Chuck Kourouklis

What, are you kiddin'? I do snappers ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I slap 'em together with a promise-to-self I'll eventually pull them back out 'n finish 'em proper. But you betcha I get a kick out of a well-done snapper, and frankly it's kinda dumb for anyone to feel shame over such a thing.

Oh, that Tamiya Mustang was terrible, a truly mutant exercise of proportional tease gone wrong. It may have had other crucial elements of Tamiya appeal in the material quality of the kit, but the Cobra R in particular had a mashed greenhouse with way too much tumblehome, and the front end of both kits looked as if it were a different scale than the rear. The Monogram SN95 had its own issues but it was tons better, and AMT had everybody beat on that one for overall proportions, even if the tire profiles were way too high. It would take nearly 20 years before we saw another Mustang kit as botched as Tamiya's. But what Tamiya has always delivered irrespective of proportion issues is a palpable sense of quality and presentation when you crack the lid, and this is why that company has its loyalists. They still have an edge in tooling refinement and content arrangement, to this day over just about any other manufacturer in the world. You have to go into the military field to find the closer competitors; they just don't seem to be there in automotive. And what Tamiya taketh away under hood, they almost certainly giveth right back in engineering and parts fit. There was a time I had to scramble a car for a photo shoot. The Tamiya kit which concentrated its 135 parts in interior detail rather than an engine just pulled right together in 3 days, as compared to a balky contemporary Revell kit with 90 parts including an engine. The difference in engineering and the advantages that engineering held were stark. Fujimi's heart is in 1/20 F1 right now, and perhaps that's why their 1/24 kits are so hit-and-miss. We went from solid MX-5s and Porsche Caymans into brilliant 250 GTOs and world-leading R35 GT-Rs only to wind up with that truly hideous Pantera kit a few short years later. Haven't been very keen on their revival of interior tubs for so many of their kits, and their McLaren F1 road car would have been so much more - if it were made by Aoshima. Japan's true up-and-comer, Aoshima, with kits of ever-escalating quality and great social media leverage to boot. Theirs are the proper GT86/BR-Z models, and their Lamborghini series has been on an upward pull since the Countach. Their McLaren F1 GTR looks to take their game out a whole new door, and one hopes they don't backslide from the new paradigm they've established. Maybe the current market is different, but even accounting for the distinction between Revell's newly-announced glue series and the snappers, there's a definite whiff of "been there" - remember the pre-decorated Stock Cars and the '63 Impala from around 2000? Those were also simplified glue-together intermediates to both pre-decorated snap kits and molded-in-white full-detail kits. But who knows, maybe they'll hit the sweet spot with further-simplified snappers and subject matter this time.

Put another way, there won't be any fire to "stoke" if Revell doesn't set it in the first place. It's the misplaced angst and personal attacks arising from kit criticism that will always be the larger, more indefensible issue, no matter how anybody would try to redirect the focus. All that aside, Casey appears on-point about the front tires, and the body shell appears just as you'd expect - the same - though warpaint seems to flatter it more. Of course, we have no idea right now whether or not those carry-over tires are the ONLY fronts Revell's gonna include...

Hey, mediocriphiles might contrive this kit as some excuse to throw the term "rivet-counter" around, but as it's been said, it really depends what you need. Makes sectioning pretty easy, and I think it looks best either as John's done it above, or in some of the rat configurations we saw earlier.

x2. That E-Type and the Big Deuce have been two of my favorites forever. I'd have guessed from the chronology that the Monogram kit appeared first, and if the tooling has anything in common, the Imai kit might have been the one derived. Never heard of any 1:8 E-Type with an opening hatch! Would be very interested in knowing more about that Imai...

Hmm. Guess they got it on the GT500 rubber. Maybe that's for the best - the Camaro P-zeroes are a bit high-profile and square-shouldered.

Meng is bad-a$$. Their 1/35 vehicles are gorgeous, and if this 350 is anything like those - and the trees indicate it will be - it will easily be worth Meng's asking. But be ready for something steep. Based on their aircraft, I wonder if something in a size $70 is a more likely price...

Well my day is ruined. Deeply, deeply bummed to see this.

Well, the wobble in the character line seems to stem from a subtly flat area that radiates roughly 1/8" around each wheel arch, front and rear. There was a point in some early review samples where the fender lips were not only too prominent, but too flat in their arcs as well. We might be seeing remnants of a little nip-'n-tuck on the way to production.

Oh I wasn't taking a dig at you, 340 - just responding to what I saw in Tim's post without being mindful you said it too. When you got people who can't handle an emperor's true state of dress jumping down your throat for pointing it out, it's easy to misdirect your aggression back at it, as I know all too well.

Nope, but here's a fun bit... http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINT-2015-FORD-MUSTANG-COUPE-1-24-SCALE-RED-PLASTIC-AUTO-SHOW-PROMO-MODEL-CAR-/310849328411?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item486010551b Nice 'n minty...

HEAR HEAR, Tim. If they'd just scan the body of the 1:1, I'd happily deal with funky distributors, mixed-up venturis, odd little bracket projections off the oil filter, and whatever else came about. To harp on the human factor would be responsive to the discussion if anybody were suggesting 3D scanning is the magic bullet or that it would replace human input at that level. Fact is, nobody's claiming that. But for some reason, while it seemed to work okay in the past, the traditional method of scaling 3-dimensional objects from 2-dimensional pictures just isn't getting it done these days. Mathematical conversion of 3D scan data will not just put every linear dimension into scale, but every radius of every curve of every surface. And while I assiduously avoid attacking model company executives or making an epithet out of "suit" - honestly, I think some of that is backlash at other modelers getting personal over stuff it makes NO SENSE to be sensitive about - I do wonder if they might not have some culpability in failing to implement this technology. Compromises in things like nameplate scripts are understandable and easy to deal with. As for material thickness and the like, you just make those adjustments where they aren't visible - I'm quoting an industrial designer on that one. The Polar Lights '66 Batmobile has been a proof of this concept now. For years.

Well, one key reason somebody probably wouldn't dissect a badass vintage car in such a way is that it has a job other than resembling something 25 times larger as closely as possible. Just sayin'...

Seriously. I once heard about how injection molding was on its way out - to be replaced vacuum-formed kits. In 1986. The Stones wrote a nice little ditty about it: http://youtu.be/rPFGWVKXxm0

Mission accomplished.

Admire Ford's marketing acumen and be glad they pulled Revell in on this, I suppose; and kinda rock back on your heels 'n wait just a bit - your favorite online auction site will surely have a few, and you'd have to imagine Revell will limit supply only as long as they're contractually obliged for the promotion. At least it augurs well for a next-gen Mustang before 2017, and maybe even a full-detail kit at that. And I just can't quite work up the offense over Mr Lab coat "expert toy car model builder" - is he really so much stupider than . . . maybe I best not finish that sentence.

There you go. The foam blocks Tamiya gives you for supporting the tires in its latest 1:6 Harley kit had me thinking you'd want to do something like that, but I had no idea what to recommend for your stuffing material. Looks like you hit on the best solution!

Thanks, Oscar! One hopes...

This thing: Ver-ry much a Pocher kit in the spirit of the diecast Ferraris, optimized in a fashion you might have expected if Pocher had continued for a decade, anyway, if not the last 15 years. If the F40's finish was a step up over the Testarossa's, then the diecast panels present maybe two steps over the F40. Glossy, orange peel relatively minimal. Some wash-away at the seams indicates either a dark primer or even unprimed metal under it, so the broader plastic parts, orange paint on orange plastic, are apt to be a dodgy match with the three pieces shot here, the engine cover, doors, spoiler and the bonnet - the rocker panel I tried didn't look too bad, but I have to reserve judgment for now. Unfortunately, there are some sinks in the metal panels and more texture in the painted plastic, so a serious build will want some refinishing. Crappy dogleg steering aside, the dirty bits promise a more rational and sharply-resolved approach than previously seen. The front and rear subframes and running gear are actually metal this time, so no more of this queasy sense of pot metal crunching down on fiber-reinforced nylon - even if the finished model appears to squat down up front just like its Ferrari forebears. The tires are of the exact same iron-durometer vinyl last seen in the Ferraris, with less wave across the tread this time. Parts pouches, numbering system, styrofoam-and-cardboard-box packing are very familiar, even if the box has all the mass of TWO Pocher Classic kits stacked atop one another this time. Multi-colored taillights are pre-painted; metal suspension arms, uprights, pushrods and bell cranks are vacuum-packed against cardboard as seen before. The plastic parts have about the typical mass and engraving for Pocher kits, perhaps with a bit more refinement this go around; there's heavier use of 3-axis molding on the crank case and cylinder heads. There are also 14 different varieties of fasteners this time, as opposed to the one-screw-fits-all approach of the Ferraris. That's a thumbnail, deeper delving as time allows...

Badness. Hope that portends some thawing on BMW licensing, 'cause we could really use a 1600/2002 and a classic CSL...

X2! Good, subtle work there, Brett.

The entire line of thought we're bending toward has been torn to shreds and mulched at the link in my signature. For months, now, culled from refutations I have used for years. You can just read the bold font on each item then skip to the first paragraph after number 10 and you'll get the gist. I have YET to see any response, let alone a decent rebuttal, to any of it. "Bandwagon"? What, like the bandwagon of True Believers waiting to descend on anyone who dares depict the latest plastic emperor's true state of dress? This is a MODEL KIT discussion, and there's a necessary corollary to that classic "perfect kit" misdirection that nobody seems to notice: If we imagine for a moment that "NO SUCH THING AS A PERFECT KIT" is responsive to, well, anything, then an inevitable consequence of that observation is that all kits have flaws. In discussions of kits, mentions of their flaws will be topical - in a way that condescending to people who mention those flaws will NEVER be. You can not claim "there's no such thing as a perfect kit" without tacitly admitting this. By all means, if someone states a flaw from a mistaken basis, then point out that mistake. But attacking people for topical observations is where the real issues in these discussions start, and it's useless to pretend otherwise. The grand irony here? I find myself confronting this subject - a g a i n - over a mention of a kit that I think is Revell's blue chip best of the past several years. Maybe the bumper ain't placed bang-on, and it's an irrefutable fact that the splash pan needs work - IF you leave the front bumper off. Sorry, but I just ain't seein' the thickness of the spreader bar or the heaviness of the front end when the bumper's in place, not yet, at least not as compared to photos of the 1:1. If I'm gonna pick nits, I might add a wee bit of strip to beef the inner perimeters of the door frames and rear side windows - then again, after more research, maybe not - and the one obvious gaffe is the extra plastic between the fins and the deck. Otherwise, this thing is golden, far as I'm concerned.

Was wondering about that - maybe Moebius has decided based on previous patterns to hold the announcements till a little closer to release? Ford pickups look closer than the Hudson and 300s - hoping that trend continues, most especially with the Ventura...

Yup, and if I had commented on Revell's top kit of 2012, I'da probably gone with that '57 Ford. Just a couple notes, and these are really more my personal criteria than anything I think should be imposed on this discussion: The '57 Ford was announced for 2012 and the special edition version made it out with about a month to spare; the '50 Olds came out a month before that. The Rat Roaster was a 2012 listing that actually debuted in 2013. The '49 Merc Wagon makes a very strong bid for a top new kit - I'd say it's more accurate overall than the 'Cuda - but because it carries over a few parts from the custom (fewer than one might expect), it's technically not all-new. Same goes for Aoshima's 86/BR-Z derivatives, though I think the ones with engines give Tamiya's a right spanking. The Slingster's concept may be an old one, but it's still Revell-Monogram's most ambitious and best-executed of the year. Looking at the global offerings, I'd have to agree about Tamiya's LaFerrari among standard-scale cars - though their best motor vehicle kit of the year is their 1/6 Harley. That thing is just silly...

Yeah, the frame rails are finer than what we usually see, and the slicks are pretty small too - but there' s nothing shouting "under scale" at me just yet. Heck, I'm wondering if that Chrysler mill might make for a less laughable engine in AMT's new-tool Ala-Kart...