niteowl7710

I think it's just one of those "lost in translation" things. Just like most Aoshima car kits are part of the "Best Car GT" series and no matter what the subject any non-racing vehicle (and a handful of racing cars come to think of it) from Tamiya are part of the "Sports Car" series. Nothing really all that sporty about a Citroen, Morris Cooper or a stock VW Beetle...

There's a big difference between accuracy and ease of assembly and "engineered your ears off and 500 immaculate, yet impossible to assemble pieces". I bring up Tamiya repeatedly for a reason, even the curbside stuff (like the Porsche Boxter) is well engineered, looks dead-on when assembled, and they have that whole "Shake 'n Bake" reputation for pouring paint and glue in the box and the thing assembles itself while you make a sandwich. But then I've had conversations with people here back when the chat room was around who told me that didn't like kits like that because they're "too easy" and they want a challenge...My answer still remains unchanged, l don't want to engage in hand-to-hand combat with my models, more over I don't find it satisfying/exciting to have to fix an Army of problems (yes I'm looking at you Moebius), that shouldn't be there in the first place. If you gotta charge $25 to hire competent engineers and tool makers, so be it.

I don't know if you'd call it a paint "stash", but I have a bad habit of always finding a need for those little cans of DupliColor when they go on sale at Ollies (they are again right now as it happens). For 59 cents you can't go wrong. Bet I have over 100 cans at this point, but that's still a few hundred shy of matching a can of paint to every kit I own...

Something else that factors into this is that it's not 1982 anymore. All the things you need to be passionate about something are just a Google search away. Take the '62 Vette that's coming out. Back in "the day" unless you knew someone with the car, one of the magazines did an article on it, or you saw it at Corvettes at Carlisle (or similar 1:1 show), you might never really know enough about it to know or care about the car and subsequently the kit and how accurate it is or isn't. Now there are probably a half dozen Corvette forums, probably one dedicated to the '62 era model, and literally thousands of photos and reams of technical data available at the end of your mouse pointer. The same goes for every 1:1 car out there. Not caring (which is fine if that's your position) isn't the same as not knowing. Cripes typing these posts on my phone is murder, makes me look like a blithering idiot until I can spell check it once it's posted.

I suspect that's because the individual modeler (by and large) isn't a mid-sized corporation that sustains it's business by selling things. That and I doubt anyone would accept "I cast it for myself!l as a viable excuse. There's also that pesky human factor of delicate ego.that can't handle being challenged and using that lame half-you know excuse for not either accepting critisicim and growing from it, out hiding from it all together while going "lalalala, can't hear you, LALALALA". As much as they'd probably love to at times, the various model companies can't stick their fingers in their ears and pretend we're talking about someone else.

Looks like a nice modified reissue, this one is on my "To Acquire" list.

I don't advocate throwing the baby out with the bathwater, after all there's plenty of good miles left in all of these new tools...'72 Olds Coupe/Fastback/442, '55 & '57 Nomads, and '57 Convertible. How about a '70 Charger or '68 Camaro off the existing tools for the Charger & Firebird. That's to say nothing of the various '13 Mustangs, and Camaro variations. We haven't even got our dirty paws on what I'm sure are a series of new '50 Oldseseses and '57 Fords. Still I'd like to see someone step outside the "box" and take a serious swing at making a Tamiya level kit. I think a lot of people miss out on what can be achieved because the subject matter, yes the price, and as we've found apparently offensive scale has kept a lot of people away. Heck maybe it does take Aoshima to cook up that Cuda and show what they can do (and prove why they're considered to be rapidly closing in on overtaking Tamiya in automotive subjects) for.people to see what they're missing. When those $40 Cudas go flying off the shelf who does Revell have to blame for that egg on their face?

You can bally-ho the whole "automotive art" thing all you want, but it just comes down to being cheap. The "IPMS guys" get spectacularly engineered and accurate models because one day they woke up and said "We're tired of these lame half-hearted models". The companies said "that's gonna cost ya!" Guess what they paid for it. Now they get ships in 1/350 scale with flippin' ladders and whatnot, with an aftermarket if real wood decking, and metal turrets, tracks and gun barrels. Meanwhile the auto builders are sitting around lamenting the fact the don't sell kits for .98 at Woolworth's anymore. I paid over $50 for my Tamiya LFA and Ferrari FXX and if Revell made kits as good as those, I'd be willing to pay $50 for them too.

I think it's the ubiquitous Catch-22. I respect Ed Sexton immensely, but anyone who buys any Japanese or Revell AG only kit is already spending upwards of $45 per kit already. Heck that London Bus is over $125 now! Revell says no one is willing to pay $45 for a model, I say Revell had never shown me they can produce anything worth $45.

Sounds like you need one of those hobby "bibs"! Looks like the kind of over the neck smock a butcher would wear except it attaches to the table providing a "catch basin" so you "Never lose a part again!" (as the ad copy went) You also never walk again after you forget you're wearing it and try to quickly get up from your chair.

I suspect the preverbal chunk of coal in the Christmas stocking with these Foose kits. We all know how long it takes for Revell to get a new tool to market. This thing was just announced in June and 2 1/2 months later (meaning it was produced in less than 60 days) it's on the shelves? If you get something beyond new wheels, some decals and maaaaybe some modified suspension pieces...color me shocked.

Tonight's "Things I ponder while driving" is when Revell AG does THEIR reboxing of our American kits for their markets (things like the recent Mustangs, the ZR-1 and others have been repacked into their flat boxes) do the Germans and other Europeans throw hissy fits about the fact they're 1:25 or what? I mean it's the wrong scale to them, but it's not like Heller is ever going to tool up a ZR-1. Likewise if Revell decided to stop remaking the entirety of Tamiya's 80's Masterpiece Series, and instead decided that with the purchase of the AG division they wanted to really blaze a new trail into Japan, but sell them domestically as well, and they tooled up a full detail kit of an iconic Japanese car. Would they be expected to kit it in 1:24 despite it being of US "origin" because Japanese cars are made in that scale, and always have been. Or would the first non-curbside version of a particular car be well received there even in "our" scale if it was well executed? I guess it's a long way around to asking our overseas friends here, does scale matter to YOU when you get our kits?

Regardless if scale in this day and age of 3D scanning and 4 & 5 axis CAD/CAMs we should be getting nothing but the most accurate, most correct, easiest to assemble (with next to no fit or finish issues) kits ever. Clearly that's not the case, and I wonder if we're to cheap to pay the associated "freight" when it comes to kit cost, model companies are too stuck on the past and ergo "lazy", or it's a nice symbiotic combination of the two.

Sure I can see the difference, but it's no so epic as to act as if in addition to being slightly larger they also came and shot your dog too... Someone please correct me but isn't the problem with the current 1:24 Cudas the fact that Monogram based the tooling of the longer wheelbase Challenger kit which is why they have such wonky proportions to begun with? I'd like to set a 3D scanned 1:24 one and see if it's really offensively obvious....

Think of the hobby first? O.K., please let me know when the pitchfork & torch brigade us going to march on Hobbico and demand the abolition of those deformed monstrosities they are re-issuing like the one run only Buick GNX. Or more that they bought Revell AG I expect all of the 1:25 indigents to demand all of their kits from now on be done how us Mericans do 'em! I don't believe the reality of the situation bears out a 50% sales reduction or even a 5% one. They might lose a few hundred sales of those people who REALLY absolutely refuse to buy it cause it's the "wrong scale", but I bet that is easily covered by those who really want an accurate '70 Cuda or the car holds a significant spot within their building niche.

The inverse of that question is how many Ferrari kits does Revell sell here, compared with the rest of the world? It has to be relatively significant to demand re-boxing the majority of Revell AG kits into our North American boxes and casting them in white plastic rather than whatever color they were molded in, in Germany (errr Poland). Those kits are all 1:24 and I don't believe I've ever heard complaint one about that fact from anyone. I've seen a fair share of Audi R8s built here and not a single person lamented the fact it isn't just a wee bit smaller. But mold a '70 Plymouth in 1:24 and the world is going to cease it's rotational axis. Think large scale (no pun intended), does the average person who might but a dozen kits a year actually care about the scale difference? Do the people who threaten to but a case of something ever really do it anyway? I can only think of a handfull of members here I've ever seen post in the "What did I get today" thread more than 2 of any kit.

Gosh I hate to say this is a generational thing, it does seem to lean that way. The first glue kit I molested (I can't say built,as that's not what that gluebomb turned out to be) was a Monogram kit. So to me the entire scale debate is ridiculous as it radically defines what kits you can build. But as I think we saw in the current thread on the '70 Cuda a, lot of people demanding it be in 1:25 in the next breath said they wouldn't buy one anyways because it's not the niche they build within. That got me wondering as I was driving along last night if the so called scale bigotry isn't so much bigotry as it were, but rather a complete and total apathetic outlook on the subject matter if most 1:24 kits. I'd be rather depressed if by scale fanaticism I could never build any generation GT-R, any modern Ferrari, Porsche, Benz, Evo, BMW, Toyota/Lexus or Nissan. But then a significant portion of the "sufferers" of the so called bigotry would probably be rather depressed with the idea of building any of those cars because their automotive tastes end at the Beatles "White" album. So there-in lies the generational rub. Guys who build hot rods (nothing wrong with building what you want and like to build by the way) don't like 1:24 because it would look out if "scale" in their collection, and can be militantly hardline about it because they have 0 interest in the kits that most Asian & European companies are issuing. Whereas if I said I wasn't building a GT-R until someone made it in 1:25 I'd die a disappointed modeler cause that ain't ever gonna happen. Maybe I'm over-thinking it and you guys need to get outside if you're staring at your shelves so much that 3/8ths of an inch us starting to cause such problems in your eyes

The only thing I advocate buying at Wal*Mart is groceries, and that's only cause that's what I do and it trickles down into cash in my pocket. Ultimately I don't care one way or the other, but to those with no LHS, no big box hobby stores, and no shows it presents an option for those who like to get out and "touch the product" rather than ordering online. We're lucky to have three large shows in Pittsburgh (4 if you count the IPMS show, but they'd hardly anything automotive in the vendor area), and I do the majority of my non-JDM purchasing throughout the year at those shows.

Ahh I love that sub-text manta that you have to "prove something" to hold an opinion here.

Nobody is moaning about what's in the box. Anyone who went to a hobby show that Revell set up their booth at knows what's in the box of all 3 of their new tools that are dropping in the next 3 months. In the box all looks fine and dandy, it's what's ON the box and what it represents, or rather doesn't that some people are bemused at... To use your rivet counter analogy it would be like a M1-A4 Abrams tank coming with an awesome set of Korean War Patton Tank decals. Sure they're fantastic if you want to build a M60 from the Korean Conflict, but that's not the tank that's in the box... Besides soon it will to time to turn our overly critical, how dare we even think that Revell doesn't walk on water eyes to iHobby...all the speculation and disappointment. It's like Christmas! Edit - Hmm I seem to have an evil number of posts...must find something else to comment on...

The front separates into two compartments. One side has a cover that keeps a set of "drawers" that look like miniature versions of Brian's case he posted above. The other is just a large opening with a cover that I keep my paint brush "washing" container (gotta love those water soluble acrylics) and polishing kit (in the box).

Here we go...had to swing through a McDonald's to get this to post. But here's the chest in a state of semi-disary, I was working on something, so I couldn't be bothered to put everything in their proper places for this photo

At this point, to work ourselves up into a rage over something as inconsequential as this just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe to others, but not to me. TIM I grant you your opinion Tim, but I don't see where anyone is in a rage over anything with this kit. It's just yet another "facepalm" moment from Revell. I guess to me, looking beyond these 4 "walls" at the overall hobby market, you should be able to build what's in the box as a reasonable facsimile to what's shown on the box. In this case you can't since the coupe vs. sedan thing is quite visibly obvious. For the "foaming at the mouth hobbiest" they might be willing to shell out another $25-40 for a resin conversion. But is the average run of the mill guy who buys a few kits a year, but really expected to build the race version? I wouldn't build the race version anyway, so I have no dog in the fight, just seems that there was another something version wise that could have been done instead. You know this kit is going to get at least one, maybe two more kittings at minimum. But then that hardly fits into Revell's business model of squeezing you to buy 2 kits to make one model...like the "no uptop" Cutlass, or the two kits to make one Yenko Nova, which has nothing to even do with the individual accuracy issues of the individual kits themselves. Revell is the only real game in town, and they get the largest slice if my hobby budget every year (unless you count Asian imports as a whole), but sometimes it seems they know they have the market cornered (since Round 2 has yet to show they can make an new REAL car kit that isn't a unassembled promo, and it will be a decade or more until Moebius can be considered a serious competitor) and as a result they just coast along presuming we're willing to fix their gaffes and just be happy they're around.

Outstanding attention to detail? When did Revell start specializing in that? I see not one person picking apart the kit itself. Not a single comment about body proportions out of whack or anything. I think a lot of us are waiting for Revell to take that step where they hit that "homerun" where they put out that kit that is darn near perfect. Maybe this is that kit until they threw a wild pitch, hit a batter, and then balked home the winning run with that never existed 2nd version. Attention to detail? Like how the box art model has the mirror and hood ornament out of place? Like not knowing your 2nd half of you're 2n1 is a sedan, not a coupe? Does no one at Revell have a computer capable of accessing Google Images? Revell will get my $20 as I build replica stock, but it just leaves ya scratching your head about what they were thinking. This isn't 1992 when the internet was at best several large forums (AOL, Prodigy & CompuServe), they can't just to slip a fast one by anyone anymore.

Will do as soon as I can get some WiFi, I can't seem to get pictures off my phone onto here right now.