Justin Porter

I've never understood the "Moebius = Tamiya" comparison. For certain, Moebius has lovely detail and engraving, but at the same time I want to grab their tooling staff by the shirt and scream at them "UNDERGATES!!!"

I have a fair number of parts set aside for a planned replica of Mark Donohue's 1973 Sunoco DX Eagle. I have two decal sheets (one Fred Cady, one Indycals), a resin rear wing, a copy of the AMT Olsonite Eagle and the Patrick Eagle, and I keep taking it off the shelf, doing a bit of sanding or test fitting, and putting it right back because I'm not happy with it.

There is only one company that I have leveled the "overpriced" complaint at, and it most certainly isn't Revell. In fact, my exact statement regarding Revell on the previous page was "Revell I congratulate for keeping prices as low as they have while still creating new tooling like the astonishing new Land Rover." I also, on the prior page, commented that Tamiya DID have a recent period of exorbitant pricing on new tooling to which they have corrected. For a stretch, they were pricing themselves to the same scheme as Dragon does in armor kits. I don't believe Tamiya can do no wrong. I do believe that Tamiya is much more consumer focused as a brand than most others.

You could also point to the Tamiya 1/24th scale Lotus Seven for a Tamiya 80's release that really sets the bar high. Honestly, having built one recently, a modern Revell kit that I would actually point to as being comparable in terms of engineering would be the Kurtis Midgets.

I started this build as somewhat of a "breather" because I have two planes on my bench (both 1/72nd, a Hasegawa SR71 Blackbird commissioned by my father-in-law and a Special Hobby Short Sunderland MkV) that are positively pummeling me. It's a very basic build, with the only deviation from stock being a set of 18" Sportec Mono 10 wheels by Fujimi that I painted AK Real Colors Gunmetal. Otherwise it's painted in a variety of Vallejo, Tamiya, and AK colors, with the body being done with Tamiya rattle can Chrome Yellow. The color choice was actually at my wife's insistence because - as she pointed out - there are no yellow cars on my shelf.

Bear's repeating X3 and design a good kit first, price it second. Those Tamiya Ford GT's aren't exactly gathering dust on shop shelves.

Oh I agree entirely. Moebius, I feel, is sitting right about where they should on price point. Revell I congratulate for keeping prices as low as they have while still creating new tooling like the astonishing new Land Rover. Tamiya is offering excellent products at their price point (for the most part) and isn't pricing out of step with the rest of the hobby and is even beating competitors on some examples. Heck, in the realm of 1/20th scale F1 kits they're by far and away the price leaders compared to Fujimi and Ebbro.

Absolutely! In fact, here's a fun sampling of Tamiya 1/24th scale auto kits that currently sit UNDER the upcoming '64 Olds F85 kit's MSRP according to my wholesale distributor. Porsche 959 $22.50 (kit number 24065) R32 Skyline GTR $22.50 (kit number 24090) 1966 VW 1300 Beetle $30.00 (kit number 24136) Toyota Supra $28.00 (kit number 24123) Now, granted, those do lend some leverage to the "Why no full engine?" argument as they all are full detail kits, but they're also older tooling from either the 80's or 90's. Still nice to build with, but nothing like their kits of the past decade. It's also worth mentioning that for a time Tamiya went positively BERSERK with their price-point as evidenced by kits like their Lexus LFA or Aston Martin DBS, but for the past five years or so they've concentrated on restraining themselves to come back to a more competitive spot. I'd say probably either the 300SL Gullwing or the new NSX were when they started to come back down to Earth.

Looking good so far. Don't forget the external oil cooler with unnecessarily long looped piping!

Probably one of the most nicely engineered examples of PE wire wheels I've seen. ICM does fantastic stuff in general, though, so I'm not surprised.

Too many other factors effect hobby shops to say that it's strictly whether or not modeling is still a popular hobby. My shop is holding steady because it's a specialist shop that stocks the tools, paints, and kits that places like Hobby Lobby or Michael's would never bother with, but also because it has a tiny storefront in a small city with good highway access from neighboring areas. All the same, the same things bite us that bite most hobby shops: the margins are horrible, the product availability vacillates wildly, effective advertising is shockingly expensive when trying to reach the primary consumers, and any time the economy hiccups leisure time spending is the first thing to go away.

User friendliness is a huge part of Tamiya's business strategy and I do wish more manufacturers would take the lesson to heart. I have often said that the best way to ensure someone goes on to build their second model is to ensure that they enjoy the process and the RESULTS of their first.

Oh I have a couple, and they're not exactly RARE kits comparatively speaking but they haven't been easy for me to attain, either. Tamiya Morgan Plus Four Gunze Sangyo Hi-Tech Lotus Elan coupe Italeri Ferrari 250GT SWB Gunze Sangyo Hi-Tech Austin Healey Sprite Fujimi Ferrari 250GTO

Ohh just more Doom and Gloom from someone who isn't actually paying attention. Globally we're seeing MORE car kits from MORE new companies, not less. We've seen fresh 1/24th scale passenger and racing car tooling in the past decade from Meng, ICM, Ebbro, Nunu, Belkits, and even new domestic manufacturers in Salvino JR and Moebius. Funny thing too is that I can say that it's not generally older builders in my shop who take home kits like Aoshima's Pagani Huarya or Fujimi's Mclaren F1.

Speaking as a hobby shop owner, and one in their 30's no less. You're wrong. Dead, dead, dead wrong. Young people DO want to build models. They want to build them as adults who've developed unique tastes and disposable income and free time. No. Kids don't want to build models. They have free time that's structured within an inch of their lives between school and extracurricular and when they do engage in creative play it's with virtual toys that allow total freedom of creation like Minecraft or Lego rather than model kits. But young adults? Young adults LOVE model building. Look at the popularity of Gundam. Look at the rise of armor and aircraft building tied in closely with the popularity of games like War Thunder or World of Tanks (the latter of which has pushed companies like Amusing Hobby and Takom to release more and more "Paper Panzer" i.e. tanks from the drawing board that never saw combat) or even the effect Gran Turismo has had on the popularity of subject matter in automotive building. No. Young people don't want AMT's unassembled dealership promo toys from 60 years ago. Why would they? They come into my shop and for nearly the same price as those Round 2 reissues they can walk out with Tamiya's Ferrari F40 or Nissan R32GTR? The hobby as a whole has changed. Better tools. Better paints. Better kits. No doom here. Just progress.

I've forwarded the flyer to my primary Testors wholesale source and he's in touch with his Testors rep. Hopefully we can get some confirmation. This is the sort of thing that festers in the absence of a concrete statement from the manufacturer coupled with poor availability of product.

That looks truly fantastic. Love seeing all the little added details that bring the tough kit to life.

Licensing has gone the way it has because it's no longer as valuable to the car manufacturers to "advertise" through model kits as it once was, particularly as modeling is much more focused on older cars - and typically competition ones - than on the latest street cars. As such, the relationship has changed. It's now much more valuable to the model kit manufacturers to have the rights to that intellectual property, to use the car manufacturer's IP for their product than it is for the car manufacturer to allow the model kit manufacturer unfettered access to their IP. We've seen this before in the video gaming world as well, where a single developer pays for exclusive rights to a car manufacturer's IP so that the exclusivity of having those cars in their game becomes a distinct selling feature. Again, it's because the car manufacturers know that there being a game, or a model, or a diecast of a car from their past likely won't change present day sales of their flagship $35,000< crossover one unit BUT the companies producing those games, models, or diecast can practically live or die as to whether or not they can release that next piece. That kind of power is worth money.

Given that Revell has shown an all-new Land Rover kit this year, I would say reports of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Not silver really does a great job of showing off how curvy the 959 really is. The wiring on the engine especially with the looms looks particularly good too.

Great to see a nice build of a brass era car!

All done! Wrapped up my Tamiya 1/24th scale Lotus Seven and I'm genuinely pleased with the results. The color is Deep Green out of the Vallejo Model Color line, with a variety of Model Air, AK Real Color, and Alclad paints in the details. The windshield frame was done with a 2mm Molotow marker, and the clearcoat is Alclad Aqua Gloss. I tried to avoid getting the car too shiny to keep that "homebuilt" feeling of a kit-built Seven.

Lovely example of a road-going Cobra. Your build is definitely a nice one.

It's funny, but I've found that motivation seems to come most easily from setting boundaries with my builds. I build a pretty wide variety of things but I've narrowed that to subjects inside of that variety to things I'm truly passionate about. I've weaned myself a bit off of the "well that looks interesting" purchases and instead focused on better tools and paints. I've binned projects that I've finally come to realize are well and truly stalled, and come to understand that when a project is really that stalled out it's because I just plain don't want to do it anymore and there's no shame in that. I'm a happier builder and a better builder now, and the added challenge of building the best example of a thing - whether a sports car, a Universal Century Gundam, or an obscure WWII fighter or early jet - complete with references has all come together to make me a more prolific builder too.

Just like classic Ferraris themselves, classic Ferrari kits are meant to be driven/built and it's so good to see a kit so often regarded as untouchable getting built!