fumi
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Posts posted by fumi
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By the look of it we will be getting the late type down the road, and possibly the GT-Z Supercharged with the intercooler hood scoop. While I also wish for a Trueno I think it is unlikely to happen.
Race version is a given, the AE92 was very popular in JTC and even if they skip the one year only Minolta livery, they still have Biyo, Wedsport, Fujitsu Ten, FET and Trampio as the more successful teams to do. They are also not feared to go head to head with Beemax/Nunu, the Lancer Turbo is another car that would compete with them directly and it is obvious the kit is designed to have a rally variant in mind.
While the Gemini and the Starlet were popular entries in rally, with the way the interior is designed race version seems not likely. The Bluebird, however, may spawn a rally version in the future.
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On 7/5/2020 at 7:24 AM, niteowl7710 said:
Aoshima also gets all my thumbs down right now as they've turned into an even more conservative company than Tamiya in terms of their releases. There have been what...4 new tools in the past half decade, and I'd love to see the sales numbers on that Toyota Taxi. The Pro Box is getting it's 4th kit in October, but how many Mazda Familia Vans did they move? The R34 4 Door gets it's 5th version (if you count the original Custom Wheels version of the 1st releases as it's own kit) as a Police Car in October, and the URAS Type-R FINALLY saw the light of day. I know Fujimi is off playing in 1/72 military land right now, but I'd love to get one of the 3 promised Jimny kits instead of the 14th reissue of the Hustler.
I think Aoshima went too ambitious in the mid 2000's and overextended themselves with the exotic line. The Lambos probably sold well but not so much for the rest. I saw stacks of their McLaren F1 discounted to 1800 yen in Tokyo a few years ago, that is not a good sign. If not for all the sedan kits they keep milking since the 90's they would have been in serious trouble already. Their focus is now on 1/32 easy kits to lure back people who have been out of the hobby for 30 years. So far it is positive and you will see the majority of their new releases on that side for the time being, with the KPGC10 Skyline GT-R coming out soon.
Fujimi's 23-series Jimny is originally scheduled for this summer and the 64/74 series are for this winter. Seems they have been pushed back now.
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18 hours ago, Rob Hall said:
Pretty sure every generation of Supra (and Celica) has been of unibody construction....surprised none of the kits of this generation have been made w/ the targa top, I remember that being popular on the 1:1s back in the day.
Fujimi's narrow body version has cut out lines on the inside of the body, and instruction for cutting the targa top.
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20 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:
The A60 Supra is over saturated I'll grant you, but then so was the market for an R31 Skyline and they did it anyways.
I know it's easy for us to spend their money on our own personal thoughts, but I've never understood why in the military realm they can retool and retool and retool certain (mostly German) tanks seemingly from new companies every year, but the automotive market goes - Well there's a 30yr old tool of xyz, so a new one wouldn't sell! The American kit manufacturers are just as guilty of that. I know there are arguably more "IPMS" builders, but it's not the order of magnitude necessary to justify having 3-5 new Panzers popping up yearly each one trying to be more complicated or accurate than all the others.
For the R31 Skyline the market was actually non-existent until Hasegawa did theirs. Fujimi was the only game in town, the body is oversized, the mold is badly worn, and the kit became a mess when they tried to change the mold back and forth to create different versions. It is re-released once every few years because the demand is low and Hasegawa easily blows them out of the water. It's the R32 that is over-saturated, and it is wise for Hasegawa to not jump into it.
The difference between the military realm and ours is that they will actually buy up all 10 variations of the same tank with rivets on the add-on armour arranged in different pattern, while we may buy one edition of the car and declare it is enough. Unless you are Tamiya you almost stand no chance of recovering your development cost when someone else clashes with you: Hasegawa found it out the hard way when they and Tamiya released the Lotus 79 almost at the same time. While Hasegawa supposedly came out with the better kit, it killed their foray into the 1/20 historical F1 market. When Aoshima got wind of Hasegawa's Sunny Truck project, they scrapped their own development entirely eventhough the short body was part of their design. They deemed it too risky.
The A60 Supra is doable, it is far more popular than the R31 Skyline in Japan and I don't see anyone else retooling their ancient kits. Maybe after the market has digested all the recent Tamiya re-release and the A70 Supra turns out profitable first.
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This brings back a lot of memory from the time I built the original set when I was still in primary school. It is interesting to compare this new set from the old one.
- Eventhough the boxart still shows a university, instead of the brats from prestigious university districts you now get everyday folks that are equally at home in Shibuya.
- Tennis is out, VAN branded paper bag is out, the preppy look is out. Tapioca milk tea is in, guitar is in, selfie is in.
- Instead of 2 guys and 3 girls, you get one guy and 4 girls now. The facial expression is also far better in this new set, I wonder they were modeled from 3D scans like the figure in the Toyoda AA and the ND Miata.
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10 minutes ago, Luc Janssens said:
Hmm....looks like an opening hood, or is it just to facilitate other hood/facia options?
Most likely for switching between the regular bumper and the Turbo A bumper with the huge intercooler duct.
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3 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:
I'd be very happy to see either a Starlet or B110 Sunny, as I have 1:1 experience of both of them. B110 would be relatively easy, as they've already got the front half of it in their truck kit. Would be good to build a replica of my 2-door saloon, although would they be more likely to offer the coupe?
I had a KP62 Starlet for a year or so, really enjoyed it and I could see why they formed the basis of so many short oval track racing cars here, even before they became popular more recently.
Beemax (now Nunu) showed very preliminary mockups of race version for both subjects in 2018. With Nunu just getting around to release the 306 Maxi now I guess the Starlet and the Sunny will be at least 2 years from being released.
The Hasegawa B110 was rumoured for as long as the Sunny truck was released, and they hinted about it in interviews back then. It will definitely be the coupe if they decide to make it, it was raced extensively in Japan and has a huge following.
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I hope Hasegawa will include the LHD dash and side mirrors in the initial release to boost up sales instead of going the special edition route. Most modellers in Japan would want the Turbo A or the 2.5 Twin Turbo and they are a given for the special edition treatment. Having the LHD option in the regular 3.0 GT would allow them to do an export version that differentiates from the JDM special editions, providing more incentive to buy it. Not to mention the foreign market potential.
The 2nd gen Celica XX/Supra is fairly popular in the Japanese old car circle and it can provide the minimum 3 variations Hasegawa is getting from their recent molds, plus the underpinning is shared with the 1st gen Soarer, another popular car in Japan. However that market is rather saturated right now, with Aoshima, Arii and Fujimi constantly pumping out their toy-like kits and Tamiya just re-released both their Celica and Supra. The 1st gen is unpopular so it would be a hard sell.
Even the A70 Supra is a surprise to me, when most people expected the P60 Starlet or the B110 Sunny to be the next release from Hasegawa. I would also like to see the DR30 Skyline down the line, it is hugely popular in Japan and they can easily get 3 or 4 variation from the basic kit, and that's before we get into the "Western Police" TV series.
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30 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:
Interesting to see. Will it offer much that Tamiya don't with their version however?
No metal axles, for one. It should also come with detailed platform style interior.
Check out the Twitter post by Model Art. The seats even come with the seat belt retainers.
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After their fairly successful R31 Skyline series, it is just natural for them to follow up with its rival the A70 Supra.
https://twitter.com/ModelArtInc/status/1278239318557945856
It will be the 3.0 GT Turbo Limited for December. Following their practice, it will definitely spawn several variations. I expect the street version Turbo A and the related Group A racers to follow soon, with the 2.5 Twin Turbo down the road. Assuming they do all 3 liveries of Minolta, Fujitsu Ten and Biyo for the Group A cars, that would be at least six variations from the same basic mold.
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On 5/29/2020 at 9:29 AM, Jordan White said:
I believe it's to do with the requirement of being able to see the rear turn signal from the side of the vehicle, which is not possible with the US taillights, hence the wrap-around amber portion. Chevy used the wrap around red in the US since it doubled as the rear-side marker light. However, I'm not sure if this is also why the amber takes up two "sections" of the taillight assembly. It seems like they could have just used the corner "section" for the turn signal, and used the other two non-reverse portions for the brake and fog lights (or use one of the reverse lights as the fog light like they do on other vehicles).
Looking at photos on the web, the outermost section seems to be not lighted. GM probably just switched the turn signal and the brake light sections, and make the outermost section amber as well.
I think it is ok to not have the turn signal wraparound the tail at least up to the 80's, but it must be in the outermost position in many European countries. Red side marker is also not legal; our Euro-spec Volvo during the Ford era still had them wired, but in amber instead.
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On 6/2/2020 at 8:31 PM, Italianhorses said:
I like it a lot too, reminiscent of same era Vettes, especially in the front.
Of course it does, afterall the C5 copied it.
Love the red seats. Those will really pop with the blue exterior.
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19 hours ago, shucky said:
I also really like the look of the large single tail lights on more modified Hako's ... so out came the files again ...
One popular mod was to use the one piece 1968-69 tail lights in place of the dual tail lights of the post 1970 Skyline.
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On 4/29/2020 at 4:10 AM, Art Brock said:
I can't find a 55 Resin body for sale. Does anyone know where I may could get one?
Star Models has a few on offer.
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On 4/29/2020 at 5:31 AM, djflyer said:
I have one - fantastic kit, almost the precursor to the Fujimi EM series full detail kits. Makes me wonder what happened to those tools and why it was never re-issued by Gunze (or anyone else).
Gunze (now GSI Creos) last issued their own kits in the early 2000's. The Hi-Tech series is impressive. I have two of the bike kits, each come with white metal engine parts and a box of wire to lace the wheels. The Panzer IV sold for the ridiculous price of 22,000 yen back then (equivalent to 22 Tamiya kits) and is reputed to be unbuildable with all the little metal parts.
It is believe that they still own the majority of their molds. They are still a major model kit importer and distributor in Japan, and not to mention their paint and tool lines, but they haven't molded anything since then.
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On 4/19/2020 at 12:21 PM, djflyer said:
I would be curious if the Italeri kit has any relation to the Gunze kit which has full detail as well. There's nothing I can find that says it was reissued after this boxing.
The Gunze kit was their own design, all doors and panels open.
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I remember those tail light decals when I built it 35 years old. When you are 8 those decals are a godsend.
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I once ordered a Fujimi Trans Am kit from them, a very limited re-release that could be found nowhere else in the rest of the world, not even in Japan, but they listed it in stock. I e-mail them about the availability, and they promptly replied that yes, they indeed had it in stock.
After placing the order, they stopped answering my e-mail. That went on for a month, until I threatened to report them to PayPal, and they promptly refunded my money.
Their list prices are already bad, but they do list many items that could be found nowhere else. Not that they have those items to start with.
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Comparison of Tamiya, Fujimi and Revell Enzo:
http://modelcarshirobom.syanari.com/033-enzo/comparison.html
It is all in Japanese but even if you cannot read it, there are some photo comparisons. The general photo layout is Tamiya-Fujimi-Revell from left to right, or top to bottom.
If you want opening doors then Tamiya is the way to go.
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I have had good experience with Model Empire.
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3 hours ago, vwdave92 said:
2. I'm looking for specific wheels from the 1:1 car. Where can I find these?
Forward Resin casts the pony wheels, they list them from time to time in their eBay store.
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Nice build.
If anyone is interested this car was donated to the Tochigi Prefecture Police by the local co-op of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives in 1973 for highway patrol duty, when the Tohoku Expressway was opened, and was in service until 1984. It had a reputation of being very fast, but also very thirsty.
Another famous highway patrol car of Tochigi was the first gen NSX, donated by Honda.
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14 hours ago, martinfan5 said:
Isnt that same with Aoshima and their Skyline/Silvia chassis too ? Isnt it the Silvia body is stretched to fit the Skyline chassis?
Comparing the Tamiya S13 to a Aoshima S13 shows that they are not even close.
The Aoshima S13 body was fudged around to fit the S15 chassis. The proportion is strange, not just the wheelbase but also the greenhouse.
You can see the comparison here, the wheelbase is noticeably longer and the rooftop appears to be in the same length, to compensate for this the top seems to become taller.
http://modelcarshirobom.syanari.com/021-s13/s13-comparison.html
So it looks like Nunu got the 935, Volvo 240 and the Lancia Delta S4, it says new tools and "being seriously developed". Makes me wonder if the rest of the Beemax line will follow suit.
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12 hours ago, GeeBee said:
I've got a couple of Hasegawa Honda N360's, and there exactly the same, again not a cheap kit, luckily i got all of them sent over from a friend in Japan,so didn't cost me that much, but a company like Hasegawa really should hang their head in shame.
They stopped doing the engraved bathtub interior and provided proper door panels starting with the Galant coupe and R31 Skyline.
I guess engraved interior would have been great if it were their bread and butter 1/48 and 1/72 jet fighter kits. But at least they realized it is a bad idea for 1/24 car kits and changed it.
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Oh well, those people would be getting into their 60's now.