Chuck Kourouklis

GOOD TO SEE YOU HERE, Oleksandr! Far as I'm concerned, welcome aboard - and thanks very much for your perspective on certain things as someone who'd know. In case I haven't already made it abundantly clear, I love this kit, all the more remarkable for what you've worked through in producing it. At the risk of going a bit wide of the topic, the forum has this older thread that's all about the base kit for your next offering...

I do love me the rip Hasegawa's been on lately, for sure. In addition to who knows how many more '70s cars, it'd be SO cool to see them do a Piazza/Impulse and an Alcyone/SVX, for the 287th time. (The E9 BMW omission also isn't getting any less idiotic with the passage of time - but this is a thread about Japanese cars.) ?

Well. When I say stodgy and pathetic, it's relative - to something like this iconic little siren. Doesn't mean I really dislike the "colonnade" Cosmo - it's those A-bodies that truly put the "colon" into "colonnade" - just that it's quite the come-down car after such a comely predecessor. The KIT, though, with its vinyl lines, strategic use of diecast suspension parts, and opening everything was a stunner in the late '70s, quite the revelation next to the plastic-tired Roadrunner Volares and doors-akimbo shoebox Chevy reisues of the time. Reading Adam's description of the RX-3-nope-Savanna - yours for just $250 from your friendly online vendor - it seems Bandai might have moved its game on a bit for the Cosmo.

Dude, I'll show you sexy: HHHHAH! Mazda Colonnade! Just like a mid-'70s GM A-body, it was waayy uglier and more staid than its predecessors, but at least it was slower and more pathetic in every other way. For around 45 years, this has been perhaps my favorite kit of a stodgy, uninspired subject - somehow, it's right inside my line of tolerable mediocrity where A-body colonnades are a county over that line, so wretched I'll just never understand their appeal. Well. Except for the Grand Ams. Maybe. Btw, thanks, Adam. At least the 3's reasonably nice-looking, and you're driving me right back into the online auctioneer's vampire embrace.

I thought I'd read a while ago, especially since these later cars were more Ford- than Shelby-designed, that the very intent of that front end configuration was to preview the '71. Might be entirely off-base, but it's a burr in my recollection somewhere...

A '70, well well! I see the TRX tires just won't perish in the hellfire damnation so drastically overdue to them in anything but a period RX-7, 6-series, or early FOX Mustang (one reviewer has screamed and hollered about this in print since 1996, *cough*), but the Mickey Thompson markings are... INTERESTING, anyway. (seriously, guys, you couldn'a just used the P@!yg!&$ replacements you tooled up for the B-M '69 Camaro, waaayy back in 1991? Hell, if those tires are good enough in Firestone tampo-drag for a '69 Boss, why not this one?) But whatever. This tooling must have been amortized 30 years ago, and they just came up with a nifty excuse to get another one. I'm sure the decals particularly will be fire.

That's RIGHT. Plumb forgot the 1/20 and seeing how I'm enjoying the Salvinos Indy Car right now, I mighta remembered. ?

Well, 'cept for this 'n, right? and MAN, they're goin' for dollars squared right now, if not cubic.

Gotta agree. Could really get with one of those. Seems about as boneheaded a selection as the boat-tail Riv our domestic crew is still refusing to make some money offa...

Yup, awesome! Involved as this tooling is, seems it'd be very wise to wring out another variant or two. Meantime, the news only makes this one more appetizing. ?️

Yup. Nothing yet in injection-molded styrene. There's a couple 2-3 of us think Revell whiffed it BIG time essentially dumbing down the same Crown Vic Lindberg did, instead of producing one of these.

Beat me to it, Mr B.

It is one of the "Mueller Era" kits I like best. First release of the stock version had a bespoke set of tires, unused in any other AMT kit I think. I was hoping that rubber portended a new '67 Eldorado or the like...

Me, I was just wondering if the Flareside pickup will come with Lightning tailgates. ?

Not for nothin', but a nice, loud X2 here. ^^

More interested in those for curiosity's sake than anything else, but yeah, I'll have some new plastic run through that tooling if they sell any. ?

Welp, guess that's bye-bye to a buck-twenty-five or so...

Welp, in direct response, I bring up this thing: Now what in the hell would anything like it have to do with spoiled foil? Mi hermano, the ONLY thing that has kept me sane through this whole exercise, the O-o-O-o-OONNLYY thing that's stopped me short of a spokicidal rage through these needlessly diabolical perversions of a supposedly meditative activity, has been THIS STUFF: Ju-u-uust tacky enough to hold those Medusa-hairdo spokes down without freezing the wheel so rigid you can't get the next one in. Might be worth a look before tossing a what, 8-dollar foil sheet? 9? You prob'ly knew. Puttin' it out there for the benefit of others, too. ? EDIT: 'cause yeah, that foil is one of the few recent Tamiya items I can recall having a "meh" response about, too. Here's hoping the pics aren't doing it proper...

Very cool, Les! Thanks for the first look.

And I think we can take from the pics above encompassing wheel emblems, dash gauges, and a license plate from the BTTF version (not to mention a history of reasonably comprehensive decal sheets from Aoshima) that the DMC12 version will have decalS too. ??

lol, sorry!

The B-26 that I realized I already bought in a Revell box, this weekend. ?

Yup! This is a curbside kit comprising around 135 parts, so there's no full engine detail. But there's a crisp 3D-printed engine lower that fits the resin chassis plate perfectly. The suspension and exhaust system detail are multi-piece and pretty complete. The steering wheels are the same, so one is a spare, as is one of the driveshafts, tailpipes, front suspension arms, headlight lenses, and a few other parts. You do have some options on interior trim, cranks, and pedals. The instruction booklet

Oy vey... ANYWAY, here's what your $180 + shipping gets you. It's a stunner, VERY competitive in the biscale resin arena. Considering the nearly-flawless rubber Firestones with wide white masking collars, the photoetch, the precision in every resin piece I've test-fitted so far, and the literal menagerie of smooth, super-fine 3D printed parts with spares, this thing is a flat bargain by any reasonable assessment and I'm delighted with it.

What a little sleeper - I'm just liking it, more and more I see. Their 26 also has me intrigued.