Gearbox returns!! The former owner, Jodi Keenor, aka "the ex-husband," got Gearbox's property and will revive the line under the old Hawk plastic model kit brand name (they will reproduce some of the old plastic kits as well). The following info in quotes comes from Walt Conroy's website (www.conroyscruisers.com):

"Mike Fleckenstein, the graphic artist responsible for all of the cars produced by Gearbox over the past 6-8 years, has signed on with HAWK MODELS. Mike was the man behind the scenes at Alpha International that made Gearbox police cars what they became over the past decade. Mike was also the contact person and graphic artist who created all of the decaling and box designs for all of the Gearbox cars. Mike also doubled as a salesperson his last 3 years. Jodi Keener, the current owner of J. Lloyd and former owner of Alpha International and Gearbox up until 2002, recognized Mike's efforts and talents and has hired him to get the police car line back up and running under the brand name of HAWK MODELS. Mike starts in a week or two but will be in attendance in New Orleans at the IACP Convention next weekend to promote the new HAWK Police Car Model line. Once Mike gets in his office, I will post some contact info to get a hold of him if you are interested in having a premier car made. HAWK is promising to take care of any agency that had a Premier car in the works and may credit their deposit money towards having their car made through HAWK. (Even Pittsburgh PD that fronted $9K to Gearbox)."

Walt said in an e-mail to customers that Hawk doesn't have a Chevy license yet, so I guess no Impalas for now, but I presume they got the Impala mold in the deal and just have to negotiate the license. The models listed on the website as available are the Crown Vic, the Expedition and the Charger, and it appears they're going after business from fire depts and rescue squads as well.

Here's the new site - hardly anything on it yet, though.

http://www.hawkmodels.com/copcars.html

Gearbox's hiatus probably came at the best possible time for First Response, but now there will be two major US police car makers - good news for collectors!

Location: Woodbridge, VA

A clarification: I'd asked Walt about a couple of things and should have waited for his reply before posting. Keener only got Gearbox's inventory, not the molds or the name. Not sure what the future holds - perhaps they're going to use the rest of the Gearbox inventory of unmarked cars to put out premiers only for awhile. Walt isn't sure what the next steps are, but he'll be posting info on his site as he gets it. Also not sure what happened to the new lightbars Gearbox announced just before it folded.

Location: Woodbridge, VA

Yeah it would have made sense to wait and post some facts.

Dick.
It was my understanding that the Impala mold was done regardless?? Even before they closed up. I thought that they had replaced it with the Charger mold? Either way, like you said, good news for us collectors. I just can't understand after the years of Gearbox success and their detail, why they continue to churn out that obviously wrong V-bar with the missing center section??? How hard could it be to make that light bar right?? Their brand new website even shows the bar with the section missing. Go figure

Troy, I know what you mean, I've been harping on that Vector bar for a long time, also the Jetsonic with the Arrowstik attached, I'd only seen that done in one dept out of the scores I'd seen using the Jetsonic. If you read the section on the custom ordering process, it appears that's all they're going to do at this time, so if he only has inventory and not owenership of the molds, there must have been a ton of blank cars or cars partway the through production process. I didn't know the Charger had replaced the Impala, I thought it was an addition to the existing line.

Location: Woodbridge, VA

Hawk are going to have to mend quite a few bridges with the law enforcement community that Gearbox blew apart. Good luck to them though.

We have several Impalas (marked and unmarked) that seem to have held up very well (yes, I'm also surprised). I do wish Gearbox had make the frame with dual exhaust, but that is easily fixed.

As for the Chargers, I really don't think they will catch on. I hear a lot of talk, but I have yet to see one on operated by any Department in this area.

The Chargers seem more suitable for traffic law enforcement type duty. Not your every day policing duties etc. There appears to be very little room inside the car to hold prisioners (especially combative ones)

As a crown vic owner here in the UK, I was very much suprised when I rented a charger on my last vacation.
The interior is much larger than the crown vic, especialy in the rear, the only significant difference, is the rear door windows have a much lower height.

Location: London UK