niteowl7710

As I said, the models are "competing" against our judging rubric, not against each other. So subject matter of the diorama is irrelevant. The only "head to head" competition if you want to call it that would be for the overall Best Diorama. Given our Best of Show in 2024 was a Gunpla and in 2025 it was a giant scratch built Sci-Fi ship, it's quite possible an automotive diorama - if done better than all the others - could certainly win Best Dio. That's the beauty of the Open System, it rewards excellence, and recognizes all good work. If you took a populated Auto Class like Factory Stock or Competiton Drag are you telling me that there in fact only 3 models in a class with 18-25 entries that deserve recognition?

We have Aircraft, Armor, Ships, Automotive, Sci-Fi, Figures, Diorama and Miscellaneous. Period. When every model is judged itself vs our rubric you don't need a bazillion breakdown categories for any genre since models (and modelers) aren't competing directly against one another like traditional 1/2/3.

As someone who's won several awards, including class wins with OOB models in the standard categories the vehicle would otherwise normally go into...I don't even see the point of Box Stock/OOB except to give more $3 plaques away to people who want to category shop their build into something that think would make their model more likely to win. At the local IPMS Chapter - of which I am the Head Automotive Judge - we used the Open System (Gold/Silver/Bronze) and our Automotive Categories are...Automotive. It's so nice not to have 29eleventy7 Categories where people win stuff just for being one of 3 people who decided to build 1/32 & Smaller Competiton or some such nonsense.

But they aren't, it's just a reissue of the same P400 SV they've always had. There isn't anything new about it at all, not even the box art is different.

Recent acquisitions and arrivals.

So to actually answer the question - not that the debate wasn't amusing - you couldn't put a 3D printed kit in Box Stock at IPMS or anywhere else for that matter because you have to have the instructions on display with the model. I've yet to meet the 3D file that comes with assembly instructions...unless it's a full on kit like the Orange Wheel Tucker & '48 Cadillac in which case the P/E would kick you out of Box Stock in most places since most contests don't allow multi-media within that category.

Gotta remember back when the changes were made, nobody thought anyone would want what was a kid's toy 50-60 years later. It wouldn't be until the mid-80s that the tradition of permanently modifying tooling was put to rest and the modular tooling design trend was undertaken. Revell and Monogram were just as guilty of modifying tooling when it outlived it's perceived life span.

I suspect that when it comes to vintage drag racing there's so much home brewing going on that for people where accuracy matters any one given subject isn't close enough - even to other cars of the same brand - that one model wouldn't sufficiently cover multiple subjects. If Salvinos ever finishes the rumored current Toyota Funny Car project they've been tinkering with that one model kit would cover the 6 drivers of this season, and any teams that choose to continue running the Supra in 2026 even with Toyota factory support. It may also work backwards as I don't know nearly enough about modern NHRA to know how far back a 2025 body funny car would cover. But the point being one Toyota Funny Car is the base for multiple projects just needing Slixx or whomever to conjur up the other liveries.

Ooofa International Priority is quite a bit more expensive than International Economy. Both of which are substantially more than the (albeit unavailable) Postal rates.

Well without turning this into a political thing that gets the thread locked, currently we don't have an environment to worry about down here, all those cares went away towards the end of January...🙄

Those trusted Canadian vendors are now under a 35% tariff or $200 flat fee.

Yall are going to be crushing plants to make your own pigments pretty soon. The one thing I saw from Sunward about the GSI/Creos ban was it took out the entire GX line and Acrysion line with it, both of which are bottled paint. The Acrysion line is the equivalent of Tamiya's X/XF line - alcohol based acrylics.

He didn't say they couldn't coexist, he said the Supra would sell more, which is more than likely true just from the basis that it would appeal to a global audience that demographically is in entering it's prime earning years and would be reissuable for 20+ years, especially given all of the Mk4 Supras Aoshima has ever released are reboxed AMT kits. A '68 Plymouth - particularly a direct clone of the existing kit without the upgrades Oakey wanted to do, but couldn't finance - might sell the run into distribution within a near 100% U.S. audience, but I suspect would be one of those kits that would linger in back stock for eternity. My LHS had one of their collection sales this weekend which gave the chance to shoot the bull with the owner and wander around the back stock room and the amount of effectively unsellable kits he has of recently done subject matter that *HAD TO BE DONE BECAUSE OMG THE ORIGINALS ARE SO EXPENSIVE* is pretty staggering. As I often tend to say, the opinions of this forum do not often reflect the retail reality of hobby sales, nor things that would be coherent decisions to make as a manufacturer. We are the the top half of the 1% here and the casual builder that still makes up the bulk of sales would recognize the hero car of a movie (of which the existing kit was a hot mess of blah made during the Racing Champion Ownership of AMT) over a Plymouth Cop Car that has little relevance to someone who's not nearing the age of 70.

Products from China would not be affected by this change as their de minimis ended back on May 5th. They adapted to it and figured out ways to collect what was owed on their end (or deflect around the tariffs in some cases). When purchasing on eBay they have added a feature back in May which states whether or not the tariffs are pre-paid or due upon delivery on overseas items. I expect that feature will expand to cover all overseas items now that de minimis has ended universally.

There aren't any additional fees as a $1,200 value item wouldn't be(or shouldn't have been) covered by de minimis in the first place as that's $400 more than the prior de minimis limit. You "snuck" that in here because at the time there were no tariffs on Japan and there are 0% duties on model kits - so even without a de minimis you didn't owe anything. Today you'd been looking at a $180 tax bill (15% of $1,200). That's really the bottom line kicker to the grand stupidity of baseline tariffs, they're taxing entire wide swaths of things that previously had no tariffs/duties regardless as to the value for self-importation even if they were over the $800. I'll be interested to see how well toy prices (like actual toys) are able to be kept artificially low through Christmas. Popular electronics (Playstation, X-Box, Nintendo Switch) have already seen price increases over the summer.

It's not released as of yet.

As of yet none of the kits (the BN Sports version makes the 4th release) have LHD or export markings.

Hasegawa's Nov/Dec offering include two all new tool kits. First up is a Toyota Soarer. Effectively a formal coupe version of a Toyota Supra. People who know their JDM kits well will think - Didn't Tamiya do a full detail kit of this back in the 80s? They did, but at least in the initial boxing this is a "Late Version" (1989) which has a mid-cycle refresh over that old Tamiya kit. Then there's the big end of year flyer... Of note here are the all new tool 1973 Nissan Laurel. The expected "Iron Mask" version of the R30 Skyline RS-X, which paves the way for all the racing versions. Also the JTC version of the EF-3 Civic

The big fall show is almost upon us! Taking place at the Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition Center on October 12th & 13th, this will be the show where all of the End of Year products are shown and 2026 kits are previewed. We already have some of those end of year kits showing up for pre-order. Starting at Aoshima, the next version of their new tool 180SX is coming. This time in BN Sports Tuner trim. Different body kit than the URAS one that is releasing this month. The two kits have different wheels and Version 2 has a different hood and large rear spoiler.

My LHS has the latest stuff priced at $34. But if I say that people on here will fall from a great height when their place charges more...so mileage may vary.

As an interesting aside USCP posted on FB this morning that Ukrposhta was able to quickly implement the ability to charge their 10% tariff on U.S. bound items and has resumed shipping. Leave it to a country in an active war zone to figure things out first.

Tariffs and Duties are two separate things. Tariffs is a tax on top of everything, duties are a tax on specific things. Tariffs are in addition to a Duty due on a given item, but with the scheme to make Tariffs pre-paid on the shipping end, the duties would be charged once the item is imported into the U.S. 9503.00 (Toys) continues to have a 0% Duty.

All standard kits through the end of the 3Q are MSRP'd at $41.99 Your mileage may vary as to the actual shelf price you pay.

If the tariffs are pre-paid why would anyone reject the package? There are not double charges. Aka I pay JapanPost via HLJ 15% taxes on my order, that's it I've paid. There is not also an $80 charge on the delivery. It's one or the other, not both, and the flat fee is only in place until February. There aren't any Duties paid on Toys (which is what Models fall under for Customs purposes) in the U.S, and we don't have a VAT or other Federal Sales Tax in place here.