Chuck Kourouklis

Well, Hobbysearch has just gotten pictures up, so it's not likely much longer: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10084193n3/40/3 While the pieces are designed to augment a curbside chassis, the instruction sheet shows that this is far and away the most detailed effort of the three - and maybe the most accurate.

I know I'm stoked! Cain't have too many vintage hemis, far as I'm concerned. OR steelies with trim rings! What's interesting is that Revell did up an entirely new set of wide-white rubber and steel wheels for the most recent '31 Ford sedan and '29 Ford pickup reissues - I believe these were also included in a t-bucket rat rod kit. Those wheels and tires would look great on this deuce (or any of the others), but I think Revell would have had to re-engineer the axle bosses to accept them. Hmeh, well. BRING IT!

Well, now that I've gotten a few things figured out, perhaps I can offer some proof: These two 3/4 shots show that Fujimi's kit has the best stance right out of the box; Tamiya slams it a bit too low, and Aoshima's rather-too-small rolling stock ruins the effect. This model is also pimping bits from the KA/Fujimi upgrade kit, most notably the spun exhaust tips (incorrectly pointed here), the photoetched rotor surfaces, the metal transfer crests for the wheels, and the "GT-R" photoetched plates which just scream with some simple paint detailing and highlight-scraping. You don't have to squish the wheels in as far as they did on the prototype on Fujimi's website. And you can see here that once you finesse it, the window unit snaps in much more decisively than Fujimi's display model would lead you to believe. And here, we see far and away the best undercarriage treatment. The interfaces between the chassis plate and the rocker panels, air dam, and rear diffuser are much more convincing in this kit, with none of the gaps that Tamiya's kit has or the oversimplification that characterizes the Aoshima kit. There's no conspicuous split in the exhaust system, and the transaxle engraving and suspension detail blow the other two clean away. We're pretty much at a stalemate right now, even with Fujimi's curbside disadvantage. If there's a decent engine in the upcoming version, fuggeddabouddit. Game over.

Stump, forgive me, but it's silly to qualify your post with "just my opinion". This is a message board, most of us are purportedly adults, and one thing that should be OBVIOUS to all participants is that opinions are central to the premise of any forum such as this. Frankly, you have a point: these molded-in mills Tamiya's been doing with the McLaren SLR and this GT-R are clearly phone-in efforts compared to the complete engines they used to do. And I will also respectfully submit that any thorough examination will actually put Fujimi's kit in the running for the BEST of the R35 GT-R's. Their body shell is only marginally behind Tamiya's in accuracy (the Aoshima body is a more distant 3rd place). Fujimi's wheels and tires are decisively better than Tamiya's, and Aoshima's rolling stock isn't even close. Fujimi's kit is the ONLY one of the three that makes a serious attempt at reproducing the actual suspension as it appears in the R35. The separate rear undertray/rocker panels/front spoiler all save you some masking relative to the other two models. Fujimi's "detail-up" photoetch kit pretty much has its dirty little prison-style way with its counterpart from Tamiya. And for what it's worth, Fujimi's parts count is far and away the highest, even without an engine - and the parts all fit together quite well. Yup, the ONLY drawback is that Fujimi's kit lacks an engine. And oh, lookie what Fujimi has coming at the end of the month: http://www.hlj.com/product/FUJ03794 When that one arrives, there won't be any doubt.

Well, here's something I noticed: the door panel and seat patterns for this kit apparently do not match those in the American Dreams '68 kit. Doezzat mean Revell's mixed up the interior bits from the GT500 after all? I'll be checking into over the next day or two...

I'm pretty sure the GT500 came out later, Bob. There was a lot of carry-over from the Bullitt, but the body shell, though still a little slab-sided, was much improved in things like the fender arches and greenhouse/b-pillar blend. The American Dreams '68, which is the basis for this plastic model, then came out after the GT500, recycling the Bullitt shell. And I wouldn't sweat the straight-through front axles, fellas. Like Zoomie said above, those are purely an artifact of the earlier Revell diecast kits; the m. o. for the latest Revell tooling seems to be axle pins up front. Even the diecast-based '58 Impala had 'em. And as for them new parts, all I gotsta say is SERVE 'EM UP! Woo-hoo! My AMT '68 CJ conversion is comin' togetha! There's my air cleaner, there's my hood scoop, that might even work as my hood...

HIGH FIVE, Baby! Just what I was thinkin'...

I don't like to pile on, but yeah - it's not as if we haven't had one precedent after another from Revell in converted diecast kits to show you exactly what to expect in the case of the '68 Mustangs. I would have hoped Revell refined the funky greenhouse and fixed the wheel arches reversed front and rear as they did with the '67 GT350, but my expectation has always been that we'd see the exact same kit shot in plastic. If anyone's expecting any great shakes out of Revell's upcoming '70 Challenger, then allow me to forewarn you right now: you'll probably want to stick with the AMT kit. I'm really looking forward to the 2-in-1 '68 GT to follow. That sucker'll have newly added drag parts, and if past is prologue, those parts will be way cool. I've also long pondered a '68 1/2 CJ conversion for an AMT '67, and it looks like that kit will give me much of what I need in one convenient box. STOKED about that '62 Corvette, as well! It'll be so cool to finally have a decent ducktail C1 in plastic.

Yeah man! All this, a bag of chips, and WHITE PLASTIC, too! I'm looking forward to snatching the first one I see, and it's a flippin' reissue! That really says something for the thought Round 2 is putting into all this. Now with any luck, we'll buy enough reissues that maybe some new tooling will become feasible again - preferably with guys like John Mueller and Tom Montgomery at the design helm. Really diggin' the Trophy Series tie-in, too; 'cause when you pack all the tooling versions together in one box, these kits become very much a Trophy Series for this day and age! I'd love to see the '62 Bel Air get this kind of treatment. '66 Riv'd be cool, too. Hell, anything from AMT's great '98 - '00 romp would be sweet, and the '50 Chevy pickup would be pretty trick, too...

Fair 'nough. There's my opinion about the opinion. **edit** - oh, and btw, Harry - the mag's graphics are pretty slammin' these days. Nice work.

Hmeh, nits 'n picks, they're inevitable with any new kit. I'll tell you what was completely unnecessary: The letter in the current issue from "that Bohach guy". So let me get this straight. Kit reviewers ain't "doing their jobs" unless they spend hours crawling with a tape measure over the nearest example of a subject from an entire generation ago? 'Scuse me there, J Robert, but what if the reviewer's neighborhood AIN'T EXACTLY CRAWLING WITH 40-YEAR-OLD NOVAS? Oh, so YOU have one? Well BULLY FOR YOU. Try your own hand at a review, then. Of course, anyone who claims Larry and Bill are blind - within sight of a sentence proclaiming the OBVIOUS SUPERIORITY OF THE OLD AMT KIT, no less - brings his own credibility to a level just below male enhancement spam. There's a bit more to the whole analysis than matching measurements. Of course, one has to actually review a few kits to realize that. Seems to me letters and attitudes like these have far higher use as forcefully self-administered colonic treatments than they do wasting ink and bytes.

Yup. All they gotsta do is massage it like they been doin' their military, lately, and we should be good to go. And I'druther have it right in 2010 than half-a$$ in a few months...

Well, Blaque, I was gonna congratulatcha on yer use of "if'n", my favorite grammatical construction ever, outside of "on account of" - but then you got me ###### near p---in' m'self in the middle of this here coffee shop witcher story! I like tha way yew post. Mmmm-hmm.

Well, I tend to eschew the whole baggin'-on-NASCAR turkey shoot; but hellyez, I'll take GT-R ugly over COyoTe-ugly any day of the week. Just one question, 9-5: why's yer link say "R34"?

Ah, man... Sign me up. YESTERDAY.

Yeah, that makes sense. Guess anyone who feels that strongly about it is the type to make the conversion anyway...

Really? Well that blows! Yup, the GT350 came after the Bullitt, and it improved notably on the former's slightly humpbacked greenhouse profile, and the wheel arches in the fenders which honestly looked reversed between front and rear in both versions of the diecast '68. I'd long been considering horning some ProModeler '69 Charger tires over some MPC '69 GT wheels, but the American Dreams version saved me that headache. AMT's front track problem ain't too difficult to fix, either; they're just a little over-generous with the brake disc mounting bosses - particularly on the driver-side upright - and once you file 'em down, even the AMT Firestones tuck under much better. Yeah, we're looking well-covered in the new Challenger. I'm keen on when they're gonna do the factory '10 Camaro...

You remember the full-detail squad car kit mentioned when the Testors Chargers were first announced, but never produced - my bet is that the tooling is finally seeing the light of day under the Lindberg label (woops - like Luc said above). I'd also love to see the 'Vette in plastic, and the Firebird would probably be the best ever of that vintage, if Revell could get around the "Trans Am" licensing issue. But even though I'll snap 'em up soon as I see 'em, I ain't overwhelmed by the '68 'Stangs - there were a few mild proportioning problems, and Revell itself tacitly acknowledged this by correcting them in the '67 GT350 diecast. But they'll certainly make my AMT conversion easier. So dude - where are you getting your intel on the GT40? **EDIT: never mind! Found the thread!**

Am I missin' somethin' here, boys? 'Cause it's Revell what's in the C6 game, right? And I cain't find me no pics of the Revell kiosk yet in Greg's li'l album...

It's not obvious? Don't think it got past Ken. He was immediately on the wavelength or something close to it. You drop hints harking back to either the bullet-nose Stude or the '49 Olds AMT unceremoniously dumped from their catalogue in '01. Then Ed drops by, grousing about the fact that he's still waiting for those kits. And then Jairus has a belly laugh immediately afterward. And I'm just wondering if that's because he knows the same thing you apparently do. You see, "to get to the other side" is supposed to be a funny reason for the chicken, because it's an anticlim - eh, never mind.

Hmm... so, #24 + #37 = ^...?

Fwiw, I had a look at one on the LHS shelf last weekend. Boxcover shots seem to indicate the Italeri 348 - I believe Revell's also recently re-boxed the Italeri 288GTO.

No $#!+. I'll always love Tamiya 'n all - but while Fujimi's also omitting some engraved detail lately to sell you separate photoetch, at least they have the grace not to charge sixty bucks just to remind you what you're missing in the instruction sheet. Sheesh.

So I missed part one - wawazat, the whole Plastichrome thing?

I'll never discourage anyone from hoping against hope, but guys, I'll just about guarantee you sight unseen that these Shelby kits are using the same tires as the GT kits. And I'm a little worried about the looks of that front end; Revell seems to have designed separate clips now, and it looks as if that design change may have compromised the headlight proportions a little. Doubtless by now you all have Revell's ads for the Shelby Super Snake due later in the year. That one has the new wheels with elliptical spokes, and it looks as if it's going to use the same tires the Revell Magnum - the ones that first saw use as the rear tires in the SSR kit, a bit oversized for 1/25 in this application. I've long thought the Jada kit might make a cool Super Snake, and it appears Revell's giving us just the parts donor we need for it...