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fumi

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Posts posted by fumi

  1. 5 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

    I guess they figured there's enough of a market for the 2+2 given that it has never been kitted before. Be interesting to see what they make of this over the long term considering the "2+0" 300ZX is still in production at Tamiya.

    It has created quite a sensation among Japanese modellers as the 2by2 widely outsold the 2-seater in Japan, and they can now recreate the car they or their relatives owned back then.

    I can already foresee standard version of zenki/chuki/zenki, and the Fuji Speedway safety car.  Substituting the wheels in the chuki kit with the kouki BBS would yield the BBS edition.  The Tochigi prefecture highway patrol car is also possible.  Then there are the resin wing and front lip special editions, as well as the various decal special editions.

    • Like 1
  2. 4 hours ago, Jordan White said:

    What year would you consider the start of the kouki period for this car? I know it's used for the Z31 but I haven't seen it used in regards to the Z32.

    In Japanese publications and web sites they are defined as follow:

    1989-1993 zenki: original model

    1993-1998 chuki: new rear wing, HICAS changed from hydraulic to electric, brake calipers changed from aluminium to steel, boost gauge eliminated for the TT model, 2-seater model lost the T-bar roof

    1998-2000 kouki: new bumper and aero, xenon headlights, return of the boost gauge, stiffened body, new sport suspension for the Version R

    • Like 3
  3. I am presently surprised that Hasegawa tooled up a new body for the Skyline GT-X instead of just providing inserts for the rear wheel openings.  I guess we can see more Kenmary variations down the line.

    I also think we will see the prototype race car soon, probably early next year release.

  4. On 8/30/2022 at 7:53 AM, niteowl7710 said:

    I know it won't float a lot of people's goats, but man I'd love to see a new tool Skyline R30.  It would allow me to dump a bunch of mediocre old Fujimi and Aoshima civilian kits, and hopefully they'd make a Gr. A race car version to cover the early years of JTCC. With the R31 pretty much done (except for whatever "resin bits and bobs" reissues) and the R32 winding down I'm not sure it makes sense to go forward into the R33.

    The R30 will float a lot of boats, and I would be surprised if it is not already in their book.  It is hugely popular in Japan and right off the bat I can already come up with 8 variations, zenki/kouki of RS and garden variaty grades, JTC of at least 4 liveries, and we are not even going into the various movie and TV drama cars yet.  I guess Hasegawa is just saving it for later, when the R31 and R32 are completely played out.

    There are 2 more possible versions of the R31 not yet released, the Autech version and the Tommykaira, and that's it for the series.  For the R32 I would expect at least one street custom version with non-projector halogen lamps and big muffler, the V-Spec and V-Spec II with Brembo brakes and BBS wheels, and many more Group A and N1 decal variations.  The R33 is a dead end as far as the real car goes, but then I also never expected anyone would produce a new kit of the most unpopular Skyline aka the R31, let alone it was so well received that it already spawned 10 variations, so you never know.

  5. Interesting that Hasegawa is giving away the solid roof and the NA engine cover as "gift parts" for the MR-2.  That makes for at least 2 SP versions they are not going to sell.  Other than the early model there aren't that many variations they can get out of the mold, they must be really confident on the sales potential of this kit.  Hopefully they would see fit to kit the SW20 as well if the AW11 turns out to be a hit.

    As for the 117, they nailed the half polished/half burnished stainless window trims perfectly in their test builds.  I wonder if that will make it to the production kits as well, that would be tricky to produce.  I would expect the Bellett to follow down the road, the chassis is the same and there are a few notable racing liveries in addition to the numerous different grades that can be made.

    The Piazza would be nice, and fit their one basic mold, at least 5 variations philosophy perfectly.  Just on top of my mind there are the pre-MC, post-MC, Nero, Irmscher and Handling by Lotus versions.

    • Like 2
  6. On 8/31/2021 at 2:43 AM, niteowl7710 said:

    Side note, I see it's got a RHD dash option again.  That'll make the UK guys happy I presume.  Still that's gotta be a rare duck, there don't seem to be very many of them that were made factory RHD.  Searching for ones online turned up a 1 of 6 U.K. Targa for sale...so what...a few hundred were made that way?

    These are not as rare as you may think.  Every single Porsche sold in here is RHD, and they sell 70-100 cars per month.

  7. 3 hours ago, Ben Brown said:

    I hope they include the alloy wheels and not just the steelies.

    This version will actually come with the alloy wheels and not the steelies.  The real car Hasegawa took this picture for happened to have steelies, and they specifically said in the same pic that "the kit contents may differ from this particular car".

    • Like 2
  8. 1 hour ago, niteowl7710 said:

    I wouldn't get rid of mine, if nothing else than the idea of building a N.A. spec RX-7.  I don't know that this kit will ever come that way, at least not at first.

    There are indents for the pedals on both left and right side of the interior tub.  LHD is a given, just not sure if it would be street or race or both.

  9. On 7/26/2021 at 5:16 AM, Richard Bartrop said:

    Thanks for clarifying.   It's good to have some input from someone who's actually there.

    So what is the car culture in China like?  What gets a Chinese gearhead's heart racing?  What makes a Chinese car modeler go, "I have GOT to get one of those!"

    Japanese car kits tend to be pricey here as well, and I'm told American model kits are pretty expensive in overseas markets.   On the other hand, people do buy Japanese kits here, and Trumpeter does seem to do a healthy business here with its other kits.

    Maybe it was the subject matter.   Tamiya sells racing cars and expensive exotics here.  The kind of cars that get people excited, no matter what part of the world they live in.  There are American cars that capture people's imagination as well, but I can seen where sixty year old plain vanilla compacts might not be it.

    Well technically I am looking from outside across the border, but my car loving friends and coworkers in the Mainland, as well as the Internet forums both in here and across the border, give me some insight about the happenings over there.

    Some background on modelling in China: it started to become popular in the early 90's as the middle class grown and people were looking for new hobbies.  It was around that time when Dragon put up a branch in Shanghai, while in the south Trumpeter had started to put out cheap, toy like military kits and Lee began doing Tamiya knock offs.   AutoArt also started a new factory to make diecast cars.  That was how it started and it had come a long way, with Trumpeter releasing some of the best military kits in the market and new companies popping up almost every year.

    I would say most car modellers nowadays are in their 30's and 40's growing up building Tamiya kits and reading translated car magazines about Porsches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis during the 90's, so naturally super cars are the hottest subject matters.  I have heard the McLaren Senna sold very well and the genre is also what Hobby Design is mainly focused in.  JDM subjects are also popular, again these are what people see in magazines and videos, kits are abundant and there is a huge aftermarket for them.  Motorcycles round out the rest of the market.  American cars are an extremely niche market, there is simply no connection to them for most people, other than from the Transformers movies.

    Just like the rest of the modelling world car modellers are in the minority around here, with Gundam having the biggest market share and growth followed by military.  The post-2000 generation are also not into cars as much as the earlier generations, though car related video games do have an impact on them, which again drives interest in super cars and JDM kits.

    Kit price is in the range of US $20-25 for Japanese re-release and $30 around for new kits here.  I have been increasingly buying kit from TaoBao (sort of a Chinese version of Amazon), it saves from the hassle of going to the shop only to have the kit sold out or not in stock yet, and with Hasegawa kits it is usually cheaper even with shipping factored in.  While we can get the Revell Germany version of American car kits here, I have never seen a Round2 kit for sale even when they are molded right in the same province I buy my kits from.  They are probably all for export.  

  10. On 7/18/2021 at 7:23 AM, Richard Bartrop said:

    It may be that China just didn't have much of a car culture, though this could be changing.

    There is a very healthy car culture in China, it just has nothing to do with American cars.

    I also don't think Trumpeter charged an outrageous price for their car kits, I got my Nova and Bonneville for less than US $20 each and the Falcon for less than $30, and I still saw the Falcons on clearance at $20 just last month.  How they cost so much in foreign market is beyond me.

    It is very simple why Trumpeter got out of the car kit market.  When they make their umpteenth T-80 variant with 1000 parts and selling for over $50 (could be way over that on your side of the world) armour modellers just thank them and snap them up.  When they make a car kit and sell for half that car modellers ridiculed them and not buying any.  Coupled with their choice of American cars that no one outside of the US buys and it is easy to see they were doomed from the start, and there is just no point for them to make any more, new or reissue.

  11. Looking at several build pics, holes are already tooled for the grab handles for the Safari version, and the ZG specific parts like the bumper, headlights, fender flares and wheels are on their own sprues that can be switched out.  Safari versions is pretty much guaranteed now, just need to see what other combinations would Tamiya come up with further down the road.

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