Masterpiece, Part 3

[mstar]

Bill said once that the Town & Country is a problem because it is sold under a different name in Europe (Grand Voyager), which would mean more license fees, as I suppose.

[BillC]

Jeff,

On the Volvos, I suggest you check back with us next February at the 60th Annual International Toy Fair.

On the Chrysler minivans, we are not considering them at this time.

Bill C.

[mstar]

Whoa, February...that's still far away...:-( But I'll be happy to hold them in my hands eventually :-) Thanks Bill!

[BillC]

Photos of all the colors of the Main Street Motors Ford and Plymouth have been posted at the Masterpiece Automotive Replicas website.

www.masterpieceautoreplicas.com

[starmada]

The pictures shown in this thread looked like some toys when I compared with the pictures of the real vehicles. They are running out of the quality which I actually want.

In case I want to invest on making some world class replicas I like, where should I go? How much should I pay?

[BillC]

May 8, 2008 19:59:44 GMT 1 starmada said:

The pictures shown in this thread looked like some toys when I compared with the pictures of the real vehicles. They are running out of the quality which I actually want.

In case I want to invest on making some world class replicas I like, where should I go? How much should I pay?

Which pictures are you talking about? And what made you change your mind from your earlier post? The Ford is improved and Chrysler's product reviewer actually praised the Plymouth model, which is unusual. Don't forget the Main Street Motors models are priced about 35-40% less than a standard Masterpiece model so they have less detail.

In terms of making your own model, there are several companies that can accommodate you. Plan on investing $50,000 or more per model for development, tooling, licensing, production and shipping of initial inventory. That would include both plastic and diecast models; diecast isn't a bargain anymore unless you're going into the mass-market toy business, in which case, I would suggest having a spare $500,000-$1,000,000 handy.

[hovehicle]

Bill,

Don't worry, I like what I see with the Main Street Motors line. I was really hoping for the candy apple red on the Ford instead of the brighter red. Maybe in a future run? For the price, the cars come with good proportions, decent tires and wheels (no monster truck tires!), and mirrors. Will the rear tailights come painted red?

Also, are these going to be in hobby shops by the end of May? Could be a very expensive month for me if the Models11 Chargers hit the stores at the same time as the Main Street Motors cars.

Vito L.

[stanhas87]

Dear Bill:

The Chrysler never had a problem and the Ford is highly improved so is my opinion that these will be good sellers. Is this very rare moment when many four door sedan been developed at once, as me and many modelers been asking for a good while. As I see the Ford, I have this craving to see either Hawaii 5 -0 episodes or Diamonds are Forever, where several of these are wasted. A 1971 - 1974 Ford LTD next, please.

Nick K

[ensemble187]

The Main Street Motors Plymouth and Ford are exceptional, and made only better by their competitive pricing. Also, I’ve already got orders in for several of each of the Challenger and Journey. We should provide Bill and the Masterpiece team with accolades for bringing so many American prototypes to market so fast.

I don’t want to speak for anyone, but perhaps it’s the camera perspective that is giving some the impression that they look like toys. Our eyes do not usually catch all of the close-up detail that we’re seeing in the photos in these threads.

Tony F

[BillC]

Thanks, guys, but I really wanted to know why starmada changed his opinion. His opinion, like everyone else's is important.

I have asked the factory to change the Ford color from the Calypso Red to the Candy-Apple Red, but we also have to see what Ford says.

[starmada]

Before getting the real car pictures, it looked great!

After comparing the pictures with the real car pictures, it looked something different!

[BillC]

Well, I would ask that you at least look at the models when they come out.

To answer Vito's earlier question, the Plymouth's taillights are painted but it has clear headlight inserts. The Ford's headlights are part of the grille molding, but the taillights are translucent red.

[only87]

I do share starmadas view to same extent, the models have sort of a toyish appeareance. It may be the lighting but the plastic looks like the cheap oily plastic used on the Magic cars from Herpa, as there some colors look ok some look Chinese cost cutting cheap. The use of this plastic also makes the proportions a bit blurry, I don't know exactly what it is, maybe the Chinese use higher pressure or just release the plastic earlier from the mold or it's just the consisty of the plastic, but all the models that use this cheap plastic (first Herpa youngtimers and their most recent run, the Magics, Herpas Büssing, Brekinas Knudsen Taunus, the Drummer models, Mibers) but the cheaper the plastic looks, the blurrier the proportions get. No chrome or overbright chrome add to that toyish appeareance. So models even pretend to bend to some extent before your eyes (like the Drummer Fiat) but once you repainted the whole body that effect has gone. The Main street motors and the other pre production model shots look a bit bent, too. I think it's the oily, soapy half-soft plastic used. The bright red models look especially toyish, the darker the color, the better it gets, but then there's still the glazing.
Bare metal foil and a little paint here and there may help a lot here, especially on the darker ones.

Also, I've beeen complaining about the roofline of the Ford, it looks like it's directly from the scrapyard where another vehicle had been sitting on it. The point that bothers me about such things is not that the detail has been captured wrongly but that once I start to reshape it I have to repaint it, meaning that all the printings and the carefully chosen plastic coloration go destination trash bin, all being well paid for, being more budget or not. So in the end I give a shhhh.. about the color variations and the fine print detail. Just give me the model directly after being releases from the mold... before it will be assembled with sticky sticky glue. Just give me the parts in flaky grey-pink or whatever plastic is the cheapest because I will have to redo the roof anyway. But you won't, right?

The Plymouth looks fine though. I wished you would have chosen two boxy cars for your first-times, and done the complex Ford once you were ready for it. But it is what it is now, but maybe there's still time to upgrade the plastic a bit, if only on the Plymouth.

But I'll wait for the final models for a final judgement.

[starmada]

I wish to make and invest twelve models in my mind. Based on your numbers provided, I should have at least $12,000,000 handy. Are you sure?

I can use this number to collect a dozen real new sport and classis cars ;D ;D ;D ;D. Was this number valided? How was this number coming out?

May 9, 2008 0:42:59 GMT 1 BillC said:

May 8, 2008 19:59:44 GMT 1 starmada said:

In terms of making your own model, there are several companies that can accommodate you. Plan on investing $50,000 or more per model for development, tooling, licensing, production and shipping of initial inventory. That would include both plastic and diecast models; diecast isn't a bargain anymore unless you're going into the mass-market toy business, in which case, I would suggest having a spare $500,000-$1,000,000 handy.

[BillC]

Starmada: Please look at what I said again. If you wanted 12 plastic models of high quality, you would need about $600,000 (12 X $50,000), or maybe a bit more, to have product ready to sell. That's based on real numbers from a couple of different companies. One company of which I am aware spends over $60,000 to develop just the tooling for a new model, but that's a lot more than the average.

I should have been a little more clear about the mass-market model, though, because that's a whole different ball game. There are other costs involved, especially these days, in getting a product into the mass-market toy market and I didn't mean to imply it would cost a million dollars per model. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see it cost well over a million dollars to get your 12 models into Wal-Mart, Toys 'R' Us or Target. The required insurance alone would add significantly to the cost (yes, you do have to have millions of dollars in liability insurance just to get a license for a model these days). Then there's testing, promotion, cost of sales, etc., etc.

To respond to Peter's remarks: the models are painted, but they are made of the same type of ABS plastic as the regular Masterpiece models. By the way, please also note that I had the models for only a short time so the photography isn't the best. These were the individually produced sample models that had to be sent to Chrysler and Ford for approval and we don't get them back so I set up and photographed all the models in a single evening without giving them the attention and time I usually take.

The reds are as closely matched to factory shades as we could come. Sorry, but the late 1960s and early 1970s saw some pretty funky factory paint colors, even on family sedans (the Plymouth was really offered in Avocado Green). For the Ford, we actually had 1970 dealer paint chip sample chart, so those colors are pretty close. For the Plymouth, we had to work from photos and dealer material. We will have darker colors in future releases.