Oldcarfan27 Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 (edited) 10 hours ago, disabled modeler said: Id love to get my hands on one of those Trans Am kits....! I once owned a 75 and loved that car with all my heart. T-bird looks cool too. Don't pay too much! I have purchased all three when they were readily available. These cars have just OK 1/24 scale proportions (Tbird is too big, Firebird is chopped and wide, Mustang is the best), no engines, have opening doors with rudimentary interiors, platform chassis and most of all PROVISIONS FOR MOTORIZATION! Very important when building an accurate scale model. Why, oh why do Japanese companies keep foisting this useless gimmick instead of just producing an accurate model. Edited December 9, 2018 by Oldcarfan27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atmobil Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Do those kits have anything in common with Otaki's 1:24 american cars? I bought a S.W.A.T Thunderbird from Otaki not that long ago: Not my picture but it is this kit. WAY to big, must be closer to 1:21 or 1:22. I compared it to the AMT 70 Galaxie police car and the Thunderbird is wider and longer by quite some margin. It is also a very typical older japansese kit. Designed to be motorized and with working lights. Opening doors will reveal a interior that is not very detailed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldcarfan27 Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 1 hour ago, Atmobil said: Do those kits have anything in common with Otaki's 1:24 american cars? I bought a S.W.A.T Thunderbird from Otaki not that long ago: Not my picture but it is this kit. WAY to big, must be closer to 1:21 or 1:22. I compared it to the AMT 70 Galaxie police car and the Thunderbird is wider and longer by quite some margin. It is also a very typical older japansese kit. Designed to be motorized and with working lights. Opening doors will reveal a interior that is not very detailed. Same kit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atmobil Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Ah, ok. Thank you Even if the kit is a little lacking I want to build it but as a stock Thunderbird. I think it can look failry ok when done sitting on the shelf. 1 hour ago, Oldcarfan27 said: Same kit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbash1 Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 On 12/3/2017 at 9:56 PM, ToyLvr said: Here's a photo of a built-up Premier kit of the Corvair (photo courtesy of Tom Geiger). This one looks like it was mastered by someone on LSD? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disabled modeler Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 15 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said: Don't pay too much! I have purchased all three when they were readily available. These cars have just OK 1/24 scale proportions (Tbird is too big, Firebird is chopped and wide, Mustang is the best), no engines, have opening doors with rudimentary interiors, platform chassis and most of all PROVISIONS FOR MOTORIZATION! Very important when building an accurate scale model. Why, oh why do Japanese companies keep foisting this useless gimmick instead of just producing an accurate model. Thanks for the information...I just would like to be able to make a replica of my old 75 Trans AM someday..if I can afford one..rather use the MPC one for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 On 11/27/2017 at 7:21 AM, Ace-Garageguy said: How did they miss the third aux vent ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 3 minutes ago, Greg Myers said: How did they miss the third aux vent ? I dunno, but at least it actually looks like the warped and distorted model that's in the box...which IS correctable into something reasonably OK with enough effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 Just now, Ace-Garageguy said: I dunno, but at least it actually looks like the warped and distorted model that's in the box...which IS correctable into something reasonably OK with enough effort. Disagree. Bad as the kit body is, this box art makes it look much, much worse. I'm restoring an old one (Aurora, I believe) right now. Truly restoring it as an old-school build. It's simply not worth trying to correct, as MUCH better kits are available and not that expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bartrop Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 The GTO is a good example of of a box doing it's job. Honestly, I'd rather the companies put their efforts into what's in the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 9 minutes ago, Snake45 said: Disagree. Bad as the kit body is, this box art makes it look much, much worse. I'm restoring an old one (Aurora, I believe) right now. Truly restoring it as an old-school build. It's simply not worth trying to correct, as MUCH better kits are available and not that expensive. I've already done some slice-N-dice on one just to get a feel of what a major correction would take. It's not that hard. And, as I bought several of the Aurora-boxed kits with the gorgeous box-art illustration based solely on the box-art (and my own ignorance at the time), I'd kinda like to be able to get something on the shelf that's not an embarrassment (to my highly critical-for-proportion-and-line eye). I also have the "good" kits, and the sad little Monogram model CAN compare favorably, ultimately, if one assumes the result to represent a heavily used race car that may have had some expedient repairs and mods during its competition career. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 2 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said: I also have the "good" kits, and the sad little Monogram model CAN compare favorably, ultimately, if one assumes the result to represent a heavily used race car that may have had some expedient repairs and mods during its competition career. Or, perhaps, a very poor kit car clone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 I missed the boat on the Breadvan transkit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GLMFAA1 Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 On 12/6/2018 at 8:58 PM, Snake45 said: Never had that model, but I had a giant toy of that thing--I think it was made by Ideal--when I was a kid. It would fling its "atomic shell" from one end of the house to the other! Come to think of it, it might have been somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/25 scale. Hmmmmmmmm...... The Ideal Atomic cannon was closer to 1/16th or 1/18th scale and the Renwall kit is 1/32nd when military was 1/35th I had em both! greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Ertl era AMT box art didn't fare much better. This box art style was a good predictor of the Holodeck on Star Trek: The Next Generation, though: And look, the ubiquitous exploding Ertl 'speech bubble', too!! GREAT idea!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Hall Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 11 hours ago, Casey said: Ertl era AMT box art didn't fare much better. This box art style was a good predictor of the Holodeck on Star Trek: The Next Generation, though: And look, the ubiquitous exploding Ertl 'speech bubble', too!! GREAT idea!!! It looks like someone was inspired by an old linoleum kitchen floor as the surface for the model... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldcarfan27 Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 2 hours ago, Rob Hall said: It looks like someone was inspired by an old linoleum kitchen floor as the surface for the model... Just to remind you where you can play with it afterward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Funny how it seems a high percentage of the well-paid "marketing professionals" with MBAs who signed off on this appalling stuff apparently missed the lecture series that began with the words "the primary mission of packaging is to make a potential buyer WANT the product that's in the box". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bartrop Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Economics were certainly a factor. Hire an artist vs have someone snap a photo. And we bought these kits anyhow, so really, why spend money when you don't have to? Also, let's not forget how many horrible kits those pretty box paintings suckered us into buying, so maybe it's not that surprising that people wanted to see what they were getting into. It's almost like some people have now decided that being played for a fool was an essential part of the modelling experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Porter Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Granted, it wasn't helped by one of the worst "Pep Boys specials" sets of wheels included in a muscle car kit, but what's the best way to ensure that no one knows there's a beautifully done (possibly AMT's best) 426 Hemi sitting inside the box? Paint the box art model practically flat orange, build it with the tail end sagging like it's carrying bags of concrete with blown out shocks, and superimpose it on the first image that comes up on Shutterstock when you search "Rural Highway". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gramps46 Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 On 12/12/2018 at 10:49 AM, Greg Myers said: How did they miss the third aux vent ? The early GTOs only had 2 side vents behind the front wheels so Aurora got a it right. When this kit was introduced it was such great kit with lots of detail through out but then the reality of the body proportions set in. I took the body off and put the Revell slot body on the stretched chassis instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Richard Bartrop said: ...It's almost like some people have now decided that being played for a fool was an essential part of the modelling experience. So...maybe what the manufactures should have done would have been to photograph a model built by the average buyer...slathered in glue where it didn't belong, parts ill-fitting or upside down, no sprue stubs removed or great gouges and holes in the parts where they were twisted off the trees, and bugs, runs, drips, and brush-marks in the paint. That certainly would have portrayed quite accurately what Joe Consumer could really expect to end up with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bartrop Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 27 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said: So...maybe what the manufactures should have done would have been to photograph a model built by the average buyer...slathered in glue where it didn't belong, parts ill-fitting or upside down, no sprue stubs removed or great gouges and holes in the parts where they were twisted off the trees, and bugs, runs, drips, and brush-marks in the paint. That certainly would have portrayed quite accurately what Joe Consumer could really expect to end up with. Not in the least, but it you have to admit knowing the kit bears at least some passing resemblance to what it's supposed to be is a good thing. Besides, if even a professional model builder can't make it look good, then maybe it's best to walk away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 (edited) 6 minutes ago, Richard Bartrop said: Not in the least, but it you have to admit knowing the kit bears at least some passing resemblance to what it's supposed to be is a good thing. Besides, if even a professional model builder can't make it look good, then maybe it's best to walk away. True enough. I think mk11 (Mike Mackie) expressed my sentiments best, back in 2017 on the "Your Favorite Box Art" thread: "To me, the best box art is evocative, like that piper box; it drags you into the scene, striking a chord and maybe makes you want to be there... and when the contents actually match the packaging... " Most of the stuff in this thread looks like it was phoned in by people who just didn't care. Edited December 13, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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