News/Updates 

       

James May's Toy Stories Tonight on BBC America

From BBC America.com:

James is used to goofing around with his pals from Top Gear and taking on some insane challenges, but for this series he'll leave the keys to the supercars at home as he embarks on some ludicrously ambitious adventures and feats of engineering using classic toys.

The U.S. premiere is tonight at 10/9c

Knight and Day Review

Knight and Day continues this summer's theme of unsurprising but very entertaining movies. Basically, if you thought the trailer looked good, you will probably enjoy the movie. It's fast and fun, with a nice blend of action and comedy.

Continue reading "Knight and Day Review"

Photos from Rhinebeck

Rommel's Rod detail


The Town of Newburgh Model Car Club held their annual model car show at the Good Guys East Coast Nationals today. They had over 50 cars on display from builders of all ages, plus buildups by the club members and several works from master modeler Ken Leslie. Events included a Peoples' Choice award as well as a Revell Make-N-Take for the kids (this year was the 'Camaro Concept). Click below to see photos from the event!

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Press Release: Munster's Koach & Drag-U-La

Munster's Koach and Drag-u-la


It took a deathly long time, but Munsters fans will soon see the ghoulish darkness at the end of the tunnel! AMT's Special Edition double kit of the Munster Koach and Drag-U-La will be arriving at Round 2's wicked warehouse on July 13th. It's no apparition, after nearly two decades, Drag-U-La returns from the tomb of AMT tooling! It's even been a decade since the Munster Koach was last issued.

With the gracious help of TV and movie producer, Kevin Burns and his incredible collection of historical Munster imagery, the Kats at AMT were able to put together a truly terrifying tribute to the Munsters' morbid machines. Both kits come "buried together" in a huge 11 x 14" collectible tin, covered in photos of the two most creepy customs ever created! Inside the kits, many boney bonuses await. The treasurable 16 page photo booklet features rare photos of the cars under construction, on the set and at special events. It's a collector's dream and a wealth of visual information for modelers wanting reference material to build the perfect and horrific replicas.

The kit also includes three stand-up placards, a "head stone" marker for each car, and a fabulous die cut backdrop of the Munster family standing in front of the gates at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. These can be put with the built models for a grand and ghostly display!

If this weren't enough, both models include ALL the original decals, plus ADDITIONAL decal artwork to DIE for! The Munster Koach sheet includes nearly every variation of the Munster's family crest seen on the door of the real car, along with "Munster Go Home" movie markings, accurate pin striping, cob webbing and more! Drag-U-La's decal sheet features a new realistic tombstone decal option, plus movie markings and more accurate versions of the original decals that you can really sink your fangs into! (But you still get all the original versions, too!)

For those of you wondering, YES! The Drag-U-La does include the slippery "Surf Slab" surf board with simulated motor, lantern and mounting rack from the original 60's AMT kit, with devilish decal options in multiple colors.

Don't be caught dead without this fabulous model kit duo, AMT's Munster Koach and Drag-U-La from TV's "The Munsters"!

New Green Hornet Trailer

Guest Gallery Update

Two updates to the Guest Gallery: LoganKirstad has sent in photos of his Corsair, and new guest Robert has send in photos of his Monte Carlo, Camaro, and Sting Ray Concept.

Scooby Dooby Redo

Although I've had a "finished" Mystery Machine in my collection for years, I was never 100% satisfied with it. So I went back and rebuilt it, and am glad that I did - the updated version looks much better than my first attempt. You can see the new version here.

Facebook Users: Check out the "Ecto-1 Work In Progress" album in my profile for a shot of the partially completed Mystery Machine sporting the Ghostbusters' roof rack!

Updated For Sale/Wanted Pages

I've added a few kits to the sale page, and have also updated the wanted list.

The A-Team Review

Movies made from TV shows generally have a pretty dismal reputation, and not without reason. For every The Untouchables, there's The Avengers, I Spy, Lost in Space, The Mod Squad, and The Saint. While The A-Team is not a perfect translation of the original show, but fortunately it comes a lot closer to The Fugitive than Wild Wild West.

Continue reading "The A-Team Review"

Jimmy Dean

Jimmy Dean
Jimmy Dean
August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010


The Highway Patrol

Builders and collectors know that there are certain pieces that you have to track for years before you can add them to your collection. Other times, the fates really want you to have something. Case in point: the '55 Buick from Highway Patrol. I first saw Maisto's diecast at Target, but with other purchases already in hand I passed on it at the time. A few days later, Hollywood Detective posted photos of a TV/Movie car meet, among which was this Buick. Skip ahead another couple of days, and one of the guys at HobbyTown was commenting on how he'd been wasting a lot of time over the previous few days watching Highway Patrol on Hulu, and wanted to know if there were any scale versions of the Buick available. I took the hint, returned to Target, and found that they had just restocked the Maisto cars. With some new trim and a new set of door shields, my Highway Patrol Buick was complete.

You gotta big mouth...and a fancy car, Batman

Fireball 500 was an entertaining movie, but I really wish the producers had spent a little more time checking their racing figures...a ten-second lead in NASCAR really isn't a "close race." Still, the titular vehicle was a fun car to build, and offered me the chance to try out some new techniques with the airbrush. The end result of my experimenting can be seen here.

Go Speed Racer!

I first saw the F1 as a preview on Jada's web site back when they had first acquired the Speed Racer license. It was a neat design, and something I thought may be fun to pick up, but since I thought it was an in-house idea created by Jada I didn't really stress over getting one. I then spent some time talking to a fan of the original Speed Racer cartoon, and he told me that the F1 was indeed a legitimate design from the series. He had even modified one of these to more closely match its look in the show. So I put out some feelers, did the usual eBay searches, and kept an eye open for them in stores, toy shows, and the like. Jada was having some problems getting their 1/24 cars onto store shelves, so I was just about to resign myself to paying too much on the secondary market when I was reminded that it's sometimes better to be lucky than skilled. One day my family happened to visit Marshall's, a clothing store that also had a small home decor department and an even smaller toy department. I went over to that department to see what was in stock, not expecting much, and found a stack of F1s on clearance. So I grabbed a couple for various projects, including my own Formula 1 Mach 5 upgrade.



I'd Be The Model Curmudgeon if All My Builds Went Like This...

This car highlights one of the reasons why I seldom build models for other people. It was supposed to be a simple snap-together kit ("Builds in 3 hours!" says the box), but took nearly a year to complete thanks to problems encountered along the way. I stuck it out, though, and after more time and effort than most of these snap-tite kits see, I had my Judge Parker Corvette.

To Punish and Enslave

Hasbro is moving in the right direction with their Human Alliance figures: their latest release, Barricade is the best of the bunch so far. All he needed was a few small paint details and a couple of stickers from Reprolabels. The high-quality casting lends itself to a "superdetailed" upgrade, but for now I'm happy to have a decent Barricade in my collection.