About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - Revell - Star Wars

I can't speak for everyone, but I think most of us (or a lot of us?) like a bit of Star Wars, even if only at a distance, or occasionally, and Revell had a bunch of new and old on display in London last month.

I only shot a few as I get a tad annoyed by the constant lack of scale-compatibility with this modern space/TV tie-in stuff, remember the great slogan of Airfix in the early days 'Constant Scale'!

It's one of life's ironies; back in the 1960's manufacturers responded to consumers requests for 'in-scale' ranges of toys which were being used to make railway layouts, or war-gaming armies, but now the whole industry has become servant to an ephemeral, fleeting phase of childhood before electronics and the stresses of 'growing-up fast' they have realised it's not about scale, it's about 'having an X-Wing' for a few months, as a result (and because the war-gamers and railway-buffs are taken care-of elsewhere) there's been a return to the 'box-scale', of the 1950's, especially for space lines, as there is such a differential between the depicted items - a 1:76th scale Star Destroyer would require a large garden to assemble in!

These four are from the Build & Play easy assembly/clip-together kit line (not sure 'kit' is the right word, but they are a kit-of-parts?) and with one around 40mm and the other close to 1:76th, they are quite useful, the 'Falcon and 'Walker' are not so!

A close-up of the A-Wing, well - it's got a figure!

A close-up of the Walker, scales not brilliant, but I like the fact that it references the old AT-AT, while being slightly different, sort of like the changes you see between an early war T34 and a cold-war up-armored T34/85, and I guess they couldn't call it an AT-HAW, but they could have called it an AT-Something; AT-HA would have been OK?

The 'new' Tie Fighter seems to have been given a bomber's body, which is definitely a continuity error! And the 1:80th of Obi Wan's starship is a bit small, but it could be useful with Galoob/Hasbro's figures?

There are also Star Wars themed stencil sets available in a link-up between Revell and an Orbis, whether it's the old Orbis Publishing of part-work and coffee-table book fame, or not; I haven't looked into (I think it is though!). Although, if you are tempted, I should point out that in the 2018 catalogue it's sets II and III, suggesting one is OOP, and will need to be tracked-down before it disappears.

Current Listing
03600 - Millennium Falcon - 1:241
03601 - X-wing Fighter - 1:112
03602 - Darth Vader's TIE Fighter - 1:121
03603 - Tie Interceptor - 1:90
03604 - Snowspeeder - 1:52
03605 - TIE Fighter - 1:110
03606 - Anakin's Jedi Starfighter - 1:58 1:58
03607 - Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter - Episode 2 - 1:58 1:58
03608 - ARC-170 Clone Fighter - 1:83
03609 - Imperial Star Destroyer - 1:12300
03610 - Boba Fett‘s Slave I - 1:160
03611 - Naboo Starfighter - 1:109
03612 - Sith Infiltrator - 1:257
03613 - Republic Gunship - 1:172
03614 - Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter - Episode 3 - 1:80
06053 - Republic Star Destroyer - 1:2700
06715 - AT-AT” 1:53
06718 - Millennium Falcon - 1:72
06719 - Imperial Star Destroyer - 1:2700
06749 - Imperial Star Destroyer - 1:4000
06755 - Rebel U-wing Fighter - 1:100
06759 - Resistance A-wing Fighter - 1:44
06160 - Kylo Ren‘s TIE Fighter” 1:70
06161 - First Order Heavy Assault Walker - 1:164
06762 - Resistance A-wing Fighter - 1:44
06763 - Poe's Boosted X-wing Fighter - 1:78
06765 - Millennium Falcon - 1:164
06767 - Han Solo Item A - 1:164 (still in development for forthcoming film)
06168 - Han Solo Item B - 1:28 (still in development for forthcoming film)
06169 - Han Solo Item C - 1:28 (still in development for forthcoming film)
06880 - Millennium Falcon - 1:144

Legend
Marked as new (but may be re-issue)
Not available yet
Close or near'ish to 'H0-00' gaming
Close or near'ish to 28mm role-play
Close or near'ish to 54/60mm figures

2 comments:

Ranalcus said...

>Bandai Star Wars were banned in Europe
>they were cheaper (less than a half of price) and hade much better quality than anything Revell and others could ever do

Hugh would you prefer stuff from older SW or New? Rebels or Empire?

Hugh Walter said...

Cheers Ranalcus, I'll eMail you, I've just got a couple of posts to lead for tomorrow!

H