Justin Porter

No, not really. Revell has been reducing their MSRP, not increasing it. Tamiya keeps a tight lid on pricing for their older tooling and has been cutting prices on reissues. Aoshima and Fujimi have plenty of sub-$30 kits at retail pricing, and even new tool Hasegawa kits are less than $40. These kits were high dollar pieces when they were brand new, retailing around $30-40 at a time when you could walk into Walmart and buy AMT for $15. They were released around the time when Accurate Miniatures also made the effort to produce premium niche kits for the American audience with their Corvette Grand Sport and their McLaren M8B. If anything, Moebius is actually bringing them in at a price break for builders because if the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Inflation Calculator is to be believed, then even at the low $30 end of the Galaxie Limited Chevies when they came out in 1998, adjusted for inflation that's a $58.97 pricetag today.

Even if we JUST keep it to 1/24 scale Ferraris in plastic, we have no 166MM, no 250GT Lusso, no 250GT LWB TdF, no 312PB, and no Dino GT4 but thank heavens we got the Rainbow and the Mythos, right?

Really sharp build of a great Tamiya kit.

Even more progress on the Lotus Type 91! The engine is now attached to the monocoque and I've started adding the kit plumbing. I also used the kit carbon fiber decals on the upper monocoque which turned out really nicely. I've left the upper monocoque unattached at this point so that it will be easier to install the belts when they arrive.

I'm so happy that we're getting all three body styles. I am expecting these will be quite successful for Moebius.

Really a fun project. Mini Retro is one of my favorite guys in the aftermarket right now. He just announced a MkII Sprite/Midget kit that will pair nicely with the Bugeye transkit.

Moving along at a good clip gets the front suspension all set and together. The engineering on this kit really does encourage you to just keep right on building. Unfortunately, the kit seat harness decal curled up beyond repair the moment it hit the water SO I will be sourcing a photoetch and fabric harness to replace it. I also couldn't resist the dry fit of the monocoque and engine on the floor.

Absolutely well turned out. You ought to be really pleased with that GTO.

Day 2 on the Lotus build and I have the gearbox and the beginnings of the rear suspension together. I also managed to construct the DEV's headers which were a little fussy (as one expects) but were still leagues easier than the old tool Tamiya DFV headers.

That's an absolutely gorgeous build. Great execution and a good selection of well chosen parts to enhance the Hasegawa kit.

This kit has been tempting me for years and I finally gave in and moved it to my workbench. I'll be ordering the Indycals decal sheet for it with plans to build it as Nigel Mansell's #12. It would be an utter shame to leave this car without its John Player Special and Penthouse logos. Got started by building the kit's very nice Cosworth DFV. Primary paint used was AK Interactive Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminum with my usual host of Mr Color, AK, and Tamiya paints for picking out details. I did add ignition wires as Ebbro had both wiring callouts and drill guides built into the kit.

I would posit that if foreign kit manufacturers are able to sustain greater numbers of newly tooled offerings, that would imply that MORE people are buying and asking for them than American cars from American kit makers regardless of whether or not this forum discusses them or not. If your position is true - that American car from American kit makers are indeed more popular than foreign ones - then it would imply that Round 2 simply chooses not to produce kits to the same quality or quantity as a company like Hasegawa rather than that their sales don't justify it. That being said, Tim Boyd's pictures from the DAAM show demonstrated that at least the Barracuda has a MUCH better chassis than we've seen on the Craftsman Plus kits to date which gives me hope that we may see Round 2 move more in this direction and away from music wire axles.

I was talking about the entire model car kit industry. AMT is on the same shelves as Hasegawa, as NuNu, as Tamiya, as Aoshima, as ICM, and so on. Viewing the remaining four domestic car kit manufacturers - Round 2, Moebius, Atlantis, Salvinos JR - as if they inhabit their own closed off little ecosystem paints a false picture.

I don't think that theory holds water when we step outside of the Round 2 bubble, though. Look at Hasegawa's aggressive new-tooling release schedule for the past decade. Since 2014 we've seen new tools of the Nissan Sunny pickup, BMW 2002, Suzuki Jimny, Honda N360, '74 Civic, Isuzu Gemini, Mitsubishi Colt Galant coupe, Nissan R91CP, R31 Skyline GTS-R, 1987 Nissan Bluebird sedan, EP71 Toyota Starlet, '83 Lancer EX Turbo, R32 Skyline GT-R, AE92 Toyota Corolla Levin, MkIII Toyota Supra, Isuzu 117 Coupe, 1st generation Mazda RX-7, 1st generation Toyota MR2, classic Mini Cooper, 1990 Nissan Pulsar GTi-R, KPGC110 Nissan Skyline, Toyota 91C-V, Isuzu Bellet, Z32 Nissan 300ZX, Nissan 240RS, S110 Nissan Silvia, and KP61 Toyota Starlet. All of these 100% new tool kits and all of these modular kit engineering that have produced many MANY versions for Hasegawa. When a rival kit company like Hasegawa nearly averages three new tool kits a year and all to a high quality of fit and detail and with the same roughly $28-$35 shelf price as your typical AMT or MPC release, I posit that Round 2's reissue heavy strategy is an outlier and NOT a case for the model industry at large.

We are in an era where Heller is giving us a new full-detail kit of the Peugeot 205GTi, there are multiple new 1/12th scale F1 cars on the drawing board from Meng and NuNu taking up where Tamiya left off, and even tiny companies like Salvinos JR can make a business case for all-new kits of Whelen Tour asphalt modifieds. Round 2's business strategy is not properly indicative of the hobby at large.

One of the interesting and not-often mentioned things about the AMT Grant King is that it's actually reasonably prototypical for one specific 70's sprint car as driven by Sheldon Kinser and owned by Galen Fox. Granted, there's still some really REALLY iffy things about the kit like how godawful its tires are, but if you put a little bit of extra work in you've actually got a pretty nice replica on your hands.

Leveling Thinner is one of those products that sells out VERY quickly not only at us retailers, but also at the vendors. I'm currently sitting on a backorder of six cases of 400ml bottles with my primary wholesale vendor for Gunze Sangyo products. Also waiting on stock to come available of 40ml jars of Mr Surfacer Black 1500. I also order in the 110ml bottles just to have something on the shelf in between shipments of the 400ml.

Having got the stock DMC-12's in at Haven, I definitely have some thoughts on them! Going through the box shows a very thoughtfully designed kit that really will be a showstopper if built in a tidy fashion. I'm particularly glad that Aoshima included the engine uppers because the unfairly maligned PRV deserves to be captured in plastic. After all, the combination of the PRV V6, a fiberglass body, and a rear-engine spaceframe chassis gave us one of France's all-time greatest sports cars!

I do genuinely love that Italeri has produced this kit. It's incredibly impressive and a great next step for their 1/12th scale range. The biggest thing I'm trying to determine at this point is if their MSRP of $379.99 (Stevens and Hobbytyme) is actually in line with the market or not. On one hand, it's considerably higher than Tamiya's current line of 1/12th scale kits with the exception of the Porsche Carrera GT or Fujimi's 1/12th scale R32 Skyline GT-R's. However, it's also considerably newer tooling than those. It's also more than Meng's McLaren MP4/4 by a good chunk, but hugely lower than Meng's 1/12th scale GT40.

I'm more than happy to hear it's a new tool 1/24th scale kit. Frankly, I was hoping Italeri might begin to reinvest in 1/24th scale car tooling and we can only hope this Fulvia will be a success.

Iceman Collections had posted this image to Facebook along with the news that Moebius has confirmed a reissue. Fantastic news for fans of these highly detailed fat-fenders.

The Cobra Motors paints are VERY easy to use. They're a water based acrylic but you can thin them with Mr Leveling Thinner. So far, I've tried the Dark British Racing Green and the 50's-60's Rosso Corsa and both were ready to spray through a .5mm needle airbrush at 18psi. Great coverage, self leveling, and didn't need any color sanding before clear coat. Both the Alfa and my Austin Healey Sprite had Gunze GX102 UV Cut Clear Gloss over the Cobra Motors paint with no issue. I've also used the Cobra Motors 2K Clear over some MCW lacquer and was hugely impressed with the results.

I kind of work the opposite way around. A kit or a paint or an aftermarket part will inspire me, and then I'll turn around and start digging into references to see if there's a 1/1 example that correlates with what I have in mind. That being said, I follow several automotive content creators on Youtube and on social media and that also leads to sparks here and there. For instance, one of my favorite restoration channels is currently trying to piece together a very rusty Mazda Cosmo. Pairing that with knowing just how nice the Hasegawa kit is matches up well to an itch to build a Mazda Cosmo.

Also as a bit of a fun aside, model car kit #1 sold of 2025 was Fujimi #39848 Nissan Silvia S15 Veilside which actually did sell on New Year's Day.

That's definitely safe to say given that the wholesale discount rate is right about the same when comparing Bandai to the likes of Revell or Round 2 through my distributors. Volume sellers in any category become critical building blocks of the hobby business because they keep that steady stream of folks coming through the door and give the opportunity for "add-on" sales. But I would definitely say that the engine that keeps my doors open is paint and supplies. As a for instance, one hundred and twelve jars of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement left my Tamiya rack last year!