I find all of this stuff fascinating. I think if we'd had train sets in scale to 1.43 cars in the UK when I was a kid I could've really gotten into them, especially when you consider the detail at that size and interaction you could have with them. I loved toy cars with moving/operating features and I would imagine similar trains would have been a whole new world. The sheer size of the sets had to be the issue, most houses are just too cramped in the UK for sets that big, hence the restriction to OO gauge (1.76?? or smaller??) which was just too tiny to be of any lasting interest to most kids. Spend ages setting them up, watch them go round and round, spend ages putting them away again. What's interesting, is that in a country like the USA, where space isn't much of an issue, scales were largely unrestricted and must have found their natural optimum - so 1.43 must have been just right. Otherwise, US toy cars would have been that much bigger than those made for the UK market. It's an intriguing thought that, had that been the case, we might have seen a larger Corgi Goldfinger DB5 made for the States, possibly in about 1.25 scale?
I think if we'd had train sets in scale to 1.43 cars in the UK when I was a kid I could've really gotten into them, especially when you consider the detail at that size and interaction you could have with them. I loved toy cars with moving/operating features and I would imagine similar trains would have been a whole new world.
Another factor I think you'd have enjoyed were the operating cars (i.e. freight wagons) and operating accessories; in the latter case often only marginally connected with the actual railroad. Take Lionel's Coal Ramp and Diesel Coal Loader. A locomotive pushed a hopper car up a very mild grade, uncoupled using Lionel's remote magnetic uncoupling, and you then put it into reverse to get it down from the ramp. Hit another electromagnet and the hopper car's load of plastic simulated coal dumped into feed hopper of the Diesel Coal Loader. This would then feed the coal into a waiting receptacle via the use of a conveyor belt. Although displayed in the catalogue with another hopper car, more hobbyists that I know prefer to use trucks. Before the conveyor belt slipped (a defect very common to that particular accessory and which is a pain to fix, although isn't an actual breakage), I had a Minichamps MAN Diesel truck collecting the coal.
Another popular accessory designed to be used for trains and trucks was A.C. Gilbert's American Flyer Oil Drum Loader, better known as "Louie the Loader". Made to work with 1/64 scale S Gauge trains, most people at the time regardless gravitated toward 1/43, 1/48, and 1/50 scale accessories for American Flyer S Gauge. As such, Gilbert themselves actually wound up making 1/48 scale accessories! In the case of "Louie the Loader", the accessory involved a line of aluminum-colored oil drums that would be picked up by a nice-looking 1/48 scale three-wheel cart and then dumped into either a waiting railroad car (i.e. open-topped freight wagon) or a waiting truck. I found that my Kimmeria Models MAZ-200 low-sided cargo truck was perfect for this accessory.
Countless other accessories provide tons of action. The founder of Lionel, a man by the name of Joshua Lionel Cowan, once said that children (and adults) would get bored watching a train go around in circles. They needed action. A.C. Gilbert, which controlled American Flyer, gave Lionel a run for its money in the "creative but not unrealistic" accessories department, with Marx Toys and pre-War Hornby also putting in a fair effort. Although they stayed away from operating accessories, the Ives Company made beautiful buildings in both O Gauge and something called Standard Gauge, a sort of American equivalent to 1 Gauge.
Standard Gauge, the manufacture of which (except for replicas) died out before the end of WWII, was roughly 1/32 scale, although I know of a few people who choose to put 1/24 scale model cars, people, and accessories on their layouts; I'm assuming because you still have a number of American Flyer (1/64) enthusiasts that still use 1/50 scale accessories. Of course, you bring up a terrific point about space. What killed Standard Gauge was not lack of creativity or even being too expensive. It was just flat out too big for first the Great Depression economy and then the American post-WWII economy. I once asked Dad when I was young and Dad had just gotten a pre-WWII Hornby O Gauge set why the British hadn't continued to make O Gauge. Dad told me "they didn't have the space". What killed Standard Gauge in the US, I suspect, killed O Gauge in the UK. And of course, 1/40-1/50 scale cars and trucks were the order of the day, so they stayed on, eventually settling on 1/43 scale.
But that raises a question...why wasn't there more creativity regarding operating accessories for OO Gauge (1/76) and HO Gauge (1/87)? Well, in the cases of Lionel, American Flyer, and the German manufacturer Maerklin, it wasn't for lack of trying. In many cases, the mechanisms that ran these companies' O-Gauge accessories were either too complex or too large to be downsized to HO size. Those accessories that did survive were either unreliable or fit in poorly with the early 1960's mantra of "HO and OO HAVE to be perfectly scale!" Today, HO scale accessories are manufactured, but just never caught on the way that O gauge accessories have; even on scale layouts, such unintrusive Lionel accessories as the rotating light tower, scale trucking station, coal loader, carnival, and lit buildings are usually found.
Although I have some Maerklin trains in HO scale, the reason they're currently in storage is because rather than making them exciting in the best way I could (i.e. use the old Lionel and American Flyer HO accessories as well as the Faller building kits to create elborate dioramas along with the run-of-the-mill Herpa and Brekina cars), I just found it was much easier to make an O Gauge layout exciting and interesting and giving it action in all ways as well as perfectly "mixing" with my other hobby: 1/43 scale model cars. I'm not trying to diss HO or anyone who collects it...I just think that with what I personally have, I can get a lot more out of an O gauge layout and make it more interesting for myself, Dad, or any other guest to watch.
By the way, to get back on-topic, does anyone know if any issue 122's (Merc 200D) have leaked out early to that one dealer who seems to get stuff in early?
Just got it in the mail today. I've got to say, though it is not my kind of car at all, it is executed quite well, with the stickers looking good and details such as the wheels and indicators nicely done. Only thing is mine came with 1 windscreen wiper, so I'll have to "borrow" one from another car I guess.
Super-realism! Wiper blades were often not easy to get during the Communist era rumours abounded in the west that drivers removed wipers when parking the car to avoid coming back and finding them missing...
Only thing is mine came with 1 windscreen wiper, so I'll have to "borrow" one from another car I guess.
Actually, if you want, you could go onto eBay and buy the Russian partwork version for the donor wiper blades. Aside from the "Lada Niva" badge screw up, the only mistake they made was giving it the older, 1980's steel wiper blades. The Russian partwork car has the correct plastic blades.
BTW, for those simply wondering "hey, I thought the Russian police cars in GE were real!", the answer is "the master copies were, the car in the photo is actually quite a bit later than the car portrayed in the film", although the basic paint scheme remained pretty much the same. The four telltale differences are...
1) The license plates. That particular plate (o-prefix Militsiya blue on white, Leningrad Oblast) is from 2004, although the series goes back to I believe 1994.
2) The lightbar. The "American-style" lightbars that look like they came off the average early 1990's Ford Crown Victoria don't start showing up until the late 1990's.
3) The car is marked "DPS" as opposed to "GAI". Initially, the Russians kept on the GAI designation for Militsiya serving as traffic police, then switched to GIBDD in 1998 (I think), and a ton of cars got repainted with the DPS designation (another traffic control arm which actively pursued speeding cars) around then. The actual GAI designation returned in I believe 2002, although if only because they wanted to put something familiar on cars that would have otherwise been marked "DOBDD". However, DPS remained in use and significantly outnumbered cars marked "GAI". Although there were a TON of cars that were NEVER repainted, the cars in St. Petersburg would most certainly have been repainted.
4) The City Coat of Arms. I could be wrong on the date, but these didn't come into use until 1996 or so.
So no worries! Your VAZ-2106 is still realistic! )
rumours abounded in the west that drivers removed wipers when parking the car to avoid coming back and finding them missing...
It may sound counterintuitive, but the cheaper the car model, the more common this was (and it wasn't just wiper blades...in a few infamous cases with the Lada Oka city car, THE ENTIRE CAR was carried away!!!). If had a GAZ-3102 Volga, you probably didn't have to worry about this as much as if you had a ZAZ-968M Zaporozhets or VAZ-1111 "Lada Oka". The reason for this was that if you had a Volga, you might be someone important. If you had a Zaporozhets or an Oka...not so much.
Okay, so I got the Scaldia-Volga M24 in the mail today (first of THREE), and this one will remain unaltered since it's in great shape. One of the weirdest features was the box label. Typically, we've seen the "old type setting" that features a Copyright 2012 GE Fabbri/Universal Hobbies or, alternately, a new type of packaging that says Copyright 2012 Eaglemoss Ltd. with or without mentioning Ixo. This one seems to have introduced a third packaging variant: NO mention of Universal Hobbies, but there it is "GE Fabbri Copyright 2012"! I'm wondering if they printed up a bunch of these cards as packing bases and are now simply using them up by deleting the UH contact info, figuring that people will make the connection between Fabbri and Eaglemoss.
The car itself was superb. The rear turn signals are a new addition to the mould and the rear bumper is also new. It's very obviously a "Second Series" Scaldia-Volga M24 with flat rear bumper option. For East Bloc hobbyists intent on a "realistic" Belgian car, just change out the license plates and remove the flag, replacing it with a small, shiny piece of black plastic.
In the magazine, the CGI model is of a "First Series" Soviet GAZ-24 Volga, replete with Cyrillic bagding and, interestingly, a radio antenna. Likewise, the description, while easily the best yet of the East Bloc vehicles, would again hint that they had a "First Generation" Soviet GAZ-24 in mind. Although two pictures (including one that I know is actually tough to find/they must have gone out of their way to look for) are shown of early Scaldia-Volgas, there's oddly no mention whatsoever of the car's sales on the Benelux market or indeed that the car we get is a Scaldia-Volga M24. I'm thinking that Eaglemoss was trying for a purely Soviet car (playing up the Volga's prestige in the USSR during the 1970's, especially, and even mentioning the "KGB Special" GAZ-24-24 variant that had a 190 HP V8 under the hood) while Ixo, knowing the revenue it gets from the former East Bloc even via indirect sales, paid special attention to this one regarding detail.
The only thing actually wrong regarding the description from the text is in relation to the CGI model, where they say GAZ-24 Volgas were popular as taxis due to "wipe-clean" vinyl seats. Actually, the GAZ-24 Volga as it was sold in the USSR had fairly standard (if Spartan) upholstery. The variant with vinyl seats that could be wiped down was the GAZ-24-01, which was used by the Militsiya and saw heavy use as a taxi, too.
Also, regarding quality control...I guess they had a good day at the factory. Not only was everything perfect, but they even got the headlights perfectly even with one another (typically, you have to pull them and straighten them)! Definitely a great model and I look forward very much to the Mercedes-Benz 200D!
I for one am looking forward to the 200D, really curious if it has the snow-chains on, or even Kriegler with his biathlon-rifle (one can hope right?). Even without figures wich is really likely this sould be an interresting model, comopete with auto telephone wich is one of the most awesome things ever fitted to a car
complete with auto telephone which is one of the most awesome things ever fitted to a car
Unfortunately, I've got a feeling that Ixo leaves it off. Someone leaked that one of the next six issues in the Polish DeAgostini Kultowe Auta PRL-u series is going to be a Mercedes-Benz 220 (W115) with the same internals and you can actually find the factory rejects on eBay. Although the interior on these cars will be unpainted, it's otherwise the same car that the 200D will be; the moulds are identical. Will things like the colors, the tampo-printing, and possibly the paint on the tires (to simulate the chains) change from model to model? Yes. But the actual moulded parts? I doubt it, unfortunately.
I have a load of these which I would like to sell - was given 33 cars (28 of which have the relevant magazines with them) from the 007 Collection. I live about 3 miles from Pinewood Studios and so am keen that their new home is with a true Bond fan.
Preview picture of Corgi Skyfall DB5. Plus side it seems to contain a driver figure. Downside it is just the same old tired DB5 they had already pushed out time and time again.
Maybe I will grumble less at the prospect of another DB5 in JBCC at least if IXO do it it won't have stupid opening doors, will have good wheels and will be 1:43.
The Corgi Skyfall DB5 looks just the same as the Casino Royale DB5,which also had a driver(not quite sure who it was
supposed to be.)Just a case of changing the packaging and its good to go.I have the Corgi Directors Cut CR DB5 and while its a nice enough model,I always thought the wheels looked to large for the car.
I thought you might all be interested to know that I've just received an email from JBBC regarding my revised direct debit schedule. Whilst the releases will remain fortnightly the schedule now stops with issues 134/135. Payment date for these final 2 is 11/12 which means that issue 135 should be released just before christmas. Wonder if they might go for something special as not only is it seemingly the last one but also when it's released!
Have any non-subscribers got the Volga yet?Its nearly a month since issue 120.I was surprised to hear that part 120&121 came together for subscribers.
no, the release date for non-subscribers is still 11th July.....next wednesday........ as far as i can remember this is the first time subscribers got issues before the official shop release day?.......it will be a bit strange for the next few weeks because the subscribers are due to get issues 122 and 123 on or thereabouts 25 july and if the shop releases do not return to a 2 x week schedule, we will get 121 on 11 july and then 123 on 8 august and then be be 3 issues behind..!!!!.....my newsagent has not heard anything about a 2 week schedule......does anyone know whats happening?
Can anyone tell me if their Volga is missing one of the rear mudflaps? Wonder if it is a feature or a Quality Control issue. Plus does anyone else have one reflector on the rear not painted red? Looking at IMCDB they should both be red again dont know if it is what to expect or QC again.... Just would like to know before I ring for a replacement and to ask where the heck 118/119 have gone to.....
Oh dear if that is official that it does stop at 135 those sad entries in Wikipedia may even be true... In that case we are going out with an IXO Rolls Royce Silver Shadow which although a nice model seems a strange way to finish - the Skyfall DB5 would have been much more appropriate!!!
The Volga and Mercedes "450 SEL" are both already available on the back orders section of the JBCC web site I ordered about a week ago and they came today.... Strange since 118/119 have not arrived yet.
Wonder if it is a feature or a Quality Control issue. Plus does anyone else have one reflector on the rear not painted red? Looking at IMCDB they should both be red again dont know if it is what to expect or QC again
Quality control issues in both cases. Both reflectors are painted red and both mudflaps are there on my model. Thanks for fast-tracking your models at the expense of quality, Eaglemoss! [/sarcasm]
The Wikipedia list is correct up to 135 - the German site has expanded their list, the order is official (and would explain why the Wiki entry was made by someone with english as a second language - remember when the JBCC was extended once again this was also first reported by a "dubious dutch fanclub" and not a UK source):
Only change in order is the Dodge M43 which got pushed back three issues to 127. I think the 450 SEL was also one of only a few which got pushed back - and they made a great diorama for the 450 SEL. So I think we could be in for a nice surprise regarding the Dodge and could get the laser cannon after all.
Still doesn't explain the rumor of 140 issues. And as issue 131 is listed as a "Polizeiauto" (the Louisiana State Police car?) I wonder if 124 is the light blue Bel Air Sport Coupe. Or do we get Sheriff Pepper's car after all? (This should be an Impala but after a Mercedes 180 got sold as a 220S I doubt if we can rule that out completely just because it is a slightly different car.)
But I have to say that I found Ixo's quality (control) terrible in the last weeks. I have now passed on several of the cars I really wanted to buy. Like the Bel Air Custom Coupe and the Goldeneye VAZ. Not a single one out of the few the shop had in stock that was decent. And don't get me started on that Lincoln ... if we get a 4-door convertible with the same ugly rear end X-(
I wonder if 124 is the light blue Bel Air Sport Coupe.
I find that doubtful, given that most were four-door sedans and taxis, plus we now know that we're getting two '73 Chevys...including one that we absolutely know will use the four-door mould. They could do Strutter's car if they wanted to, but then, they could make more money and more acceptance by collectors (because it would fail even with the car centrics if it was another '73 Chevy Coupe...) off a civilian '73 Bel Air Four-Door Sedan and then using the same mould as a police car.
So I think we could be in for a nice surprise regarding the Dodge and could get the laser cannon after all.
Unless they come up with some kind of "extra-extra-tall" case, I doubt it. Even having the roof doors open would be too much. But on the other hand, they could have a laser cannon panel and the sides turned down. Or they could even be designing figures for it in anticipation that it won't come with the laser cannon. For all I know, they could even have working roof doors and a retractable laser cannon. I doubt it, of course, but it would be awesome, wouldn't it?
Still doesn't explain the rumor of 140 issues.
To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't done 140 issues simply because face it, 135 is a fairly odd number to end on. Aren't they shipping these two at a time in the UK?
Like the Bel Air Custom Coupe
Actually, Ixo did make an Impala that was fairly dead-on, replete with triple taillights (the Bel Air had double taillights in 1973).
if we get a 4-door convertible with the same ugly rear end
The only reason I find this unlikely is because for the L-P Continental, they altered an already-existing mould very crudely. A Continental Convertible, while it would be basically the same fore of the A-pillar, would be a different mould aft of it with a different baseplate and bodywork. The plastic part on the rear, especially, was made to fit a ground-down mould on the L-P, so I doubt we'll see this again.
Oh, I miss the old UH days!
UH's comparatively minimal details (by that I mean small parts attached to the cars) in many cases were tailored for the older schedule. Ixo's aren't unless you're talking about a dozens-of-times reused mould like the Austin FX4 Taxi, hence why I think you're now seeing issues with quality control. If you slowed the collection down, it would actually turn out pretty well.
Thanks for that confirmation of the sequence to Issue 135, RW.
Just to throw another piece of info into this puzzle of how many issues there will eventually be, the local distributor here in South Africa is listing the collection as going to 140: https://www.jacklin.co.za/products.php?PubID=6&ProdID=337
I wonder how long it will take this local distributor to get the issues out to us, though - since getting Issue 97 near the end of April I've only just recently received Issue 99 (the OP Range Rover) and no sign of Issue 98, so a bit slow here at present ...
However, I reckon the billing schedule received by the UK subscribers is probably a better indicator of where it is going to stop. Seeing as when they send out the two issues to subscribers the higher-numbered one is an odd number, it would make sense to end on an odd number (135) rather than an even number (140).
had problems for my payments,going from 8 weeks down to 4 weeks ,but on the phone to GE they say they are defo stopping at number 135
A fellow fifer ! I too spoke to GE Fabbri on Friday of last week as my card needed updated. I asked how many more to go and was told the collection would run until issue 140 not 135 as you were told ......
Not sure what the truth is about the final issue but as I posted couple of weeks back i spoke to GE Fabbri and was told the collection would conclude at 140.
If indeed this is the case I would rather they did away with some of the planned issues and conclude at 135. Please not the morris or as I nearly fall asleep another DB5 yes it is the iconic definitive Bond car but come on do we need another in this collection. Sorry Dal110 i know you are big fan of eastern block automobiles but no more in the collection. The collection got exciting when bizarre vehicles started to appear, the boat, the bondola, the jet, the dragon tank etc etc.
Done well an empty box with the correct diorama could be marketed as the 'Vanish' and if done well could be an amazing addition for the collection and certainly a quirky one.
The live and let die bus (please no reference to 7/7) regardless of box size or scale, this should feature in this collection and could be marketed as special or double issue,
Likewise the Kenworth tanker another essential addition.
SKYFALL looks like its going to be good with a release date here in the UK 23 Oct 2012. lets hope the cars that feature live upto the hype also
Sorry Dal110 i know you are big fan of eastern block automobiles but no more in the collection.
But why? After all, the only one they've not done that played a significant role was the one that played the most significant role: the UAZ-31512. It actually got more screentime than either the Dragon Tank or the Acrostar, by the way.
regardless of box size or scale, this should feature in this collection
After the backlash that both Eaglemoss and Ixo got over the Bondola? Unfortunately, I doubt it. "1/43 or bust" seems to be the order of the day (which is fair, given that they initially promised 1/45 scale cars and then quickly amended that to be 1/43 scale with the stated exception of the tank). Think of it this way: Eaglemoss/Ixo's entire marketing strategy seems to be to target the dealers rather than the subscribers. That would at first seem counterinutitive, but the dealers buy in bulk for resale, which they obviously mark up.
Ask yourself these: what gets the dealers buying in bulk from Eaglemoss? Profitable vehicles. What vehicles make the most profit? Cars and trucks with a broad appeal. Go onto eBay or an online hobby shop and you'll find that the prices for certain "boring" cars are still through the roof (such as the huge pre-orders for the 1959 Plymouth Savoy)...or if not, then through the roof compared to things like the Bondola, the Q-Boat, the Acrostar, and the Dragon Tank, which are technically niche market products when using THIS particular marketing strategy.
When you try what Eaglemoss is obviously doing regarding marketing, you're not going to make as much money off the "gadget-like" stuff as you are the conventional vehicles with crossover appeal. Yes, it's a Bond partwork, but tons...at the very least a significant plurality if not a slight majority of these get sold by British dealers to the US...where they're usually taken off their diorama stands to serve as someone's entry in a General Motors collection, a Ford collection, a Chrysler collection, a Mercedes-Benz collection, an East Bloc collection, etc, or indeed their own diorama. You might say that at this point, the way they're going and from what they're doing, we now have a Bond partwork with purposely broad appeal and out-of-genre appeal (which I suspect will continue until Skyfall is released/the last five issues may be completely devoted to SF). Also, as long as people continue to buy up those "boring" cars, then Eaglemoss will keep telling Ixo to make them. I know you like the "gadget vehicles", but it's just the way that Eaglemoss' completely-profit-driven marketing approach works.
By the way, I'm just explaining what I think will happen based on Eaglemoss' marketing strategies and Ixo's manufacturing tendencies. In no way is this intended to single you out in any way...I'm just taking some common rhetoric tossed around here and giving my two cents on it and how Eaglemoss and Ixo will actually act upon it.
However, I reckon the billing schedule received by the UK subscribers is probably a better indicator of where it is going to stop. Seeing as when they send out the two issues to subscribers the higher-numbered one is an odd number, it would make sense to end on an odd number (135) rather than an even number (140).
That's right...I hadn't thought of that and do agree. I guess the question now is "135 or are there extra cars from Skyfall constituting a total of approximately 140"? With Eaglemoss' shifting around their total number of cars, I now AM inclined to agree that 135 is a more likely figure, but 140 can't be ruled out, either (for example, they may mail their first SF issue alone or do something similar to promote their first SF car).
I wonder if 124 is the light blue Bel Air Sport Coupe.
I find that doubtful, given that most were four-door sedans and taxis, plus we now know that we're getting two '73 Chevys...including one that we absolutely know will use the four-door mould. They could do Strutter's car if they wanted to, but then, they could make more money and more acceptance by collectors (because it would fail even with the car centrics if it was another '73 Chevy Coupe...) off a civilian '73 Bel Air Four-Door Sedan and then using the same mould as a police car.
If I was a betting man my money for the Bel Air of Issue 124 would be on the Yellow Cab, most likely the dead-driver New York one that Bond has to crash into the Ford van ... for no reason other than my own logic (Ixo and Taxis, they go together like ...) and the fact that Bond (kinda) drove it
I wonder if 124 is the light blue Bel Air Sport Coupe.
I find that doubtful, given that most were four-door sedans and taxis, plus we now know that we're getting two '73 Chevys...including one that we absolutely know will use the four-door mould. They could do Strutter's car if they wanted to, but then, they could make more money and more acceptance by collectors (because it would fail even with the car centrics if it was another '73 Chevy Coupe...) off a civilian '73 Bel Air Four-Door Sedan and then using the same mould as a police car.
If I was a betting man my money for the Bel Air of Issue 124 would be on the Yellow Cab, most likely the dead-driver New York one that Bond has to crash into the Ford van ... for no reason other than my own logic (Ixo and Taxis, they go together like ...) and the fact that Bond (kinda) drove it
The New York City "Airport Rent-a-Car" (my Dad's from the Bronx...unless it literally has checkering on the side, says "TAXI" in huge letters, or is stark yellow, airport taxis are called "airport rent-a-cars"...only you say it like "airport rennacar"; also, to digress slightly, a cab called for hire not licensed to pick up people off the street is a "Gipsy cab" and a car licensed to pick people up off the street is a "Medallion cab", owing to the latter's medallion-shaped permit mounted on the hood or fender showing that it can pick people up off the street) is what my money rests on it being, as well. Granted, it could be the New Orleans taxi, too, since you have two rather different liveries shown here...
The Airport Rent-a-Car could also pass for a regular, civilian car or even unmarked police car...in the second pic, btw, note the double taillights that differentiate the Bel Air from the Impala (I should also take time out to note that the license plates are either real or very close to real...EON even got correct the NY State law of having both front and rear license plates, which is not mandatory in many US states like Louisiana, where, as is shown on the taxi below this one, there is no front plate)...
Seeing as one of these two will almost certainly be the Bel Air (I also checked; Strutter drives an Impala Coupe, not a Bel Air...but, ironically, the cars DID have the same wheelbase, meaning they can re-use most of the baseplate and just delete the second exhaust pipe on the left side of the car), I'm curious...who here favors the New York "Airport Rent-a-Car" and who favors the New Orleans taxi?
Comments
Another factor I think you'd have enjoyed were the operating cars (i.e. freight wagons) and operating accessories; in the latter case often only marginally connected with the actual railroad. Take Lionel's Coal Ramp and Diesel Coal Loader. A locomotive pushed a hopper car up a very mild grade, uncoupled using Lionel's remote magnetic uncoupling, and you then put it into reverse to get it down from the ramp. Hit another electromagnet and the hopper car's load of plastic simulated coal dumped into feed hopper of the Diesel Coal Loader. This would then feed the coal into a waiting receptacle via the use of a conveyor belt. Although displayed in the catalogue with another hopper car, more hobbyists that I know prefer to use trucks. Before the conveyor belt slipped (a defect very common to that particular accessory and which is a pain to fix, although isn't an actual breakage), I had a Minichamps MAN Diesel truck collecting the coal.
Another popular accessory designed to be used for trains and trucks was A.C. Gilbert's American Flyer Oil Drum Loader, better known as "Louie the Loader". Made to work with 1/64 scale S Gauge trains, most people at the time regardless gravitated toward 1/43, 1/48, and 1/50 scale accessories for American Flyer S Gauge. As such, Gilbert themselves actually wound up making 1/48 scale accessories! In the case of "Louie the Loader", the accessory involved a line of aluminum-colored oil drums that would be picked up by a nice-looking 1/48 scale three-wheel cart and then dumped into either a waiting railroad car (i.e. open-topped freight wagon) or a waiting truck. I found that my Kimmeria Models MAZ-200 low-sided cargo truck was perfect for this accessory.
Countless other accessories provide tons of action. The founder of Lionel, a man by the name of Joshua Lionel Cowan, once said that children (and adults) would get bored watching a train go around in circles. They needed action. A.C. Gilbert, which controlled American Flyer, gave Lionel a run for its money in the "creative but not unrealistic" accessories department, with Marx Toys and pre-War Hornby also putting in a fair effort. Although they stayed away from operating accessories, the Ives Company made beautiful buildings in both O Gauge and something called Standard Gauge, a sort of American equivalent to 1 Gauge.
Standard Gauge, the manufacture of which (except for replicas) died out before the end of WWII, was roughly 1/32 scale, although I know of a few people who choose to put 1/24 scale model cars, people, and accessories on their layouts; I'm assuming because you still have a number of American Flyer (1/64) enthusiasts that still use 1/50 scale accessories. Of course, you bring up a terrific point about space. What killed Standard Gauge was not lack of creativity or even being too expensive. It was just flat out too big for first the Great Depression economy and then the American post-WWII economy. I once asked Dad when I was young and Dad had just gotten a pre-WWII Hornby O Gauge set why the British hadn't continued to make O Gauge. Dad told me "they didn't have the space". What killed Standard Gauge in the US, I suspect, killed O Gauge in the UK. And of course, 1/40-1/50 scale cars and trucks were the order of the day, so they stayed on, eventually settling on 1/43 scale.
But that raises a question...why wasn't there more creativity regarding operating accessories for OO Gauge (1/76) and HO Gauge (1/87)? Well, in the cases of Lionel, American Flyer, and the German manufacturer Maerklin, it wasn't for lack of trying. In many cases, the mechanisms that ran these companies' O-Gauge accessories were either too complex or too large to be downsized to HO size. Those accessories that did survive were either unreliable or fit in poorly with the early 1960's mantra of "HO and OO HAVE to be perfectly scale!" Today, HO scale accessories are manufactured, but just never caught on the way that O gauge accessories have; even on scale layouts, such unintrusive Lionel accessories as the rotating light tower, scale trucking station, coal loader, carnival, and lit buildings are usually found.
Although I have some Maerklin trains in HO scale, the reason they're currently in storage is because rather than making them exciting in the best way I could (i.e. use the old Lionel and American Flyer HO accessories as well as the Faller building kits to create elborate dioramas along with the run-of-the-mill Herpa and Brekina cars), I just found it was much easier to make an O Gauge layout exciting and interesting and giving it action in all ways as well as perfectly "mixing" with my other hobby: 1/43 scale model cars. I'm not trying to diss HO or anyone who collects it...I just think that with what I personally have, I can get a lot more out of an O gauge layout and make it more interesting for myself, Dad, or any other guest to watch.
Just got it in the mail today. I've got to say, though it is not my kind of car at all, it is executed quite well, with the stickers looking good and details such as the wheels and indicators nicely done. Only thing is mine came with 1 windscreen wiper, so I'll have to "borrow" one from another car I guess.
Actually, if you want, you could go onto eBay and buy the Russian partwork version for the donor wiper blades. Aside from the "Lada Niva" badge screw up, the only mistake they made was giving it the older, 1980's steel wiper blades. The Russian partwork car has the correct plastic blades.
BTW, for those simply wondering "hey, I thought the Russian police cars in GE were real!", the answer is "the master copies were, the car in the photo is actually quite a bit later than the car portrayed in the film", although the basic paint scheme remained pretty much the same. The four telltale differences are...
1) The license plates. That particular plate (o-prefix Militsiya blue on white, Leningrad Oblast) is from 2004, although the series goes back to I believe 1994.
2) The lightbar. The "American-style" lightbars that look like they came off the average early 1990's Ford Crown Victoria don't start showing up until the late 1990's.
3) The car is marked "DPS" as opposed to "GAI". Initially, the Russians kept on the GAI designation for Militsiya serving as traffic police, then switched to GIBDD in 1998 (I think), and a ton of cars got repainted with the DPS designation (another traffic control arm which actively pursued speeding cars) around then. The actual GAI designation returned in I believe 2002, although if only because they wanted to put something familiar on cars that would have otherwise been marked "DOBDD". However, DPS remained in use and significantly outnumbered cars marked "GAI". Although there were a TON of cars that were NEVER repainted, the cars in St. Petersburg would most certainly have been repainted.
4) The City Coat of Arms. I could be wrong on the date, but these didn't come into use until 1996 or so.
So no worries! Your VAZ-2106 is still realistic!
It may sound counterintuitive, but the cheaper the car model, the more common this was (and it wasn't just wiper blades...in a few infamous cases with the Lada Oka city car, THE ENTIRE CAR was carried away!!!). If had a GAZ-3102 Volga, you probably didn't have to worry about this as much as if you had a ZAZ-968M Zaporozhets or VAZ-1111 "Lada Oka". The reason for this was that if you had a Volga, you might be someone important. If you had a Zaporozhets or an Oka...not so much.
The car itself was superb. The rear turn signals are a new addition to the mould and the rear bumper is also new. It's very obviously a "Second Series" Scaldia-Volga M24 with flat rear bumper option. For East Bloc hobbyists intent on a "realistic" Belgian car, just change out the license plates and remove the flag, replacing it with a small, shiny piece of black plastic.
In the magazine, the CGI model is of a "First Series" Soviet GAZ-24 Volga, replete with Cyrillic bagding and, interestingly, a radio antenna. Likewise, the description, while easily the best yet of the East Bloc vehicles, would again hint that they had a "First Generation" Soviet GAZ-24 in mind. Although two pictures (including one that I know is actually tough to find/they must have gone out of their way to look for) are shown of early Scaldia-Volgas, there's oddly no mention whatsoever of the car's sales on the Benelux market or indeed that the car we get is a Scaldia-Volga M24. I'm thinking that Eaglemoss was trying for a purely Soviet car (playing up the Volga's prestige in the USSR during the 1970's, especially, and even mentioning the "KGB Special" GAZ-24-24 variant that had a 190 HP V8 under the hood) while Ixo, knowing the revenue it gets from the former East Bloc even via indirect sales, paid special attention to this one regarding detail.
The only thing actually wrong regarding the description from the text is in relation to the CGI model, where they say GAZ-24 Volgas were popular as taxis due to "wipe-clean" vinyl seats. Actually, the GAZ-24 Volga as it was sold in the USSR had fairly standard (if Spartan) upholstery. The variant with vinyl seats that could be wiped down was the GAZ-24-01, which was used by the Militsiya and saw heavy use as a taxi, too.
Also, regarding quality control...I guess they had a good day at the factory. Not only was everything perfect, but they even got the headlights perfectly even with one another (typically, you have to pull them and straighten them)! Definitely a great model and I look forward very much to the Mercedes-Benz 200D!
Unfortunately, I've got a feeling that Ixo leaves it off. Someone leaked that one of the next six issues in the Polish DeAgostini Kultowe Auta PRL-u series is going to be a Mercedes-Benz 220 (W115) with the same internals and you can actually find the factory rejects on eBay. Although the interior on these cars will be unpainted, it's otherwise the same car that the 200D will be; the moulds are identical. Will things like the colors, the tampo-printing, and possibly the paint on the tires (to simulate the chains) change from model to model? Yes. But the actual moulded parts? I doubt it, unfortunately.
Preview picture of Corgi Skyfall DB5. Plus side it seems to contain a driver figure. Downside it is just the same old tired DB5 they had already pushed out time and time again.
Maybe I will grumble less at the prospect of another DB5 in JBCC at least if IXO do it it won't have stupid opening doors, will have good wheels and will be 1:43.
supposed to be.)Just a case of changing the packaging and its good to go.I have the Corgi Directors Cut CR DB5 and while its a nice enough model,I always thought the wheels looked to large for the car.
no, the release date for non-subscribers is still 11th July.....next wednesday........ as far as i can remember this is the first time subscribers got issues before the official shop release day?.......it will be a bit strange for the next few weeks because the subscribers are due to get issues 122 and 123 on or thereabouts 25 july and if the shop releases do not return to a 2 x week schedule, we will get 121 on 11 july and then 123 on 8 august and then be be 3 issues behind..!!!!.....my newsagent has not heard anything about a 2 week schedule......does anyone know whats happening?
Oh dear if that is official that it does stop at 135 those sad entries in Wikipedia may even be true... In that case we are going out with an IXO Rolls Royce Silver Shadow which although a nice model seems a strange way to finish - the Skyfall DB5 would have been much more appropriate!!!
Me.
Quality control issues in both cases. Both reflectors are painted red and both mudflaps are there on my model. Thanks for fast-tracking your models at the expense of quality, Eaglemoss! [/sarcasm]
Will also ask how many parts Database Warehouse knows of to see if the answer is 135. And whether they know what 130-135 are....
http://jamesbondautos.de/Tabelle.htm
Only change in order is the Dodge M43 which got pushed back three issues to 127. I think the 450 SEL was also one of only a few which got pushed back - and they made a great diorama for the 450 SEL. So I think we could be in for a nice surprise regarding the Dodge and could get the laser cannon after all.
Still doesn't explain the rumor of 140 issues. And as issue 131 is listed as a "Polizeiauto" (the Louisiana State Police car?) I wonder if 124 is the light blue Bel Air Sport Coupe. Or do we get Sheriff Pepper's car after all? (This should be an Impala but after a Mercedes 180 got sold as a 220S I doubt if we can rule that out completely just because it is a slightly different car.)
But I have to say that I found Ixo's quality (control) terrible in the last weeks. I have now passed on several of the cars I really wanted to buy. Like the Bel Air Custom Coupe and the Goldeneye VAZ. Not a single one out of the few the shop had in stock that was decent. And don't get me started on that Lincoln ... if we get a 4-door convertible with the same ugly rear end X-(
Oh, I miss the old UH days!
I find that doubtful, given that most were four-door sedans and taxis, plus we now know that we're getting two '73 Chevys...including one that we absolutely know will use the four-door mould. They could do Strutter's car if they wanted to, but then, they could make more money and more acceptance by collectors (because it would fail even with the car centrics if it was another '73 Chevy Coupe...) off a civilian '73 Bel Air Four-Door Sedan and then using the same mould as a police car.
Unless they come up with some kind of "extra-extra-tall" case, I doubt it. Even having the roof doors open would be too much. But on the other hand, they could have a laser cannon panel and the sides turned down. Or they could even be designing figures for it in anticipation that it won't come with the laser cannon. For all I know, they could even have working roof doors and a retractable laser cannon. I doubt it, of course, but it would be awesome, wouldn't it?
To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't done 140 issues simply because face it, 135 is a fairly odd number to end on. Aren't they shipping these two at a time in the UK?
Actually, Ixo did make an Impala that was fairly dead-on, replete with triple taillights (the Bel Air had double taillights in 1973).
The only reason I find this unlikely is because for the L-P Continental, they altered an already-existing mould very crudely. A Continental Convertible, while it would be basically the same fore of the A-pillar, would be a different mould aft of it with a different baseplate and bodywork. The plastic part on the rear, especially, was made to fit a ground-down mould on the L-P, so I doubt we'll see this again.
UH's comparatively minimal details (by that I mean small parts attached to the cars) in many cases were tailored for the older schedule. Ixo's aren't unless you're talking about a dozens-of-times reused mould like the Austin FX4 Taxi, hence why I think you're now seeing issues with quality control. If you slowed the collection down, it would actually turn out pretty well.
Just to throw another piece of info into this puzzle of how many issues there will eventually be, the local distributor here in South Africa is listing the collection as going to 140:
https://www.jacklin.co.za/products.php?PubID=6&ProdID=337
I wonder how long it will take this local distributor to get the issues out to us, though - since getting Issue 97 near the end of April I've only just recently received Issue 99 (the OP Range Rover) and no sign of Issue 98, so a bit slow here at present ...
However, I reckon the billing schedule received by the UK subscribers is probably a better indicator of where it is going to stop. Seeing as when they send out the two issues to subscribers the higher-numbered one is an odd number, it would make sense to end on an odd number (135) rather than an even number (140).
Not sure what the truth is about the final issue but as I posted couple of weeks back i spoke to GE Fabbri and was told the collection would conclude at 140.
If indeed this is the case I would rather they did away with some of the planned issues and conclude at 135. Please not the morris or as I nearly fall asleep another DB5 yes it is the iconic definitive Bond car but come on do we need another in this collection. Sorry Dal110 i know you are big fan of eastern block automobiles but no more in the collection. The collection got exciting when bizarre vehicles started to appear, the boat, the bondola, the jet, the dragon tank etc etc.
Done well an empty box with the correct diorama could be marketed as the 'Vanish' and if done well could be an amazing addition for the collection and certainly a quirky one.
The live and let die bus (please no reference to 7/7) regardless of box size or scale, this should feature in this collection and could be marketed as special or double issue,
Likewise the Kenworth tanker another essential addition.
SKYFALL looks like its going to be good with a release date here in the UK 23 Oct 2012. lets hope the cars that feature live upto the hype also
Cheers
But why? After all, the only one they've not done that played a significant role was the one that played the most significant role: the UAZ-31512. It actually got more screentime than either the Dragon Tank or the Acrostar, by the way.
After the backlash that both Eaglemoss and Ixo got over the Bondola? Unfortunately, I doubt it. "1/43 or bust" seems to be the order of the day (which is fair, given that they initially promised 1/45 scale cars and then quickly amended that to be 1/43 scale with the stated exception of the tank). Think of it this way: Eaglemoss/Ixo's entire marketing strategy seems to be to target the dealers rather than the subscribers. That would at first seem counterinutitive, but the dealers buy in bulk for resale, which they obviously mark up.
Ask yourself these: what gets the dealers buying in bulk from Eaglemoss? Profitable vehicles. What vehicles make the most profit? Cars and trucks with a broad appeal. Go onto eBay or an online hobby shop and you'll find that the prices for certain "boring" cars are still through the roof (such as the huge pre-orders for the 1959 Plymouth Savoy)...or if not, then through the roof compared to things like the Bondola, the Q-Boat, the Acrostar, and the Dragon Tank, which are technically niche market products when using THIS particular marketing strategy.
When you try what Eaglemoss is obviously doing regarding marketing, you're not going to make as much money off the "gadget-like" stuff as you are the conventional vehicles with crossover appeal. Yes, it's a Bond partwork, but tons...at the very least a significant plurality if not a slight majority of these get sold by British dealers to the US...where they're usually taken off their diorama stands to serve as someone's entry in a General Motors collection, a Ford collection, a Chrysler collection, a Mercedes-Benz collection, an East Bloc collection, etc, or indeed their own diorama. You might say that at this point, the way they're going and from what they're doing, we now have a Bond partwork with purposely broad appeal and out-of-genre appeal (which I suspect will continue until Skyfall is released/the last five issues may be completely devoted to SF). Also, as long as people continue to buy up those "boring" cars, then Eaglemoss will keep telling Ixo to make them. I know you like the "gadget vehicles", but it's just the way that Eaglemoss' completely-profit-driven marketing approach works.
By the way, I'm just explaining what I think will happen based on Eaglemoss' marketing strategies and Ixo's manufacturing tendencies. In no way is this intended to single you out in any way...I'm just taking some common rhetoric tossed around here and giving my two cents on it and how Eaglemoss and Ixo will actually act upon it.
That's right...I hadn't thought of that and do agree. I guess the question now is "135 or are there extra cars from Skyfall constituting a total of approximately 140"? With Eaglemoss' shifting around their total number of cars, I now AM inclined to agree that 135 is a more likely figure, but 140 can't be ruled out, either (for example, they may mail their first SF issue alone or do something similar to promote their first SF car).
If I was a betting man my money for the Bel Air of Issue 124 would be on the Yellow Cab, most likely the dead-driver New York one that Bond has to crash into the Ford van ... for no reason other than my own logic (Ixo and Taxis, they go together like ...) and the fact that Bond (kinda) drove it
The New York City "Airport Rent-a-Car" (my Dad's from the Bronx...unless it literally has checkering on the side, says "TAXI" in huge letters, or is stark yellow, airport taxis are called "airport rent-a-cars"...only you say it like "airport rennacar"; also, to digress slightly, a cab called for hire not licensed to pick up people off the street is a "Gipsy cab" and a car licensed to pick people up off the street is a "Medallion cab", owing to the latter's medallion-shaped permit mounted on the hood or fender showing that it can pick people up off the street) is what my money rests on it being, as well. Granted, it could be the New Orleans taxi, too, since you have two rather different liveries shown here...
The Airport Rent-a-Car could also pass for a regular, civilian car or even unmarked police car...in the second pic, btw, note the double taillights that differentiate the Bel Air from the Impala (I should also take time out to note that the license plates are either real or very close to real...EON even got correct the NY State law of having both front and rear license plates, which is not mandatory in many US states like Louisiana, where, as is shown on the taxi below this one, there is no front plate)...
http://pics.imcdb.org/0is511/laldcharlie2xy4.7315.jpg
http://pics.imcdb.org/0is402/laldcharlie4da0.6764.jpg
Here's the New Orleans cab...follow the link and click the rear of the car for another "double taillights" view.
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_193763-Chevrolet-Bel-Air-1973.html
Seeing as one of these two will almost certainly be the Bel Air (I also checked; Strutter drives an Impala Coupe, not a Bel Air...but, ironically, the cars DID have the same wheelbase, meaning they can re-use most of the baseplate and just delete the second exhaust pipe on the left side of the car), I'm curious...who here favors the New York "Airport Rent-a-Car" and who favors the New Orleans taxi?
(1) Collection definately finishes at 135
(2) They have not been told the final 5 parts yet
Unless someone has a direct contact with Eaglemoss that is the official position at the moment in the UK.
Rennacar for me please for the precise reason that it looks like a regular car.
Silver Wraith - FRWL
Dodge Polara - YOLT
Ford Galaxie - DAF
VW Karmann Ghia - Octopussy
Lincoln - LTK
Phantom V - LTK
to name just a few.
Anyway, a few more piccies of my unofficial cars
Citroen CX - NSNA
Work in progress:
Bentley - NSNA
A FRWL Bentley painted and the rear wheels covered-
Bedford '67 Casino Royale