Found a very (extreme?) rare modelkit, dare I say it?

[robdebie]

Erik, don't move until you've spoken to Eric Verschuur, a fellow IPMS-NL member of you and me. I think he's the most knowledgeable RX-7 model collector around. You could start by checking out his website:

Eric's Rx-7 Home Page

I will notify him about this thread and ask him to contact you.

Rob

 

Edited August 20, 2017 by robdebie

[Tom Geiger]

And just like that!  Along comes the right person!  

[robdebie]

Erik, don't move until you've spoken to Eric Verschuur, a fellow IPMS-NL member of you and me. I think he's the most knowledgeable RX-7 model collector around. You could start by checking out his website:

Eric's Rx-7 Home Page

I will notify him about this thread and ask him to contact you.

Eric sent me the following information:

 

"The RX-7 was Hasegawa's second 1/12 car model. The first one, the Nissan Z32 Fairlady (300ZX), had not been a success due to some QC and design issues combined with a rather steep price. For the RX-7 Hasegawa took a different approach using ABS for body, floorpan and load bearing chassis parts instead of a prepainted polystyrene body over a heavy metal chassis.

 

Hasegawa then sent out pre-production versions of the RX-7 model to all Hasegawa importers and distributors and also to Mazda importers worldwide. I got an opportunity to examine one of these pre-production models at the Dutch Mazda importer. At the time Mazda-Netherlands also sold model cars and kits at their dealerships, such as the Hasegawa 767B and most of the Tamiya Mazda kits (RX-7, MX-5, 787B).

 

The importers were thus given a taste of the kit before (hopefully) ordering some and they were also asked for their opinions on the model. The kits sent out for evaluation were deliberately incomplete test shots, to keep these free kits from interfering with sales of production kits later on. The test shots gave a good impression of the final model, but some key parts were missing, others lacked some details and some parts won't fit properly, as indicated in the accompanying letter.

 

Some items are missing from the kit in the pictures, in particular the sleeve that was around the box. This sleeve was out of brown corrugated cardboard and had text and a line drawing in black on the top side. These sleeves were unique to the pre-production models and were not fitted to the production kits.

 

Concluding, it is a rare kit, since only a few were sent to each country, but of limited value because it is an incomplete test shot that can not be built, so it may only appeal to collectors."

 

Another small mystery is solved :-)

Rob

 

 

[Jordan White]

It's too bad they probably will never rerelease them again, they would be cool subjects to have in 1/12 scale without paying several hundred bucks on eBay to get one.

[The Creative Explorer]

And just like that!  Along comes the right person!  

Exactly that.

 

I was on vacation, so I am reacting a bit late, but Rob read my post, notified Eric and Eric contacted me by mail. And sent me the text that Rob translated above. He gave a lot of information and with that, I got a whole lot wiser. It is very interesting to read.

And he was so kind to sell me his, partially started, RX-7 for a good price. Together with a 1/12 Veilside Skyline. So I am happy! Not only can I build me a 1/12 RX-7, I also can keep the test-shot as is, if I decide to keep it (most likely). And since I get the other RX-7, I can make molds to cast me a extra set of windows.

 

But the knwoledge of Eric about this particular kit, is just great. I am happy ;-)

[iBorg]

I can relate to this. four years ago I was able to locate a collection of Jo-Han kits (1931 Cadillacs, Pinto and Mustang Funny cars plus a Rambler pro street) from several states away. Not the Jo-Hans I really wanted but still shrink wrapped kits. The thing I was most thrilled in was they arrived in two Jo-Han shipping boxes. I was more thrilled in those cardboard boxes with blue ink than the kits inside. 

Its funny the little things that pull our trigger.

[Tom Geiger]

 

Exactly that.

 

I was on vacation, so I am reacting a bit late, but Rob read my post, notified Eric and Eric contacted me by mail. And sent me the text that Rob translated above. He gave a lot of information and with that, I got a whole lot wiser. It is very interesting to read.

And he was so kind to sell me his, partially started, RX-7 for a good price. Together with a 1/12 Veilside Skyline. So I am happy! Not only can I build me a 1/12 RX-7, I also can keep the test-shot as is, if I decide to keep it (most likely). And since I get the other RX-7, I can make molds to cast me a extra set of windows.

 

But the knwoledge of Eric about this particular kit, is just great. I am happy ;-)

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