1-144 F-TOYS Early Jets Series 1
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Wow, this is cool. I know some guys will be tired of the me-262, but not this one!
.Expected release 01 December (2008)
A good range of early jets,
Me-262A (single seat)
Me-262B (two seater)
Gloster Metor
HE 162A + V1
KikKa
MIg 15
Lottery Item - REd Mig 15
.
I would imagine, there is some series bonus and colour bonuses,
Interesting not all items have two colour options, i think there still should be colour bonus for these too?
Thanks to BOBO
14 comments:
Oh boy!
Whilst I can understand the situation with the Kikka, the single colour choice on the Meteor and He162 is a little odd, as there are plenty of options for each. But I'm certainly not going to complain.
The downside for we "Down Under" collectors is that our dollar has been decimated against every major currency. For instance, it has fallen from 97 cents US to a mere 65 cents in under two months. Suffice to say, we're selling on evilBay in anything other than our own currency and buying diddly-squat unless it's "bargain basement" stuff.
To quote Marvin the Paranoid Android, "I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed!" Yes, just like our dollar!
smeg
It reflects some strange decisions recently.
like the next wing Kit series 2 with only 3 items?.
I thought they would have easily knocked out another he162 without too much problem, and maybe even a sliver meteor?
The kikka had to be there for the home market i suppose? although i am sure as in the past we could all come up with our fave selection?
so where, next?
The recently released Easy Models He162 in 1/72 shows what variety exists for paint schemes. I suppose it is funny how we view these prefinished items, as we never feel as restricted with a kit that we need to paint ourselves. As Roberto has shown us - rather spectacularly - any item can be pulled apart and refinished (e.g. the F-Toys Shinden as the Luftwaffe "Ente").
Still, a second He162 paint scheme wouldn't have gone astray for us lazy buggers!
One of the positives is that the Meteor is an F.1 which nicely complements the F.8 resin from Don Schmenk or vac-form from Welsh Models (if you can get it).
As to where next, there are certainly other early jets F-Toys could do in a Series 2. The survey in this blog lists some other notables - the Shooting Star and Airacomet, MiG 9 and Yak 17, He280 and Hs132, etc. Or perhaps a series of "trailblazers" in early jet technology, like the He176, He178, Gloster E28/39 Whittle and Caproni Campini N.1. OK, perhaps the N.1 shouldn't be included - although it looked like a jet, it was slower than a Fiat CR42!
Which reminds me ... what about a second series of biplanes? The CR42 is an obvious starter, along with the Hs123. However, if F-Toys do go down this route, let's hope they align the top and bottom wings better - the Spad I bought was very asymmetric!
The meteor,He-162+v-1,Mig-15 and kikka are the stars of this release... and will be the most hunted itens
I wish less me-262As...the B model is ok..
And I think we have space for more Early Jets ...as DH Vampires,J29 Tunnan,Banshees,Furys,Mirages,Mig 17, ..planes with history.. and not covered by big brands as kits
the late 40s through to the 60s certainly provide a wealth of options!
Brits, USA, France, USSR and more... in the early jet days....
when designs used to change almost every year... not like no where the same jets have been flying for 20+yrs..... and some like the B-52 or Harrier have been flying 40 years!!!! and flight only really took off during 1914-1918 war!
I could certainly have done without more Me262s and Mig-15s....a lot. Why not a Mk1 and Mk3 Meteor? Couple of He-162s would have been easy too.
Don't be talking up the Welsh Mk8 Meteor....it is a complete dog. Its' one redeeming feature is that it provides accurate undercarriage for the Don Schmenk resin....and even that's a kit that needs a lot of work to be accurate :-(
New poster here! Let me just say that I've been following this blog for months now, and it's great to get the news here first on upcoming 1/144 planes.
Anyway, my opinion might not be a popular one, but I'd say bring on the ME262-As. I'm a 262A freak (I own all Takara incarnations, the sole version from Bandai Wing Club and several versions from 21st Century toys, even though they leave a lot to be desired, and a 1/18 Admiral Toys version hanging on the ceiling.) The Gloster Meteor, the 262B and the Kikka are the most I'm looking forward to, though I'd probably buy them all.
Judging from past kit releases from FToys, I wonder if the 262A mold was rehashed from another manufacturer. Could it be Takara's or Bandai's? If so I hope they took Takara's. Cheers!
Marvin,
Glad you like the blog.
I think they could well be Takaras.
It is plain to see that F-toys is not adverse to using other peoples molds or desings (I have no problem either).
Interestingly (and maybe i look for thelink later) a few years back as part of the Takara FAOW:WOTL series there were some prototypes of a Me262B shown at one of the shows but they never showed up in an official release!! Maybe these design have been bought up?
Although eduard and Trumpeter would have CAD models
available, or are we now soon to see a Hasegawa/Platz Me262 ?
The decision to only do one he162 and meteor is a little odd? Still one is better than none, and I still think there could be a colour option on these too!?
The selection here is a bit jumbled. It's like they couldn't decide if they wanted a Korean War collection or a WW2 1945 jets collection. What they should've done (IMHO) was drop the red MiG-15 as the secret and instead have a USAF F-86 as the secret.
or ditch the MIg-15 for a MIG-9 or one of the Russian copies of a late German design? or an American jet as per our voting panel?
To me, the Mig15 doesn't belong with this set. As BD mentioned, there were other Russian jets long before the Mig15 came into service. Also, the Red Mig15 is a lottery item with a quantity of only 200 worldwide. No one, outside of Japan and possibly Hong Kong, will be lucky enough to pick one of these up for less than than $50USD. Unless of course, you consider paying $150 on auction sites, a "lucky" proposition.
Really, there's nothing new in this set, when you consider that everything has already been released in one form or another:
* Anigrad's Metero F.3 - excellent kit costs over $120USD since it came bundled to the C-17 resin.
* Wing144's V-1 - outstanding resin kit is sold out and impossible to find even in Japan.
* Reviresco's V-1 - white metal average and came with an Oka.
* KamideKroKro's Kikka - average to decent resin, but takes forever to arrive from HLJ.
* Cambus's Kikka - basicaly Furutua quality; very poor.
* Fe-Resin's He162 - outstanding and can still be found, but it carries a typical resin price tag.
* Attack's F-15 - average but easily found around $9USD.
* Takara Me262A - excellent
* Bandai Me262A - good
* Crown/Revell/Mitsuwa Me262A - passable early kits, harder to find now, but poor in quaility
* Eduard's Me262A/B - excellent kits and easily found for $8USD for a dualpack.
However, F-Toys keeps raising the quality of their molds, so these will be nice upgrades. They still have a lot to learn about assembly and final fitting though. All their kits basically need to be disassembled, cleaned up, put back together with seams filled in. The US Navy series were amazing in detail of the panel lines and rivets, but horrible in overall fit. They were just poorly assembled, which I guess is to be expected with $4 gashapon. Once reassembled correctly though, they're outstanding and probably some of the best quality 1/144 kits. The F-14s, however, had disfigured wing roots, so that was disappointing.
To me, the stars of this set are the V1 and the Meteor. The 262s are obviously fillers, and will satisfy some. The Mig and Kikka will be nice upgrades. Still, I'm definitely looking forward to this release!
Yeah, you can build an outstanding Mig-15 by combining the Attack and OzMods kits, and it really didn't fit with this set. One of the early Yak jets would have been more fitting and more welcome. It would have been nice if they'd thrown in a Vampire and a F-8 Meteor too....and if wishes were $.....
Hello bluedonkey99
I have one red color mig-15 f-toys.
Regards, Victor
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