Hobby Hint

New product is what drives the hobby industry, but new items don't just appear overnight. Beginning with this story, Model Retailer will examine in the months ahead just how various hobby products are developed and brought to market.

Take Revell-Monogram's 1:25 Acura Integra Type R, for example. It took roughly 20 months of development, including research time, before it was released in mid-2000.

What took so long? Read on!

For Revell-Monogram, product development is as much a constant as death, taxes and weird relatives.

Just ask Ed Sexton, senior manager of product development for the Morton Grove, Ill.-based manufacturer of plastic and die-cast models. In 2001, for example, the company offered 70 new plastic releases, which were broken between kits made from all-new tooling, conversions from older kits, and reissues, where the plastic isn't changed, but there are new instructions and decals.

A similar process was used for the 30 new die-cast products released that year.

For kits with new tooling and conversions, there is a regimented four-step development process each kit goes through before it ends up on your store's shelf.

That's exactly what happened with the 1:25 Acura Integra Type R, a new-tooling kit that was released in mid-2000 as part of R-M's Hot Hatch Euros (now Tuners) line, which ultimately became one of the most popular models the company has offered in recent years.

Licensing/research

Research is the first step, normally. However, Sexton says that in the case of the Integra, approval had to be acquired from American Honda, the Torrance, Calif.-based U.S. division of Honda, before any research could begin. So that was delayed a bit, until late 1998.

"We had a license with American Honda," Sexton explains. "We informed them of our intentions to produce the Acura Integra and we got the necessary approvals to produce the model. You want to be clear on licensing so you don't spin your wheels."

Essentially, Revell-Monogram, which has had a licensing deal with American Honda since the early 1990s, ended up paying a licensing fee to that firm. With that resolved, the fun could really begin, or at least the travel.

"When we did the Acura Integra, we made a trip to California to do research," Sexton says, adding that he and vice president of engineering Roger Harney were the lucky ones who got to go to the Los Angeles area. "We went to shops that do high-performance work on Acura Integras.

"We went to a couple of places, looking for a complete engine out of the car, so we could take pictures of it. Then you could take photos of an engine compartment, without an engine in it."

On a separate trip, combined with stops for other projects, photos were taken of aftermarket add-ons like the rear wing, side skirts and front air dam. For that, they went to an import car show.

Meanwhile, back in the Chicago area, the product development department managed to find a "nice, very clean" Integra, and another five hours were spent shooting that vehicle. "What we'll do is [shoot] all around the body, the interior and then put it up on a lift and shoot it from the bottom," Sexton says.

All that work took six months, which seems like a long time until you consider the logistics of scheduling all the travel and meetings involved.

Another interesting sidelight - blueprints were unavailable and thus not used in the creation of the Integra, though R-M tries very hard to get CAD (computer-aided design) data, Sexton says. "Some companies are able to help us, and some are not."

Design and pattern models

The next step - design - began in May 1999.

"The designer pores through all the photos and he makes a preliminary decision as to how the parts will be broken down," Sexton says, "things like, how many parts go to make up the engine. With more parts, you can get more detail, but it's more expensive.

"Part of this review is on the marketing side ... do we want to put more parts in the engine, or do we want to offer a second aerodynamic package, where you would offer two rear wings instead of one in the same box? Or do you want to offer one set of extra wheels or two sets of extra wheels?"

After all those decisions were hammered out, the actual design got underway, consisting of a combination of CAD work and a draftsman who drew most of the parts. This part of the process can take up to three months, Sexton says.

From there, all that information - both drawings and photos - was transferred to a specialized shop in China that does specific pattern models and mold making. That shop in turn created a 1:10 pattern model of the Integra. This third phase took roughly another three months.

"We usually go with 1:10 because it's easier to work with," Sexton says. "Everything is going to be made in the pattern model phase and then it's all test-fitted together so it fits properly. It's easier to do in that bigger scale than it would be in 1:25."

Harney, who approved the final pattern model at the end of 1999, makes regular trips to China specifically to check the pattern models. "You land in Hong Kong and most of the shops are in mainland China, so you take a train north," Sexton says.

"In between his trips, we get e-mailed digital photos of the pattern models. We make changes and then part of the process is Roger going over there and approving the final."

Sexton says the Integra's pattern model phase went smoothly, but it doesn't always.

"You can have problems, such as misinterpreted information," he says. "They've never seen the real live car, so they are only working by photos, so you have to have our review of it to get it right."

The mold

The fourth and final phase is perhaps the most important - creating the mold.

"Once the pattern models are finished, they have to make a cast image of the pattern model, because it's actually these cast images that will translate into the mold," Sexton says. "Let's say that the model is a positive image. The cast is a negative image of that. What you panograph is the cast shapes."

Ah, yes, the panograph. Think of it as a machine that "translates" the 1:10 pattern model into a 1:25 tooling cavity, or the mold. Liquid plastic is then injected into the cavity and eventually becomes the parts trees (or sprues) you find in a box.

Each cavity, he adds, is new - it's basically a big piece of steel cut by the panograph machine to the image of the cast.

"By using the panograph machine, it does a rough cut of the cavity," Sexton says, "then they must go in and smooth all the surfaces and sharpen detail."

Once the tool, or mold, is created, it has to be tested. "And what you do is put it in a press and run parts and these parts are test-fitted together by a modeler," he says. "Then adjustments are made to the steel so that the plastic fits together properly."

That can take anywhere from six to 18 weeks, and can be an arduous process. Once a test model is built after the parts are sent to Morton Grove, changes are recommended, then made by the factory in China and new test-model parts are sent and built. Basically, "they keep building the parts until they build and fit properly," Sexton says.

Packaging

While mold testing is going on (March 2000, in the Integra's case), the box, instructions and decals are being developed.

"We have a box designer, we have an instruction sheet designer and we have a decal designer," Sexton says. "It varies, but it usually takes them six weeks from start to finish and they are working simultaneously."

Sometimes, the most enticing thing about a plastic model kit is the box art, and R-M has several options at its disposal.

"Sometimes we go and get a photo of the actual car from a photographer," he says. "Other times we have a professional illustrator create an illustration of the full-size vehicle. Lastly, sometimes we have an in-house photographer do a creative picture of the box-art model. For every kit, we include detail shots of the built-up of the model that's inside the kit. Sometimes that built-up is on the cover."

Putting it all together

Sexton, who heads a team responsible for bringing all the components together in one box, says that is achieved in one of three ways ... but only after engineering approves the final mold, which for the Integra came in April 2000.

Sometimes the final production run is made, bagged and placed in boxes with instructions and decals exclusively in China. Usually the final mold is sent to Morton Grove, where the final production run is made, and the rest of the parts and instructions added.

And occasionally, as in the case of the Integra, the parts are molded and bagged in China and sent to Morton Grove, where they are packaged. The bagged parts spent about a month on the water, traveling from China to California. From there, they were trucked to Morton Grove, where they were packed with the box plan and decals and prepared for July release.

But that's not quite the end. Marketing is another key component.

Sexton says the Integra was formally announced at the 1999 National Model & Hobby Show in Rosemont, Ill., and the American International Toy Fair the following February. It also appeared in the company's 2000 catalog, which was available in Rosemont.

Additionally, "we have regular mailings to retailers and distributors, and lastly, we do advertising in trade and consumer magazines," Sexton says. "In Scale Auto and FineScale Modeler, we do a banner ad to highlight those models that have been shipped to stores and are available in stores. In addition to that, we have a product sampling mailing program, where we will mail out a new release to key hobby media people" (such as Model Retailer).

He adds that at the same time the company publishes its new catalog, it places the forthcoming year's new releases on its Web site, www.revell-monogram.com, and as the models are shipped, they are highlighted on the site.

It's a lot of work, considering how many new products Revell-Monogram releases each year. But for Sexton, there are plenty of smiles that accompany the hard work.

"The place I get the most satisfaction is to see an emerging trend, like these hot import tuner cars," he says. "To make a model of it and then to see it sell and see the guys enjoy it, that's the most satisfying to me, that we've done the model properly, it gets good reviews and the modelers enjoy building it.

"The way you get the message the loudest and the clearest is the sales numbers."