niteowl7710

That was a built production shot of the upcoming kit, the original was not a 442.

Well no, after 6 years of doing a weekly modeling YouTube show I have all of that pretty well memorized, plus I lived through it like everyone else. My point was they can't use the Ertl name right now in 2021 as they don't own the trademark to it since Racing Champions/RC2 sold out to Tomy. Tomy still uses the Ertl name for all their diecast farm & construction equipment. So Round2 would have to pay some sort of licensing fee to Tomy to use the name. Also as others have pointed out while this is based on that Ertl 4070A kit, the entire kit from top to bottom, stem to stern is entirely brand new tooling, so technically this one isn't made by Ertl. Frankly the use of brand names (which Revell also constantly aloffends with use of Revell vs. Monogram) is less confusing to the average modeler than wrapping EVERYTHING in a vintage box. Stuff like the 1990s Era kits like the Edsel, 67 Mustangs, '67 Impala, '70 Monte Carlo certainly all look great sitting a shelf in a store. But when some kits really are 50+ yrs old and some are were the newest kits AMT/Ertl made before "the end" in 1998, (or like this 4070A and Nova wagon are entirely brand new in 2021) knowing what you're actually getting in any given box without knowing kit history is far more confusing.

Round2 doesn't own the name Ertl. That trademark (along with all the farm/construction kits) stayed with Tomy who still actively use the Ertl name within their line of dieast items.

Was going to go to a show this weekend, but had a job interview run long (doesn't sound like I missed anything at the show), so I swung into my LHS since I was already in the same town.

Picked one up yesterday and I have to say I'm a little non-plussed at the very noticeable sink marks on the trunk for the rear chassis screw mounts. One of them has so little substance to it, the trunk is almost see through at the screw hole. The under-side of the sunvisors weren't polished, so they've got wavy tooling marks, two ejector pins, and no engraved detail. My body also has some flash on the front under hood areas. Engraving on the door/trunk seams are very shallow, and the side molding that needs to be chromed is very weak. All of it is picking nits I know, but for a completely new body tool, it feels rushed and not quite completely refined.

The Tools 2 & 3 are just remixed versions of the original "Tools" and "Tools & Garage" sets with some extra random odds and ends from other kits. The mountain bike can be found in a couple of their SUV kits from the 90s, as can the camping gear. None of it was being used anymore in the car/truck they were originally created for, so they were added to "freshen up" the 80s Era "tools" sets.

You can have all the gas in the world, but if you don't have anyone to get it from the rack to the station it's pretty useless. There's never really an overall driver shortage, it's a where are they driving shortage. As mentioned a lot of drivers in petroleum, and especially food services were laid off. Those who weren't old enough to retire went to work in other sectors of the industry. Now with travel resuming and restrictions lifting people are using more gas and going out to eat (more or finally depending on where you live) and there's a lack of qualified drivers around to support it. Gas tankers obviously require a Hazmat which most of us who don't need it, dropped it years ago because of the every 4yr song and dance to keep it, and food service is a very physical job tossing 20k lbs of freight every day. The local food service places are in a thermonuclear war with each other to snag what people they can with starting wages substantially higher than other sectors, huge sign on bonuses (which are climbing as high as $10k), Day 1 Benefits, etc.

I'd have to look at the kit again to remember which engine they put in. Having owned a LoneStar and driven about a half dozen ProStar/LTs I can't unsee the differences between the kits and real life.. But the LoneStar they made was a complete top of the line truck show demonstrator that had the Rosewood Hardwood floor interior with the full fold down couch. I've never personally seen that interior combination on a 1:1 truck outside that one I sat in at MATS in Louisville. It was something like a $20k upgrade over the base price.

The original ProStar demonstrator had the longer cowl/hood combination to fix the big 13L MaxxForce engine. In the end they decided not to offer that engine in a primarily fleet application truck, and a lot of buyers chose to put Cummins power in as well which also didn't need the extra space. The MaxxForce was such a hot mess of an engine platform there was a class action lawsuit that International "lost" (that famous we're paying a pile of money, but admit no wrongdoing thing). The original ProStar test shots also had the prototype front bumper setup, and that was a fun little debate between truck modelers (particularly those of us actually driving 1:1 ProStars) and Moebius, since obviously they had factory plans and all of that - but that ProStar they were making wasn't an actual production version. Fixing the cowl/hood would have required a bunch of retooling that wouldn't have been feasible to the body, not to mention tooling up the slightly smaller 11L block.

If anything it should be a little longer than a normal ProStar because it's based on a prototype setup with a longer cowl/hood configuration that never existed in real life, plus it shares 85% of the contents with the LoneStar kit and that's a 262" WB.

I presuming you mean LHD? The kit already is RHD. The metal transfers would have to be at least partially redone to reflect the Datsun 240Z name rather than the JDM Fairlady designation. From the looks of it, other than the standard nose parts, you'd just need a dash, center console and the wipers in order to do the flip, along with a new firewall to move the master brake cylinder, and steering shaft to the LHD position. You'd probably need a new steering rack part for the chassis too.

The LHD dash from the U.S. Spec Datsun 240Zs that Hasegawa did last year might fit depending on how Tamiya goes about creating their interior. The kits do still come with RHD parts so you could conceivably take out what you need and pass the kit along as technically still complete.

A standard ProStar (or LT) 6x4 72" Sleeper is a 252" WB.

And molded in "authentic Mint Green" no less...

It'll be out in Europe first being a RevellAG kit, so it'll be Summer at least,before we see it here.

Personally I'd rather see a non-G nosed LHD kit. The biggest add-ons on the 1/12 "Street Custom" kit were racing seats, a rear hoop bar, a strut brace, ITB or side-draft carbs (can't remember off the top of my head) and the Watanabes. Most of that stuff can be sourced out of other 240Z kits that already exist. The Watanabes out of a Hasegawa kit will even be male mount so you don't have to muck around with the whole wheel fitting nonsense.

HobbyEasy out of Hong Kong is taking pre-orders @$43 for 5/30 delivery.

Go on Amazon and look up "Graduated Mixing Cups", you can buy them by the gross. I got 400 2oz ones for like $11. Another good solution for mixing small quantities is tattoo ink cups, those come by the thousand count again for about $10-15.

Yes but the 72, 73-76, and the 77-79 all have different bodies. The LTD based Ranchero are also 5" longer. Aside from a side argument that you'd have a lot of trouble selling that many effectively identical cars (there's no box length difference, or 4x4, etc). You're talking about at least 3 different body tools for those 8 proposed kits, which isn't going to fly even if they share the same dirty bits. Those F Series succeed because all 5 64/65 kits share the same cabs, and common bed pieces, PLUS all the rest of the mechanicals from the first (later model year) kits. All 6 of the 67-72 kits share the same cab and common pieces as well. Personally I'd love to see a '72 Ranchero, and I'd be willing to pay the $45-50 it would cost to get a single year, basically single use kit to market. But I'm not sure how many others would support that price point.

Just tossing this out there for anyone out there who's interested in the esoteric. You may recall back in 2019 KA Models did a kit of the little 3 wheeled "truck" trike Mazda K360, for those of us who got one several parts runners were labeled "360/T600" - included several of us who got the entirely wrong rear chassis/suspension parts, and never have been able to get KA to replace them. They're still blaming the pandemic a year later as to why they can't mail out the parts, even though they've reissued the kit in 2021. ? So now we're getting the T600, which is the long wheel base version of the K360. Other than the longer frame/suspension components, and the longer bed theyshould be identical in contents, it's just amusing to see it now coming out with an Academy box. The kit is available now if you want to source it out of South Korea via eBay, and I suspect it'll get a larger release over the summer (as the trend has been with the recent Academy Hyundai kits).

I think if you really talked to "serious" military builders they'd argue Revell isn't very competitive in that space either. I'm not sure I know anyone who'd suggest a Revell kit instead of, or over pretty much anything other than maybe Smer if there's more than just the Revell kit to choose from...they're definitely seen as the subpar "budget" kit maker.

Show me the series of 11 Rancheros that can be made all using the same chassis, suspension, and drive train components and then you might be onto something. That's the thing about the F-Series series. Underneath the body and interior (which are shared amongst the individual year groups) all 11 kits are identical (other than frame length for the two bed lengths).

Sure, but that problem is twofold. First being other than maybe Salvinos being more transparent every U.S. manufacturer does the -Announce a Project (quiet) Show a test shot (quiet) Kit Magically Appears!!! - song and dance. Secondly I doubt Revell considers any of the Asian companies (or Belkits), or even Round2 or Moebius to be direct competition. Based on the subject matter, it's not like they're wrong. What else are you going to spend your "71-73 Mustang Dollars" on? The same janky 40yr old MPC kit in new box?

Hasegawa makes a perfectly good 240Z kit, but it's curbside. The Tamiya one will include an engine...and be...well Tamiya.

Box art released today. Should be a late June/early July release depending on your part of the globe.