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| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Models123 |
Posted - 01/23/2014 : 11:17:38
Well... Here is my opinion or 'take' on this newly announced item, and you know what they say about opinions? The polite answer is that everybody has one! That said, there are also facts in there too, which should be easy to discern. So...along with numerous collectors and dealers, I have seen the announcement of the 1:12 scale Lotus 49 model to be released later this year from Automodello. I'm not impressed. This model was originally planned by another well known model manufacturer who for various reasons decided not to produce it, and Automodello was offered the project. The model is not new, and not original, and I have my concerns that the models will most likely suffer with various quality problems as have been seen on many of the models from Automodello.
For this project, a very old (engineered & produced in the 1960's) plane old Tamiya Lotus 49 kit was used as the actual master/pattern, which was then worked over; I will say that at least the former model manufacturer did make some improvements, but of course not all that should be done. But wait, these guys aren’t the first to ‘use’ the Tamiya kit......Exoto, a.k.a. "the bad boys of the model industry” also used the same old Tamiya kit as the basis and reference point for their old production run of the same car, but in a different way, and for 1:18 scale models. Exoto took a Tamiya kit and had their pattern maker use a 3D pantograph to reduce and produce a 1:18 master. One of the funny things about that was that Exoto also copied ALL of the mistakes that Tamiya had made so many years ago, and they didn’t realize that until it was pointed out to them after the models were produced!
This 'new' to be released 1:12 model is of course being made in China, and a claimed edition of up to 499 models are planned to be produced, and at a price of $900.00 each plus shipping. And, I highly doubt the model will come with a display case. Caveat Emptor....
Marshall |
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