fumi

I guess this situation can be avoided if the seller explains the priority shipping is for the protection of the buyer as well as the seller, instead of implying the potential buyer might fake not receiving a parcel. I have lost a package from a US seller once, and I had no recourse because it was shipped by regular air mail with no tracking. Now I always insist on Priority, even when the seller offers First Class International. Really? I'd never do that, I know the cost of shipping and I have factored that in when I place the bid.

So what will you do when you are in the waiting room, waiting to see the doctor or have your car serviced? a. Listen on to some housewives' gossip b. Watch mindless talk shows on TV c. Read months old magazines and tabloids d. Play with the phone I will take the phone, thank you very much. At least I can look at something I'm interested in.

How about these Fujimi 17" Sparco N1? I think 17" is about the biggest size for cars of that vintage, anything bigger would have fitment issues. http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10101168

They have changed their mind and will keep selling PCs, afterall. Brand is not that important with laptops, last I checked there are only 6 OEM in the world that makes them, no matter which major brand you choose they still come from the same factories. Find one that fits your needs, with the features and software you need, and a 3-year warranty. Test out the screen and keyboard for a couple minutes to see if it is comfortable to use. I have an HP ProBook, but the only reason I bought it is because it came with Windows 7 Professional as standard. I've wanted a Fujitsu but their 13.3" models with Win 7 Pro were way out of my price range and over-spec for my needs.

I find it interesting that some people always say "new cars all look the same and I am not able to tell them apart". I have no problem recognizing most cars made after the 70's. However cars made in the 60's and before all looked the same to me, especially those from GM. Remove the grilles from them and they are practically the same car. I don't think it has much to do with companies copying each other for car designs nowadays; it was always the case. It has more to do with nostalgia, and the cars people grew up with.

They confirmed it's a Chevy. They didn't say it's that "styling buck for the Chevelle that never was" from the LA Auto Show two years ago, as stated in the Jalopnik article. Why not just wait for GM to unveil it in the Detroit Auto Show before sinking it?

Some of their moves just baffled me, to say the least. Like the decisions to reissue their horrible 66 Mustang and long in the tooth 68 Shelby Mustang, when they had the excellent 67 Mustang/Shelby toolings at their disposal.

Johan's Cammer valve covers, as casted by Drag City Casting:

Good for them. In all fairness AMT's toolings in the 90's were pretty good. Too bad they reissued so many crappy kits in the same time frame, which really brought down their reputation.

I'd have to disagree with that, quality of Aoshima kits refined dramatically during the late 80's, and most of the stuff they developed after 1991 had been great. They are probably the first manufacturer to make platform style interior with realistic 3D side panels in 1990-91; AMT started in around 1993 IIRC, Revell-Monogram has had separate door panel for a long time but the rest of the interior was still molded as a tub, Tamiya didn't get out of the tub style interior until the mid 90's and Fujimi still hasn't made up their mind how they'd do their interior. While their chassis has not been the most accurate, the bodies are well proportioned and nicely molded. Their body kits do need some work to fit properly, but they are no worse than Fujimi. And they probably went to far with the chassis sharing lately as witnessed by the FC3S RX-7 and S13 Silvia. But quality-wise I find them on par with Tamiya most of the time.

Johan Maverick Pro Stock Grabber has the Cammer valve covers.

The shape of the AMT Cammer's valve covers doesn't look right; it is either too tall or not wide enough. It could have been the ribbings that make it looks off, as compared to this public domain photo of the Cammer found in Wikipedia: Dray City Casting used to make a recast of the Johan Cammer valve covers, which looks right. The Ross Gibson ones appear to have the correct dimension and the right ribbing width, but the blue oval on my examples is very faint and the "427 SOHC" script is missing. However, with the blue oval removed and the ribbings rescribed it represents an early version pretty well.

I think Ross Gibson's 427 SOHC is quite nice, but the valve covers are missing the "427 SOHC" scripts on the ones I have. Of all kit Cammer valve covers I have seen only the Johan ones are accurate. Those from AMT are way off.

The Stagea was first kitted in the mid 90's, one of the "dark ages" for Fujimi kit. Part fitment is good and the body looks right, some versions even come with photoetched badges for the grille. However, the interior will need quite a lot of work, especially the door panels which have no detail at all.

I'm not too worried about youngsters messing with my models. The ones I really treasure stays out of reach in the cabinet, and if the rest got dropped accidentally I don't feel too bad about it. I've had little kids and old people and anything in between push or drop my models off into oblivion. In general, the younger they are the more sorry they feel about it.

Legal issues. Licensing the design from Caterham is out of the question. Birkin tried, and the terms were so bad that they decided to develop their own version instead. Caterham in turn sued them. While Caterham ultimately lost the case, most companies would rather change the look of the car enough to avoid the lawsuits from the outset.

Donkervoort has been building cars evolved from the Lotus 7 design for decades already, it's not surprising their cars look like some form of the 7. I don't think it really looks that bad. And with 400 hp in a 1500 lb package it's going to be fast, and a handful to drive to say the least.

I believe that flexible hose can be turned so that it doesn't point to the face of the user, and can extend to a nearby window for venting the fumes out?

Buick's success in China is largely irrelevant to the North American market. In China it competes mostly with the Camry, the Accord and the Passat. Not exactly a prestigious brand, more like mid-market, which is the fastest growing segment right now. And it never got saddled with the old-man image. GM's beancounting and badge engineering practice is what killed Saab. Saab played in a niche market where buyers perceived the engineering of their products to be superior to the competition, and were willing to pay a premium for something different, to a point of being eccentric. Then GM bought them, and replaced the whole lineup with Opel stuff while still charging for a premium. And when that didn't work out, they came up with the brilliant idea of rebadging a Subaru as a Saab. They might as well kill the brand outright. I think Buick in North America is on the same path. Brilliant cars, but wrong brand image. The Regal is supposed to rival the Acura TSX and the Audi A4 with a high performance turbo 4 and a slick 6-speed manual transmission, but how many potential Acura or Audi customers would consider a Buick? I couldn't even convince my 65-year-old mom to take a look at the Buick; she mentioned something about old-man cars and bought a VW instead. On the other hand, would Buick customers care for any of that?

"Let's reinvent the brand and try to sell it to a totally new market" part 2. Of all brands within GM they have to pick the one that is least likely to attract import buyers, and position it as an import fighter. If it didn't work out with Olds back then, why do they think it'd work out with Buick this time around?

The Opel sell/drag-feet/won't-sell fiasco, anyone? Or how about the Saturn sell/jeopardize/made-unsellable?

There... fixed it for you.

I am not so sure about that. I have had the most problem with quality issues in AMT kits when they were manufactured in Mexico. Say what you want about Chinese quality (and I know about them first hand), but since Revell and AMT moved their manufacturing to China I have never encountered a warped body.

That's not entirely true. Workers rights have improved tremendously over the last 10 years, and major corporations are willing to pay decent wages to skilled workers. You don't have to work cheap, although a decent salary does come with a price of long working shifts. Yes, the working condition in places like Foxconn is very stressful, but compared to the cost of living index the pay is not cheap, or else there wouldn't be so many people willing to work there.

Hey Jeff, that was a nice build! I'm very excited about the Fujimi Pantera indeed. If it is anything like their Ferrari kits then it wouldn't be too difficult to slip an engine into it. At 3,000 yen it's not cheap, but far better than the $60 up the various old Pantera kits are fetching in eBay.