Revell assets purchased by German investment group

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

What we know so far…

The bankruptcy of Hobbico has led to Revell’s assets being bought by a German investment group, listed in court documents as Blitz 18-313. It is based near Munich. Blitz also bought Hobbico Germany.

The sale was approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court Friday, April 13. Sale price was $3.9 million with several contingencies that could raise or lower the sum. Hobbico, based in Illinois, had owned Revell and was forced to sell it due to its bankruptcy.

Here’s what we know about the sale. No official announcement has come from Blitz. Our information comes from court documents and other industry sources.

  1. All Revell US operations ceased on Friday, April 13. The Illinois offices were closed and 15 people lost their jobs.
  2. Revell Germany will continue to operate as in the past with Blitz being its owner. No word on any layoffs or changes in Germany. Sources tell us that Revell Germany staff only found out about the sale on Friday, and no further details were available at that time.
  3. We believe model kits already in development, including the Ford GT that is due later this summer, will still be produced. We hear the Ford GT will now be boxed as a Revell Germany kit.
  4. There has been no announcement of a distributor for Revell Germany products that may be sold in the U.S. market. We suspect an announcement will come soon though as the investors will want to see cash flow get back to its previous levels as soon as possible. In addition, the court documents say that all inventory must be moved from the Hobbico warehouse in Champaign, Ill., within 30 days.
  5. Court documents say the sale included all molds and tooling owned by Revell US, so those now belong to Revell Germany.
  6. It also included Revell trademarks, such as Revell in various forms, Snap Tite and Snaptite, Junior Kit, Bad Medicine, Renwal, RM Kustom, California Wheels, Monogram, Pro Modeler, Revell Monogram, Red Baron, Ice T, and many more.
  7. There was at least one other bidder for Revell beyond the winning Blitz bid.
  8. Also up in the air due to Hobbico’s bankruptcy is the distribution of Italeri and Hasegawa models. Hobbico was their U.S. distributor. There has been no word yet on who else may take up Italeri and Hasegawa distribution in the U.S. market.
2

Thanks for the information, Elizabeth. You and Aaron have “sources” none of us would know about.

This can’t be good. The euro has been climbing against the dollar for the last year.

3

Thank you for the update.

4

Didn’t know any of this was going on. Wow! Thanks for the info Elizabeth.

5

Hi,

Thanks for the information.

Pat

6

Thanks for the info and update.

Jim [cptn]

7

Yes, thanks very much for the info. Hopefully this all means there will be little chance this side of the pond, i just hope they can sort out any issues for you guys.

8

Thank you for keeping us up on ALL the aspects of the hobby…much appreciated.

Change is in the air huh? Well, like we said in the military…we will adapt and overcome!

9

Just curious, what’s the difference between Revell Germany and US? I always thought they were the same company. I usually manage to stay clear of the kits except after watching a few reviews on the German kits I’ve been wanting to try them, but the name threw me off.

10

Revell germany was a subsidiary of Revell US until 2006. Then it was a separate company until 2012, when it was bought back by Hobbico. Now, not sure.

During the last 15 years it developed it’s own line of kits, has diffewrent factories, and advertises both separately and on the Revell US site.

Revell Germany earned a reputation for high quality.

11

Now I’m worried about the future availability of Hasegawa kits. Losing Revell would be bad enough, but Hasegawa is one of the best brands. Thank you for the report!

12

I wonder about those 15 employees in Illinois. I wonder if they could help with business operations and distribution for the North America market.

13

The brands of my youth just keep disappearing.

Kodak, Zenith, Magnavox, Polaroid, Marx, Kenner…and now Revell!

14

Modelwise there were Scientific (actually, now carried on by Micro Mark), Comet, Jasco, and Berkeley.

15

Does Monogram go with it?

16

Investment group, Quantum Capital Partners owns all of RoG and the RM USA assets. RM USA does not now exist. RoG will be running things. It will be awhile until they can get a US distribution network up and running. Monogram and Revell USA does not exist anymore so it might be used only for the old US molds for the US market.