Faust

Oh, I remember the Estes Honest John! I never had one of those, but I did have a tonne of other model rockets. Darn... those were fun!

During the Cold War, nuclear-tipped, rocket-launched weapons were all the rage. From the towering ICBMs that would end the world to the ridiculous and perilously short-ranged Davy Crockett nuclear mortar, it was expected that all phases of future war would be conducted by some kind of rocket bombardment with mushroom clouds as the end result. A perfect example of one such piece of equipment, and one that falls somewhere between the two aforementioned extremes, was the Honest John. This was a truck launched artillery rocket that could be fielded with both conventional and unconventional warheads. With a range of between 15 and 30 miles, it was basically the equivalent to tube artillery. It was highly mobile and promised to deliver nuclear Armageddon to an advancing enemy army from behind friendly lines. Of course, it only makes sense that there would be replicas of such a system, since it was important to the US and its allies. However, one of the more interesting reproductions of this weapon is actually a toy! I mean, it was the Cold War, what else were kids going to play with besides battlefield nukes? The toy I’m talking about is the Dinky Toys No. 665 Honest John, and it was a particularly long-lived model in the Dinky line! Check out this diecast doomsday weapon at the link below! Sure, it’s not a kit, but it’s a neat replica and it really fires! (Don’t point at eyes or face…) https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/dinky-no-665-m386-honest-john-missile-launcher/

I've noticed that a lot about old biplane box art. The art on the Matchbox Seafox makes that rinky-dink little thing look huge and butch, and the Shark's art makes it look very streamlined and fast, indeed. Of course, in neither case is that true... 🙂 Gotta love the power of perspective!

They say that “everything old is new again” and I think they must have had our current fascination with nostalgia particularly in mind when coming up with that phrase. The good thing about nostalgia is that sometimes it spawns a “do-over”, where whatever is being fondly remembered gets reinvented with the benefit of modern sensibilities and technology. Nowhere is that more apparent, to me at least, than when it comes to toys. The current crop of Transformers toys are almost exclusively re-dos of old classic standbys but with modern, top-notch design and functionality. However, before this wave of nostalgia hit, I had thought it would be fun to try and bring two of my favourite things (modelling, and Transformers) together. Rather, though, than model someone famous this time, I decided to go for a “What if they were real?” approach. That’s not that entertaining when the subject is a yellow Beetle, perhaps, but it gets plenty freaky when it’s a magenta, blue an purple quiltwork of an AH-64 Apache! Check out my “just for fun” take on the classic Decepticon helicopter named Spinister. What, you don’t remember him? Check it out at the link below, and you’ll wonder how the “in disguise” part was every supposed to work in this guy’s favour. https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/mecha-robots/academy-1-72-ah-64a-apache-spinister/

I'm not sure I'd use the word "precision" with it, but hey, you know... maybe they mean the scale is precise? I can't believe the number of times that this thing gets popped!

Well the people have spoken, and the winner in my poll to see what should be reviewed next was the Blackurn Shark, from FROG. This is one of those “Because you demanded it!” moments, and I have to say, I was surprised the Shark came out on top. It was close with the Neiuport and Macchi coming in close second and third, but the mighty Shark won out! Hailing from the 1968 time period, this first-style boxing certainly has he years on its side! So, if you’ like me and love a good classic kit, or you just want to see how it was done in the old days, check out the link below! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/frog-1-72-blackburn-shark-out-of-box/

I've got the 1/35 and 1/72 ICMs.... I guess I'd better get around to getting this 1/24 one too! I love that it's in "real car" scale! God I love those cars. If I could own one "super expensive" car in real life, it would be that. Not a Porsche, Lambo, Ferrari... not a Packard, Rolls or Bugatti... a G4. Beautiful and beastly all at once!

For a lot of people in the Northern Hemisphere, the winter months can be long and draggy. Sunshine is at a premium (if you see it at all), there’s usually cruddy weather and driving isn’t exactly trouble-free. Add to this the inevitable arrival of post-Christmas bills and a return to the “normal” routine, and you’ve got a recipe for some serious doldrums. Thankfully, my friend Alan took it upon himself to send my “January Blahs” packing by doing some packing of his own! In the mail near the end of January I got a surprise load of kits from him! You want to talk about a great way to end a day? Getting a box of awesome old kits in the mail is definitely a good way to do it! Thanks, man! Check out some of the cool stuff I got at the link below, and don’t forget to vote on which one I do in-depth first! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/scores-and-collections/cure-for-the-january-blahs/

There's no glory in a non-stock Pinto! The goal is to remind us all of the travesties that were foisted upon us, so we never let it happen again! 🙂

It is an interesting one, and a good one at that! I would love kits of things like the 2018 Fusion, or a Malibu, or some general stuff. Some of Japanese stuff is "everyday-ish", and some of the MPC stuff can be that way to. I'm loving my Beretta, even though it's a GTU, and I know Revell did pretty much every flavour of '92 Grand Prix (I've got the GTP, but stupidly passed up the base one. D'oh!). As for "everyday", did you check out the Daewoo LeMans on my site? As for normal trucks, there was the Courier (AMT? Revell? Can't recall...) and there's the newly reissued '95 Sonoma - it doesn't even have the tires for the 'off-roady' version!

If you know me, and/or the Sprue Lagoon, you know that I do have a thing for “loser cars”. However, it’s not just econoboxes and soulless “made-to-be-rented” cars that I love! I am also a fan of the mundane. That means cars that aren’t necessarily bad, and might be kind of exciting, but definitely things that you’d see everyday. They are the car equivalents to the “people in your neighbourhood” that Sesame Street sang about. One vehicle that surely fits this description is the Volvo 850 Turbo Estate wagon. I rather like these cars, and they’re decent, competent and even kind of stylish, in their own way. However, at least where I live, they were common. Not Chevy Celebrity common, but much more common than many other kinds of wagons. Since station wagons aren’t something that get kitted enough, in my view, I was very glad to come across this kit at Wings and Wheels in Toronto quite some time ago. I figured that the drab days of winter were a good time to pop it out and see what was up. After all, I remember seeing a lot of these in Beige. Check out Tamiya’s take on this Swedish family mover at the link below! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/tamiya-1-24-volvo-850-turbo-estate-oob/

Pictures are fixed. Not sure what was wrong. Try it now!

If there’s one thing I love, and one thing Bandai knows all about, it’s variants! When it comes to Gundam kits, there are quite often very many variants of major suits to choose from. The idea, of course, is that people will buy them all… well, it seems to work! Despite having 3 Jegan and two Jesta varieties in 1/144, I still picked up the 1/100 Master Grade Jegan when I ran into it. It was sure cheap enough for an MG, and it was a lot simpler than some of the more recent, overdone kits. However, I didn’t want just another green Jegan, so I figured out how to customize it. I did it as if it was still in service at the time of V-Gundam, thanks to the help of the recent RE:100 Gun Ez! Check out my custom Jegan, likely the last in this long line of evergreen grunt suits! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/mecha-robots/bandai-1-100-master-grade-rgm-89-r-jegan-custom-build/

I'm still saddened that Bandai, with all it's unrivalled abilities, still hasn't gotten it's house together when it comes to providing proper decals on these kits. Now, the U-Wing also has water decals... did the X and Y wings not? That's lame, if that's the case! Hope you got one, and are enjoying it. It's a neat little beast!

Glad to see that there are people out there who, like me, enjoy the weird stuff! I had a few of these when I was a kid too, but I cut my teeth on Hobbycraft kits; Matchboxes weren't so easy to get at the time for me! I've grown to love them, though, as you know! Chris: Awesome info on the Seafox. Thanks a tonne!