RETRO ROCKETS #76 10/17/2010
Visit the Retro Rockets Archive
Reposting a vintage Retro Rockets…
Its time for another intermittent installment of the Retro Rockets newsletter. The last issue was in February, with a couple bulletins in between. Finding a couple hours to sit down and compile the newsletter isn’t something that is easy to do, despite my best intentions.
THE CULTTVMAN WEBSITE
The CultTVman website has now fully transitioned to the WordPress platform. The site hosted at CultTVman2.com has been shut down and redirects to the main page. I’ve been very happy with the flexibility and ease of use with WordPress. I’m able to post material faster, and keep it organized much as I have since the site started almost 14 years ago. I still have hundreds of pages of material to repost from the archives, and I will continue to repost the material a little bit at a time. In addition, I still have quite a bit of materiel that was never posted to the site. I’m pulling from that stockpile too so you are getting a good mix of new and vintage material.
I am also taking new submissions for the first time in over a year. The submission guidelines are still much the same as they have been in the past. Please follow the guidelines. I don’t need extremely large files. You can find the submission guidelines at
http://culttvman.com/main/?p=422
MODEL NEWS AND UPDATES
When I started the Sci-Fi Modeling Digest/Retro Rockets, email was really the best way to get news and information out. SFMD was a weekly newsletter sent out on Saturday nights. These days, there are better ways to get the news and updates out on a regular basis. All the news is getting posted directly to the website, almost as soon as I can get it posted. So please be sure to visit the website on a daily basis.
The website also has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to and get the site updates as they happen, pushed to your browser, just like all the news websites do. You can subsribe to that using the RSS functionality of Firefox or IE.
The link for the RSS feed is
http://culttvman.com/main/?feed=rss
In addition, site updates are posted to Facebook and Twitter as they happen. I know a lot of you are not interested in social media, so don’t feel obligated to use it. I still don’t quite comprehend the fascination with Twitter, but I know there are people that regularly follow my Tweets. Facebook is a great tool for staying in touch with a lot of your fellow model builders. Quite a few people are posting photos of their work on Facebook. It is a great resource and tool. The Twitter feed is at
http://www.twitter.com/CultTVman
and you’ll find my Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/CultTVman
There is also a fan page for the CultTVman Hobbyshop at
http://www.facebook.com/CultTVman#!/pages/Atlanta-GA/CultTVmans-Hobbyshop/147325\
161127
I also continue send out emails for the CultTVman Hobbyshop, which tell you about new and restocked products. You can subscribe to that at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/culthobbyshop/
We still do the weekly chats in the CultTVman Chatroom on Friday and Sunday nights.
http://culttvman.com/main/?page_id=2738
IHOBBYEXPO IS NEXT WEEK
IHobbyExpo is the annual hobby trade show in Chicago. It runs Oct 21-24 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. Thursday and Friday are trade days for people in the hobby shop business, while Saturday and Sunday are open to the public. The major model companies usually announce new products for the next year, so it is always a great show. I’ll be reporting from the show, so be sure to check the website for news and photos.
A couple predictions:
– we’ll likely see more superhero kits. Moebius has talked about Marvel and DC licenses in their forum, so maybe we’ll see some new kit announcements. Round 2 should be showing Batmobile patterns, if not test shots.
– we’ll see more Science Fiction subjects. The Galactica kits and Moonbus from Moebius have been the biggest sellers this year. Hopefully there will be more NEW toolings coming from all the model companies.
– Round 2 will continue to produce Star Trek kits. I expect they have several more kits they will reissue in the coming year. They’ve also talked for a while about a 1:350 Classic Enterprise… maybe we’ll get lucky and have a formal announcement.
– Round 2 will likely announce Dark Shadows kits. They strongly hinted at this in their blog.
– Lindberg/JLloyd does not appear to have a booth at the show this year.
– Moebius will show off the Elvira pattern… they had this at an Orlando show last week. They most likely will show the pattern/protypes for their upcoming cars, the International truck, as well as Viper Mk VII, and 1:35 scale Lost in Space Pod and Chariot. Photos of all these have been show on their website.
– Atlantis/Megahobby has a booth. I hear rumors of a Prehistoric Scenes T-Rex reissue. Those might just be rumors with no substance. There’s a lot of hot air out there. I know everyone wants to see the Black Bear and Bison kits too.
– Revell will most likely show off the new Star Wars Clone Wars kits.
– Pegasus Hobbies will be there and if we are lucky, they will show their War of the Worlds tripod.
Please note that these are only predictions based on things that have been publicly posted. I know there are some really good surprises in store for us. Stay tuned.
MODEL NEWS ROUND UP
It has been a very busy year for kit reissues, as well as happenings in the garage kit side of the hobby. Here is a bit of an overview:
MOEBIUS MODELS
Battlestar Galactica, as well as the remaining Aurora Monster kits of the Gruesome Goodies, Pain Parlor, and Vampirella should be out in early November. Dracula, Elvira, and the 1:35 scale Lost in Space Pod and Chariot are pushed back to early 2011.
The summer was busy for Moebius, releasing the Aurora Moonbus, Galactica Viper, Confederate Raider, Superboy, Wonder Woman, and the Monsters of the Movies Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Moebius also showed off patterns on their site for a Viper Mk VII. They have also shown a Cylon Raider, but that is not on their current schedule.
The Deluxe Jupiter 2 is a metal hulled 18″ display model with an interior and lighting. This is aimed at the high end collector and it is expected to ship in early 2011. This will be an extremely limited production based on preorders. If you are interested in purchasing this, you’ll want to get your order in. The cutoff date is very soon. Photos are posted on the Moebius website.
http://moebiusmodels.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Moebius-Models/152580141448964
ROUND 2
This summer, Round 2 released their line of 1:2500 Star Trek kits called the Cadet Series. They also issued the K-7 Space Station, the Psycho House, the Aurora Batmobile and the AMT Munster Cars in a Collector’s Tin. Under the Polar Lights brand, they reissued the Glow Munsters Living Room and Glow Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Look for the 1:1400 Clear Enterprise-D, the Reliant, the Klingon Bird of Prey and the Romulan Bird of Prey before the end of the year. Also expect the Guilotine, and Bigfoot any day. The Monster Glow Heads and Pilgrim Explorer should also be out before the end of the year.
The snap 1:25 Batmobile and the new movie Enterprise are pushed back to 2011.
http://round2models.com/
http://collectormodel.com/
http://www.facebook.com/Round2Models
PEGASUS HOBBIES
Pegasus released the vinyl War of the Worlds Martian, and the When Worlds Collide Space Ark. These have been very popular kits. They also release photos of the upcoming Martian Alien from the War of the Worlds remake.
ATLANTIS
Atlantis is a new company run by the guys at Megahobby. They reissued the Aurora Zorro kit, as well as the White Stalion this past summer. They are reissuing the Aurora Bison and Black Bear later this year and have announced several other Aurora reissues in the future.
MONARCH MODELS
Monarch released their Sinbad kit this summer. Sinbad is a new 1:8 scale, Aurora styled model sculpted by Jeff Yaeger. They have shown more photos of the Ghost of Castle Mare and Gorgo kits, but have not provided any official release dates. Needless to say, the Ghost kit is long over due.
http://monarchmodels.net
PARAGRAFIX
Paragrafix has been on a role, releasing new photo etch for the 1:1000 refit, as well as a new set of battle damage photo etch for the same model. Coming very soon will be photo etch for the Space Ark. They also have a resin detail set coming for the Moebius Moonbus, a generic battle damage photo etch sheet, a photoetch detail set for the Moebius Galactica kit, and a set of licensed figures for the 1:35 Lost in Space Jupiter 2.
VOODOOFX
VoodooFX has continued to produce new light kits. Their most recent release is a light unit for the Space Ark from Pegasus. They also have a light kit for the Martian from Pegasus. Other popular kits will add lights to the Viper mk II, and the Vox and Communicator from Pegasus. They should have a light kit for the K7 very soon.
MODULAR MODELS
My old friend John Zizolfo has started a new company called Modular Models. The company offers different components that can be configured numerous ways for custom models. Their first releases were 1:1000 scale tug containers, and decals for the 1:1000 refit. Next up is a detail set for the Vulcan shuttle.
STARCRAFT
Starcraft introduced some new 1:1400 kits at Wonderfest this year. They include the USS Kelvin, USS Newton, the USS Armstrong, the USS Defiant, and the USS Mayflower. These can be purchased through Federation Models
FINE PRINT:
CultTVman’s Retro Rockets is a news and information newsletter which supports the CultTVman Fantastic Modeling website. All material is © 2010 Steve Iverson. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. CultTVman, CultTVman’s Retro Rockets and CultTVman’s SF Modeling Guild are trademarks owned by Stephen J. Iverson.
