Greetings all;
While this is a very rare rod at that can anybody tell me what happened to the mold. I have heard that they found that it was damaged and not worth repair.
FSM did this as a “Classic Kit” some years ago. Their write-up quoted a Monogram executive as saying the tooling had been discarded after sales ran their course
Sounds like their blowing smoke and flashing mirrors. the tooling disgarded? How many hundreds of thousands of dollars did a mold cost and it was disregarded? HHhhhhmmm…
Yeah, it struck me as rather unlikely as well, considering all sorts of Monogram stuff has been in either near-constant or periodic release since that same time (and before). Other than the legendary “Aurora trainwreck,” it doesn’t seem too many of those old tooling sets disappeared completely. And this is one I’d love to see in re-release some time.
Greg
I also would love to get this kit again. I still have the instruction sheet and even one of the collectors cards that came out with these kits. See them on ebay every now and then but the prices they go for, even someones old build up with missing parts.
Monogram Lied! Just picked up 2 kits from Squadron.
I picked up mine last year when it was released.
Mega-Hobby has it for about $18 US. Seems like a bargain compared to most kit prices these days.
monogram re released this kit,its out now on the shelves. and mail order.
…My Guess is the Rommel Rod tooling was lost. Monogram made new tooling using an original kit as a guide and a lot of computerized tool making technology. Polar Lights and Moebius have brought back a number of “lost” kits using this approach.
I have 2, this newer kit is supposed to be “updated”…
When i was little my uncle gave me two original Rommel’s Rods. One i had painted but the other i kept just as he had built it when he was just a kid. Basically he just glued it together.
!(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/DrShrinker/R Rod/DSC00060.jpg?t=1304089558)
When it was released again i bought one in his honor and tried to make it a little cooler.
!(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/DrShrinker/R Rod/DSC00063.jpg?t=1304089805)
I never really finished it (even forgot to put decals on it, and no windows? duh. oh well. 
, but there was nothing updated about the kit. every thing in the box was exactly the same as the kits my uncle gave me.
Looks like a lot of fun to build.
Ron
THe kits are fun to customize too! I put panzer ll running gear on mine! 