Justin Porter

Revell of Germany IS Revell especially in the now. You cannot throw out Revell of Germany simply because it doesn't prove your "modern sports cars by Revell don't sell" narrative particularly when these same kits ALSO end up in Revell US boxes and do quite well. As to the variant issue, would you care to hazard a guess as to exactly how visibly discernible the differences are between an Fw-190 A3, A4, A5, and A8 in 1/48th scale? I'll give you a hint, discernible enough to builders that Eduard felt it necessary to release kits in their Profipack line representing all of these variants, and each with 6 or more marking variations worth of decals inside. In all forms of building, you have casual builders for whom "looks like it" is enough and you have enthusiasts who want accurate representations of specific vehicles. Smart companies find ways to cater to both builders to nab as many sales as possible OR pick one or the other to cater exclusively to. Moebius caters exclusively to enthusiast builders who want detail and accuracy and they charge those builders accordingly so that they don't have to sell as many units.

I'd love to see the data that supports that Revell's BMW i8, McLaren 570s, Audi R8 and R8 Spyder, Mercedes SLS AMG and AMG GT, and Porsche 918 and Panamera haven't been highly successful kits on global market? I mean, that's a lot of all-new tool exotics (nearly 1 a year since 2010) for Revell to have done so clearly they're not failing in competing globally with Aoshima and Fujimi in that genre otherwise they would be course correcting.

A completely astonishing model for sure.

Finally got the time to take some nice pictures of the finished build. This is my Tamiya 1/20th scale Lotus 25. It's built box stock, using Tamiya TS-9 British Green over Stynelrez White Primer for the main color and a selection of Vallejo Model Air, Vallejo Metal Color, and AK Real Color paints for detail. This was an absolute bucket list kit to build for me and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Very classic scheme and nice to see instead of going the more common Calsonic route.

With rare exception, local hobby shops buy our merchandise through distributors at a rate of only 30%-50% off of MSRP. My concern with MSRP isn't primarily because of final price to customer, but rather because of the immediate impact of steadily rising costs for the same product. No, I don't mark what's on my shelves at MSRP, and I even go beyond that offering storewide discounts to members of organizations like the NMRA or IPMS, but I can only cut my throat so much on domestic kits specifically because a big box like Hobby Lobby can buy manufacturer direct at a cost well below what I can get and then turn around and pimp their 40% coupons.

Believe me, when my distributor posts the incoming releases with their MSRP's I invariably wince when I see Round 2's latest "adjustments".

Doubtful. JR Salvinos and Moebius are going concerns and Revell isn't uninterested in new US full kits as evidenced by their planned '71 Ford Mustang kit. For that matter, two of Tamiya's most recent 1/24th scale kits have been US subjects, as well as ICM kitting their series of excellent Model T kits. I would not even be surprised if Round 2 - now that they're investing in developing entirely newly tooled components for kits such as the bodies in the the full bumper Camaro, Grumpy's Vega, or '63 Chevy II wagon - eventually made the commitment to tooling entirely new kits when their tooling vault runs dry. But, as I said, be prepared for higher prices and shorter productions runs outside of the most commonplace subject matter. We're already seeing this as a successful business model with Salvinos and Moebius, and it's the business model for the bulk of military kit companies especially in the aircraft genre.

A newly tooled kit has to be a global success rather than just a domestic success to justify tooling costs. Otherwise get comfortable with paying larger prices for shorter production runs from smaller niche manufacturers. A newly tooled 3 window '34 Ford coupe - particularly either licensed or at least patterned after the celebrated California Kid - is something that could reasonably be justified. More obscure street rod choices are seriously less likely when there are major global subjects - Pagoda roof Mercedes 280SL, Austin Healey 3000 MkII, Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 - that have no serviceable kit in 1/24th scale and would sell in far greater numbers.

That's a really fantastic job of capturing the look and feel of the period.

I did in fact use the kit decals and joy of joys they co-operated. The secret lay in getting my decal water from my wife's Keurig. lol

Not sure what happened there. Here you guys go.

Some additional pictures Meng has posted to their Facebook.

Going to take more pictures in a better shoot, but happy to say the Lotus is finished!

They must have at least some since the Groovy Grader and the "Son of Troublemaker" are on that release list.

Would be quite amazing if they could pull that off. Quite frankly, even though the licensing would be through Volkswagen AG and who knows how difficult they are to work with, I would pay quite well for a reissue of the Bugatti Type 35 especially with the jaunty driver figure.

Be still my beating heart that we could possibly see the Duesenbergs and Packards reissued. I would absolutely love that.

This is an exciting round of announcements out of Atlantis. Going to be quite glad to put the drag cars and the Nomad, plus the Tom Daniels kits, onto my shop shelves. Probably will make an attempt on building the Mack hauler and the Mooneyes dragster myself.

Very slick building.

Had not seen this and it looks pretty good to me too. I'm genuinely liking the sheer detail from the box they're offering. If I'm really good next year I hope they'll consider an Austin-Healey 3000 MkII as a companion kit.

Fresh update. Suspension, Cockpit, and Engine are all together (with the exception of the intake trumpets) and we're in the home stretch. The steering wheel Lotus emblem was my canary in the coal mine for whether or not the vintage Tamiya decals would co-operate and as long as my water was fresh out of the Keurig, they do! Fingers are still crossed on how the stripe will turn out though.

The E-Type FHC is my personal big grab from this group, but for my shop shelves I'm already getting calls on the S-10 and the VW Camper. Should be a good 4th Quarter for us.

I wasn't too thrilled with the way they designed it to attach for sure. I ended up soaking the little spots in the rear bulkhead in a bit of Tamiya Extra Thin Quick Set to get the lower link piece settled down into the channels, then built up a strengthening fillet of Slow Cure CA.

This has been a kit I've long looked forward to building and I finally got my hands on one for a less than nose-bleed price. It really is a very cleverly engineered kit, probably at the very edge of what injection molding could do at the time it was tooled up. I'm building it purely box stock though I am aware that I may be turning to Indycals for a replacement set of decals. We'll see when that comes up. Paint is Tamiya TS-43 Racing Green over Stynelrez white primer, with the tub's aluminum done in AK Real Color aluminum and the engine block in Vallejo Metal Color dull aluminum.

Neat. Those would be online sellers selling at below the distributor MSRP and cutting the throats of brick and mortar hobby shops like my own. I guarantee you that as a hobby shop I cannot purchase Craftsman Chevy II's for my inventory at 40 points off of $24.99.