Erik Smith

It would nice if the economy were up to just "one" leader - it would make life pretty simple. Unfortunately, it's way beyond one person, or even one party, to influence the economy. It's driven, in the US, by a few hundred million consumers. Business models are successful based not on ethics or morals, but on how many people pay them for services or goods. It takes buyers to build and, ultimately, to kill a selling process.

$34.99????!!! That seems outrageous even for Michaels "list" price! Isn't the MSRP about $25? It's a shame they make you do the coupon thing - think of buyers that actually pay that full price or don't buy a model because they think it's too expensive. I'm not a fan of that business model, but it must work somehow because Hobby Lobby pulls the same thing.

Actually, one thing I like doing when I travel is visiting grocery stores. The differences in products and observing everyday lives is interesting. It's not the only thing I do and I don't plan vacations around it, but I still make a point of stopping and looking.

Nissan's coolest Skyline! Build looks good but pictures are a little dark. Try shooting some shots outside or with a couple lamps.

Read the description - seller knows wing is backwards as it is loose and just sitting on the model. Not sure why the seller wouldn't just turn it around. I have actually purchased kits from this seller before and been happy with the transaction. I did not, however, buy a built kit.

Nice project. I am a fan of most 60s era two seat roadsters and really like the looks of the TR-4. I too have the 1/32 airfix kit bit would love to see this 1/24 version go together. How is the quality of the body and other parts on the Air-Trax kit?

I'll bet that if you dry spinach and inhale enough of the smoke, it will cause cancer.

Very cool and nice work. I just saw a 1:1 the other day.

It's one study. How many times has the media jumped on scary results only to have the results change in the next few studies. You never hear about the studies that nullify or point to other causes because they don't sell like scary stories.

I used duplicolor sealer, duplicolor white primer, duplicolor paint and no bleeding on an orange body. Two light coats of duplicolor clear, still fine. Third coat of clear....bled through and turned the white peach! I couldn't believe the duplicolor clear was hot enough to bring the plastic color through, literally, 6 layers of paint! Just a watch out.

Nice looking build. I love the flathead and color. Don't see this kit built up stock too often. Looks like the driver's side is higher than the passenger side - judging by the front wheels relation to the fender. It could be the angle of the photo. Thanks for showing us your build.

500s, 600s and early 800s were chain drive. Later 800s were solid axle. The stock tamiya kit is a chain drive 800 and the racing version is a later solid axle.

Very cool. One of my favorite cars. I like the roll bars and color.

??? The Skyline isn't run of the mill OR econobox. Not my favorite Skyllne either, but I like the look and idea. It's a model, so why not? Nobody on their right mind would do it in real life.

I prefer the 24 Hours of LeMons.

I agree 100%. eBay is a marketplace. A very efficient means of offering buyers and sellers a venue for commerce. Imagine what your own collection would be worth at a yard sale vs eBay. I hate the complaints about fees too. Imagine the cost to set up, run, and advertise your own web business. If your a small or irregular seller, it's not feasible to do this. eBay makes it economically possible for regular people to sell in a huge market - like getting your stuff in Wal Mart! There are bad people dealing on the Internet, not just eBay.

There are so many annoying listings on eBay that I often get frustrated and quit looking. As Gregg mentioned, those sellers who open up a kit and list the different parts separately really bother me. I hate browsing through 20 listings of some jerks individual parts trees or bumpers or ...of a common kit. "Rare" - yes, you need to tell me a kit is rare as I have no clue what i am bidding on, so thank you for letting me know. Shipping times is another issue with sellers. I have purchased kits that people have waited two weeks to ship - why list something at a certain time if you know you aren't going to ship it immediately? One bad/good experience here though. A seller gave his wife (they were "having trouble") the box of kits to mail. Two days later, he found the box in her trunk. She said she would mail it. Again, he found it a couple days later. The seller felt so bad, he threw in another brand new complete kit and wheel set and mailed it out. Annoying for the wait, but nice he compensated for his error! There are good sellers too - I consider myself one - but the bad and annoying ones are those we remember. It's the same with buyers. In the last two years selling around 600 kits, I can remember mainly those buyers who want special treatment, aren't happy because they didn't read the entire description, or blame the me for the Post Office's shipping rates. I have actually been in a couple arguments with buyers about shipping charges - even when I give them information about weight and departing zip code so they can check the rates themselves.

There are certain models of Japanese cars that are never imported to the US and were/are available only to the domestic Japanese market. That is what a JDM is. A car manufactured in Japan for a foreign market is not a JDM vehicle. The older Toyotas (78 and 84 trucks) and Hondas (82 Accord and 85 Acura) I have owned were made in Japan but for import to the US market. Not real important to this discussion as the post is more about Japanese VS American cars, not JDM vs USDM, which woul be very limited and more difficult to compare as most of us have little to no experience driving true JDM cars.

I thought JDM was Japanese DOMESTIC market, therefore not the imported versions of foreign made vehicles. JDM refers to cars marketed and sold only in Japan, no?

I really like this build. Beautiful, beautiful colors. Everything on it looks awesome. I will definitely try my hand at the "smoke" technique. Nice.

Well built. I like the look. I think the Trueno is becoming the most popular car on the site!

Serious? Debunked by less than 2% of scientists? 98% percent of the scientific community is in consensus about climate change. 2% disagree. Of the 2%, it is a mix of those that feel it will be worse than the consensus and those that disagree about how serious it will be. I am not a scientist, but 98% is as close to certain in the scientific world as you can get.

The newer Nova kits from Revell don't have ejector pin marks on the interior. Others do have them located under the seats. Tires are a big issue. I admit to buying kits for tires. Chrome is a pain too - keeping it clean while cutting it loose. How about emblems? Tamiya makes really cool metal transfers for some of their kits - they are easy to apply, self sticking, and look a lot better than one layered with paint and covered with BMF.

This is true, the earth has never stopped making oil. The problem is the rate at which it is being produced. It is quite slow. The real problem is not running completely out of oil. Once the total amount of supply is decreased to the point where more cannot be added to meet increasing demand, we run into a big problem. There are a lot of books and articles on peak oil and there is not a consensus on when, but the idea that oil will last a long time but will not be able to meet demand due to rising needs and lower supply is, to me, incontrovertible. Yes, taxes (or tax collection methods) will need to be shifted as the government will not be able to maintain roads with a decreasing tax base (more miles to the gallon, alternative fuels, less driving). Or, we could privatize the highway systems and make them pay-as-you-go.

Gas prices are not controlled by the energy secretary. There are things called global corporations that control their portions of the oil supply. They sell to who ever pays the most. Right now, refineries in the US can get more per gallon selling gas to other countries, so that's where the gas goes. This in turn reduces the supply (especially diesel) in the US. When supply is down and demand remains high, prices go up. As for where we're headed...gasoline powered internal combustion engines are a blip in history. They seem important now because it's hard for a human to understand the scope of time involved. 100 years out of thousands of years of civilization is not much. Out of billions of years it is nothing. There will be alternatives. Electric, solar, or maybe something nobody has thought of yet - who knows? I like old cars, buy it's such a small part of history. I'm glad I was here to see it.