Revell

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Revell

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1956
Seat Frets
management Stefan Krings
Number of employees approx. 150 (2007)
sales approx. 42.9 million euros (2017)
Website www.revell.de

The Revell GmbH , based in North Rhine-Westphalia frets is a German company, whose corporate purpose the production and sale of plastic model kits is finished models and related accessories. The company split from the original parent company Revell-Monogram from the USA in 2006 and was taken over by the US group Hobbico in February 2012 and sold on to Quantum Capital Partners (QCP) in Munich in 2018 . On July 1, 2019, QCP acquired Stadlbauer Marketing und Vertrieb GmbH (with the brands Carrera, Pustefix, Schildkröt) from Puch near Hallein (A) and founded Revell Carrera GmbH. According to the QCP announcement, the total turnover of all 4 brands is approx. 130 million euros. The managing director is Stefan Krings. Revell GmbH is the market leader in its division in Germany with a market share of more than 77% (2014).

Company history

First years of the parent company

Lewis H. Glaser , born in 1917 in New York, worked since 1934 in a radio repair shop in Los Angeles in the US -Bundesstaat California and took over the business in 1938 for $ 100 from the previous owner. In 1941 Glaser bought tools for plastics processing and began to offer a wide variety of plastic products under the name “Precision Specialties”. In 1942 Glaser founded the Revell Plastics Company together with Jacque Fresco . In 1943 he brought a cosmetic product called “Lady's Cosmetic Compact” onto the market and then took over the name “Revell” suggested by an employee in a naming competition. The proposal is derived from the French "reveil" (awakening) and was based on the well-known cosmetics manufacturer " Revlon ". After the war, plastic figures and models of cars in particular were made under this name. The company had since moved to the suburb of Venice . Conversely, the name “ Heller ” of the well-known French Revell competitor was deliberately conceived as an artificial word based on the components of the word “Revell”.

Entry into plastic model making

Revell has been manufacturing plastic car models since 1947, which consisted of a series of separately cast parts, but were assembled at the factory and reached the customer as finished models. In 1951, Glaser came up with the idea of ​​offering the existing car models not yet assembled, i.e. as a kit. Glaser was skeptical and wondered why someone would want to buy something that wasn't assembled. However, when the department store chain Woolworth’s offered to add the kits to its range, Glaser agreed and successfully launched the "REVELL Highway Pioneers" in August 1951. With this, Glaser and Revell had largely opened the door to plastic model making as a popular hobby. The crafting of plastic construction kits ("kits") became one of the leading leisure activities in the USA and later in Western Europe in the following decades.

The first “Authentic Kit” followed in the summer of 1953 with the aim of reproducing a model in historical detail. It was the H-301 kit based on the model of the battleship USS Missouri , on which the Japanese surrender had been signed in 1945. As one of the best-selling Revell models, the kit is still in production today in a slightly modified form. A Lockheed F-94C Starfire followed as the first aircraft model under the number H-201 . The range grew quickly, and also thanks to the attractive cover images of the kit packaging by artists such as Andrew Scott Eidson, Richard Kishady or later, to a large extent, Jack Leynnwood, who had a similar key role in the illustrations for REVELL as Roy Cross for AIRFIX or Ray Gaedke for LINDBERG . These old packs with their unmistakable "boxart" are now collectors' items for which there are published collector's price lists.

subsidiary company

In 1956, the German Revell branch was established as Revell Plastics GmbH in an old tobacco shop in Heinz-Georg Schöneberg's private house in the Westphalian town of Bünde, headed by Schöneberg as the first managing director. With German government funding, the company soon set up its own production facility using the injection molds made in the USA. REVELL Great Britain, Ltd. originated in England, first in West London, then with its own production and model development in Potters Bar in Hertfordshire.

The German market demanded more precise historical kits than the Anglo-American sector and less for game models, and the corresponding Revell offers meant that profits in Europe soon overtook those in the American home market. Sales in Europe were still only 20 percent of group sales, albeit with a steadily increasing trend. Revell did not set up a subsidiary in Japan, but worked with local general dealers, first with Marusan, later with Gunze Sangyo, and finally with Takara.

Peak of plastic model making

The next development stage were models in a uniform scale, with the 1/72 scale in particular establishing itself for aircraft under the decisive influence of the British competitor Airfix (1 inch in the model is 6 feet on the original). The "new" H-201, a model of the World War II bomber Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress , opened this series. This model is still available today and, with its numerous moving parts, is reminiscent of the game's origin - while at the same time reproducing the original precisely.

In the early 1970s, the popularity of plastic model making and with it Revell's sales reached a peak. The kit program was correspondingly extensive. Revell was the world market leader, even if numerous other manufacturers were now successfully established in this market, such as Airfix from England, Heller from France and Tamiya and Hasegawa from Japan. In 1976, sales of plastic model building products at Revell reached their highest level, which was never again reached in inflation-adjusted figures ($ 34 million by value in 1976). Lew Glaser himself did not live to see this high point in the history of his company. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1969; and in 1970 his wife Royle Glaser took over the operational management of Revell. Lewis Glaser died on September 12, 1972.

Revell GmbH in Germany also grew. 4000 sales outlets in the Federal Republic were supplied. The new 15,000 m² company building in Bünde was already occupied in September 1970. And in the meantime, the development of own models began in Germany. In 1971 the first in-house kit was developed in Germany, the 1: 8 scale BMW R75 / 5 motorcycle . Revell Germany also took care of the continental European neighbors - for example, the French Revell catalogs also came from Bünde. 450 kits were in the range at that time.

At the end of the 1970s, sales in plastic model making fell worldwide; at the same time, the number and importance of competing companies, especially from Japan, grew. Although Revell was able to buy up a few competitors, the difficulties increased. In 1979, Royle Glaser was forced to sell the group to a French investor. She left the Revell management in 1982. In 1986, an investor from New York took over Revell, who also bought one of its most famous competitors, namely Monogram from Illinois, founded in 1945 by Jack Besser in Chicago. Since then the company has operated as Revell-Monogram. Further changes of ownership followed.

In the 1990s, the model construction market recovered, albeit not to the level of the early 1970s. In 1995 the German subsidiary sold five million kits.

Model railway

As early as the 1950s, H0 scale kits were also being made for model railways . The United States had a full range of rails, vehicles, houses, and accessories.

In Europe there were kits for locomotives, railway constructions and buildings, mainly from the English and North German regions. These models were mostly not in-house developments, but were bought in from other manufacturers, so the building kits came from the Danish company Heljan . The production of the buildings was stopped, some steam locomotive models without an engine can still be found in stores today. A well-known kit is the UP class 4000 "Big Boy" (model kit 02165).

From 1986 Revell also sold 1/87 scale model cars from Model International that were suitable for the H0 model railroad under the name Revell-Praliné. After sales by Revell ended in the early 90s, these models were initially only offered under the name Praliné. After Praliné was taken over by Busch in 1994 , some praliné models can still be found in the Busch range today.

Current situation

U-boat U 99 as a Revell model, the boat of Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer
Revell micro-helicopter for playing indoors, rotor diameter 14 cm

The German Revell subsidiary was temporarily a stock corporation, but now operates as a GmbH & Co. KG. In 2006 she separated from the American parent company and became independent, although the two companies continued to work closely together. In February 2012 Revell Germany was taken over by the US company Hobbico, which in 2007 had already incorporated the US company Revell Inc. Hans-Ulrich Remfert remained managing director of the German Revell GmbH & Co. KG.

After sales fell against the market trend in the first decade from 2000 (from 46.4 million euros in 2005 to around 36.8 million euros in 2013), this trend was reversed in 2014 and an increase in sales of 18.9 million euros % to 45.36 million euros. Revell is the market leader in plastic model making in Germany with a 77.2 percent market share (as of 2014); Licensed products meanwhile contribute significantly to sales. a. of Star Wars articles, but also remote-controlled models.

Models have also been developed independently in Germany for a long time. Production was relocated from Germany to Eastern Europe and Asia. Revell's English subsidiary has ceased to exist since the early 1990s. At that time, the European activities in Germany were combined.

The Revell range includes kits based on a wide variety of models (especially airplanes, ships, vehicles) as well as finished models and various other toys. Revell can guarantee the wide range in plastic model making, among other things, by exchanging kit forms with other manufacturers (including Italeri , Hasegawa, Zvezda) or by purchasing their forms (Matchbox). According to Revell, the legendary Fokker three-decker from the First World War and the luxury liner Titanic and the battleship Bismarck are the front runners in sales with several 100,000 units of all kit variants sold .

Trivia

The highly detailed Revell model of the research vessel Calypso of the well-known French marine researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau goes back to the close acquaintance of Royle Glaser with his son Phillipe. His converted Catalina flying boat was also included in the 1:72 scale model range. After Phillipe Cousteau had a fatal accident in this aircraft in 1979, the flying boat disappeared from the Revell range and is today - like the Calypso kit - a sought-after rarity.

1969 to 1972 Revell GmbH took over the distribution of the Danish wooden construction toy BILOfix .

criticism

In 2018, Revell withdrew a model of a Reichsflugscheibe from the market after a short time after this model was criticized as a falsification of history and spread of esoteric and right-wing extremist conspiracy theories. In addition to the questionability of the model itself, the wrong and misleading product description was criticized, which claimed that it was the “first space-capable object in the world” and that “airworthy specimens” were launched for the first time in 1943, although this object never actually existed.

Brands

epixx

The brand was launched between 2006 and 2007, at the same time as Mystrix. Plastic figurines such as knights and pirates are sold under the name epixx, also Revell-epixx. The figures are modeled in detail and have individual, mostly civil names. There are also accessories for the individual figures, such as farm animals or siege engines. Epixx also produces action figures from the cartoon series Dragon Hunters , which were among the most popular toys in 2006.

Mystrix

Revell has been publishing magic products, trick sets with video instructions, under the Mystrix brand since 2007.

literature

  • Thomas Graham: Remembering Revell Model Kits . 3rd updated edition. Schiffer, Atglen 2008, ISBN 978-0-7643-2992-0 .
  • Mike Machat: Crowding the Box - He was King of the Model Boxtops - Jack Leynnwood . In: WINGS Magazine . June 2005, p. 28-41 .

Web links

Commons : Revell  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quantum Group acquires Stadlbauer Marketing + Vertrieb GmbH. July 2, 2019, accessed on July 12, 2019 (press release).
  2. ↑ RC brands very successful. In: The toy. January 29, 2015, accessed July 12, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Désirée Waibel: The Venus Project: Day at the Sea . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 15, 2010 ( Sueddeutsche.de ).
  4. ^ The Venus Project: Jacque Fresco , thevenusproject.com
  5. ^ Jean-Christophe Carbonel: HELLER - la maquette à la Francaise . Histoires & Collections, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-915239-66-5 , pp. 6-7 .
  6. ↑ a b c d 50 Years of Revell - The Model Kit Collection . Bünde, 2005, p. 3 f . (Revell special catalog for 2006).
  7. ^ Age 25 and Growing . In: Toys & Novelties . January 1, 1967, p. 43 ( Glaser , quoted in the article on Revell).
  8. ^ Arthur Ward: Airfix - Celebrating 50 Years of the Greatest Plastic Kits in the World . 2nd Edition. Collins, London 2003, ISBN 0-00-716370-3 , pp. 100 ff .
  9. ↑ In addition, with a focus on the representation on old Revell cover images for aircraft models: Thomas Graham: Box Top Air Power - The Aviation Art of Model Airplane Boxes . Schiffer Publishing, Atglen 2008, ISBN 978-0-7643-2964-7 .
  10. ↑ Revell Hobby Catalog '75 . Bünde, 1975, p. 2 .
  11. ^ Hans-Joachim Mau: Aircraft plastic model construction . transpress / VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin (GDR) 1982, p. 8 .
  12. ↑ Old H0 catalogs from 1956–1964 on HO seekers
  13. ↑ The Revell HO-Scale Trains Resource! ( Memento from January 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) on http://ho-scaletrains.net/
  14. ↑ Revell H0 kit of express train locomotive Br01 at Amazone
  15. ^ Model International. Retrieved December 12, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Revell again under one roof worldwide: Revell Germany takes over the market leader in the hobby industry. February 2012, archived from the original on May 3, 2012 ; accessed on February 16, 2012 (press release).
  17. ↑ a b Revell GmbH is very successful with remote-controlled models. In: Neue Westfälische , February 4, 2015.
  18. ↑ History of BILOfix (English)
  19. ↑ Falsification of history. Model maker Revell under fire. Fictional Nazi UFO for the nursery. In: Focus Money . June 18, 2018, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Bastian Benrath: Scandal about model kit: Revell takes "Nazi UFO" out of sale . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . ISSN  0174-4909 ( online [accessed December 11, 2018]).
  21. ↑ Top 10 Toys 2006 ( Memento from February 17, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Federal Association of Toy Retailers eV

Coordinates: 52 ° 11 ′ 57 ″  N , 8 ° 32 ′ 8 ″  E