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Academy 1975 Hyundai Pony


fumi

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ohh, that would be cool. There's a lot of British engineering involved in the Pony and owes a lot of it's technical makeup to the Morris Marina. George Turnbull, then managing director, left British Leyland in 1975 and became vice president of Hyundai Motor Devision to oversee the production of the Pony as he did the Morris Marina previously.

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Back in late 1984 , mid 1985 , I read in Car & Driver that the Hyundai cars were comprised of old Mitsubishi knock-downs from the mid-70's .  If that was truly the case , The Pony as replicated here , was in theory , early 60's Mitsubishi CKD's , no ?

Looks like a great kit ! 

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The Pony was their first home grown car, I believe it had some Ford Cortina parts (they had been building Cortinas under license).  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Pony

The Hyundai Excel that replaced the Pony was based on the Mitsubishi Mirage.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Excel

Edited by Rob Hall
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5 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

Back in late 1984 , mid 1985 , I read in Car & Driver that the Hyundai cars were comprised of old Mitsubishi knock-downs from the mid-70's .  If that was truly the case , The Pony as replicated here , was in theory , early 60's Mitsubishi CKD's , no ?

Looks like a great kit ! 

Kind of, Pressed Steel Fisher did the tooling. Hyundai had licence to make Cortinas and the German Taunus, the Pony was a mix of Ford and Mitsubishi components. Note the wheels are mk3 mk4 Cortina.

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The general gist of the Korean is a celebration about this being the first domestically made car in South Korea in 1975, as Rob pointed out. It is also a new tool as the other one is a Pony II which didn't arrive until 1982.

You do indeed get the young lady in question, and she is pre-decorated as you see her. The model is also the 2nd in their "Stationary Series" that uses their MCP (Molded Color Plastic) gimmick meaning highly polished body shell and everything else being molded in gray and black. It also means this thing is coming to you molded in Stoplight Red. 

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Be interesting to see if Academy actually goes back and digs out the Pony II, Stellar, and first gen Excel tools and maybe sees fit to make some actual clear glass parts for them.  They're by no means great kits to begin with being from the 1980s, but the biggest drawback to them is they all have weird blue/violet tinted clear parts for all the windows. 

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8 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

Dang. There was a kit of the Hyundai Stellar?!

Add that to the list. My second car was a 1986 Hyundai Stellar GSL. Had it for a year, was an awesome little car.

Had a rather inglorious end though. Turned out pretty good, considering it literally rolled down a mountain.

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That looks identical to the Stellar my aunt used to own. Hers died within three years, and she moved on to driving Corollas after that. Recently, she bought a Kia Sportage, but will never get another car with a Hyundai badge (and, yes, she knows that Hyundai and Kia are the same company).

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So I got this in today fresh off a flight from South Korea, so let's take a look. This is very much more an actual model kit than the past two Hyundai offerings (Azera/Grandeur & Santa Fe) with 108 parts (about 95 or so used in the build OOB). The kit has 2 wheel choices, 2 front grilles, three sets of mirrors, several ways to address the lights (either amber, red or entirely paint them yourself clear) as well as parts on the clear runner that appear to be taxi roof medallions.

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So first up let's take a look at the body. Aside from the normal weak panel lines that have been an issue on prior recent Academy kits, the body itself is nicely molded with no flash or excessive panel lines. The lines that doe exist are for the most part following actual panels in the car so minimal normal clean up will get you ready to paint. If you're good with the red the body had a decent shine OOB and could be a "naked" model with a little compounding.

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The chassis is the normal curbside plate style with the engine/transmission molded in...

20201110_212916.jpg.5106d81465dbfe6dd9f8698b9076b0ef.jpg

This is the main parts runner with the suspension components, smaller interior bits, two sets of the mirrors, the two grilles, exhaust, mudflaps, bumper mounts and bumper corners and so on.

20201110_212818.thumb.jpg.0a3c22da393b8e6615ef2c28692bd975.jpg

Main interior components here which build off a typical platform style with separate door panels, and being a SK vehicle it is LHD.

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The literature in the original advertising said the female figure would be painted and ready to go, but alas she is not.

20201110_212747.jpg.f1bae3b30f1990c7a4361661dc012e46.jpg

Edited by niteowl7710
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