niteowl7710

LHS is supposed to get these in tomorrow, so should be available to everyone by the weekend I would imagine.

Have no fear, we're working on it already.

That and it's a new decal sheet (the original kit has a two piece set-up), that's missing several logos and the 24hrs of Le Mans stuff - again.

I suspect that doing them in 1/25 scale might have required them to at least make the parts look like they'd assemble a recognizable vehicle or two. Compared to the whimsical "25,000" variations you get out of this...1/14ish scale toy. Probably was a hoot to have as a kid, now it's a very interesting conversation piece if nothing else.

I'm not sure if you're referring to me or the global "you", as I have both of the Internationals, both of the trailers, and several of the Italeri U.S. truck reissues. Along with a handful of the Round2 truck reissues, so I'm certainly not against spending money, nor have I ever complained about the price of any kit. I did my part and supported the new kits, but I can't make anyone else buy them, nor force Moebius to invest in a new truck kit if sales won't support it in their view. The American hobby is, if nothing else, very backwards looking. If "X" didn't sell well, then "Y" of the same subject matter will not either. It's the reason why we've still never had a modern pick up truck kit outside of the two SnapTite Raptors because of that one time back in 1998 all 3 domestic companies at the time did effectively the same F-150. Everyone's sales stunk, ergo no pick up truck will ever be successful.

Interesting, I notice that small decal sheet has callouts for the Pallas trim level - which in most cases got a leather interior, and the DS23 which was an engine upgrade - which in most cases got fuel injection. Wonder if that means there are two more DSeseseses to come still...

The thing is Moebius expected the ProStar to be the bread and butter sales leader of that tooling, and instead it's been wet flatulence in a sanctuary. It's going to be hard to convince them to go ahead with another expensive project, when the last expensive project didn't sell well at all. The trailers (dry & reefer) have sold well, so the flatbed isn't that much of a reach since it could conceivably be pulled by pretty much every single 1/25 truck kit ever created. In 1:1 trucks there might be a few in truly historical truck world that would want to mate an old truck to a period trailer, but most guys with "vintage" ('60s-'80s) working show trucks are pulling modern equipment behind them since they're - still working. I also suspect the thing that kills Italeri's sales in the U.S., other than their hit and miss distribution, is the higher price of their kits (compared to Moebius) & shipping costs of a large truck kit when you buy it mail order. When you had a company that was swirling the drain (Hobbico) in charge of getting your kits out to U.S. Hobby shops it made them somewhat hard to come by if you didn't have a WELL stocked LHS. I know my own has gotten a LOT more Italeri kits in since Hobbico is no longer their distributor in the past year, than they did in the previous 5 years before that. Europeans buy more Italeri American truck kits, because it's simply easier for Europeans to acquire Italeri kits period. Lastly I'd say that Italeri in general seems to believe they have a market in truck kits in Europe & Asia based on the constant reissuing of their older kits, along with the two completely new tooled Euro Truck kits they've made in the past two years. Someone's spending money on trucks, it's just apparently not cheap Americans.

Too bad Tamiya didn't want/couldn't afford (and still make the project viable) to pay for the 24hrs of Le Mans & WEC licensing. It's not often you need to immediately go buy aftermarket fill-in sheets for their stuff, but for this one it's almost a necessity.

Yeah I guess I didn't think I needed to specify NORTH AMERICAN in that...apparently I was wrong.

No, there is a planned reissue of both for this summer. Probably July, depending on when it actually hits the boat.

It's going to be a monumental task to get Moebius to make any more trucks IMHO. Listening to Dave at NNL East the ProStar's sales were extremely weak and only recently did it sell "out" to the point a spot run for further stock was deemed necessary. 5 YEARS is a looooong time to have something linger around like that. Whatever the next project would be, it would have to be a heavy seller with the "multi-use" requirement as far as kit variants go. The flatbed trailer can go behind any truck, and is the first modern flatbed since...the AMT Fruehauf in the 70s?

At this point the EM series Dino has been reissued under the Real Sports too, you have to pay attention to the number of parts called out on the box lid.

They could certainly use the digital files to reproduce new parts for Tri-5 gassers, but the way tooling is designed, it's not really practical to use existing inserts that way. Luc's idea of creating it in another kit from the same family is more feasible.

The Tri-5s are kits tooled without a gasser option though. So making one would require tooling up the engine, drive train, suspension, wheels, interior parts, etc, along with going in and reverse engineering the chassis and interior to accept all of those new parts and modifying the inner fenders to accept the straight exhaust all without destroying the ability to reissue them factory stock. It's all a matter of balancing risk, all of the above is pushing north of $40k worth of new tooling assuming it wouldn't require an entirely new chassis pan piece. $40k by 5k kits is a $8 upcharge per kit. You'd need to sell all 3 of the Tri-5 2 doors and maybe the '56 Nomad as Gassers to make that tooling amortize at a rate that wouldn't make them cost significantly more than other Revell kits.

The 356s haven't been reissued in 17 years, they're a bit overdue at this point. With the 60s 911s getting a run, they're the only EM kits that haven't been reissued in the most recent go-around at this point.

Your belief is incorrect, there were never simplified kits of the 356s, Ferrari 288 GTO, 365s or early 911s (pre-1985s) done. The original EM Series was done between 1985-1988. The simplified 85 911s, Countachs and Dinos were done about 10 years later. Fujimi has retired the Enthusiast Series name and has released the all of the 911s (except these two) the Countachs, the Dinos, 288 GTO, BMW 635, and 365 GTBs under their catch-all Real Sports Car line over the past 5 years.

Yes. There were never "dumbed down" versions of those two kits.

Their videos aren't, but their distribution list is, and the May stuff is the Garage Lift, Pinto, Coked up '53 Ford, and 77 Firebird. The Firebird should be be available at most places already since my local place got it on Monday. Even if the MPC wagon & hatchback shared chassis parts, the Ridge Runner hacked the body shell all to pieces and the body seems to be the knock on the AMT version.

The garage lift is slated for this month (May).

Wasn't the MPC Pinto gutted into make the asphalt modified Ridge Runner kit that was just reissued?

That's what I meant. Not different like drawn differently, but the quality is off, there's also a scaling issue if you see the U.S. one first hand, things are not quite the same size as the AG sheet. Plus as you pointed out the "bottom" is missing.

Yes the Revell U.S. decals are a completely different sheet of decals than the RevellAG ones.

Granted, but unless I'm mistaken, nobody is "creating" the tooling for Moebius here in the States either, they're outsourcing all of that design and tooling "production" to Chinese vendors (beyond the actual production runs of the kits themselves).