Tom Geiger

I'm sorry to have to pass on some bad news. Todd Koncsol of the Tri-State Scale Model Car Club passed away suddenly yesterday. Todd was a dear friend of the club and one of our charter members. He was a talented artist, family man and a big contributor to our club and everything that makes TSSMCC and NNL East great. I personally have known Todd for the 25 years I've been associated with the club, and watched him grow from a young single guy to a responsible family man. Todd was the one man art department behind NNL East. If you have an NNL East t-shirt or postcard, you have been touched by Todd's art. Todd had a trademark sense of modeling, you would instantly know a model was his when you saw it. He was hand painting stripes, logos and even scripts on models since I met him. Several of his models made it into NNL East artwork over the years. Todd brought his famed 1966 Mustang Shelby clone to our last meeting for the first time. He had been working on this car as long as I can remember, bringing progress shots to meetings of the never ending project. So there it was finished at our last meeting and he was so proud. I will always remember watching Todd drive off in the Mustang, not knowing it would be the last time. Condolences to Todd's family, his friends and his best friend and fellow club member Bart Orlans. They were inseparable since junior high, both charter members of TSSMCC, attending the first meeting together some 30 years ago. In fact, they are together in the attached photo. That's Todd on the left, Bart on the right, looking at models as always. While Todd didn't participate in on-line forums, I thought it appropriate to let the modeling community know of his passing due to his long involvement in the hobby and his significant contributions to TSSMCC and NNL East. Many of you may know him through the show. There are times we'll brush off the significance of our club and all we do there as 'just a hobby', but remember that the little plastic cars are just a very small aspect of our involvement and friendships. Our club album of Todd's Models: http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/tssmcc_members-1/todd_koncsol/

My irk is more with UPS than USPS. We have a curb side mail box so whenever I get a USPS package they have to exit the truck and walk the 100 feet or so up my driveway. They never fail to bring it all the way to my front door and make sure it's under the roof there, often ringing the bell so I know I got a package. UPS on the other hand is the master of short cuts. The guy will drive the truck up my driveway, then toss the package out in the driveway. I've found them out on the pavement, on the hood of my car and even under the car. They would never take the 25 foot walk to the front door. Never! In the weeks before NNL East I was missing packages that showed as delivered. I found soggy UPS deliveries under my Jaguar that we hadn't driven that week. They didn't even make an effort to put the package in my garage door frame where it would have had some shelter. The other thing I hate about UPS are those "UPS Stores". Although they have big UPS logos on them, they are independent franchises that can make up any rules they want and charge you whatever they want! I had mailed a few packages at those stores over the years and it seemed expensive, as if I had been taken. The store will never tell you they upcharge, but they do! After NNL East last year, I had several prepaid packages to send back to the model manufacturers, and the UPS Store wouldn't take them! The guy told me that UPS didn't pay them to accept those so they didn't! This year I had a huge heavy box going back to it's owner, and the UPS Store told me it was too big. So in both those instances I had to drive all the way to the UPS depot, about 20 minutes away.

Jim got my attention with those $8 dune buggies. I would have bought the stack too! I checked out the Hobbby Lobby near my work yesterday in Lawrenceville, NJ. Those sales must be either by store or region because there wasn't a single kit with a sales sticker at all! I even asked the clerks who said nothing was on clearance.

And we'll see how this plays out. A two year old car normally was financed and thus had to be insured for value. If he accepted a settlement on the car, it technically belongs to the insurance company... if that can all be reconstructed today. Many years ago I sold my '73 Barracuda to a friend who never fully paid for it, and returned the car to me. I then resold the car to a guy from Bayonne, NJ. A year or so later my buddy gets a summons in the mail for abandoning a vehicle in Bayonne. So we called, and were told that since the title was still in his name, we could pay the fine for 'abandoning' it, and get the car back. We went to the holding yard and were sadly surprised.. the car was a total wreck. Stripped and the remaining panels all dented and not worth taking back at all. So it's interesting when they are recovered in good condition!

Agreed. They should refund all the postage. But the way things work, you'd probably have to pay postage to mail the box back to him so he could bring it back to the originating post office!

I owned a '56 Chevy 210 2 door sedan around 1978. I bought this kit and the then new AMT '51 Chevy to build a replica of my primer gray 6 cylinder / powerglide car. I didn't get far before the 'Ghosts of '57 Nomads Past' came to the top of my memory and I put the boxes away, I still have them today. Fortunately there is a much better version of a '56 2 door sedan to build from today! My nemethis back in my youth was the '57 Nomad. You know the one with the Hollingworth Nomad sitting on the beach scene. My favorite box art of all time, that would lure me back to that box of parts never expected to got together to make a reasonable replica of a Nomad. As a kid, I'd see that kit on the shelf again, and reason with myself that I was a year older and should be able to build one this time. Well, it always resulted in disaster and I never got one done. Not even the one I started as an adult. That one is still in the box too! So I went to my first GSL about 2001 and the big panel discussion was the staff of the original Revell. In the question and answer period I got up and chided them a bit about my youthful experience with that kit. They took it in good nature and we got a few laughs. After the event, Bob Paeth seeked me out and spent the rest of the evening telling me the entire story behind that kit, and being on the team that brought it to market back in 1968. So going back to the next GSL two years later, I brought my box top along and had Bob sign it for me. Little did I know as a kid that I'd actually meet the people behind the model kits! The little kid in me rejoiced!

It happens. Something isn't well sealed, or pried apart by postal equipment, and the contents do a free fall and become unidentifiable. So they deliver the wrapping for the record.. they even have official stickers that say things like "Received Open In The Postal Service". I usually wrap the entire package in clear tape. Sometimes nearly encasing it just to avoid such a situation. A funny thing though. Several years ago I was mailing a Priority Mail Flat Rate box and did my customary taping. The USPS clerk looked at it and said that you could stuff that box as heavy as you wanted, but you couldn't add tape, you had to rely on the peel and stick end flap of the box! I took it to another post office where the clerk just took the package. But all I could think was how much stuff was floating around the postal system due to that rule!

Some of my old derby shots. 1970 Chevy 4 door sedan. These are 'after' pictures. Notice that the hood is absolutely straight. And I protected my drivers side. Note the pristine drivers door! The way you want to bring them home! I used the rear correctly for mashing. Note how well it packed straight inward rather than going down. This was actually better than curving upward since I could still see out the back. Towards the end of a derby it was comical to watch two cars with the rears bent upward trying to hit each other and missing because neither could see. This car was used later on in another heat. And the passenger side got hit hard! And here we were in the winners circle. This car survived two heats. After the first one, we sledged the fenders in to clear the tires. Not the best strategy to have bare wheels out there, but it worked. That's me on the right. An aside.. we ran an anti-Russia theme back then. The Cougar was run the week that the Russians had shot down an unarmed Korean airliner that had strayed into their airspace. The car got a standing ovation. It was that kind of crowd. The following year Russia had boycotted the Olympics. And we ran our cars painted pink... our team was called the Pink E-Racers. Ah the memories! I'd do it again in a flash!

I used to run at Wall Stadium in New Jersey back in the 1980s. I met Dave Burket there long before we were into models. There are a wide variety of events called "Demo Derby". Some of them run at speed on a track, sometimes a figure 8 with a dangerous intersection. At Wall, 25 cars at a time drove into a square rink defined by telephone poles lined around the edges. All the cars would pull in and go nose first against the poles. At the starting pistol, everyone would gun the engine and go backwards into a big pile. Then cars would drive around willy nilly until there was one left. Cars got pushed out of the rink at the first pile up, if you were stuck up on a pole, you were done! Wall didn't allow station wagons, trucks of any kind (rule was no commercial chassis) and no Chrysler Imperials. I've seen demo derbies for school busses so there were a lot of variations. The good part was that this was pretty low speed so cars were quickly prepared and nobody got hurt. Everyone was out for fun and strictly observed the 'no hits on the drivers door' rule. It was a lot of fun, and even though you were prepared for 80% of the hits, you still were sore the next day. To prepare a car for Wall Stadium, you would take out all the glass except for the windshield. Some guys removed that and installed wire mesh instead. I kept the glass. You had to remove the grill and all the body brightwork. You could run with the stock gas tank with a maximum of 3 gallons of gas, but nobody ever checked. Many used a boat gas tank mounted in the center of the back seat area. You had to chain all the doors, hood and trunk shut. Some would weld them shut. Most chained them with bolts. I had a set of heavy duty Yale locks that never failed us, but gave us instant access when we needed. Oh, you had to cut a hole over the carb so the fire guys could put out an engine fire. There wasn't much else. Nobody really added roll bars or cages. Some would wedge the top of the rear seat between the drivers door and drivers seat. Your battery moved into a box in the interior, we ran two batteries in tandem. Some would change their shift linkage, cutting a hole in the floor and running a pipe shifter only on the Reverse-neutral-1st gear side. That's all you needed. Some would run stock radiators for spectacular plumes of steam. We removed ours and attached the inlet and outlet together with a piece of pipe between the hoses. We'd disconnect our heater (didn't want it overheating in the interior) and just looped the hose on the engine. Note that these heats would last maybe 15 minutes so a Chevy 350 would keep running without water for that long. We really didn't care if we blew the engine. There were guys who had greater preparation such as running 4 snow tires and / or filling tires with wood chips (then adding air) and screwing them to the rims. We could radius wheel wells and some would add strategic cuts to the quarter panels so that the rear would bend upward (where it hung harmlessly in the air) vs bending downward (where it would grab your rear wheels, and drag). I always added a vacuum gauge so I could see if my engine was running or not. The engine typically would stall after every big hit, and it was so loud out there you couldn't hear if it was running! You could run with the stock exhaust but most of us cut it right behind the manifolds. There were some specialty items due to experience, such as knowing that Cadillacs had their oil filter in a prone position, most guys developed a flat plate to replace it. The main rule in the rink was that you had to make contact with another car every 60 seconds. Some guys just drove like idiots and were quickly eliminated. The smart strategy was to protect your nose, hit with your rear. And if you were lucky your rear would bend upward. Once bent that way, it was out of the way of your mechanicals, and you couldn't do any more damage to it. I developed a strategy of hit and run. When the starting gun went off and everyone else floored it, I'd wait. Once they were all in that big mess, I'd aim for a nose and slam into it with my rear. Then I'd quickly retreat into a corner. I'd watch over my shoulder while counting... I was looking for a nose to nail, or a wheel to hit squarely. If you mashed a fender into a front wheel, it could make the car immobile. Once I counted past 30, I would jump out, hit anything then retreat again. After maybe 10 minutes most of the cars were done. It would get tough to see with all the steam and dirt in the air. That's when there might be 5 cars left and when I'd come alive and go after the remaining cars hard. Many of them were already damaged heavily so they were easy pickings. I did very well! The demo was a lot of fun. I did it just for fun, whenever the magic formula of free car and loaner tow vehicle happened at the same time.

Okay.... where is it maybe 70-75 degrees all year round? I want that! As far as Vegas.. never been there, no attraction at all. When I lived in NJ friends of mine couldn't believe I lived a bit over an hour outside of Atlantic City and never went there! When I put $25 out on the counter, I want to leave with a model kit!

BMF actually does become fun once you are comfortable with using it. There is no product that has such a profound effect on a model for the time invested! I actually find it relaxing.

I think that goes for many of us. I know I have most every kit, so I don't need repops. I will buy new kits, one of each, where I used to buy multiples. I still buy cheap kits at shows for projects and parts. I'm happy to go to a show and leave empty handed if the situation dictates. I have stopped worrying about building everything. Even if I bought 1 model a month, I'd still be falling hopelessly behind. Last year was my most productive year and I finished maybe 6-7 models. I'm content to have this unbuilt model hoard and realize that either I'll unload them one day, or my estate will have one heck of a sale. I'm happy to go to a show and leave empty handed if the situation dictates. Then I stop and think about how fortunate I am not to need anything at all!

Very cool models and I'd have no problem with a $117 price if those are handbuilt resin models. The quality looks outstanding. I think I remember Revell of Germany doing a Borgward and a few other odd ball Euro cars in 1/18 diecast a while back.

That's how I see it. Look at the rust that starts on the black and continues down to the red. It works. And I'm super critical on rust!

I agree Ron that the roof rack sits a little high. The parts might also be a bit thicker than the factory ones. I wouldn't abandon the holes in the roof, but I might try to bend a new rack from thinner metal stock?

Cabin air filters are nothing new. My '63 Studebaker Lark had one. It looked like your dryer vent and stuck into the firewall. You could pull it out and vacuum off the crud. As far as those dual air controls, I have that in my 1996 Grand Caravan. I wouldn't care if it did nothing at all, she thinks she's controling the environment. It keeps the peace.

Indiana, Iowa... same thing! LOL And I knew that.. don't know what I was typing late last night!

According to the lists below posted by Jonathan, neither Ford nor GM has an assembly plant in Japan. Ford is partners in two transmission plants, no doubt for export to US. Toyota has been exporting US built cars forever! They export to practically all continents. This year they started shipping Venzas to Russia and Ukraine and there are several US made products sold in South Korea. They plan on shipping Corollas to South America & the Caribbean this year.

A duck is so big in real life, that it makes for a neat SUV size vehicle in 1/25 scale. Look at it next to the 1/25 scale people. I'd just upsize the seats and push them back to the bed wall, and maybe a bigger steering wheel. Otherwise it works and is even garagable!

It's actually too small a market to aggressively pursue. And Japanese are terribly loyal to their local brands... but they import US antique and muscle cars like crazy. Go figger. What was interesting is that when Honda first started building cars in Ohio, they exported LHD Accords back to Japan and they sold them as a novelty. Japan also has laws that make owning a car older than 5 years old very costly to keep their internal auto market going. Those cars were low mile, perfect condition cars that caused havok in other RHD markets like Australia until they put roadblocks on their import. Still they are chopped up and sold for parts, which are then exported to Australia. I was told about entire front clips of cars including the dashboard being sold that way to display the low mileage. The US manufacturers are all focusing on partnerships in China right now. The few US cars we sell in Japan will probably be sourced from China soon enough.

A few thoughts to add to, not disagree with anything that's being said. Re Walmart, they are the most savy retailer in the world. Where Art spoke of their throughput of merchandise being no more than 30 days, their accounts payable is net 90. That means that they put the merchandise on the shelves, sell it within 30 days, then earn interest on that money for another 60 until they pay their vendor. They can open new Walmarts without putting out a dime for merchandise. They also have no purchasing function. Everything is computerized, recording sales and quantities of merchandise still on the shelves. Their vendors are to watch those numbers and automatically replenish their stock themselves. About model kits and China... as said, who knows what kits would cost today if we continued to produce kits in the USA. True that Ertl was pressing kits in low cost Indiana Iowa, but still higher than the costs of third world countries, which have costs low enough not only to pay for the product, but the shipping cost from the other side of the Earth and still be cheaper. Note that when the kits started coming from China, the quality went up. Things were all bagged individually and I even got a few convertibles where the windshield frames were wrapped in cardboard and hand taped to the body to protect them. Much improved over slamming parts into the corner of the box that we got from USA. And the lowest cost providers all have their day... as Art mentioned, the standard of living is rising in China so costs are going up as everyone wants consumer goods. One good part of the China equasion is that they LOVE American things. Marlboro, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Buicks... they love US cars so this should be a boom for our tired manufacturers, even if the cars are assembled there. Ford has literally doubled their business this year. So eventually China will cost too much. I notice that Revell of Germany kits are produced in Poland, so there has to be a cost advantage there. Manufacturing will go to the lowest bidder so economies like Viet Nam and Laos have been bidding for business. Mercedes has a plant in Viet Nam now. Note that the game of low cost pass around has gone on for years. First Japan was it, then their economy flourished, so then it was Korea. Now even Hyundai and Kia produce cars here. And as we all sit and cringe waiting for low cost cars to come from China and India, guess who snuck in the back door? All those Ford Transit Connects are built in Turkey. And it will get interesting from here...

Yup, I was upset when they cancelled the PT Cruiser. I figured we hadn't seen the crusing van yet, and maybe it had a few years left in it. Then I heard that the capacity was needed to build the Fiat 500s.

The American model companies have been tooling up kits for over 50 years and much of that tooling still exists and pumping out kits today. The standard of detail expected on a kit, injection molding capabilities and even the wear and tear on these molds will give you completely different results when you open up a kit box for the first time. There have been posts by folks like yourself, new to the hobby, who bought say an AMT '57 Chrysler 300 and marveled over the parts and level of detail (tooled about 10-15 years ago), then bought an AMT 1962 Buick (tooled in 1962 with a one piece interior bucket, one piece chassis etc) and balked that it was quite different! As said, ask here on the board about any kit and you'll get a load of opinions!

My daughter has had her Fiat 500 for two years now and the car has never been back to the dealer. Something about Americans building Italian cars in Mexico must have gone right!

Pull up a chair, it's ancient story time! Back in the last quarter of the twentieth century, my buddy and I went to a bachelor party in my '65 Barracuda. I'm maybe 20, still dumb as rocks. Coming from the party, no doubt with some beer induced bravery, we headed onto the new section of Route 18 at the New Jersey shore. This road was pretty much empty the first few years and guys were opening up cars there. In fact I have a few stories... but the one of our focus... So we get on the new highway and I floor the six cylinder, three speed Barracuda to 'see what it will do'. Stock A bodies of that era, especially six cylinder ones really weren't made for speed, and the car had over 100,000 miles on it, so the car started vibrating and shuddering over 80 mph, but I kept my foot on the floor all the way to 100 mph! It did it. For about 10 seconds when we both lost our nerve and I let off the gas. We drove home without further incident, hooping and hollering about this accomplishment. As Harry said, I did this once. The next morning I leave for work and I get about a block away, on a development street going maybe 25 mph and the front tire pops. Sound like a bullet. Tire hit the ground immediately. Dead tire. Inspection showed that I had a small bubble on the inside of the tire. Imagine if that had let go the night before?