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Kits you have, that you will never build


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When my kits out grew our house (my wife's estimation), we built a 24' x 40' garage with a barn style roof and an up stairs (16' x 40' open) for storage. That area is now full and there are rows of cases 3 deep x 3 high across the rear of the garage under the stairs. No matter how much room we have, we grow to our environment, more space, more stuff, whatever it is.

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When my kits out grew our house (my wife's estimation), we built a 24' x 40' garage with a barn style roof and an up stairs (16' x 40' open) for storage. That area is now full and there are rows of cases 3 deep x 3 high across the rear of the garage under the stairs. No matter how much room we have, we grow to our environment, more space, more stuff, whatever it is.

That's why I'm not going to get crazy building a new garage...it'll be a two-car structure with maybe a few feet of extra length so I can walk all the way around the inside with the car in there. If I get the car together, then all the parts that are now stored separately will be ON (or in) the car instead of needing additional space. Some tools, the compressor, and a work bench or two can go from the basement to the garage also. The "not worth enough to sell, but worth too much to give away" kits can go in the garage too.

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I have a whole bunch of kits I will never build, though I might get merciless about stealing parts from them if need be. Most of them I picked up cheap, probably very cheap, or I wouldn't have bought them in the first place. case in point is something I found and used just the other day: some Fujimi Honda Oddessy big old mom van that I have absolutely zero interest in, talk about a boring car! but the thing is, it comes with two Thule top-of-car carriers, plus a super kool Trek 8000 bicycle, with photo etch spokes! I think I remember paying maybe 8$ for this at the NNL swap meet one year. and there are plenty more too, Toyota 800 sports sedans (love em but have already built two), Messerschmidt, plus the usual 32 fords, fat fendered chebys, hot rod variations, all kinds of kits ive collected up over the years. it pays to keep an eye on ebay, still some real bargains out there if you watch. and of course that adds to the unbuilt pile too!

edit to add:

>Why not build them?

for me, the issue is time. I already have as many actual projects going as I can handle plus its just not feasible to build them all. lots of them are of marginal interest to me, but its nice to have them on hand if only for some possible kool parts, but also collector disease packratism to some extent too.

jb

Edited by jbwelda
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Like many of you guys, I've got alot of kits that I know that I will never get around to building. Due to space limitations, I know that all of my 1/12th scale Protar and Tamiya F1 cars will never get done, which makes me kind of sad. Which begs the question, what to do with them? Do I sell them to someone who with build them and display them, or keep them and pass them on to my kids, who I know will sell them, or hold on to them and maybe one day having the space for them.

Edited by kitbash1
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I love the 1/12 scale F1 cars but can never find them for a decent price arount here. I did get one for 45.00 but the decales were destroyed and i was looking at 40.00 for a set so i sold it for 30.00 more than i paid for it. I look at it like this, if i know i will never build it then it will go to someone who will.

Edited by jrherald420
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LOL,Yeah,Mark,you're right-next show,no Lookee Lous.

"Step right up and feast your eyes on the world's ugliest Charger kit!Only twenty five cents for a thirty second perusal of a kit guaranteed to turn your stomach!"

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I have a few pro stocks, Grumpys toy 72 Vega, and the 70 camaro, also have the Mopar Missile and last, Dyno Done pinto. I am going to do the toy Vega this fall, have everything just want to wait for the cold months to start it.

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I don't want kits just sitting in the boxes. Never building them and not seeing what you can do with it is not for me. It's just money sitting there with no purpose. It's more fun to build them than look at a box full of parts wondering what it would look like. I do know some people around here who has room full of cars that they will never build, one tried to sell them and thought he'd have a small fortune. He was wrong. Remember you can still look at the boxes even after it's built and you still enjoy the building. One problem people do forget as kits get older the plastic gets brittle and the decals are no good I've seen this happen.

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I've only ever bought two kits that I plan on never unsealing and building. One is Round 2's reissue of the Aurora Batmobile in the collectors tin. The other is Revell's '67 Corvette convertible in the collectors tin. I have both kits in regular boxes for building. I also have a early JoHan Turbine car, opened but still in the box as it was packed. A couple of reason I probably will never build this kit are, 1. I have an original promo (with the cool box and tissue paper). 2. I opened the box and found the kit missing all of its clear parts. And 3. I'm just impressed with the way they designed this kit to fit into its box. I kind of don't want to mess with that. Plus I've built the car more than once in the past.

I'd still like to find the clear parts to add back into the Turbine kit. Is there anyone out there that might be able to help me with that?

Scott Aho

Edited by unclescott58
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Oh. I'll build them. I have not had them for years. The grumpy toy Vega. I bought at a salvation army store along with an orginal Rehea Morrison 84. Kit, an a cpl don Garllet swamp rat dragsters, so I will build them. It's great that we can buy new Decals for them from like Slixx, and all the new aftermarket parts. I agree about letting them sit around. Lol

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I have one I'll eventually scrap out , the Trumiteer 1960 Pontiac Bonneville HT. I opened the box to find a truncated abyss of a body worthy of an Ed Roth cartoon . Yes, mine has the "Dull " , 1st run and 2nd run chrome trees . I closed the box after examining the top of this piece of junk . look, I had a 1- 1 1960 Pontiac in Ft Worth years back . I actually know what a real one drove and looked like . The convertible isn't without fault either . They slammed a cheap Roll and Pleat interior to that so in order to get a legitimate 60, I have to pay twice ............. Uh no .

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I have more models than I could ever hope to build but they are all opened and fair game, except for one; a Monogram 1950 Ford Pickup.

I got hooked on models as a kid when my dad took me to a dirt track. There was a vendor there selling built-up model kits of the race cars. I thought they were so cool. I started building immediately. My first build was a mess, parts in the wrong place, pieces following off (especially the chrome parts), the usual stuff. I quickly became frustrated. My Dad didn’t have the time or patience for such things so my Mom stepped up. She helped me complete my first couple builds. She learned to identify parts by name, alternators, distributors, etc. She also learned, by reading the instructions (whoda thunk it) that you need to scrape the chrome plating from the gluing surface in order to allow the parts to bond. In spite of having eight kids she found the time to spend with me to teach me how to build.

Model kits where always a welcomed birthday or Christmas gift. She would buy them for me from time to time even after I became an adult. When she would give me a kit she would always say “Remember to scrape your chrome or it won’t stick.” The ’50 Ford was the last kit she ever gave me. I thought about building it, as a memorial to her but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I even bought a second kit, hoping I could build it and only made it though some of the engine assembly. Maybe someday I’ll finish the second kit but I don’t think I will ever build her kit.

Edited by afx
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Cool story JC. As it happens I'm sitting here looking at a Revell USRRC 427 Cobra kit (# 85-4149) I got back in '99 wondering when, or , if I'll ever build it. Not for a while yet, but I will build it, just want to polish my skills a little more before I do.

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