niteowl7710

Appears to have headlights, exhaust parts and decals (scripts, gauge cluster) to do either the original 2004-2012 vehicle as well as the 2012-Current one.

Alright if you followed the coverage here of the Shizouka Hobby Show in May you know that KA Models was showing a Mazda Familia that had several front and rear end options, one of which builds out to a Kia Brisa. Since Academy is the one tooling and producing the KA Model kits they apparently get the first release of said KIA. Also you get a bonus female driver figure which wasn't part of the runners shown by KA. It appears all of the parts are in there including both other Mazda variants and that set of wheels. Most likely there won't be any Mazda badging in this release, and KA was showing a small fret of P/E which also doesn't appear to be in the Kia. This kit is currently available via South Korean sellers on eBay, and will probably be out in Japan within the next 90 days or so. Coming later on in 2023 is something you never knew you needed. A Hyundai Porter II... The 4th Generation of the Porter it's been in production since 2004, and looked more or less identical since a mild refresh in 2012. With a slightly different middle grille section it's sold as the Kia Bongo...which is just a great name for a vehicle. In the mid 2010s this little truck was actually the best selling vehicle in South Korea over the Hyundai Avanté (Hyundai Elanta everywhere else). Power comes from a 133HP 4cyl turbo diesel. Academy certainly never disappoints with the quirk.

Perhaps they've decided to ship internationally now, but in the past they did not. I didn't go too indepth on the site because after a few minutes of looking around my phone's virus software started calling it a malicious site.

You can't buy directly from them, you have to use a 3rd Party Proxy the way you would to buy from Yahoo! Japan Auctions, Rakuten, etc. Those fees and double shipping (once in Japan, and then International) quickly make the cheap second hand kits not nearly as cheap as they first appear.

Those kits were nearly 200 pieces in 1/35 scale. MiniArt is known in the Armor World as being the home of the 1k piece tank kit. Everything they do is a bazillion more pieces than would ever be practical.

I wonder if they'll actually fulfill those orders. With the 4th of July sale that price is going to be below what most hobby shops are going to be able to price their kit and "bonus" of selling it ahead of distribution is going to be a double whammy that isn't going to make them any friends industry-wise.

That's just the most recent reissue, that faux '68 was originally done back in 1984 two years after the '69 was tooled up as a new kit.

*yawn* Yeah, yeah he's had the flaming tattered rements of JoHan for TWENTY THREE YEARS. He sold a handful of kits in 2005 he cobbled together with leftover NoS parts from Seville with some new decals. ...and that's it. It's a dumpster fire... He's been promising all sorts of nonsense for two decades now, and while I'm certainly sympathetic to his plight of having his masters stolen, I'm not sure what having the 1/24 test shot lost had anything to do with his ability to sell them at NNL East - per the above posted excuse. So you don't have a built up test shot...and that effects sales how? People have been buying resin transkits (since that's what the 3D Powell is as it fits the AMT 41 Plymouth) without seeing a semi-built example since resin transkits became a thing. The Too Many Projects guys sold boat loads of bodies in the next room and there aren't even chassis or interiors for those things let alone built examples of them.

There weren't ever any street Luminas done, but Brookfield Diecasts made a 94 Monte Carlo Indy 500 Pace Car.

It looks good, but then so does Molotow. But from what I've seen of this stuff it might be slightly more resilient than Molotow, but this can of Chrom will fade to silver if you touch it too much just the same. You get a bit more durability out of it by decanting it and cutting it with MLT, but even then it's fairly easy to dull it to silver with handling and it won't accept a clear coat and remain "lustrous" any more than anything else out there.

Monthly HLJ allotment Also a shipment of detailing odds and ends from HobbyEasy in Hong Kong

The Subaru Sambar that Aoshima does was tooled in 2012 and has 120-160+ parts depending on the kit. There's a P/U, a Panel Van, and the little urban fire trucks that Jesse showed in this thread. Modern tooling, very very nice kits if you're into the subject matter - which obviously you are since you're asking about it. The KA Model Mazda K-360 and it's commercial long wheelbase sister kit the Academy (also released by Fujimi) T-600 are also new tooling and very nice curbsides. These aren't really Kei trucks as they are 3-Wheeled Motorcycle based tiny trucks. The K-360 is the "civilian" version private citizens would own, the T-600 is a large commercial delivery vehicle. They were produced from 1959-1969 in 1:1. Fujimi makes the Daihatsu Midget II, which technically qualifies as a Kei Truck as it developed a fourth wheel over the years (originally it was a 3-wheel motorcycle based vehicle like the Mazda). It's an alright kit, pretty "par for the course" Fujimi curbside. Represents the Midget II which came about in 1993 and ran until the production stopped in 2001 essentially unchanged except for minor engine tweaks and was tooled up at the same time (mid-90s). Lastly is that Suzuki Carry. Available as a panel van and as several food trucks and mobile arcades, parade vehicles, et al it's tooling was done in 1980 and is essentially a motorized toy. Those kits are all about the what the end product looks like when you're done rather than being a model kit you'd want to build for any other reason.

Freightliner stopped making the Coronado in 2010, it was basically just a Century/Argosy styled version of the Classic XL. After 2010 they sold a truck called the 122SD as a glider kit (just a truck cab and a frame, you supply the engine/transmission, et al). The "SD" stood for Severe Duty and it was aimed at Heavy Haul and Vocational Applications. At this point you can't even option a 122SD (or it's successor the 114SD) with a sleeper. Freightliner only sells one on-highway "Class 8" truck now and that's the Cascadia.

The Taurus is a perfectly acceptable omission considering what AMT provided was an SHO with a lightbar, some half-hearted decals and a different set of wheels. But an actual Taurus Police Package was based on the GL trim level, had the off the shelf non-SHO V-6, column shifter, cloth bench, vinyl floor. I mean it would take a LOT of significant work to make those kit contents into anything approaching what the real 1:1 car looked like... The SHO was marketed as a executive sports sedan, especially in the 1st Gen form when that Yamaha tuned engine and a slushbox in a sedan was a wild idea in an American car.

Truck kits are expensive to produce as their at least 2x and sometimes 3x as many parts as a normal car kit, not to mention having the obviously large main body tooling parts. Post-Covid you're talking about an investment of at *least* a half million dollars. The reason the ProStar & LoneStar exist is because other than the hoods/grille/front end and some specific trim items they're the same kit so the tooling amortization worked out better. There really aren't any other trucks made by any other company that share that much content across two models of trucks. The W900/990 might work, but I'm not sure how many "Aero 900s" you'd move and while the Pete 379/389 (etc) is the other PACCAR long nose, beyond the chassis and drivetrain they don't have a lot of shared parts. So you're looking at separate body tools and interiors plus all the associated trim pieces. Italeri can pull of the new tool Euro Trucks because they put out each truck in what seems like at least 3 sleeper variations, and then several show truck "decal variant" releases. Again while the W900 comes in at least 3 sleeper variations I'm not sure you'd sell enough of each of them after the Studio Sleeper to make the investment workout. A flattop W9 would be popular for flatbedding and custom trucks I guess. As far as the Moebius sales it took them a significant amount of time to sell out of their run of ProStars. Changing the LoneStar into the later model truck and/or converting the ProStar to any of the later LT versions could have both been done with minor additional part inserts, but are clearly not worth that investment in their opinion.

It'll be at least July, it's not part of the June distribution list at all, and some of the July kits have already been added "on top" of the June releases (meaning it won't be a last minute addition for this month).

Round2 has confirmed several times that they don't have any of the tooling for the farm equipment. That tooling stayed with Tomy via their continued use of the Ertl brand. I'm not sure about the J-D construction equipment, but I suspect the licensing there is cost prohibitive several times over.

That's a yes and no for me. Yes I'd like an engine, but no I don't want to pay Model Factory Hiro prices for them.

Not necessarily. The engine in all three are the same, with the intakes and air boxes being different.