fumi

As for the Gemini, I'd say Hasegawa has a pretty good sense on what the Japanese modellers who are actually buying and building car kits want. The Sunny Truck, the Jimny, Honda N and the 2002 all sold quite well, and the Civic is expected to sell well too. The Gemini has quite a cult following in Japan. Many people in my age remember their TV commercials very well. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=街の遊撃手

There is actually quite a large interest in the F-150 in China. Big enough for Ford to officially import it.

The top is not that off to my eyes, it is mostly the window opening and subsequently the door line that was pinched. I would just reshape the window and rescribe the door lines.

It is shipping now, 24,000 yen plus shipping. http://smp24modelcars.blog.fc2.com/ Best bet is probably getting it through Keystone. http://keystone-models.com/ There are also 2 kits listed in Yahoo Japan auction. Ends on Nov 4. https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/search/search?auccat=&tab_ex=commerce&ei=utf-8&aq=-1&oq=&sc_i=&fr=auc_top&p=smp24&x=0&y=0&fixed=0

GM never really wanted to sell the SS. In exchange for billions of export subsidy from the Australian government, GM had to export Australian built Holdens. So what they did was to export the bare minimum number of SS to satisfy the subsidy agreement.

Speaking of Academy, they also started out by copying Tamiya's kits. The 959, the M635 CSi and the Countach LP500S can still be found in their Korean lineup. http://academy.co.kr/1p/1p_plalist.asp?pPage=2&pView=PLA0000005&pScale=

Yes, that one is a spot reissue.

Dragon? Their relationship with Hasegawa was good enough to share toolings back then, and I think they have reciprocal distributorship in Japan, Hong Kong and the US for a long time until last year.

Those DeAgostini subscription kits run for around $15 per issue, so $550 for 60 parts is not a bad deal. The bigger concern is if one can get the rest of the 60 pieces.

I never had any problem with them. I live halfway around the globe from Jeremy and I always receive my order within a month, communication is never a problem and the parts are top notch.

Compact pickup trucks were all the rage in the early to mid 90s. They pretty much killed off the sports coupe market in real world.

For all the Photo Bucket bashing, people should realize hotlinking your photos from PB (or any other photo hosting services) to forums, blogs, web sites etc. consumes their bandwidth while generating zero income to them. Every single image page load on said forums, blogs, web sites etc. is a toll on their resources. With the amount of photo hosted on their service, the bandwidth consumption must be huge. I am surprised it took this long for them to nix it, at least for free accounts.

Fujimi 1985 911 Carrera would be your best bet for a starting point, that's what the real cars were based on.

Greg Wann's resin body is excellent. He offers a hatchback, too.

There is also John's Hobbies in Toronto and Panther Hobbies and Trains in Mississauga. http://www.johnshobbies.ca http://pantherhobbies.com/ There used to be hobby shops that sell mainly Japanese kits in Pacific Mall. It has been 5 years since I last visited Toronto so I don't know if they are still around.

The Carina really baffles me. Other than it raced in Macau I don't really understand why Beemax would want to kit it. If I were asked to come up with a Super Touring subject, the Audi A4 or the Alfa 155/156 would be my only choices. The rest would be tough sells, eventhough I'd really want a Vauxhall Cavalier or Mansell's Mondeo.

VCG Resins have them in their catalog. http://vcgresins.com/truck.html

I believe Tamiya do extra runs on sprues that they anticipate to be particularly susceptible to being "missing" or "damaged", for example the speed parts in the 1970 Skyline GT-R custom special. From time to time they clear them out in the Tamiya Plamodel Factory outlet stores in Tokyo. So far I have bought several S20 Skyline engine sprues, as well as the custom parts for the 1970 and R32 Skylines there.

As the kit already comes with early and late type mirrors and judging from their history with the Sunny Truck, Jimny and the N360, my guess is they will release the late type with the square tail lights later.

Rik's (site owner of CCC) own Fotki site has loads of custom car photos as well. https://public.fotki.com/Rikster/

The window trim is molded to the glass so there is no gap between the window and the trim. To me it is the better way. With the old glass behind the body way, the windshield is either far too recessed from the body, or the fitment gets so bad there are gaps between the glass and the A-pillar.

Nice work with the body kit. The fitment is spot on. One big plus with the Tamiya kit is that it has a proper chassis; the Fujimi one has an auto box and the Aoshima one is from the S15. The only thing missing are the windshield washers.

While the Tamiya 934 is curbside, I believe it was a new kit with the body based on their 911 Turbo released in mid 2000.

The Ramen Museum in Yokohama has a slot car track/shop. At the back of the shop was a whole wall of discontinued model car kits. Bought a Tamiya 300ZX convertible there a few years ago.

Hobby Design said they plan to release an engine kit late last year. Maybe a push on their Facebook page will speed up the process.