Well, this has been quite a year waiting on this model. Disappointing, but a fair resolution in the end. I believe Chris and his team set out to make this model the best it could be and my hunch is the factory they commissioned over-promised on what they could do. By the time Chris realized it, any changes to the design would have most likely not been cost-feasible and Tomy management made him approve the final sample like it or not. In hindsight, that "highlight being the plugs on the right side" comment from the August update really does read like a deliberate inclusion by the team to discretely voice their dissatisfaction with the final sample.
While the model is not ideal, it's not bad for what it is at that price point. Seeing it lit up helps a lot. Unfortunately for me, it will always feel like an "almost good enough" model. It's a shame as a few tweaks would have made it significantly better. First off, place those plug holes on the left side. I could've justified it as being in spirit with the filming prop if they were on that side. But of course, they placed them on the right side and on top of that obstructed the 'clean' side of the ship with that stand and that's my biggest problem: that stand and the need for saucer support. A repaint would have been possible and I'm not totally convinced that filling in those seam-lines isn't doable. A few posts, a few pages ago, mentioned it being possible. However, there's not much I can do about modding the saucer to not need support. Maybe some JB weld would do it but I wouldn't know until I inspect it and at that point, it just seems like more work than it's worth. I'd rather go invest in a PL kit. I happened to be looking at them before this campaign launched. As it happened, the Tomy came along and was a nice looking model, aggressively priced, and my biggest concern was maybe the weathering wouldn't look good and need to be redone. Now knowing that it needs more work than that, I'd rather just invest my time and money into a PL kit. I'm not sure why they engineered it the way the did. I know diecast is popular with some but that wasn't a selling point for me. They really should've known the limitations of mass-producing with it but again, their factory most likely exaggerated their manufacturing capabilities. Or Tomy could've just built it like Master Replicas built theirs. Ah well.
As far as the Delorean project they're working on is concerned, I believe it will fare a little better. Looking at the promo pics, I saw some noticeable inaccuracies (well, for us RPF types) but nothing egregious enough for an average collector to notice and at its price point, you won't find anything nicer. And of course, diecast on cars is more familiar territory to work on. I didn't back it myself but it will probably be a decent model (for the price). We'll see. I'm 50/50 on Tomy right now. Good on them for offering refunds but they need to be more transparent about things. If they offered a Refit in diecast, I think I'd have to pass. Non-diecast Refit? I'd probably still pass but at least give it a look.
While the model is not ideal, it's not bad for what it is at that price point. Seeing it lit up helps a lot. Unfortunately for me, it will always feel like an "almost good enough" model. It's a shame as a few tweaks would have made it significantly better. First off, place those plug holes on the left side. I could've justified it as being in spirit with the filming prop if they were on that side. But of course, they placed them on the right side and on top of that obstructed the 'clean' side of the ship with that stand and that's my biggest problem: that stand and the need for saucer support. A repaint would have been possible and I'm not totally convinced that filling in those seam-lines isn't doable. A few posts, a few pages ago, mentioned it being possible. However, there's not much I can do about modding the saucer to not need support. Maybe some JB weld would do it but I wouldn't know until I inspect it and at that point, it just seems like more work than it's worth. I'd rather go invest in a PL kit. I happened to be looking at them before this campaign launched. As it happened, the Tomy came along and was a nice looking model, aggressively priced, and my biggest concern was maybe the weathering wouldn't look good and need to be redone. Now knowing that it needs more work than that, I'd rather just invest my time and money into a PL kit. I'm not sure why they engineered it the way the did. I know diecast is popular with some but that wasn't a selling point for me. They really should've known the limitations of mass-producing with it but again, their factory most likely exaggerated their manufacturing capabilities. Or Tomy could've just built it like Master Replicas built theirs. Ah well.
As far as the Delorean project they're working on is concerned, I believe it will fare a little better. Looking at the promo pics, I saw some noticeable inaccuracies (well, for us RPF types) but nothing egregious enough for an average collector to notice and at its price point, you won't find anything nicer. And of course, diecast on cars is more familiar territory to work on. I didn't back it myself but it will probably be a decent model (for the price). We'll see. I'm 50/50 on Tomy right now. Good on them for offering refunds but they need to be more transparent about things. If they offered a Refit in diecast, I think I'd have to pass. Non-diecast Refit? I'd probably still pass but at least give it a look.
.. I have lots of tools at hand to potentially fix the seams/holes if they bother me enough.
