I Heard Polar Lights Model Company is Out of Business?

[MEMEGO]

Polar Lights is out of business?? How can that be when they have just reissued the giant Star Trek TMP Enterprise 1/350 Giant Model Kit with added parts and decals so that the Enterprise from TMP or Trek 3 can be built?

[kryptosmaster]

Well a little research show another (new?) company now owns(?) most of the old model kit manufacturer names. The company is called Round 2.

About Us

Round 2 LLC is an innovative collectibles company located in South Bend, Indiana. Its family of brands includes Auto World 1:64 scale electric slot racers and racing sets; Forever Fun™ Holiday Classics, featuring detailed recreations of favorite holiday characters, AMT®, MPC® and Polar Lights® model kits, American Muscle® and Ertl Collectibles® die-cast. Round 2 and its creative team are dedicated to producing detailed, quality playable and collectible items that appeal to the young and the young at heart.

Here is their website:

http://www.round2models.com/

Rich

[Captain]

Actually, Round 2 is Thomas Lowe and the original Playing Mantis folks. A couple of years ago he bought back as many of the old PM licenses as he could.....couldnt get the PM name back though, so he came up with Round 2. Polar Lights was one of the brands he bought back...I think they only one he didnt get back was the Johnny Lightning line from RC2 (who still produce it under the Playing Mantis name).

He also brought back the Rudolph, Frosty, and Charlie Brown holiday toys....Which I think are some of the coolest toys out there...EVER!

[MEMEGO]

Thank you all for the feed back. It is very much apprechiated

[tay666]

Actually, Round 2 is Thomas Lowe and the original Playing Mantis folks. A couple of years ago he bought back as many of the old PM licenses as he could.....couldnt get the PM name back though, so he came up with Round 2. Polar Lights was one of the brands he bought back...I think they only one he didnt get back was the Johnny Lightning line from RC2 (who still produce it under the Playing Mantis name).

He also brought back the Rudolph, Frosty, and Charlie Brown holiday toys....Which I think are some of the coolest toys out there...EVER!

Actually Tom didn't really buy anything back.
He pays RC2 to use their molds and brand names.
He also pays to have the molds cleaned up, and put back into working condition (for those that need repaired before they can be used again, or like in the case of the Spock kit, to reverse changes that were made)

And he didn't bring back the PM folks either.
As Dave Metzner is working for Moebius. He was the guy in charge of the model division when RC2 took over.
There were only around a dozen actual employees of Playing Mantis, and most were phased out soon after RC2 took over everything.