Luc Janssens

I recall reading or hearing a story in the Ertl days that when they looked into re-releasing the '65 Galaxie again, the tool had some serious pitting on some inserts due to bad storage conditions, IIRC they had to grind away so much material on the chassis or bottom of the interior bucket, resulting in the body not going over the chassis all the way, but again If I recall correctly. edit: Think the story came from Dave Darby who at the time built box-art models for Ertl.

Indeed

Nope this isn't the one I have......lemme look for a pic on the interweb.....eureka!

I have a molded in yellow Monza (yellow car on the box art too), anyone know what model year that is?

Could be interesting, "if" they reverse engineered the marquee.

You hit the nail on the head

Oops, my bad, sorry Dave. Note to myself: work on comprehensive reading.

They were in the past (except Moebius that is)

Pure speculation on my part, but the reason too that Tamiya didn't include an engine in their kit, could be that they feared they could've been priced out of the north American market, if Revell would've tooled up a new kit of it, remember this kit was in the works before Hobbico imploded. And the American market in this case seems of importance cuz the kit will be released here first...

Round2 is also older tooling, and Moebius doesn't have "one trick pony's" in their automotive lineup, also both don't have such features like metal transfers and pre-cut window masks.

What IMHO makes Tamiya great is that it's a company not run by American MBA's, Their mission, create within limits the best possible plastic model kit, for enthusiast modelers. They embrace new technology and will incorporate it when they design, it also helps that Tamiya is still Tamiya and not a company that changed hands several times, so they can maintain their level of quality and all noses point the same way concerning strategy, but Japanese are also stubborn people and will do what "they" will think is right , anyway that's what Francois Verlinden always said to me, and he dealt with (the late) Mr Tamiya (sr.) . In the US the engineers more often than not have struggle with the "faster cheaper" managers who look at end users as suckers, relying on old technology for short term profit and every time the company changes hands, a new corporate executive will implement his great new vision on what the company product line will have to look like, but by the result of these ideas will show, will be gone on his quest to be at the top of the food chain. Anyway the gist I'm getting from this tread is, we're all very happy that Tamiya is releasing this kit, only some of us hoped there was more icing or extra whip-cream topping on the already absolutely delicious cake, and there's nothing wrong with that. Luc

A comment I can agree with 100%

Tim, I don't know if you're in the minority here, just because a few take the time to voice their opinion, many many more here only read and don't wanna enter the discussion, cuz there's no right or wrong. Also the weak and strong point of the automotive side of the hobby is that there are many different kinds of modelers, be it either the weekend modeler or the group which is often referred to, as the lunatic fringe, and then everything in between, so a company always will have something for everyone, while disappointing everyone else There are modelers who are pretty comfortable with wire axles, one piece chassis and chrome-headlamp design, the other wish a true scale replica, with all the whistles and bells of the subject chosen. Tamiya in this instance made a design decision, based merits only know to them, it could be price setting, consumer feedback or just what they thought the kit should look like, now we can all voice our opinion here, but doubt that any of our concerns, wishes or praise will get to the those making the dissensions there, they will look at the ROI and feedback from their national and international distributors. Is it bad voicing our opinion be it praise or disappointment, no cuz personally I too would've like an engine, but know that aftermarket companies who are much more flexible and more in touch, (and can make a buck on dealing) with the smaller niche, will jump in to fill that void, will it come at an extra cost, yes...but I'm willing to pay that to have something that will give me 100% satisfaction. And yes no need for name calling, but in the heat of the moment, we all sometimes do something we might regret later, and I'm not an exception, we're all here just because of one thing, the passion that unites us all, the love of building/collection and talking about scale automotive model kits. Luc

It's kinda strange how they designed that, and from the look of it it wouldn't taken much, to make it full detail, maybe depending on sales a next version could be, or wait for the aftermaket to step up

Here's the instruction sheet...so one can prepare... https://cdn.simba-dickie-group.de/downloads/300024354/300024354_Ford_Mustang_GT4.pdf