niteowl7710

I do some eBaying during the year, but I primarily buy my kits either through the LHS or if there are several I want to get I wait till it's time for a model show/swap meet to roll around. I find I can buy in "bulk" and work better deals with vendors in person in that environment.

It's my favorite time of year as both NCAA & NFL Football can take up my waking hours on the weekends. I enjoy watching NASCAR too, but not as much as I did when I was younger when you couldn't find me for 4 hours a day on Sundays. I enjoy photography and the travel that my website provides. Get to see a great deal of back-road, small town America. Don't tell my wife, but I like tinkering around with yard work too.

I offered my opinion. It's just that a)mine, b)opinion. I don't need you to agree with it, or change your mind to my point of view to have my day go in a normal way...just so ya know. So to be crystal clear here...my words and MY definitions of them. So you can stop assuming you know what I meant. 1)Yes juevos (there's no sic, it's spelled right, and is being used in the correct context of it's slang meaning)...I know that I am very fortunate in my circumstances to have held my job through the recession, and therefore could buy one, two or a case of custom Fords if I wanted to...but for the average person who is a casual builder trying to stumble through the economy, or worse yet living on some form of fixed income, $20-22 is a lot of coin to lay out to chop something up in the hopes that it comes out right. 2)where with all - Not every person has (or can afford these days) all the tools needed to make a chopped roof conversion properly. 3)talent - whether YOU like it or not, there are people out there that can't do things in this hobby. I used to support my plastic kit addiction by painting people's bodies for them. There are just some people no matter how hard they try can't get a good paint job...or in this case properly chop the top of a car. Again these are casual builders who don't come to MCM (or SA) or have any other support group to improve their skills. They have a skills set they slowly improve on over the years, but quantum leaps ain't coming. 4)innovation - this is actually your term, as I never used it, but what the hey...to me innovation and creativity are synonyms. For some people (and I will be the first to raise my hand here) the ability to look a lump of stock plastic and then transform it into something...well that ain't coming either. I am constantly staggered by work around here that gets me with a "huh, never woulda thought of that". I respect, and yes envy, people who can see something in their mind's eye and make it happen seemingly effortlessly. To that group of people this kit will be extremely appealing. Look it's all done for you. You don't even need a parts box, this kit has so many spare parts you can START one with it. Revell is (and this is what I said the first time) MARKETING this kit to those people. Very smartly I might add. You see I never said that if something isn't marketed directly to you, you're some sort of moron for being interested in it. Quite the contrary, this kit would draw in the custom guys no matter who the target audience was once they started hearing about the parts (the fact it's a kit that's never been done before, eg in coupe form) and they could sell it in a plain gray box to them. Beyond that my posts were what I would have like to have seen Revell do with this kit to have it appeal to me, and that's it. Prime example to me is Revell's Tuner kits. I don't normally build import cars, and certainly don't build TUNER import cars, but I was still interested in those kits ANYWAY because they are 2n1s (in some case 4n1s with all the variations of aero kits and spoilers) and allow me to build stock (or mostly) stock version of 2 Honda Civics, an Acura & Subaru. Bonus that the dashboard is set-up correctly (eg, U.S., not RHD) and I don't have to shell out 3x as much to Tamiya. So in closing - If you want to go buy this kit...good..go get it, hell buy the two I would have got if they did it in a way that appealed to me, so those kits have a good home. I don't have anything against anyone who likes this kit, this subject matter, I simply stated an opinion about the marketing strategy. I never slyly impugned anyone's anything here, least of all yours.

It's Ollie's Bargain Outlet. Basically it's where Big Lots inventory goes to die. They aren't owned by the same company, but I have transported entire trailer loads of random stuff Big Lots couldn't sell out of their main Columbus warehouse to the Ollie's warehouse outside of Harrisburg, PA.

Why are you taking it like a personal affront to you? Beyond the walls of MCM in the sales environment of hobby shops, Hobby Lobby, K-Mart, Michael's, etc this kit is going to appeal to people who normally wouldn't be chopping a top. I get that, that's a good thing for Revell's new release budget. But at the same time (to me) it's also being marketed to that same crowd. Being it's a lot easier to drop a roof than it is to raise it, I stand by my opinion that the "pre-chop" is less appealing to a hard-core modeler. Or are the custom guys suddenly gonna start build box stock from now on because there are 16 combination to choose from? It is however very appealing to an average skills, middle of the road guy. Someone who isn't on a message board, or club. All I'm saying is I think it would appeal to a broader market if you through in one of the limited edition boxes with a stock version behind a wild custom version...or just the wild custom version with a stock picture on the side. I'm just even willing to for-go stock all together, only a custom, just give me a kit with a stock roof on it. From looking at Google & Yahoo Images for every 1 custom chopped '48 there are at least a half dozen really sharp looking UN-chopped cars. I would prefer to build one stock, one hot rod/custom. But even without a stock variant, I still would have bought a custom only stock roof kit. Nothing about a pre-chopped kit appeals to ME.

To echo the comment above...if they would have offered the kit with ALL of the customs pieces but with an UN-chopped top I would have bought 2. One to build as a hot rod, and one to build Factory Stock. As is, with this kit (like it's companion '49 Merc) I will probably buy 0. That 4 kits (2 per of the Ford and Merc) they ain't sellin' right there. For all the cries that there's no market for a Stock version. You know what? To justify a stock only version, you all are absolutely right, but how about a 2n1? Market it as HOT ROD-CUSTOM-NOT YOUR GRANDDADDIES FORD!!!!, then quietly and discreetly include the stock parts which oughta be easily sourced for the most part from the Woody & Convertible. This worked for all of the DONK, Low Rider, and Tunerz kits they did. All of those kits were screaming marketing at a specific genre of builder, but quietly had all the parts to build stock. I also can't believe the truly innovative and hard-core custom guys are really happy either since they're stuck with the obligatory level and design of the chop. I'm sure they'd rather have a stock roof to do what THEY wanted to do. In the end this kit seemed marketed at a weird middle ground of builders that either lack the talent, where with all or perhaps juevos to start hacking up a $21 piece of plastic. You're going to wind up with what was mentioned on page 1 of this thread. Contest table after contest table this coming summer covered in cookie-cutter "custom" Fords. I know Revell is going to sell truckloads of them despite what I think, and in the end that's a good thing because money for them means they'll make stuff I do want, and then everyone is happy. Hey as Dennis Miller used to say "That's just my opinion, I could be wrong..." Back to the Mustang...hey after we get a proper 2011 kit with the new 5.0L motor, I vote for this as the next variation...the resurrection of the BOSS 302 (there's also going to be a 50 car run of the 302R a factory racer) Rest of the pictures and Motor Trend article here - http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupes/1008_2012_ford_mustang_boss_302/index.html

Almost any kit that was part of the Revell "Hot Rod Magazine" set of issues...and yes Mr. 57 Chevy, I'm looking directly at you. With fiddly ill-hinged, poorly fitting doors and trunk it is possibly the worst thing (personally) that Revell has ever offered. I threw one out as a kid, tried another one 10 years ago in my 20's and while I finished it, I pitched it too eventually cause it was so dang catty-whompus. I have just accepted that there are better fitting, better quality 57 Chevys out there and will never touch that kit again. The entire experience has turned me off to any kit that has "real working doors", or attempting the feat of making my own on a kit that doesn't. For the record this is a complaint about that kit, I don't think '57 Chevys in general are ugly.

If Revell wanted to make money why didn't the offer say half of all those custom bits and pieces with a lowered ride height suspension option with an otherwise stock 1948 Ford Coupe, then 6 months later re-issue it with the chop top and all the parts? This would satisfy both the custom crowd and those of us who's tastes seem to be viewed as "mild to boring". It's hard for me to swallow an argument derived about money when Revell has issued 2 versions of the '72 Olds, and FIVE versions of the 2006-2008 Mustang (6 if you include the fact the original '06 GT was just re-issued with new box-art). I'll be first in line for one of the 2010 Stangs, but unless the chopped kit is beloved by people around here once they see it and build it, it isn't going to get past the "Michael's Coupon Purchase" priority with me.