niteowl7710

You gotta figure Stacey David is sitting back someplace chuckling that he signed his deal with Revell. He gets a contest tie-in, more publicity for his show, AND his own car done in a NEW tool. Meanwhile ole Chip is on some HD Channel 98% of people have never even heard of, let alone receive and his name with hobbyists it attached to these warmed over kits.

The biggest gripe (or whine) I have is this isn't some dusty common kit they tossed wheels into, it was already in active release. Remember it was one of the choices in this year's Gearz contest. In the October releases is that Ford Lightning kit. That's another one that's so fresh from the last minting my LHS still has it on the shelf. If they want to reissue stuff, there's plenty of things in the vault that haven't seen the light in ages. Good examples would be the re-pop of the '99 Mustang Cobra and '65 Impala Convertible, two that never saw the light of day after their first runs. Take the wheel tooling and licensing money from the Foose kits and clean up an old classic mold, even if it's nothing I would buy, kind rather see some segment of the hobby happy than this dreck.

Not a fan of extra lighting I take it? To each their own. LEDs have sorta revolutionized the "chicken light" frontier since they draw such low amps, no more flickering light shows rolling down the road. I do however notice this is the 2nd reference you've made about some apparently Masonic rite of passage one must go through to become a "truck modeler/true big rig builder". Was there an entrance exam I failed to take or are you this charming with everyone that bothers to scroll down this far in the forum basement? I ain't done yet, when I am, then you can thank me, but you aren't running me out if here no matter how badly you might try.

I agree this trailer will look great behind the LoneStar, a Volvo, a Pete, a KW, and for that ultimate show truck look any of the recent AMT reissues. Although it needs MOOOAAAR chicken lights for that!

That one guy would be me!

Alright back to the goodies... For Jonathan...Here's the front and rear panels. How hard or easy to open those doors...man I dunno...the nubs on the tops and bottoms are integral to the entire unit being structurally square, so if you did open the doors, you'd have to figure out a way to re-attach those to whatever you fabbed up, not to mention I'm not sure how you re-replicate the door hinges themselves. it might be easier to de-chrome the entire thing and re-shoot it in Alclad or wrap it in BMF since the door hardware itself (handles, swivel hinges, door hinges and all the bolts and whatnot) isn't chrome, not even on the most tricked out Owner-Op rig. Moebius gets bonus points in my book for molding in the tiny rubber donuts that are on the bottom hinge that keep the hinge from scuffing the paint on the trailer. However the chrome itself seems a little...shellacky? Kind of thick and gooey in spots. The front panel has a rudimentary light-line socket, but no airline gladhands, so you can make your trailer light up, but it ain't going no where. For Casey...here's the reefer unit (along with the grilles and mudflaps on the runner). Now the size, shape, and overall look is fine. It's kinda clunky in one piece, but it does come off as a passable T.K. Spectrum SB *shhhh it's not really a T.K...don't want to scare the lawyers* However what isn't included in the kit, or on those babysmooth reefer sides is the requisite parts that make it "go". There's no handle on the door, there should be a semi-circular door handle on the right (top in the photo) door that would allow bay access to the motor. No I don't expect the doors to open, but the handle being molded in would have been nice (especially considering the grilles are separate pieces). It's also missing the entire area (again didn't have to be an exact T.K. unit, but all reefers have this control panel) where the temperature/diagnostic control panel goes. There's also no representation in the kit of the "divot" that the external monitoring light (on a Thermo King it's a Green "T" when it's A-O.K., and Amber "K" when it's check engine light is on and the dreaded flashing T-K-T-K-T-K when you have a critical failure). Even if they didn't want to cast the divot in the front wall for the dry van folks, there is an "after-market" setup where a piece of stainless steel is rivoted to that area and the monitor is mounted to that. I ran outside and shot my reefer to show what's missing, I apologize for the mist... FWIW I know it wasn't going to be an official T.K., so I wasn't expecting the logos, the Spectrum SB labeling, the Ingersol-Rand logo, etc. But some attempt at...well we've hashed that out already.

It's the gift that just keeps giving! Revell - We Give You Less for More!

Well shoot I've only griped about one thing so far, and my overall thoughts are far more positive, than negative as I had a chance to post more pictures of the parts runners. But since apparently everything I'm going to say about this kit has already been said (despite it only existing in retail form for less than a week) I guess I don't need to bother finishing what I think about it. I only drag a Great Dane/Thermo King trailer behind me 275+ dayss year, so what do I know about how wrong, or right it might be.

Casey a reefer is a reefer, they all have 2 bay access doors, a control panel, and an external monitor (that little green light on the trailer corner). If anything designing it the way they did with the separate grilles the way they are would identify it as T.K. Unit. I didn't expect logos and markings, I just expected something that could pass for something other than a solid bay window.

The problem is that you market something as "Foose" car, when it is at best much like a movie...inspired by a Chip Foose vehicle. I actually don't think it was beyond expectations for them to re-tool the interior, put the correct engine in it, and lower the suspension. Now is that going to get you the necessary ROI? Granted probably not, but I bet the would have sold more if them THAT way rather than taking a kit that was already on active release in the current catalog, add some decals, a shoddy attempt at the wheels, and paint the engine monochrome black. Oooooooo look it's KUSTOM! No it's not, it's another half-hearted attempt as reissuing something while not calling it a reissue. Hope everyone is ready to belly up to the bar for another helping of "blah" this month with the next "Based on a True Chip Foose Story" debacle. I have to wonder if Revell isn't attempting their own "collectible" line-up. Like when AMT took several trucks (including ridiculously a Ranger) and linked them with Coke and sold a boatload to people with no intention of building them, just collecting them as Coke object de art. Round 2 later did it by tying in the Texaco brand to the '50 Chevy. Are Foose fans devoted enough to buy this just for the box art? Guess time will tell if we start seeing autographed copies on eBay.

The biggest disappointment about this kit is the reefer, it rather the complete after thought of including it. It's just a reefer shaped chunk of plastic with seperate grills. There's no handle on the front for the access door, there's no control panel for the reefer, and there's no "divot" in the front trailer wall for the external monitoring lights. Even if they decided to not "divot" the front wall so people could build a dry van without filling it, there's still no parts for the external monitor. When you look at the excellent level of intricate molding of things like separate slider rails, the dolly gear box, the brake chambers, the inclusion of brake drums that have their lug pattern molded open, etc the "ehh that looks like a reefer unit right?" on something that had been marketed from day one as a reefer trailer is baffling and sad.

Now onto a couple of teaser detail shots... Tires are the same as the LoneStar, you get 8 of 'em...I'd have to dig through the LoneStar, but I don't know if I remember them having so much sidewall detail. Detail engraving on the mudflaps. I had half-expected this to be a decal, this will require some careful painting. Lastly here is the Logo plate that goes at the top front of each side of the trailer. Again half-expected a decal for the words, but it's crisply engraved, again your ability to detail paint will shine (or glare depending) here.

Alrighty then, few hours, the next day...whatever. These are the opening shots, I will post shots of everything else in the box when I get a chance (I took 29 photos, so it's gonna take longer to add than I have time for right this instant.). After a thorough inspection of this kit I have to say I'm not as disappointed with it as I was when I glanced in the box the first time. For whatever reason Moebius declined to include the "Great Dane" in the marketing, all the necessary parts are in the kit, including a decal logo for the trailer door. I will do a Pro - Con - Picking the Nits thing with all of the photos up. To start off here's the box...uniquely it has a fully printed bottom as well. Here's what you get when you take off the lid! The instructions - Photo Page - Decal Placement Guide Instructions - The Nitty Gritty. Seems Moebius learned some lessons from their other kits and blew up the technical drawings to a point where you can read them without a microscope.

Moebius Models Fifty-Three Foot Trailer with Reefer Option Well, at least that's what the box says. That's right I have one in my dirty little hands right now! Everyone will have to wait for a couple of hours until I get back from the show, but it seems to be packed well, offers 2 sets of decals (one for Erb for the reefer, and Brandsmart U.S.A. for the dry box), and interestingly enough appears on the box and instructions to have no Great Dane connection anymore other than the logo "spears" that are on the sides, but they have no wording. A thorough investigation of the decal sheet and pictures in a bit when I get to the house (tease tease, tease)

Jim's decals are fantastic, I wish he could get caught up finally so I could put in an order...

The problem with your situation is that I've fronted $700 for a printer and cartridges, presuming I can even find the white, silver, gold, etc ones that the cartridges that would let me print stuff that you can't do yourself. Then presume that you have all of your artwork together, in the proper file, in the proper size, etc why do you think I should be giving this stuff out like charity? Your one set of decals at $10-15 doesn't put a dent in that $700, nor does it even cover 30 minutes of what my time is worth, let alone the paper to print it on, and the costs of shipping it out to you. There is a reason the major players (Microscale, Cartigraf, et al) have minimum orders and art fees, etc. If you think the set of decals you want is so fantastic then bite the $1,000 bullet, order the 250/500 sheets and then try to sell them! Usually they charge by the 8x11.5" sheet, so you might be able to cram 3-5 models worth of stuff, making those 500 sheets, 2500 sheets...good luck getting rid of all of those. I've known people who make decals for law enforcement models for years, since back in the "heyday" of the Mid-90's, and they all got stuck with a pile of stock they STILL have on hand to this day. Otherwise I need to find 70-100 PAYING customers who each want individual one-off decals done, 78% of which don't even know what PhotoShop is, let alone how to use it. My time is money, and you're talking about having hundreds, if not thousands of hours (10 hours per order is a bare minimum) tied up in those 100 orders to get them produced. That doesn't even mention the part where the back half of those people get all cranky about the fact that their decals are taking so long to get done because the 30 people in front of them sent in 3 blurry B&W photos shot from 2/3rds of a mile away with a Kodak SureShot and expect that to be enough data to produce what they want. That doesn't even get into sticky issues like copyright & licensing. Modelers are cheap, plain and simple, so if I say O.K. I can make xyz for you, but it's going to cost $100, I'd get laughed right out of here. So instead I need to just eat my costs and time for this mystical "betterment of the hobby". Let's face the fact that the grand majority of people in this hobby have like 0 common interests outside of building little plastic cars, this isn't the Benevolent Order of the Elks or something... People are willing to pay (well people are willing to charge, I don't know how many people are actually willing to PAY) $20+ for a decal sheet because chances are it's most likely something that's long out of production, or it's a NASCAR decal. NASCAR guys (since they haven't had a new base model outside the AMT CoTs since 1998) are going to be willing to spend more in the first place considering the amount of resin/photoetch, etc they invest in their kits to make something passable for a current race replica.

The Steelers are off this weekend, so expect a good crowd this year. Without a mass exit at 1pm

Perhaps...if they were going to do the 1:12 thing, perhaps they should have considered a series to include the new Camaro and Challenger. Having a one off big scale kit doesn't appeal to me, but if there were were one of each, I might bow to the pressure to build the series.

Well in a way that's Hobby Lobby's problem not Revell's. As far as Revell goes they sold the kit. Now they may be hearing from various distributors that they themselves aren't selling them, and don't they dare make another large scale dust collector, they will not pre-order it.

I'll take a 1, a 2, one version of every one of 3 and at least 3 #5's please. Can I get a fresh squeezed lemonade with that? Which window do I pay at?

Where's the Trident? Looks distinctly Maserati in the front to me...

There's a "Photo Search" box smack dab in the middle of the screen on the main page. Right under the banner "ad" to print photos.

I have the Aventador, but not the Reventon. I knew what to expect in the kit as it's shown above, but I'm still not sure I want a Reventon bad enough...I suppose a lot of the cost in this kit (compared to the detail level) is tied up in the licensing fee.

I think it all depends on how bad you want a Reventon. Wonder if this tool is modified "backwards" (time wise of the subject matter) from their A Vent, A Door! as it has the same either up or down doors.

Correct, it includes both RHD & LHD dashes along with parts/decals to make the JDM 86, the European 86 GT, and the Scion. Aoshima also announced last week they are doing a BRZ version along with the BRZ STi prototype.