ERTL Quality

[PHArchivist]

Consider this thread just general comentary...

I've bought quite a few ERTL car kits over the past few years, but its been a year or two since I've built one...

Boy, the quality sort of sucks these days.. HEAVY connection points to the parts runners, poor locations of the connection points, WAY to much flash, heavy use of mold release...

I was surprised -- seemed like a departure from the "semi-acceptable" level of quality they seemed to protray in the past...

 

[Raygun]

Well, it's not Ertl anymore either...it's owned by Racing Champions. I don't think they give a rat's a$$ about the plastic kits. From what I heard they bought it for the diecast line.

Raygun

 

[PHArchivist]

Yeah the die-casts are still pretty pleasing...

 

[rayra]

always been middlin'-to-poor, imho.

 

[TheSt.LouisKid]

For whatever its worth............

I bought the ERTL Ecto 1 and it blew. It was probably the only model I ever threw in the trash. It was poorly designed and I thought it was absolutely no fun.

 

[PHArchivist]

I have the older Ecto 1A Hope its not that bad, and hope the Polar Lights Ecto is better!

 

[Raygun]

Well, at least Ertl and MPC gave us soemthing to work with. The Falcon kit is BIG, and yeah it's inaccurate, but it's a starting point and beats the hell out of making it from scratch.

As for PL's Ecto-1. It's not bad. If you like PL kits, then you won't be upset. Personally, I'm not a big fan of their choices for kits and they seem to have a thing for making them either really big or really small. There's no middle ground. Thier Jupiter Two kit was decent, and their C57-D was nice, but jeez...WTF do you put it???

Raygun

 

[Talisen]

Since we've brought up the Ecto models, I'm currently building both. And other than an excessive amount of flash on the Ertl Ecto 1A, it's a lot sharper in detail than the PL Ecto 1. The Ertl also has more in the way of detail, like keyholes and handles.

Of course, I've spent a few weeks just detailling the top roof racks for both - all those warning labels and the like.

Just started working on the interiors, besides making Proton packs and racks

Oh what fun!

 

[Raygun]

I think you see more detail on the car models since they either had a car kit for the basic cadillac already (at least the dashboards, etc were reused) and they also have more experience with car models than PL does.

Raygun

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Actually the STAP, Tank, and 1/48 TIEs were really good at the end of the line.

 

[Robert McLain]

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Actually the STAP, Tank, and 1/48 TIEs were really good at the end of the line.
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I agree. I thought that the ertl tie was the ultimate until the fine molds came out, although I'm not crazy about the size of the fine molds...1/72 scale seems kinda small.

Robert

 

[staermose]

Are just talking about the ERTL plastic kits here? If not I think the finest of their Star Wars must be the Rancor model. And they even threw in a Gammorean Guard.

 

[EchoLeader]

I have to agree that the Rancor was a nice kit to build, at least I enjoyed it.

Here's how mine came out.

 

[staermose]

Very nice. Love the base.

 

[Robert McLain]

Awesome job! The ERTL rancor was my first vinyl kit. I didn't realize that you have to fill the legs with plaster or something similar to keep it from drooping. He ended up looking through his legs after a while

Robert