niteowl7710

I suspect if there's an answer to this question in the year 2022, the best chance of it being answered would be at Round2's display at the Detroit NNL this weekend.

Order from SpotModel came in with a new Revell Europe boxing of the 71 442 that was nice and uncrushed. Also picked up a couple of decal sheets for the Belkits Metro 6R4 while I was at it.

That's a weak argument to me, as someone who's got over 1k kits on shelves. I can get 4 kits across any given shelf regardless as to the box width (shoe vs. Asian/Euro), but I can stack those long boxes one higher per shelf section because they're much "flatter". So, I'm actually getting 4 more "long box" kits on a shelf section than shoe box size. Anybody who's been hoardi...err collecting for long knows the height (or depth) of the U.S. style boxes have grown over the years from the 1980s until now. I get that a mix and mash of box sizes takes up more space for sure but given that all but 4 companies in the world use long flat boxes, I doubt you're going to convince the world to adapt to "our ways".

No the European release uses the same long flat side opener that RevellAG kits have been packed in the past 10-15 years, the box art for it is a page or so back with the guy who got the kit with the paint set included.

I have to admit I know which boxing of the 71 Mustang I'll be going for, just to avoid these kinds of problems. It's why I gave up on buying the North American Revell Ferrari kits back in the 2000s, they'd always have warped chassis plates, warped hoods, warped bodies and the AG European boxings didn't suffer from those issues. Also, I don't understand why we keep getting subpar decal sheets over here. This really reared its head on those Ford GT Le Mans kits and seems to have carried over in minor ways ever since. The Euro reboxings of stuff like the '69 Chevelle have tweaked sheets compared to the original offerings here. When Revell distributed the Jaguar Coupe here it came direct from Germany with the Euro Decals AND the Euro Instructions. Some bean counter must have saved 2 halves of one cent or something to justify why on earth it's cheaper to not only print two different style boxes, but also two different style instructions and decal sheets. Now that the company is unified, and based out of Germany, my personal preference would be Revell figure out some sort of top & bottom long wide box (instead of the flimsy side opener) - take a cue from Tamiya and others who've gone to a flimsy top and corrugated cardboard bottoms. Then just print one set of instructions and decals, put them in that one style of box and ship them out globally - like everyone else on the planet does. The shoe boxes had their place when kits weren't as parts heavy as they are now - even if it resulted in box-scale kits over the years - but these days aren't 1962, these kits aren't $1.69 anymore. I'm making a $30 "investment" in your product, start treating it as such.

Unless you have the two sheets to compare I can't even begin to explain how much better the European sheet is compared to the N.A. one. Everything about the the German sheet is more vibrant, in-register, and everything else you expect from Cartograf. Plus it has the extras at the top and bottom of the sheet that the North American one doesn't include.

Mine arrived today in pristine condition. It's all about how Revell is cramming it in the North American box. It's clearly not a mole cycle (warping) issue at all.

This thread was a mistake, the kit was never slated to be reissued in 2020, and the last time this kit was released was in 2013. If you could find one, expect to pay over $300 for it.

To further what Steve is saying, I don't believe Okey is in control of that mold in the first place as it was one of the supposed projects of the short lived and ill-fated "Illinois Model Company" concept that existed over a decade ago (wow time flies). There's no telling where that tooling is at this point, and those JoHan tools are famous for not fitting easily into any known injection molding machine at this point.

The only premium would be the shipping costs, the actual kits themselves have the same MSRP of $37...which most places have discounted down around $30ish on both sides of the oceans.

I have one coming, it's somewhere in the FedEx system between here and Spain, but the kits are packed entirely differently, and actually might be the first RevellAG kit that body isn't floating around the box outside of the plastic. In the North American boxing the sprues to the left are stacked on top of each other with the body wedged down the side.

Yeah I would have thought maybe that was it, but now we're seeing people well outside of the area who are also getting damaged kits. Makes me wonder if something didn't impact the container itself somewhere along the line and some of us are just the lucky ones who happened to get kits out of those specific cases.

Granted, but it was still someone's brain child to pack them roof to the outside of the box, lying on it's side exposing it to the most potential for supply chain damages. If a case of them is abused in any way the bodies have no where to go but inwards since there's pretty much zero empty space in a case of 12 kits in a box. But channeling my inner Dad, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. I have a EU boxed version coming from SpotModel where the price of the kit is a whole 62 cents more than my LHS was charging for the North American version. Looks like the decals in the European kit are better as well. Granted there's shipping involved now, but I picked up several sets of decals to make the entire process more palatable. I feel bad for people who don't have a LHS to return their purchase to and investigate the back stock to keep the problem from spreading. I suspect much like the Moebius situation, there's going to be a several month lag between now and when the tooling can be re-racked to produce a slew of bodies.

Or putting in some plastic "dunnage" in the form of some support struts to keep the roof from collapsing. Oooor packing the box in a way to get the body off the the side of the box with the roof contacting the box side. Making kits for 70+ years, but still can't figure out how to pack them...

UPDATE Went to the LHS and we broke every box he had, and EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. was damaged at least as bad as the original one. So I got my money back and Revell has a serious problem on their hands with the U.S. boxing of this kit.

Since it's meaningless without photos...

NOTICE After you pick one of these up, IMMEDIATELY check your body. They're packing them lying on their side lengthwise down the box (rather than on top of all the parts) and the roof on mine was compacted to about half the height it was molded in originally. This is not a warping issue, but rather an impact/crush one - you can see the stress on the A-pillars. Heading back to my LHS tomorrow to return it and cut open kits until a good body turns up or I go through their entire inventory. Be AWARE, especially for those of you who don't break your shrink wrap when you buy stuff.

So these box art images just popped up in Japan this evening.

Local hobby ship got in the U.S. boxing of this kit finally.

My LHS has received this one in yesterday.

From S.K. Decals, some of the first liveries for the upcoming NuNu Audi A4...if they'd stop pushing the release date back.

Kit was released this morning in Japan.

Seems that with the increased price per unit the new owners are pushing out, they're adding a little bit of value in that increase with some branded tires, and the inclusion of the actual Roadrunner decals for the '70 Roadrunner...in it's entire lifespan. Magic what you can get accomplished when you're not fighting an imaginary $20 price ceiling on every release you do...

So at this point it's now official, Salvinos JR has acquired the full licensing for both Toyota and Ford. The Ford license will eventually open the door to the "historic" Monogram tooling they have. They're now waiting for the CAD Data on both Next Gen cars, and they could possibly have one or both ready to go as we go into 2023 as the chassis carries over on both, so it's just new bodies and air intakes. With the Next Gen Manufacturers, SJR also has licenses signed with Joe Gibbs Racing (for Toyota) and Penske (which also includes Wood Bros) for the Mustang. First Mustang out will be Austin Cindric's 2022 Daytona Winner.