What Model Disappointed You The Most Once You Opened The Box?

[Sport Suburban]

I have had some bad kits and made them better. To me that is some of the challenge. But my first real surprise was in the late 80's. I finished the Revell 70 Superbird and had built the MPC 71 Superbird. I still have both those builds today. I wanted to complete the set and got the AMT 69 Daytona. What a shock that was and the directions even listed the use of putty. I did build it but it became a donor later on.

[Jordan White]

I know the tires of the F350 kit are bad, I want you to take a look at the tires off of my completed one that has been sitting on the shelf, since the beginning of May, the tires can not support the weight, and I have emailed this to Meng

I ended up shaving down the wheels to fit in the tires from the Tamiya Land Cruiser kit.

[moparfarmer]

Never built Palmers/Premiers or some other wierd maker..The one that was horrible to me is the AMT/Matchbox..Sunbeam..I was going to build one for our club foreign car contest but quit..I haven't built in quite some time so I figured I'd do okay...NOT...Molded in puke yellow with tons of flash that I coudn't see the small parts..Did the body work(mold lines etc) shot the primer(Dulicolor sandable grey) the painted it (Chrysler Silver Steel Metallic) cleared with (Duplicolor acrylic enamel, which smells like lacquer and dries the same) Polished with 2000 wet/dry then Meguiar's cleaner/Gold Class..Took it to a meeting and was going to trade for almost anything..Ended up with $85.00 in my hand..The guy who bought it said he can't paint for sh** and took it..Every thing worked out well but the kit was sure a bummer to try and build, mostly because of the yellow plastic and flash...

[martinfan5]

I ended up shaving down the wheels to fit in the tires from the Tamiya Land Cruiser kit.

Good info to know

The tires from Revells Jeep Rubicon fit the wheels, the do put up a fight, the stock tires from the limited run Revell Hummer H2 2n1 kit fit as well.

[slusher]

I was very disappointed with AMT/MPC Twister Vega, and the 74 Road Runner. I made a nice model out of the 74 Road Runner but the Twister Vega really disappointed me I gave it away.

[ZTony8]

For me it's the 1/8 scale Testor/Pocher Ferrari Testarossa.As soon as I read the first page of the instruction booklet and it said that "design economies" were taken I knew I was in trouble.And I was correct-the screws holding the suspension parts stripped the plastic threads in the parts without any over torquing,the doors were a different shade of red than the rest of the body,and the gauges and "carpeting" are cheap stickers.

Recently,a Tamiya Tyrrell 020 Formula 1 car opened my eyes to what Tamiya leaves out of their kits.I was mounting the radiators and was looking for what piping mated to them.I couldn't find any in the kit and didn't see any in the directions.I even opened another kit to make sure my swap meet bargain kit hadn't been pilfered.Tamiya just left out a very obvious part.Since then I've looked at other Tamiya kits and noticed similar exclusions.Oh, shattered illusion!

[mnwildpunk]

Another one that really stands out in my mind is the palmer/lindberg 40 ford I got as a christmas present I was excited til I opened the box one word comes to mind unbuildable (is that a word even)

[Tom Geiger]

I know the tires of the F350 kit are bad, I want you to take a look at the tires off of my completed one that has been sitting on the shelf, since the beginning of May, the tires can not support the weight, and I have emailed this to Meng

I don't have this kit so I haven't seen the tires. One fix would be to fill the tires with sand. An old demo derby trick was to fill the tires with wood chips, then screw them onto the wheels. No flat tires!

How was the R&R vacuum craft '58 for accuracy?

I have the kit. It's just a repop of the original 1958 Fury promo. It's got scale issues, and it's Fury trim rather than the Belvedere trim on the AMT kit. And since the '58 promo didn't come with an interior, R&R gives you a '59 interior and dashboard, which is quite different! The car does have the Fury only bumpers, if someone wanted them for a project off the AMT car. I'm surprised nobody has corrected the AMT side trim and offered it as a resin casting. Personally, I never saw the issue until someone posted a photo of the car with the correct trim lines drawn in.

An industry insider once told me that these glaring errors were a product of producing kits to a deadline for Walmart and other big box stores. The manufacturer knew about the error, but didn't have the time to go back for another test shot round to fix it. So a lot of stuff got put out that way... because you know, no manufacturer misses a Walmart deadline. That's instant death.

[Bob Ellis]

I bought this kit at Woolworths for $2 back in the '70s. It said 440 Six Pack, but a Hemi was included in the kit. Basically, it was a reverse engineered MPC kit. Big promises on the box, disappointments inside.

I chucked it years ago. Who would figure it would be valuable today?

[caine440]

The Lindberg Dodge Challenger.

The body is good for converting to another year and that is about it.

[Guest]

I was very disappointed with AMT/MPC Twister Vega, and the 74 Road Runner. I made a nice model out of the 74 Road Runner but the Twister Vega really disappointed me I gave it away.

I have that kit. But, I really haven't checked it out. Now I'm curious. I was planning on putting a '71 body over the chassis.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Actually, if you look at the nit-pickers and the nit-picker-police in the aggregate, it becomes all too clear where the "bloody-streak-screaming" truly originates - though if perceptions are distorted enough to immediately identify discussion of kit inaccuracies as "screaming", that's a potentially helpful insight.

As regards the Palmer kits, it ain't the '60s any more, and the fact that they were not seen as particularly acceptable even then doesn't make them much of a reference point for what we're supposed to appreciate these fifty-some years since.

Cast my vote also for The Kit That Must Not Be Named, with a body beyond any excuse in this day and age, the only body in recent memory that actually got worse in my hands than it looked in previews. But even that comes with a qualification: the latest drag racing version is so nicely conceived and executed, I'd just about buy it without a body!

Otherwise, like Mark J, I have enough of an idea what I'm coming into not to get too surprised. Planes, on the other hand, I'm not so familiar with, and I thought Meng's 1/72 G.91R fighter-bomber could have been rather more than what it was for 40 bucks - though the tooling is still nice.

**DISCLAIMER: none of the hyphenated words above was checked for dictionary listings. My apologies to the 99.99% who don't act too daft to comprehend this, but you do get to make the occasional compound word up without leaving the English language balled up and weeping in the corner. If anybody needs me to spell those compound words out, I'll be happy to if the thread doesn't get closed first.**

Edited July 24, 2014 by Chuck Kourouklis

[Danno]

Supercilious bloviating.

[tonye66]

The Skips Fiesta 55 Chevy. Tried to build that kit when I was a kid and again as an adult. What a pile. Not one panel fits the body. Totally useless....

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Supercilious bloviating.

At least I've met your challenges.

[Zarana-X]

-Any earlier Revell VW Bug kit. The engine is BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH-ola, and outside of the Penny Pincher, I haven't found anything that'd make any good Baja.

I'm gonna buy a bunch of resin VW stuff when the two fellows on this board start offering them..

True dat. That goes for their dune buggies and VW bus kit, too.

You really have to know the subject to even get OK results from these kits. There's no excuse for the poor fit, outrageous mold seams, and tons-o-flash.

Edited July 24, 2014 by Zarana-X

[Scale-Master]

I can understand when the box art shows a photo of the real car, or an artists rendering that creates some excitement for the subject, but when the box art shows a built up kit made from the parts inside the box, even if just on the side panels, why is it such a surprise once the box is opened?

I see more than a few comments about how about how some kits are unbuildable or the parts are basically useless. How can that be if there are photos of the actual kit completed well enough to show what it looks like finished provided on the box?

[Matt T.]

I can understand when the box art shows a photo of the real car, or an artists rendering that creates some excitement for the subject, but when the box art shows a built up kit made from the parts inside the box, even if just on the side panels, why is it such a surprise once the box is opened?

I see more than a few comments about how about how some kits are unbuildable or the parts are basically useless. How can that be if there are photos of the actual kit completed well enough to show what it looks like finished provided on the box?

I would guess that the box art build was built on consignment, and someone spent time & effort to produce a good-looking replica because there was a paycheck involved? Plus, maybe several kits were used to get the best possible parts for the box art build, a luxury not afforded to the customer?

Or it was a "retouched photo of actual model."

[DynoMight]

I can understand when the box art shows a photo of the real car, or an artists rendering that creates some excitement for the subject, but when the box art shows a built up kit made from the parts inside the box, even if just on the side panels, why is it such a surprise once the box is opened?

I see more than a few comments about how about how some kits are unbuildable or the parts are basically useless. How can that be if there are photos of the actual kit completed well enough to show what it looks like finished provided on the box?

They are usually given the "best" mold so they can produce the "best" kit. Like Matt, said "retouched" photo.

[Scale-Master]

There is no "best mold" that is used to produce the best kit for the box art build up. The fact is many times the kit for a first release is built from a test shot or pre-production run. Not better than the kit parts.

In some cases extra kits are provided, not for a selection of better parts, but for a back up in case a part is lost or some other issue. It is to save time since often there is a deadline.

Some box art is touched up, but that does not mean it affects the way the built up represents the way the kit builds up. The older kits mostly discussed here likely did not have much if any box art touch up done to them.

Of course many box art models are built by people who are compensated/commissioned to do so, but then what part of the entire business of models do people not get paid to do a job? Why would it matter whether someone was paid or not to build the box art model? I see a lot of well built models done for the sheer fun of it.

[Harry P.]

Or it was a "retouched photo of actual model."

A lot of kits came with that disclaimer.

I can see how a person would buy a kit based on the photo of the "actual model" on the box, then be less than thrilled with what is found inside.

[cobraman]

Having built models for over 50 years I can say I have had my problems for sure. I have to admit that although some kits are better than others I believe my talents or lack there of was the cause of a lot of my problems. I always had trouble with the early Revell kits with the working features but I have seen many built up that looked fantastic. I think it sometime boils down to how much effort you are willing and able to devote to a model and naturally your abilities at the time you are building. The Palmer and Pyro kits mentioned were not the best for sure but at that time plenty were bought and then played with. They were never designed to be high quality models at that price point. Just my opinion. : )

[disabled modeler]

I have a small but noticeable problem with some of the kits these days....though there great kits it would be nice if white wall tires were included if there shown on the box arts...being a factory stock kind of builder it matters at least to me anyway. Really happy there starting to include original accessories for building options like they use to....it also promotes the sale of another kit to use them on.

[jbwelda]

I notice many complaints here are about flash etc on the CURRENT issue of the model. it could be box art models were built from prior incarnations that maybe didn't have all the flash, or perhaps even from the ORIGINAL issue which might not have any flash at all. I am very wary of kits with built models on the outside that look dumb...because that means in most cases what you are going to get is really going to be that dumb at BEST...because someone somewhere put their best foot forward on that box art build and if it looks bad there lets see what you can do with it!

that sort of answers the question about how, if its so unbuildable, there is a seemingly built example right there on the box top. another partial answer is the retouching mentioned, but also shortcuts could well have been taken (like leaving off a whole set of wheels side trim etc on the side not shown in the planned photo) and also in the final assemble stages, actually fitting the thing together, the box art car could have no or minimal interior etc so the body just slid on easily versus what the reality might be. all kind of tricks are possible like that because after all you don't see it in 3D and aren't able to view different angles.

jb

Edited July 24, 2014 by jbwelda

[Dragline]

The Accurate M iatures McLarens were a bit of a turnoff for me. It was impressive when I opened the box, but fiddly as all get out. I had finished a portion of it and then sold it on eBay when they were on fire hot.

Kinda wish I had another. i may revisit it.

Bob