niteowl7710

2025-07-05T17:18:45Z

SJR has not chromed the parts on some of their reissues of old Monogram kits where the cars themselves had no chrome on the 1:1s. Handful of their own tool 1/25 vintage kits don't have chromed parts either in cases where the car ran painted bumpers and the like. That's a relative godsend since SJR plates with some sort of real metal that you can't strip off.

June 28

Alright I'll forge the inception point here of complaining about the people complaining about complaining...but have any of you guys who loathe the "trashing" of kits/companies actually bothered to try to engage the "complainers" to see what their actual issues are? Cause otherwise this is gatekeeping of the first order.

Your experience, opinion, feelings don't comport with mine, ergo you're doing it wrong and all you have to say is invalid. It's like you've overlaid the discourse of politics and applied it to the hobby.

If you've been in this hobby for a long time you've probably taken for granted that for anyone new to it, or returning to it after a long time away - like so many did in 2020 - the North American automotive modeling hobby is probably the ONLY thing you can buy in the store where a new product on a shelf might in fact be really really old. Imagine going into a store to buy a TV and there's two fairly identical boxes on the shelf and so you pick the one with the flashy box that appeals to you most and instead of the flat screen you were expecting you get a 13" black and white set. Bonus you actually paid a bit more for the old thing to boot! When you go tell people - Hey I got some old "junk" TV in this box, everyone tells you it's your fault you didn't research when the TV was made the first time, and if you weren't so lazy you'd just get up and change the channels like we've always done.

June 25

3 hours ago, blubaja said:

I asked the people at Ertl, in Dyersville, now owned by Tomy. They have no idea where the tools are🙃

That's cause Ertl as an entity stop existing back when Racing Champions bought the whole ball of wax in the 90s. They're just a sub-brand of Tomy and what used to be the Ertl property in Dyersville is the North American Distribution Center for Tomy.

June 25

I am always suspicious of anyone who has to spend great gouts of time professing how much fun they're having in their hobby, particularly if their idea of fun looks down on other people participating in said hobby.

As for instant gratification in video games, tell that to anyone who's been playing World of Warcraft for the past twenty years...

June 22

1 hour ago, Radretireddad said:

Let me guess. Those 18” wheels and tube chassis go along with a Coyote or LS swap, right.🙄
I’m really happy a new tool of this subject is being offered as an alternative to the ancient AMT kit but please, please, please give us a stock or near stock version. The Pro touring shtick is one giant dead horse that was beaten to a bloody pulp long, long ago.

Stock Version, Pro Touring Version...as the original post says "2 Versions coming".

June 21

Some more high end multimedia goodness for the Stash...

June 18

14 hours ago, CapSat 6 said:

The Salvino’s kits are a factor. I was thinking from the standpoint that another version could be baked in for each…licensing would be an issue, but then again, Round 2 does tons of licensing, and have had vintage NASCAR licensing for their slot cars, diecasts and other products, too. I wouldn’t know if it would be financially logical or not, but for all we know, it might be a matter of negotiating some kind of rider on an existing license that they might already have.

They could also look at either putting out generic versions of both kits (like the old Model King re-releases from about 15 years ago) or getting licenses for lesser known (and perhaps less costly) drivers from the era.

Lots of these cars were driven in USAC, for example.

The one thing about modern licensing is that just because you have one product licensed doesn't mean it applies to anything else. Salvinos is at this point THE officially licensed product of both NASCAR and IndyCar in terms of model kits. Lesser drivers mean lesser sales. There's a reason why so much SJR stuff is Petty and Chase Elliot. They are the two names that move product, intentionally doing something obscure is a non-starter even for them with their 1,500 pc kit runs.

I really hope those who want these early malaise-era Mopars get their wish - presuming there's an actual market for them outside of the 1% that inhabit this forum - but I can't think of any car less inspiring than a smog choked small block '74 Charger.

June 17

On 6/16/2025 at 8:47 AM, CapSat 6 said:

Now that I think about this, if Round 2 develops new '72-'74 Chargers and '71-'72 Road Runners, they could also bake in new NASCAR bodies for use on their generic MPC chassis while they are at it.

I dunno, it would be pointless to shell out all of that licensing money to NASCAR, the teams, the driver(s) {family}, et al to replicate something that Salvinos JR has already done...umpteen times. There are so many SJR '70s Chargers floating around you're starting to not be able to sell them for retail anymore. The Roadrunners are a little more scare on the ground, but they've released at least 3 boxings of those as well.

June 13

Today's goodies...

Latest HLJ shipment

And the a little piece of unobtainium multimedia resin. This Subaru was put out by Hobby Design right before the Alpha Modlels thing got started as a brand. So this is that type of full resin kit. It's been OOP for awhile and I let a few pass through my fingers since then. I accidentally found this one on eBay after talking about to someone else for what it cost new plus free shipping from Japan. Proving if you find the right seller there are still good deals to be found there on occasion.

June 6

1 hour ago, mikos said:

We’ve been hearing about this Powell PU for a long time now. When the prototype was stolen from Okey at the show(?), it seems things ground to a halt. Now, all of a sudden these print ads come out making us hopeful that things are now humming along to eventually have it done. Sorry, but I’m not buying it.

People want to bring the Johan name back to life with expensive ultra small runs of resin copies only available on Facebook. I think I’ll pass. If you want my attention, scan some of the old kits that are still around like what Round2 has done from their archives and develop tooling to reproduce it in styrene.

Of course, the ever present naysayers will say it can’t be done or there is no “business case” or whatever they can argue to make it seem insurmountable. However, me thinks there a certain element out there that never wants Johan to return. Heaven forbid if they actually gathered the resources to scan a mid ‘60’s Cadillac (or pick your favorite) and reissue it again. I think the universe would collapse then.

Model manufacturing is a lot like the old joke about race cars. How do you make a small fortune racing? Start with a big fortune. Not to talk intentionally ill of anyone, but I don't believe any of the parties involved in either Faux-han (especially Okey) has the financial wherewithal to produce an injection molded kit from scratch. Probably not the technical knowledge or design experience either for that matter. The guys behind Salvinos had been working in miniatures and collectibles from soup to nuts for decades together and they've still managed to fall all over themselves repeatedly getting the model business going...

May 30

2 hours ago, drksd4848 said:

if I have any doom and gloom at all, it’s just related to the fact that young people aren’t into scale monitoring like they used to be. It’s hard to get the kids into it these days with so many video games, screened tech, etc. It is a wonderful hobby that unlocks the imagination like nothing else can.

No offense, but exactly how many kids are you attracting to the hobby with a kit of a car that's so old you'd have to be born prior to 1960 to appreciate? I was born 5 years after the car was made and can count on the hand of a bad wood shop teacher how many 72 RRs I've seen in real life.

Plenty of kids in "the hobby" as a whole, but they build Gundam and anime stuff that interests them. Or cars, tanks & planes they can relate to from all of those video games - stuff that the U.S. legacy manufacturers couldn't care less about. People can blame screens (which have existed in some form or another for every modeler starting with Gen X) all they want, but thinking a 53 year old car is going to get them excited is a fallacy of epic proportions.

May 27

16 hours ago, chryslerjunkandstuff said:

I am cool with it!

What kit DOESN'T require sandpaper an razor blades an fitting?

I'm a builder, those things have never bothered me much..

Also, the Powell that is currently available, in small batches, is essentially a pre-production prototype, so, I'd always assume that a kit of that description would still be in need of refinement here an there..

It's still a kit of an obscure American vehicle, that NOBODY else has, nor even thought of, and THAT makes it really, really, really cool!

Outside of the box thinking, and I hope Okeys got a hundred more unique kit subjects comin down the line for us..

ALSO, that AMC AMX kit of yours is pretty rad!

Except this Powell has been in pre-production for more than 2 years now. Last year he had flyers all over the venue, including the bathroom touting it and then didn't actually have any available because of some excuse or another.

At some point a product ceases being a "beta" prototype and just is the product you're getting, particularly if there isnt financial wherewithal to produce a better product. If that product floats your goat, then by all means by the heck out of it and support Okey. But it is what it is at this point.

May 27

21 hours ago, Stef said:

On the new Widebody kit, looks like they increased the diameter of the tires and wheels; they look at bit "meatier" than the somewhat undersized-looking offerings from the RT kit HPI Guy built awhile back.

The smaller ones are what are in the kit. Sean built his with a set of the prototype wheels which were originally larger than the end result.

May 24

First wave of NuNu M4s has arrived...

May 23

Aoshima had attached release months to several of the aforementioned 1/24 Snap Car kits shown in this thread.

October for the 2017 GT-R NiSMO

October also for the Lancer Evo III which will have three different color options in "regular" release and an Initial D branded offering.

November for the 2024 Nissan Z NiSMO also offered in three different colors.

May 22

4 hours ago, gtx6970 said:

Looking at this one.

It kinda sorta looks like the old Monogram kit from my youth. ( I built one of them back in the day ,,,. But the car is huge compared to anything else I have)

Just smaller scale

Anyone thats built this kit, care to chime in with details please

Both of the AM kits effectively the same. The difference is in the wing height and a few other components that differentiate between the 1969 & 1970 seasons.

Like others have said these have never been reissued, so the cost is what the cost is when it comes to the secondary market. It's presumed that Academy would be in possession of the molds since they seem to have the rest of the AM stuff, but unlike the '63 Vette there doesn't seem to be anyone out there that wants (or can afford the licensing) to do a private label re-pop of the M8B

May 18

6 hours ago, Jon Cole said:

Why is it that Hasegawa is so hard to find here in the states? I've given up looking for the Mini Coopers; Classic, or 'current'.

Hasegawa was easier to find in the past because they had a long standing bi-lateral (aka it went both ways) import agreement with Revell. If you know you period Japanese kits you'll know there were a variety of co-branded Monogram/Hasegawa or Revell/Hasegawa kits in the 80s and 90s it went back so far. But with the implosion of Hobbico in 2018 Hasegawa lost it's U.S. importer. Hasegawa & RevellAG maintained their relationship through the bankruptcy and new ownership, but I don't know if Hasegawa's distribution was ever specifically resurrected through Revell-Carerra of the Americas or if they created their own network through established wholesalers.

Like Justin said the kits are available, but you need a knowledgeable, and dare I say willing, shop to stock them.

May 17

On 5/16/2025 at 12:00 PM, 1930fordpickup said:

Thank you for the nice photos and coverage. There are some interesting subjects from the other side of the pond.

I wonder why wheei sets seem to be more of a thing over there and not here. I guess the 3d printer people will take care of that for us here.

I suspect heavily it's because of polycaps. Now you can have the argument about male fitment (Tamiya, Hasegawa, Beemax/NuNu) vs. female (Aoshima & Fujimi) which is all about which side of the wheel the peg is located (eg on the wheel itself or the suspension components) but nearly every single set of wheels in Japan all attach through the use of those little nylon donuts and it's easy enough to cut off the peg and/or make one out of styrene rod (or metal rod for that matter).

It's not the relentless goofy nonsense of U.S. kit manufacturers where no two companies can agree which way to mount their wheels for a given 12 month period let alone over the long haul.

May 16

28 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

They may already have done so. If they're the same as the ones I got in a Nissan Cedric Y30 kit and used on a Monogram Corvette build then they're pretty wide and they've done well to vaguely get them under a Celica - I can see why it's got that rake!

Aha, here they are on June re-release: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10956550

They're the same wheels. My LHS at one point had 27 sets of them for whatever reason. I haven't checked back recently to see how well they sold. The Cragers and the 5 slots both came from a series of "Hot Rod" kits that were done about 30 years ago and while the wheels have been reissued repeatedly I'm not sure the actual raked suspension has been included since then.

May 16

5 hours ago, chryslerjunkandstuff said:

1/24 scale version when?

If you're relying on AK and their partners to make it, never.

May 16

14 hours ago, Mark C. said:

The Hasegawa LB 1600 Celica ST is sweet! Was wondering what are the differences between it and the GT? Are the taillights different, for example?

It's the parts shown above the built model. Wheels and ST scripts.