# What happened to new Aurora?



## Matthew Green (Nov 12, 2000)

http://www.auroraplasticscorp.com/


the website is still up. Don't you have to pay something every month to have a website? 

www.monstercafesaltillo.com


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

Finally...a subject that has never been discussed before!
Well to put it in a nut shell...It was all talk and no action...
Mcdee


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## deadmanincfan (Mar 11, 2008)

:beatdeadhorse::beatdeadhorse::beatdeadhorse:


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

What new Aurora???
Please tell me more.....

Chris.


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## Kitzillastein58 (Jan 27, 2009)

Maybe I can send them another email, they will tell me what new kits will be coming out soon..............HAH! :beatdeadhorse::beatdeadhorse:


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## Todd P. (Apr 12, 2007)

You don't have to pay month by month. It's possible to pay for years of hosting at once.


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## deadmanincfan (Mar 11, 2008)

I hear a BIIIIIIG ring o' keys jingling toward the lock...


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## compucrap (Dec 16, 2000)

I heard from a guy who knows a guy that swears the kits are on the boats coming from China right now...:devil::lol:

Any day you'll be seeing them on the shelves!


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## deadmanincfan (Mar 11, 2008)

...you're poking the bear, guys...


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

compucrap said:


> I heard from a guy who knows a guy that swears the kits are on the boats coming from China right now...:devil::lol:
> 
> Any day you'll be seeing them on the shelves!


Right, on a clipper ship going around the Cape of Good Hope.


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## Kitzillastein58 (Jan 27, 2009)

Seriously, has there been any kind of recent activity, or "new" news? 
I just looked at the site again, and I could be wrong, but I do not remember seeing that picture of the Forgotten Prisoner up there before.


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## geoffdude (Mar 31, 2009)

IBTL

:thumbsup:


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

Kitzillastein58 said:


> ... I do not remember seeing that picture of the Forgotten Prisoner up there before.


That's not the Forgotten Prisoner- that's a diehard A-Corpse fan waiting for his Vampire kit.....

Chris.


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## sprayray (May 13, 2009)

Auroranut said:


> That's not the Forgotten Prisoner- that's a diehard A-Corpse fan waiting for his Vampire kit.....
> 
> Chris.



:woohoo::woohoo: There on their way ! unless they get caught up in the bermuda triangle ! 

Robert.


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## MightyMax (Jan 21, 2000)

Which time?

Max Bryant


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## Hunch (Apr 6, 2003)

Auroranut said:


> That's not the Forgotten Prisoner- that's a diehard A-Corpse fan waiting for his Vampire kit.....
> 
> Chris.


That is really funny, bro!:thumbsup:


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## bizzarobrian (Oct 4, 2009)

compucrap said:


> I heard from a guy who knows a guy that swears the kits are on the boats coming from China right now...:devil::lol:
> 
> Any day you'll be seeing them on the shelves!


I heard the molds were derailed. lol


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

..............................................

Everyone knows that as soon as the Fokker Decals are ready..
The Stores will be flooded with kits:thumbsup:
They are currently up some creek without a paddle...








M-m-m-m-m-m-m-cd-d-d-dee


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## Kitzillastein58 (Jan 27, 2009)

Auroranut said:


> That's not the Forgotten Prisoner- that's a diehard A-Corpse fan waiting for his Vampire kit.....
> 
> Chris.


...and an answer to his emails.


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## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

I documented my entire personal "experience" with them from 2 years ago, when I visited them personally...suffice it to say that I a quite confident that the new "aurora " company, will never see the light of day, and to put it nicely..they are "unable" to run a business...

Z


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## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

bizzarobrian said:


> I heard the molds were derailed. lol


the produced kits and the boxes of the fokkers do exist...In storage in PA..I saw them myself...by now..they must be loaded with mildew..

Z


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## Kitzillastein58 (Jan 27, 2009)

Zathros,
I had gone back and read all of your posts on your experience with Aurora, I'm sorry that it went so poorly for you with them. Did you ever get to see any of the molds they claimed to have left?


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## beck (Oct 22, 2003)

Macdee and A-nut ya'll got me LMAO this morning . 
hb


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I have one of the "new" Fokker kits. It is/was seemingly run by Revell and is the modified tooling from the 70s. The plastic is not the same color or look as the original. The thin, modern plastic bag for the parts is the kind Revell uses on their kits. The box is a repro of the old box, but with A-Corp on the front and a new copyright date. The instructions are a poorish photo-copy of the old Famous Fighters instructions, and the parts do not match the kit since the kit is made from the 70s revised molds. No decals... Apparently some of these kits are in circulation. The owner of Rare Plane Detective, a second hand kit seller had heard of them but hadn't come across one himself. 

So yeah they did make SOME kits. Stevens International used to have the line up of releases on their wholesale site as TBA. 

I have not heard anything nice about anyone associated with this new Aurora or LAPCO (Lost Aurora Plastic Company) that tried to make a come back some 10-15 years ago. Seeminly this last attempt had more "steam" than LAPCO but not much.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Thanks for the clarification, djnick66; it sounds like it was intended to be a Cinemodels-type arrangement with Revell - Revell would produce the kit, supply it bagged, and new Aurora would put it in the 'exact-repro box' with instructions. 

I wonder why it didn't work out? Polar Lights was able to use the same arrangement to produce numerous kits.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Beats me. I know nothing about their actual operation. From what I have heard it seemed shakey and/or shadey. Aparently they couldnt use the Aurora name, hence the A-Corp logo on the box. But yeah, they would buy bagged kits and repackage them in the retro packaging.


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## CaptFrank (Jan 29, 2005)

I still think they were simply trying to jump on
Polar Lights' coattails.

They saw a small company get bought by RC2 (Was that it?)
and quickly started something with a bunch of fanfare
hoping they would get bought out, too.


Has it really been two years?


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## Todd P. (Apr 12, 2007)

Producing plastic kits is very expensive, even following the Cinemodels/Polar Lights "get Revell to make them" model. I'll bet they ran out of money. Luckily, they don't seem to have stolen from anybody this time around, and least no one I've heard of.

Weird that they don't go ahead and sell what they have without the decals. They might at least recoup what they spent. But I hear they're just sitting in the shed of a gentleman who hasn't heard from them in forever.

Just a reminder: They didn't plan to make many of those kits in plastic. They were going to do resin recasts of some figures.


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## CaptFrank (Jan 29, 2005)

Wow.
All those kits going to waste.
Why not sell them without boxes, or instructions,
for cost just to get your money back?

Or, donate them to a "Make and Take" event?

Hand them out at Wonderfest as door prizes?

Trade for a sandwich?

Build them all into a giant Borg cube?

What else could be done?


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## Todd P. (Apr 12, 2007)

That could be a fun thread. "How to use the kits they made but didn't sell." Maybe even COULDN'T sell, because how many people would want one of those old plane kits?

Weave the sprues into heavy-duty fly swatters.

Give the kits, glue and paint to a thousand monkeys and feature whatever they come up with in the next SyFy movie.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The way I assumed they would do it (if they were an up and up company) would be get Revell to run some popular molds (Flying Sub, Fokker Triplane, etc.) and sell them in retro boxes. There isnt a lot of production cost there... just printing boxes and instruction sheets. Once they got going, they could revese engineer some kits like Polar Lights, Moebius and even Revell have done. I was surprised to see some of the "new Aurora" reissued had high MSRP's compared to what the originals bring. You can buy most of the Aurora World War I planes in various vintage boxes for $8-$18 on eBay, yet the weird reissue Triplane (mix of late tooling and early box and instructions) was supposed to be $30 or $40! 

Playing Mantis wasn't a small company per se. They made Johnny Lightning die cast, which is what Racing Champs was after. Polar Lights was just sort of a "bonus". I don't think the Aurora were trying to get bought out! To be bought out you need a company in the first place. They owned nothing to sell! Revell owns the surviving Aurora molds. 

For what its worth, many model companies will run kits for customers. Basically you buy a run (20,000 kits or something) and can do with them what you want. A UK hobby shop had a run of Revell P-47N Thunderbolts done recently by Revell Germany. I bought a header card Revell/Monogram 1/48 Vietnam boat that was sold by a US model ship retailer. They also had some Lindberg ships in their own packaging. I belive someone paid for a run of Aurora Gotha bombers once, to be sold in retro boxes.


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## CaptFrank (Jan 29, 2005)

Todd P. said:


> That could be a fun thread. "How to use the kits they made but didn't sell." Maybe even COULDN'T sell, because *how many people would want one of those old plane kits?*
> Weave the sprues into heavy-duty fly swatters.
> 
> Give the kits, glue and paint to a thousand monkeys and feature whatever they come up with in the next SyFy movie.


Well,
I would take one, or two, if they gave them to me.


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## CaptFrank (Jan 29, 2005)

> To be bought out you need a company in the first place. They owned nothing to sell!


Which is why it's called a "scam".
There was nothing legitimate about those guys.
They tried to claim title to the Aurora name. They
changed their new company's name to "A-Corp" because
they didn't own "Aurora".

The whole thing was just PR to make them _look_ like
a business. 

They thought they were going to get a big paycheck from
some large model company.

In my opinion.


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

*"How to use the kits they made but didn't sell."*

Hmmm....Good Topic.....
Let's see...They could be placed in an area where the Sun very seldom shines....Like the Planet Pluto...or Uranus...
Hey there's one now....















There must be Thousands of uses for these old Fokkers:thumbsup:
Mcdee


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

Hmmm..."Old fokkers never die, they just start getting moldy..."


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## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

Kitzillastein58 said:


> Zathros,
> I had gone back and read all of your posts on your experience with Aurora, I'm sorry that it went so poorly for you with them. Did you ever get to see any of the molds they claimed to have left?


In answer to your question, all I ever saw was the "mold book"..which at least visually, was very old and tattered...it had duplicates of the same molds with notes such as "3 molds of for example "the Moonbus"...: 2 given to monogram..one saved..etc..Jerry did invite me to Rhode island where he "claimed" all the molds were at his cousins injection mold shop...but of course, after he reneged on our contract, I never saw or heard from them again..Again, due to the strict rules in this forum, all I will say is that I believe that he is incapable of running a business in a businesslike manner...

Z


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## Kitzillastein58 (Jan 27, 2009)

Zathros said:


> In answer to your question, all I ever saw was the "mold book"..which at least visually, was very old and tattered...it had duplicates of the same molds with notes such as "3 molds of for example "the Moonbus"...: 2 given to monogram..one saved..etc..Jerry did invite me to Rhode island where he "claimed" all the molds were at his cousins injection mold shop...but of course, after he reneged on our contract, I never saw or heard from them again..Again, due to the strict rules in this forum, all I will say is that I believe that he is incapable of running a business in a businesslike manner...
> 
> Z


I greatly appreciate you taking the time to address a question that you've probably been asked a thousand times. I was only curious to know if they actually existed or not, and being that you had first hand experience with the "new Aurora", I just thought I would ask. 
Again, I'm sorry that whole situation went so badly for you, especially after all the hard work you put into it, but still, I thank you for taking time to answer my question.

Kitz' :wave:


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## SUNGOD (Jan 20, 2006)

CaptFrank said:


> Which is why it's called a "scam".
> There was nothing legitimate about those guys.
> They tried to claim title to the Aurora name. They
> changed their new company's name to "A-Corp" because
> ...



I was thinking the other day what reason would they have to make it seem Aurora were returning but you might have solved it. Maybe they had no intention of starting up a company but were just looking to be bought out by a big compamy so they could get loads of cash. Obviously didn't work though.


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## Todd P. (Apr 12, 2007)

If that's what they planned, they lost a good chunk of change on the kits they did have made.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Maybe they think it was a good investment and that all those kits they had made are gaining value as they sit mildewed in that garage!


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## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

SUNGOD said:


> I was thinking the other day what reason would they have to make it seem Aurora were returning but you might have solved it. Maybe they had no intention of starting up a company but were just looking to be bought out by a big compamy so they could get loads of cash. Obviously didn't work though.


from what I saw, Jerry didnt need the money..he is a trust fund kid, as well as a doctor, and his brother is a funeral director...

Z


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