niteowl7710

I'm kind of wondering if that Charger Pursuit parts has parts added to it to convert it to AWD because those are the AWD wheels it's got on it. CHP just started getting AWD Chargers in 2023, not 2021. It's more right than wrong I guess, but CHP has never used the Setina ram bar with integrated lights, they've have LEDs set up at 45° angles for about 15 years now (they go back to the Crown Vic Police Interceptor days)

You'd have to hope so. It would be somewhat...short sighted...to make a whole new tool of something basing it on a specific vehicle and then not tool up the parts to match said vehicle. You can always come back later and release a bigger wheel/tired "Custom Off Road" Blazer later. In fact I'd expect it since very few if any kits are one-off use items.

The Diamonds are Machever kit is already out in Europe, so the North America box oughta hit within 3 months...or one would hope anyways. Wouldn't surprise me if there isn't a totally different kit based off the tool by the end of 2024 unless they choose to space it out further.

You tell me...

Yeah apparently you can only post 7 photos (or that was my limit this morning) per post...so it wasn't a nice build up of stuff like I was planning and so I had to split it up.

Lastly a new series of kits featuring a Stranger Things licensing. New Part added to exist tooling, and then...oh what's that a 128 Part New Tool '85 Blazer...

Not shown here, but there appears to be a North American sized box of the DB-5 Goldfinger kit along with one of the Diamonds are Forever Mustang. Also the C8 Corvette...make that Corvettes now exist in plastic. A Convertible joins the already announced Coupe. Massive parts count including the engine and both LHD/RHS options.

So scrolling through the FB this morning and came across a sideshow video showing Revell's display at the NY Toy Fair last week. There's a few dooseys in here that I can't believe haven't been brought up anywhere yet. Might owe to the fact that much like the Las Vegas show, the NYTF isn't open to the general public. Most of these are already known in a general sense, but have nice minty fresh box art and some unexpectedly have new tooling added.

I have no doubt the basic CAD data was shared, but it's a whole new body tool. Think about where mold/parting lines run on a car with a roof, and then realize that those areas don't exist on a Convertible so it's not a matter of adding a different top insert as there's no "side" (B Pillar, C Pillar) for it to meet up with... Also adjusting the front fender shape might also throw off the fender opening relative to how the wheel sits in it centered and since they were recycling the chassis and running gear out of the Convertible it had to stay as is to make sure it all matched up, otherwise you're now talking about tweaking at minimum the front suspension geometry or maybe even the front half of the chassis plate...and then the parts don't fit the Convertible's oblong wheel openings anymore...and now you're sinking money into new side inserts for that. It's a run away loss of profits.

The 71 Coupe was something done afterwards in terms of the tooling, there was never a roofed car baked into the original tooling. So doing a '71 Convertible would require making an additional insert with the 71 Upholstery Pattern on the Convertible specific door panels. Which granted wouldn't be the world's largest investment, but I'm not sure they'd necessarily sell well enough considering the pace of the 1972s. The only one of those that really moved quickly was the one with the Linda Vaughn figurine that also happened to have the correct grilles to do a Cutlass Supreme.

Says Wes Hurst, that's Wes' Model Car Corner the guy who paid the freight to release the SJR (Jim Rogers) designed and produced Asphalt Modifieds last year and more recently the race car trailer. If someone here is a member of his group and can actually use a pause button with more efficiency that FB Live is most likely posted there. I'm not joining his group just to take better screen shots.

...there already was a Convertible version. Three of them. This is kit is based on the '72 Convertible kit with a new body, glass and interior pieces.

The only thing Okey has the "rights" to is the name and tradedress of JoHan. Tradedress being the logos and labels of the company. Otherwise he physically owns a pile of scrap steel, which I suspect these many years later is now utterly useless more so than it was when he got ahold of it. Okey has been flying very close to the wind for the entire time since he spent all the money to get what he got and I wonder how he's managed to preserve and protect that tooling from rusting away into the netherworld. Not that it really matters since none of it is complete to begin with and he doesn't seem to be in possession of the few pieces that were run last for the production of the Testors kits.

I'd wonder what "Steve's" all-in cost is though, as the industry standard $250k for a new tool (which was back in 2018 and Covid and inflation have done a number on certain costs) is the whole thing, not just the tooling steel. It's the R&D (be it 3D scan of a kit, 3D scan of a 1:1, or the old measuring with a black and white graduated grid), conversion of the data to CAD, someone who takes the CAD and splits it into a model kit by separating the CAD into pieces and designing all the parts runners and how the parts are alloted to them. The tooling steel, cutting the tool, EDMing the tool. Artwork for the instructions, box art and decals. Producing 5-8k sets of instructions, boxes and decal sheets. Producing the kit (injection) and production & packaging the kit. Trans-Pacific and then Intermodal U.S. Shipping Costs. Oh yeah and of course licensing.

Model kits and associated paraphernalia are classified as "Toys" by the Federal Government for Customs purposes. There are no Customs Duties on anything that falls under the umbrella of "Toys" regardless of the country of origin. Some of the larger overseas sites and especially eBay will collect your state sales tax, but there's no other charges beyond the kit and shipping. The only minor caveat to all of that is if the value of the imported good and shipping exceed $800 on a *singular* shipment you will have to file a Certificate of Self Importation with U.S. Customs & Border Patrol which is a single sheet of paper swearing you are importing the items for yourself and not for commerical resale.

This is an Academy kit and is currently only available in South Korea. There are several people in S.K. who sell it on eBay that will ship overseas. If you're in the United States there is no such thing as Customs Fees on Model Kits or related products. If you're not in the U.S. you'd need to consult your home country's Customs to determine what type of duties and/or taxes would be due.

It's a Kawasaki KH400 A-3/A-4, reissue with a different molded in color fuel tank. Was a modified new kit back in 2019 off a new tool KH400 A-7 tooled up in 2018.

Yep it always has in the factory stock boxings.

October Releases...the real ones not the imaginary wishful thinking ones that come in the videos a month earlier than actuality are... MPC - '69 Cuda Polar Lights - Gold Plated Batmobile AMT - Fruehauf '40 Exterior Post Van Trailer Fruehauf Tanker Gulf "Livery" 1/16 1955 BelAir H/T 1964 Dodge 330 (ex-Lindberg) Green Lantern "Black Beauty" (New Tool)

Depending on how the construction of the interior and rear hatch area go, not only do the doors open, but it would also appear there's a perfectly good stock DMC lurking in there. The literature displayed with it says - Over 200 Pieces for Easy of Paint (gotta love machine translation)...meaning none of the movie schtick is molded to the body or integrated into the interior pieces. It'll just be a matter of whether or not you can build the interior and rear hatch structurally without putting all the stuff on there.

The Surf Wagon MSRP was the same $45 price. Which proves a point I've always said around here, the MSRP is meaningless, nobody is paying that price. You paid about half the MSRP, and now it's at Ollie's for $9 soooo...

From last weekend's model show... This month's SJR kit...

The current AMT kit is the MPC kit in lineage, but the original AMT body/kit is currently inside the Warren Tope race car. Don't know how well that sold the last time around (paging Justin), but again I don't see them necessarily permanently killing off one model for another.