(A Polar Light BB Glossary)

Product Related Threads

Yama’s Hawg

Yamahog: This was to be my take-off on the number of posts that PL received daily from various model "experts" of just which kits PL should offer, why they should offer it and how successful it would be. (It was rather amazing the number of clubhouse members who were experts on which kits would sell, and what wouldn't).

I decided to draw up a set of "plans" for a model kit, make it look like a 1st grader had drawn it up, send it in to Polar Lights and announce my expertise as to why Polar Lights should issue this kit (as surely it would become an all-time best seller). Little did I know that Lisa decided to surprise me, and make the thing into a "real" model kit. The "kit" was presented to me (and to a lot of other people) at Wonderfest 2000. The build-up itself was done by Hooty. That was the highlight for me. As good as it gets.

Just so as we are perfectly clear, the Yama's Hawg box was in the PL BB member's goody bag at Wonderfest 2000.  The box was shrink wrapped and contained assorted parts and sprues from other PL kits just so as it would rattle when shook (like a real model kit).  The scratchbuilt version shown here was built by Hooty.

Yamahog: BTW--Does anyone happen to remember if one of the Yama's Hawg kits contained either a complete "Black Beauty" kit? I can't remember, but I believe there was a complete kit in one of the boxes.

Da Queen: Yes, my dear Yama...one of the Yama's Hawg contains a full Black Beauty. I have no idea which one.

The Jupiter 2

Arronax: There could be a whole site about Polar Lights Jupiter 2 model kit.  The first plastic kit of the subject, released in 1998, it came with complete upper and lower decks.  It was the model kit that brought me (and many other modelers) into the Polar Lights community since it was Polar Lights first spaceship model.

There are hundreds of Polar Lights Jupiter 2 reference pages. Here are a few:

www.culttvman.com/lost_in_space.html

www.rendezvous-design.com/cdoll/Models/Jupiter2_TV.htm

www.promisedplanet.com/Astrogator.htm

cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/pl/kit_pl_jupiter.shtml

               Original box art                                           Re-release box art                                          Ron Gross

There are many posts dedicated to questions and answers about building this model.  Rather than use direct quotes, here are a few things that are important:

• Ron Gross, one of the foremost Jupiter 2 experts, did the box art on the first issue.  The Box art was changed about a year later

• So many ideas came up about improving the model (and it did need some improvement) that SteveCultTVManIverson and Anthony Taylor published CultTVMan's Ultimate Guide to The Jupiter 2 featuring the work of Ron Gross, Jim Piszar, Marc King, Jim James and Joel Travera. You can read a review on Starship Modeler.  The book is long out of print but, occasionally, you may find it on EBay

• One of the biggest points of discussion was that the two decks were at different scales

• When the kit was first released, the instructions told modelers to install one of the doors upside down.  This was covered on the boards and by a post on the PL web site.  The error was corrected by the next batch of kits

• Arronax: This is where it all began for me.  One of the bigger omissions for me was the lack of decals for all those instrument panels (including the ones that weren't there).  So I made my own, published the art work, gave it to Tango Papa Decals and it's been selling ever since (check the CultTVMan store)

The Bellringer

TAY666: This caused a huge uproar.  Apparently PL changed the name of the Hunchback kit to avoid any possible problems with Disney because they owned the rights to the cartoon movie of the same name. Disney never said anything to PL. PL's legal team decided to err on the side of caution with this. The Aurora purists were up in arms. The Disney bashers were up in arms.
If I remember correctly the thread jumped to like 9 pages in one day (you have to remember this place was busy back then, it wasn't unusual to have 2 whole pages of threads with new posts in a day). That thread turned ugly and got locked. Which caused another one to start. Which also didn't take long to turn ugly. Then the topic was kind of banned and discussion moved to the modeling forum where it quickly died down because only a few of us posted regularly down there.

Godzilla Go-cart

TAY666: PL didn't have the rights to the Godzilla name, so they didn't use it on the box and just called the kit the Go-Kart.  TOHO couldn't do anything about the kit itself because it fell under the parody exemption.
Later, PL voluntarily pulled the kit when they negotiated with TOHO to produce Godzilla, Ghidrah, and Rodan (and subsequently the big Godzilla). There were rumors that TOHO made PL do it. But everything I heard from anyone actually in-the-know was that PL did that all on their own. Kind of a show of good faith.

The “G” word - The Guillotine

Yamahog: This was a “rule” we came up with, for the most part just so that we could have a set of rules. After all, what good was a clubhouse without rules? It applied to The Guillotine model kit, of which there were numerous requests for its re-issue. The requests became tiresome after a while, so we gave the issue “martyr-like” status by saying that requesting the kit wasn’t something that could even be whispered.

Dreamer: There was also a special announcement when PL reversed themselves on the decision not to repop the Guillotine, and the offer of a limited number of Guillotines numbered and signed by Tom Lowe - an offer that was open exclusively on the PL board to BB members.

125 kits were signed by Tom Lowe and sold to PL BB members.  They were accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by Lisa Greco and Dave Metzner.

The numbered boxes were accounted for in a thread started by Dreamer.  See http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=4169

Interesting footnote:  This is the only PL BB thread still existing that includes posts by Lisa.

Big Frankie

Yamahog: As I recall, this was purely a cost issue(?) However, I don’t remember if we were forbidden from bringing up the topic, as we were with The Guillotine.

Arronax: On the contrary, it seemed customary that when asked for suggestions or lists, certain members would run through a thread shouting “BIG FRANKIE! BIG FRANKIE! BIG FRANKIE!” . . . or a variation on this theme

Mystery Machine Tour

A good idea at the time, a PL Scooby Doo Mystery Machine was built with the intent of sending it around the country in a year and then presenting it to Lisa Greco.  Four years later the goal was met.

[Summary of entry on http://culttvman.com/mystery/) This project started out as an activity on the Polar Lights Bulletin Board.  The plan was to send a Polar Lights Mystery Machine model kit to various people around the country and around the world to photograph the model in various locations.  It was a long journey.

TAY666: One of the reasons it took so long was that first year it was in transit was also the year Lisa got fired. With that whole uproar, people kind of lost interest in the project.  As a matter of fact, the whole thing pretty much died until Steve [Iverson] tracked it down and picked up the reins of the project. If it wasn't for Steve, it would have never finished it's trip

Finally in 2005, the Mystery Machine arrived at Wonderfest in Louisville, KY, again!  With great pomp and circumstance, the Mystery Machine was handed over to the Queen of Styrene, Lisa Greco.  It’s fitting the MM returns to the person who helped start the tour back in 2000.  

Photos of the machine and it’s journey can be found at http://culttvman.com/mystery/

The Mach 5 Windshields

Phrankenstign: If I remember correctly, some of the windshields in the early runs of the Mach V were not 100% clear. They looked fogged up. All we had to do to get replacements was to contact the 1-800-MANTIS-8 customer service number to get replacements. I'd bought 2 of them that PL had no problem replacing free of charge.

John P: The kits were originally issued with milky windshields. The "clear" plastic must have had some white melted into it?  All you had to do was call PL and talk to Lisa and she'd send you a perfectly clear one (I guess from the second batch?). It was the one and only time I spake unto Da Queen. 

Bowen Wolfman

The Bowen Wolfman thread was started by MonsterModelMan and has been a sticky on the board since February 2004. 

Released in 1998, this was a limited edition, 1/4 scale cold cast porcelain figure kit of The Wolf Man as portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. in the Universal Pictures 1941 film classic "The Wolf Man."  Production was limited to 500 and the kit carried a suggested price of $189.00 each. It was number on the side of the box and the Bowen Wolfman thread has attempted to track the owners of the 500 kits.  Each kit was accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Dave M: When we did the small plastic kit, it was mastered from a 1/4 scale Randy Bowen original. Randy had a casting of the original figure and did a new base for our model. The big model he sent us was so cool that we decided to issue a limited production run of 1/4 scale kits. We asked our Chinese partner if he could have them cast for us in China. He said "no problem" - the results were samples in cold cast. Those were so nice that we decided to produce limited edition numbered kits. We thought that 500 castings was a sufficiently limited edition, I forget what we listed them for at retail. I'm sure we didn't sell 100 at full price. All the rest went at some variety of marked down price. I think that the last hundred or so were $25.00 each!

I think that they were beautiful kits, well cast, free of mold lines and blemishes and pretty easy to build. The material from which they are made takes paint like a dream, it doesn't even need to be primed. The only negative is that the "cold cast" material is brittle. Dropping a finished model will result in broken pieces. The one I built for show at Playing Mantis was broken on several occasions.

I have two of them stashed away here, one of these days I should break one out and build it up. I did the one we used for the box art, it was one of the pre-production samples. Tom Lowe has it packed away somewhere in storage along with all the other built-up models we had for shows and in house displays.

My problem is that the finished piece is so big that I'm not sure where I'd put it after I got it finished.

MonsterModelMan: There were 500 kits packed as four kits per master carton.  The kit numbers were randomly distributed in those 125 master cartons.

Dave M: To the best of my knowledge, nobody knew where any one number was in the shipment. (it is possible that the four lowest numbers were in a single box), but I doubt it. I do not know if Tom Lowe has #001 & #002 or not. I'm guessing that he has several kits stuck away and might have the real low numbers.
I know with certainty, that kit numbers were randomly mixed throughout the shipment.