Stranger things blazer

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

Thanks, oldskool.    same here, decals are not going to make a 20 dollar difference for me, i will stick with the cheaper kit as long as all the parts are the same new tooling.

[Chuck Most]

Back to me griping about the grille...

Learn from my mistake and DON'T try opening it up by removing material from the back. It looks like it might be just thick enough for that to work. But it's not. 🤣 

And in hindsight, had that been successful I'd have likely shattered it during assembly. 

[stavanzer]

I can report seeing this kit in the Wild at Hobby Lobby.

There were 4 on Tuesday, none on Wednesday.

So even out here in the sticks, the Blazer is a hot commodity.

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

I just got my blazer kit.   So here is my review of this kit.

Pros:  highly detailed parts

Cons:   more than 1/2 of the engine parts seem to be oversized to about 1:20th scale, along with the master cyl and engine bay parts,  teh Carburetor is the worst,  looks like 1/16 scale.    Chuck Most is correct with the grill comment,  a terrible piece with shallow grill depth.  And the whole kit just seems to be a larger scale for some reason(maybe its just me).  When i compare the back end to the old MPC fallguy kit, the proportions are bang on, but then the front end and all the components associated with the front seem to be a bigger scale.  also, i know the american kit has a smaller decal sheet, but the quality of it is really bad and not crisp either.  other revell kits have much nicer cleaner clearer decals, so why not these.  I also lost count of the number of injection pin circles on the carpet and wheel tubs,  good grief!!

I certainly wont feel bad about cutting it up and using some of the detailed parts on an old MPC fallguy body,  ohhh the posibilities!

[eran_k]

what would be a good color choice (in Tamiya or mr hobby) to build it box stock?

chat gpt says XF-57 for the beige and XF-10 for the brown, but im not sure how accurate that will be

[Rbray47]

On 3/11/2025 at 12:11 AM, TheBEAUMONTGURU said:

I just got my blazer kit.   So here is my review of this kit.

Pros:  highly detailed parts

Cons:   more than 1/2 of the engine parts seem to be oversized to about 1:20th scale, along with the master cyl and engine bay parts,  teh Carburetor is the worst,  looks like 1/16 scale.    Chuck Most is correct with the grill comment,  a terrible piece with shallow grill depth.  And the whole kit just seems to be a larger scale for some reason(maybe its just me).  When i compare the back end to the old MPC fallguy kit, the proportions are bang on, but then the front end and all the components associated with the front seem to be a bigger scale.  also, i know the american kit has a smaller decal sheet, but the quality of it is really bad and not crisp either.  other revell kits have much nicer cleaner clearer decals, so why not these.  I also lost count of the number of injection pin circles on the carpet and wheel tubs,  good grief!!

I certainly wont feel bad about cutting it up and using some of the detailed parts on an old MPC fallguy body,  ohhh the posibilities!

Lol I'm working on my kit right now. That carburetor looks cartoonishly oversized. Hopefully the air cleaner will hide it. 

I was looking forward to this kit, and in a lot of ways, it's great. The chassis will no doubt find itself lengthened and under an MPC pickup by someone. But, the odd sized parts, and the odd engineering (there's a dimple in the frame so the fuel pump clears) makes me wonder if we wouldn't have been better off by getting a simplified kit like the 76 Torino. It would've looked good and went together faster. 

I'll still buy more, and I guess that's what Revell was counting on anyhow. 

[stavanzer]

Well, we know for sure that Revell is giving us Two Kits from this tooling. The Blazer, and now a Jimmy. I wonder what else (if anything) they do with it next?

[Fat Brian]

17 hours ago, stavanzer said:

Well, we know for sure that Revell is giving us Two Kits from this tooling. The Blazer, and now a Jimmy. I wonder what else (if anything) they do with it next?

The thing I want most is a Suburban, then a long bed 4x4 pickup.

[stavanzer]

2 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

The thing I want most is a Suburban, then a long bed 4x4 pickup.

Frankly, I do not see either one of those coming from this tooling. More variants of the Blazer/Jimmy, yes.

But, Trucks or Suburbans seem to me like 'wishcasting' at this point, rather than plans Revell really has.

But, I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

[Fat Brian]

23 minutes ago, stavanzer said:

Frankly, I do not see either one of those coming from this tooling. More variants of the Blazer/Jimmy, yes.

But, Trucks or Suburbans seem to me like 'wishcasting' at this point, rather than plans Revell really has.

But, I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

The tooling seems pretty modular, longer frame rails and another body would let them reuse the majority of the kit. It seems purposely designed to allow them to swap some trees around and produce different vehicles.

[stavanzer]

I hope you are correct.

[mikemodeler]

On 4/28/2025 at 8:00 PM, stavanzer said:

Frankly, I do not see either one of those coming from this tooling. More variants of the Blazer/Jimmy, yes.

But, Trucks or Suburbans seem to me like 'wishcasting' at this point, rather than plans Revell really has.

But, I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

There are only so many more versions of the Jimmy/Blazer that can be milked from this kit as it's mostly grille changes from 81-91.

As Brian pointed out, modular design means new frame rails, body and interior and the rest of the kit can be used to make pickups and Suburbans. And if Revell has the 2wd front end suspension designed, a whole bunch of kits can be made. I suspect they will take a page from Moebius and milk this one for years!

[niteowl7710]

13 hours ago, mikemodeler said:

I suspect they will take a page from Moebius and milk this one for years!

You'd think...but then the Revell '29 & '30 Ford were only designed to be those two kits and you'd think that's a milkable base for a series too.

[Fat Brian]

1 hour ago, niteowl7710 said:

You'd think...but then the Revell '29 & '30 Ford were only designed to be those two kits and you'd think that's a milkable base for a series too.

I hope they do revisit his one eventually, and 27 turtle deck body, a track nose, and a flathead would be a neat variation for that tool.

[tim boyd]

8 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

I hope they do revisit his one eventually, and 27 turtle deck body, a track nose, and a flathead would be a neat variation for that tool.

What Brian said.  I also mentioned a '27T turtledeck for the Channeled chassis in the kit to my colleagues at Revell but that was prior to the bankruptcy and new owners.  Doubt there would be much appetite for that today...TB

[niteowl7710]

8 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

I hope they do revisit his one eventually, and 27 turtle deck body, a track nose, and a flathead would be a neat variation for that tool.

They'd have to make further tooling for all of that as the two kits we got were the only ones planned and done - and that's direct from Revell prior to the bankruptcy and tooling damage kerfuffle. 

[av405]

A Suburban variant would be an absolute dream. If you ask me how many I'd buy, my answer would simply be "yes."

[Luc Janssens]

Anyone here know where one might find such a light bar?

[DJMar]

38 minutes ago, Luc Janssens said:

Anyone here know where one might find such a light bar?

The old AMT Monaco (TJ Hooker/Batman/Jokermobile) kits had a Federal Aerodynic type bar in them, and they came with 2 piece lenses in both red & blue.

I've also seen a few Aerodynic type bars on eBay that are 3D printed.

(Just fyi, the recent re-release of the Monaco in CHP markings has a Twinsonic bar, not the Aerodynic.)

Edited Sunday at 08:40 PM by DJMar

[av405]

This is your best bet:

https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/124-sports-car-series/toyota-celica-supra-kit/

[Jordan White]

2 hours ago, DJMar said:

The old AMT Monaco (TJ Hooker/Batman/Jokermobile) kits had a Federal Aerodynic type bar in them, and they came with 2 piece lenses in both red & blue.

I've also seen a few Aerodynic type bars on eBay that are 3D printed.

(Just fyi, the recent re-release of the Monaco in CHP markings has a Twinsonic bar, not the Aerodynic.)

I love that there are guys like you who have such knowledge of vintage light bars!

[DJMar]

Yeah, the Aerodynic style light bar from the Tamiya Celica Supra kit will certainly work. It's more detailed. The lenses are clear, which means you can tint them in whatever color(s) you need. The lenses also assemble in a manner that is much more prototypical than the AMT bar. The center speaker housing has grille detail molded in, which is nice. However, the chrome piece replicating the rotators on the Tamiya kit isn't accurate - but then again, neither is the AMT piece. Either bar will be passable with a little work. I think there might be more folks with some of the older AMT Monaco kits sitting around versus the Tamiya kit, if one was looking to find just the bar instead of buying a whole kit.

Both lightbars are roughly the same width - the AMT (1:25) is 53mm and the Tamiya (1:24) is 56mm - and should fit on the roof of the ST Blazer just fine.

Here's a link to some more info on the Aerodynic: https://code3garage.com/federal-signal-aerodynic-aerotwinsonic-lightbar/

 

[Luc Janssens]

11 hours ago, av405 said:

This is your best bet:

https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/124-sports-car-series/toyota-celica-supra-kit/

 

9 hours ago, DJMar said:

Yeah, the Aerodynic style light bar from the Tamiya Celica Supra kit will certainly work. It's more detailed. The lenses are clear, which means you can tint them in whatever color(s) you need. The lenses also assemble in a manner that is much more prototypical than the AMT bar. The center speaker housing has grille detail molded in, which is nice. However, the chrome piece replicating the rotators on the Tamiya kit isn't accurate - but then again, neither is the AMT piece. Either bar will be passable with a little work. I think there might be more folks with some of the older AMT Monaco kits sitting around versus the Tamiya kit, if one was looking to find just the bar instead of buying a whole kit.

Both lightbars are roughly the same width - the AMT (1:25) is 53mm and the Tamiya (1:24) is 56mm - and should fit on the roof of the ST Blazer just fine.

Here's a link to some more info on the Aerodynic: https://code3garage.com/federal-signal-aerodynic-aerotwinsonic-lightbar/

 

Thanks guys!

Cheers

Luc

[stavanzer]

Here is one decal sheet that would be useful. There are probably better ones out there if you search further.

https://theautomodelsllc.com/product/gofer-11057-us-government-vehicles/

[DJMar]

The black and gold Border Patrol emblem on the Gofer sheet isn't one I've seen used as a door flash on vehicles from the early 80s to the early 90s. 

It's hard to tell if the Gofer decal is black or dark blue, but it is clearly missing the text around the gold ring. The "correct" emblem looked like this:

InQuarters has 1:43 and 1:64 versions of the above on their website, but nothing in the larger scales.