for taking the time to write a detailed reply to my comments. Now That I know the backstory on the Chevelle, I am forced to Eat Crow over the Strength of my commentary. My apologies for coming on so strongly.

I'll be buying a SSlasher and Building it, while toasting you and your crew who made it happen.

[dbostream]

4 hours ago, Daddyfink said:

Why Round 2 or Revell have not made a new tool Chevelle is beyond me! They have retooled the '57 Chevy, '32 Ford, '67 Camaro and so on, why not an early 70's Chevelle? 

 

When Revell tooled the '68 and '69 I was hoping they would continue and make '70-'72 but I have now lost hope.

[1972coronet]

20 hours ago, stavanzer said:

. The New 1977 Mustang II kit [ ... ]  it is a really old school, simple MPC kit

It's actually an old AMT kit, sharing nothing with the MPC kits of the same car.

It's nicely reissued - the options are fantastic ! A little wonky in some respects , but it's a good - and affordable - way to get a Mustang II vs. the pricy MPC versions around.

I'm keen on the Keystone rims, and the 351-C / FMX combo ; the 2.8 V6 / 4-speed looks quite nice as well. 

[Robberbaron]

12 hours ago, SteveG said:

...Still, if it sells well enough as the SSlasher kit there a good chance I'll get to spend some more money on it for a future release, maybe something close to the '71 annual but without the Spoof parts.

Crossing my fingers that we will see that happen!

With minor alterations to the body tooling to make the turn signals separate, it could be easily reissued as either a '71 or the '72 with just a change of the grill and turn signal lenses.  After all, we haven't had a styrene '71 Chevelle in 53 years.

This could also allow the height and shape of the turn signals to be corrected.  From what I've seen in pictures online, it looks like even the original '72 kits and promos were off in that regard.

[stavanzer]

1 hour ago, 1972coronet said:

It's actually an old AMT kit, sharing nothing with the MPC kits of the same car.

I'm sorry John, for confusing the AMT kit with the MPC.

Soery.

[1972coronet]

10 hours ago, stavanzer said:

I'm sorry John, for confusing the AMT kit with the MPC.

Soery.

I apologise if my quote-and-respond seemed as though it was ad hominem . I just wanted to clarify for those who aren't aware that AMT and MPC were separate companies until c.1986 ; that their respective Mustang II offerings are absolutely unique from each other.