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kits you just cant bring yourself to build.


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Ever get that one kit (or several) where you can't bring yourself to open or even build? I recently got 3 " holy grail" kits and I know I can't bring myself to build them. I kinda wanted them since I've been chasing them for years. They will go in my collection just so I can say I have them. Anyone else run into this?

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I have a few I doubt I'll build .

But this is the only one I have zero chances to build. Although I bought it as a sealed kit with all intentions to build,. But not to long after I bought it I found another one but started,, so I built it instead .

It was factory sealed when I got it,,,, and is still sealed inside dead mint kit . It's one of the kits I had as a kid many many years ago . And always wanted another one to see if I could do better justice as an adult. Was browsing around ebay a few years back and stumbled on it,,and had to have it. I think i paid something like $100 for it . But paid something like $35 for the started one.

BarrySetzer-boxed.jpg

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I love vintage kits and consider myself something of a collector, but do have intentions of building all of them. I'll just have to stay in perfect health until I'm 150+ years old!

The kits I do have that I've no intentions of building are the ones that are so horrible they're not worth the effort. At the top of that list – the infamous AMT '58 Plymouth Belvedere!

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I've bought a few kits to see what others are talking about, some I just got for reference for similar other kits, and some that, when opened and analyzed, I knew were too bad to build. These will never be done.

Some kits I got, just to follow other builds and threads:

62 Corvette

Lincoln Futura

Morgan 3-wheeler

1/16 Model T

1/24 Jaguar XK 120

Kits too bad to build:

Revell/Monogram 1/12 Mercedes Gullwing (originally Renwal)

Revell/Monogram 1/12 Ferrari 275 GTB (Also originally Renwal; Gold Star for worst garbage ever released by a leading worldwide brand)

Lindberg Auburn Boattail Speedster

Minicraft Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

Smaller kits (1/24-25) mainly for comparison and reference for larger scale kits:

Monogram Cord 812 Phaeton

AMT Mercedes Gullwing (one of the best at any scale)

1/32 Pyro & AMT Bugatti T59

Edited by sjordan2
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Chrysler workers years ago had a bumper sticker that said. "I buy what I build" with a little xacto art work I changed mine to "I build what I buy"

and stuck it on one of my boxes I used for transporting good to toy shows.

greg

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I never set out to be a collector and don't consider myself one. Yet there are several I won't build. I'm not driven by raw consumerism. I maybe have a greater sense of future and maybe feel like I'm keeper of the kit until someone else wants to enjoy what I've been able to enjoy. On some things, just appreciating the plastic is enjoyment enough. But I always buy with the intension of building, it just occasionally evolves into something else.

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I buy what I plan to build, but my Father-in-law, about 30 years ago, bought me a Pocher 1/8 Rolls Royce kit with about 4,000 parts. It is still collecting dust in the basement stash area. There are kits I got that I no longer have a desire to build. I get rid of those at times. A lot are door prize wins that I ponder over before deciding.

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I think it's been fairly well covered.

I buy stuff I like. I sometimes buy kits just to see what's in the box. It's a collection. I don't care if I ever get to building a specific kit, but when inspiration hits me, it's nice to have the required kits in stock. I do enjoy my unbuilt kit and rebuildable model collection and I do spend a lot of my modeling time just pouring through it, groking kits and dreaming of the possibilities. So the hoard does serve a purpose.

The collection doesn't haunt me that I need to build them like some guys! I laugh at the posts by a guy who has 11 unbuilt kits and feels pressure that he needs to get them done. I don't care. Nor do I consider them puzzles I need to build box stock. I have no idea what will happen with my kits, whether I'll build to replicate a neat photo or they'll wind up a donor for a project. It doesn't matter. Nor do I care that my finished to unbuilt ratio is constantly climbing. I'll build maybe 6 models a year in a good year, but I'll buy another 50. Who cares, it's a cheap pleasure.

I have no guilt. I've never sacrificed anything my family needed to buy models. Everything I own was bought from expendable funds. Nor do I need the money they represent now. If I sold them, the cash would disappear into my household and in the end I'd have nothing to speak of.

The end? I know and understand that I will never build the majority of my stash. I haven't done any grand purges because a lot of what I have wouldn't fetch any serious money. For the chump change they'd sell for, they're better off in my basement. So that's where they will stay. I'd rather save a kit to sacrifice for a project than sell it for $5 or $10.

I do know that there is an end sometime in the future. Whether I decide it's time to sell, whether I sell them one at a time on eBay, to my club mates or at a swap meet, or sell the whole mess to a dealer. Or if I croak, my wife will sell them or get that 40 yard dumpster! In the meantime, it's my fun and my sanity.

Edited by Tom Geiger
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I always wanted a JoHan 66 Chrysler 2 dr ht..Unbuilt in a flat box..Finally got one and more JoHan Flat box kits unbuilt..Hell I'am 66 yrs old and will NEVER build some of my collection..Someone saw that I was thinking of selling some of my stash and came over..I asked a fair amout and they bought about $500.00 worth of

two kits I had..All I did was smell the air in the box and goke it a couple of times..I have two other built unpainted in mint condition so I could part with it..Sure was

hard but hadn't looked at it in two years..Won't miss it...

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I know one thing for sure. I have too many kits and if I live another 40 year I may get to all of them but that would make me 104. Not likely I will get to all of them. Having said that, there are no "holy grail" kits in the pack. When I look at my next project, they are all on the table. Some are multiyear projects others are week end project. I guess it depends on what I am in the mood for. I do know that I have kits I probably won't ever want to build as they were purchased at a different time in my life and I have lost interest in the genera. But, no, there are no kits I won't build, just those I won't get around too. :D

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I never set out to be a collector and don't consider myself one. Yet there are several I won't build. I'm not driven by raw consumerism. I maybe have a greater sense of future and maybe feel like I'm keeper of the kit until someone else wants to enjoy what I've been able to enjoy. On some things, just appreciating the plastic is enjoyment enough. But I always buy with the intension of building, it just occasionally evolves into something else.

I'm the same way. I didn't start out to be a collector, I was going to build everything I bought. Then something happened, that I can't put my finger on and I started to look for collectible kits. I buy to build, but I also buy to collect.

Edited by kitbash1
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