niteowl7710

It's this coming weekend...I must have gotten the date wrong, or it was changed a week since the early flyers were made. Either way - stay tuned to this space.

Hot Wheels changed the name and so they obliged. No other changes were made to make it match the actual 1/64 (which has a blown engine through the hood - and you'll notice that's not on the box art).

From seeing it in person and comparing to those instructions, I believe that's a very educated "guess".

I overheard it mentioned that pretty much everything was still in the original tooling and only the original body was sacrificed at the AWB alter, but whether that means that every single custom part winds up in the kit is up to the folks at Round2.

Yes with an engine that has not previously been released, but was tooled with the kit back when PL made it.

Round2 with Steve was once again at this year's Plastic Undercover Show in Akron showing their upcoming wares. Onto things that have been added to the display. Wheels added back to the '51 Chevy Reissue of the Polar Lights '04 GTO Reissue of the Indy Drag Combo (and yes the wagon is curbside like the original) 15 or so newly recreated parts including custom rear roof, dashboard, steering column and most of the lowered front suspension. Riding the Ford Vicky chassis and whatnot, but with a new body, glass, and front lights. Slew of improvements to the original MPC kit's body particularly in the front and rear treatments. Mirrors have separate mirror faces and are pinned. Lower side trim is separate if you don't want to make the movie specific vehicle. Lastly the '63 Lemans Convertible which not surprisingly is made up of quite a bit of the original kit that had been tossed into a corner (so to speak) when the original was turned into an AWB. So new body here, along with the associated improvements you've come to expect with these remasters.

I worked with a guy about 25 years ago that had a square body truck he was so overly proud of for some reason that spent it's entire existence we worked together painted primer gray with what I can only assume was a shop broom. It almost looked like one of those swirled textured ceilings...

SJR wouldn't allow anyone within 500 nautical miles of their tooling, but their 70s era kits that they tooled themselves (Olds 432, Monte Carlo, Roadrunner) are 1/25. The logic was Monogram reset the standard to 1/24 from the 80s forward, so the current 202x cars are also 1/24, but the original 60s/70s NASCAR kits are 1/25 and so theirs are too. If you're interested in that era of NASCAR, but haven't gotten any of their kits, you've been snobbish for no reason.

Given Tamiya's extensive track record of doing two kits per tool, and there already being two kits from said tool, I wouldn't expect there to be any further versions of their 240Z unless the grandson takes the company in a more aggressive direction now that the old man has passed away.

The IPMS is dying the same way the hobby as a whole is...which is to say it isn't. I'm no sycophant of the group, they make me shake my head sometimes, but that doesn't negate the fact that membership of the National organization has been steadily increasing since 2020. I know of several local chapters that have formed since then as well, while we've (as car modelers) have just been bleeding show after show after show. (NNL Toledo, GSL, NNL West and countless local shows) in the same time period. Given that there are 26 other classes (at IPMS Nationals) to put car models in - outside of the two box stock classes that 3D/resin/et al can't enter - it smacks of trophy hunting and or complacent modeling to say one can't build a competitive model for xyz competition unless I have a special place to put it that "caters" to how "I" build.

More goodies...

There are no instructions, box stock requires they be on display with the entry. Also if you read the rules for Box Stock - the ones from GSL are still up on their website for example - you can't use aftermarket parts. Well that whole thing is aftermarket. Recycling a manufacturer's name doesn't somehow make it a commerical model kit. I've yet to come across the IPMS show that would allow an aftermarket armor or aircraft be entered into Box Stock either as the IPMS (especially on the National level) are really hung up on the idea that Box Stock is single media and really a throwback class to showase older kits that wouldn't stand up to modern day tooling.

Not to pile on the kid, but there were several models attached to the wrong companies, a dash of things already released (ergo not upcoming) and a splash of things in the Japanese kit section that are straight re-stock reissues that are in fact not new nor upcoming since they're just resupply. He's a really decent modeler, but his video appears to be a slide show based on the Cyber Modeler list referenced earlier in this thread and those folks wouldn't know their hind ends from a hole in the ground when it comes to accurate information, particularly about import kits.

This argument about "checkbook modeling" has been in the hobby for entire time I've been old enough to be aware of it - so 35+ years (out of the 40 I've been building models). Back then it was resin, p/e, turned metal and pre-wired distributors. Just because you can buy something doesn't mean you can actually use it effectively. Making a model into a blingatron shrine to the aftermarket means nothing if it's not executed properly. Very little 3D modeling is done to be model-specific, and even what is still isn't exactly plug and play.

The only shows that I know that have/had a dedicated "Scratchbuilt" category/categories were GSL (with the If I had Designed It class) and IPMS Nationals. Some Regional and Invitational IPMS contests have or have had Scratchbuilt classes included if the previous contests demonstrated enough entries to justify them.