Junkman

The trailer is smaller than you think it is. It is made for use in the UK/Europe and will not hold a full sized US car (don't ask how I found that out), not even a big European car. The wheels are merely 12" ones. It all has to do with licencing. With a regular EU driving licence, the weight of the entire laden rig cannot exceed 3500 kg. The Meng F350 would dwarf this trailer and possibly exceed the GTW limit unladen. It strikes me as odd, that Aoshima indeed has no suitable tow vehicle in their lineup. Typically you see these trailers behind Ford Transits, smaller SUVs, or big saloons. The only thing remotely plausible they offer is their Hilux, but that's an early 90s vintage and there sure aren't many left. In fact, I don't know of anything plastic that would properly set this off, my choice would rather be one of the Welly/NEX diecast Land/Range Rovers, which are actually quite good. Also, I can't see how this trailer could possibly be backdated to anything last century or made into something American. It is as contemporarily European as you can possibly get. All components like lighting, mudguards, axles, brakes, coupler, everything is EU spec and just to meet contemporary Fed specs would already require severe modifications. For anything vintage, it would be downright implausible or require such severe alterations, that scratchbuilding is the easier way.

If you don't have them yet, buy all the car kits. All car kits are worth picking up and fun to build. Start with the Joker Goon/Gotham city cop car and the Revell Caprice in rozzer spec, those are getting thin on the floor. If you aren't a scale bigot, the Baywatch Toyopet is a surprisingly good kit.

Steve Bolander's Impala was/is far from stock.

Milner did admit that Falfa's car is faster, remember? He only 'won' because Falfa had a slight mishap.

As usual, I'm underwhelmed.

The '55 T'bird came with a superb set of Borrani wire wheels and is worth buying for these alone. The biggest issue with these kits is the totally inadequate packaging. The boxes are large, but made from the same gauge card stock as the 1/25 scale boxes. Hence these kits are very susceptible to damage during transport/storage. The windscreen frames of the convertibles are usually broken or at least bent and often the roofs of the hardtops and wagons are smashed and/or the pillars bent/broken. Another notorious problem is the tyres and tubing included in these kits having left terrible marks on adjacent styrene parts due to some chemical reaction. This is especially annoying when you find some or all possible issues I described in a factory sealed kit you just shelled out a stack of wad for on eBay. Also, in my opinion the kits are a tad substandard for their scale when it comes to the general level of detail and engraving and they do require a lot of work and scratchbuilding skills to be made into plausible models. Check out the '55 T'bird's chassis shown above to see what I mean. I am no longer prepared to pay collectors' money for them and meanwhile replaced them with the corresponding 1/18 scale diecasts, which at the end of the day are a lot more satisfying from a modelling perspective if you are not a die hard 1/16 scale evangelist, but simply want to have bigger scale models of these cars. IMO 1/18 made 1/16 plastic kits somewhat redundant anyway, especially when you put a little extra work into the diecasts. The only thing I kept from those 1/16 kits are the optional custom wheels and tyres, since they are too small for the kits anyway, but work a treat in 1/18.

I just snatched a Four Alarm one off eBay USA. Got it for £15.14 plus £26.27 postage, so £41.41 all in. Yes, it isn't cheap, but I have paid more for 40 year old glue bombs in my life. I really want them all, but now 7016 is top priority. I wonder what 7012 would have been, had it been released.

That would be an easy fix. However, I'm now more concerned with the inaccurate body shape that Dave mentioned in his article. Looking at the box illustration, it indeed does look wrong, so it'll be old school tool all the way for me.

What is wrong with the 'new tool' kit? (I bet it has been discussed before, but my search did not yield a thread to that extent)

It's one of the rare occasions where I have to side with the industry. When Lindberg refilled a plethora of their big scale tools with fresh styrene a while back, they were hard pressed to shift 5,000 units, despite the Exterminator was among them, originals of which were silly money back then and the shouts for its reissue were loud and widespread. Monovell followed suit with quite a few or their old big scale chod, including the Big Tub, and must have faced a similar feat, considering the stuff was still all over the internet years later and finally sold at heavily discounted rates (guess when I bought mine). RoG regularly fell on the nose when they repopped the '65 'Vette, E-type and Big Deuce. These big scale thingys require a healthy dose of injectable to begin with, sizeable packaging and consequently high shipping costs per unit, hence I guess there is very little dosh going into the bank account after the dust has settled. All these things considered, even I wouldn't bother.

Is he one of the highly professional people who are running the company in this difficult market? I just hope he is the toilet cleaner. And who owns those fancy cars in a company that is so struggling for survival that not even the most basic investments can be done? I don't know. Those apologists for the model kit industry are ever more getting on my tits. This is piss take of the highest order.

Meanwhile in Europe...

Not building a kit is actually something I do on a regular basis. I'm one of those stinking collectors, you know.

The ones in the Revell kits are pathetically underscaled, so they might work well when space is an issue. I can't remember what the one in the Sunbeam Tiger is like, but it might be one to check out as well.

Yeah, old stuff is discarded and new one developed, except in the model kit industry, where no new stuff can be developed. The sad result is that an ever increasing proportion of my money goes to the 1/18 die casters, who meanwhile did release pretty everything I ever wanted. The remainder is predominantly going to Japan and Heller lately. Imagine my surprise when Heller went belly up a few months ago. One would imagine they can make a decent living from what I pay them... Predictions for 2017? Hasegawa is always good for a surprise. VW Typ 3 or Typ 2 T2 anyone? VW 181? Also reissues the Jaguar XJS. Tamiya reissues the Jaguar MKII and Morgan Plus 4 and launches a Jaguar D-Type. Fujimi releases another Bond car. ICM releases the Mercedes 770K and the Packard V12 in 1/24. Also a Ford T Sedan. Revell AG launches a Scirocco MK1, an NSU TTS and a 1/16 Typ 2 T1 panel van. Italeri reissues the ex-ESCI Ford Transit (I think this is even confirmed) and the Renault 5 (Le Car to you guys over there) and launches a Scania 164TL in Schubert livery. Belkits launches a Saab 96 and a Metro 6R4. Round2 reissues the '59 Imperial, some Lincoln, the '65 Bonneville, the '64 Comet and the Rayson Craft boat.

As if having no money for development and limited human resources wouldn't already sound like the opposite from ultimate professioanlism where I'm from, storing the chrome shot and clear shot separate from the main tool and then not finding them back sure does. It sounds more like a Punch and Judy theatre. Anyway, obviously my predictions for 2017 are wrong then. I still hope for some totally left field TV/Movie tie in from Revell, like they did with the S&H Torino, which appears to be doing reasonably well.

Of all the excuses I have ever heard in my life, this is the most stupid one. Are those Revell tards opening their mouth, when they feed a baby? Is everyone sure we are dealing with professionals?

Revell could reissue the 1962 Mopars. And the Renwal Revivals if they have those tools.

Jo-Han never made a 1931 Mercedes. Open the kit immediately and pack the tyres separately to avoid further damage, if it has any already. However, I have never seen this happening with the later kits from the 1980s and I have stacks of them.

The 1/24 Airfix kits of the Toyota 2000 GT coupe and its JB007 roadster derivative, the JB007 Aston Martin DB5 and the Aston Martin DB6 weren't good kits to begin with. If it's a 2000 GT coupe you are after, buy the Hasegawa one. If you want a DB5, get yourself the Doyusha. Having said that, it would be nice to see the Airfix ones reissued no matter who owns the tools currently, just for nostalgia. There also was a tool lease going on between Airfix and MPC for a lot of the Airfix 1/32 scale cars. The MPC issues came with chromed parts, something the Airfix ones never did. Some of these have been reissued by Airfix over the years, which indicates that the tools were returned to England, but the most interesting ones never will, because they were butchered up into atrocious customs ca. 1970.

Dan's wife's excellent work notwithstanding, the photo pretty much sums up everything that is wrong with the kit. Hence a newly tooled one would be nice, but alas.

This is long overdue.

Four. You should always use four wheels. OK, coat...

Both have the front flashers molded into the grille.