Hot off the presses! James Bond’s Lotus submarine, from one of the coolest Bond chase scenes ever IMHO:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10355620/10/0
Looks like a new tool, thank God. It does not convert to a road car, but at least the interior is complete. I have the old Nichimo Lotus S1 which is the same version as this car. Oh darn, does that mean I have to cross kit them now?
I just got a notice last night from HLJ that my Lotus has shipped!! Based on the sprue layout I’m sure they will release a “stock” Lotus. New chassis, wheels and tires and a back bumper. I’ll post pics when mine arrives.
Thanks for posting !
It will look good next to Little Nellie.
Shame there are no figures but they’d be hard to see inside the kit.
Now we need a new tool Stromberg chopper with pilot Naomi in the same scale…[:D] [whstl]
Hey that’s cool! Wonder if you could scratchbuild a Roger Moore holding a fish out the window figure for the land version???
PS: I like how you think Goose, anything with the lovely Mrs. Munro is good in my book. [ht]
A Roger Moore figure evicting a fish would be a cool addition. [:D]
Worse comes to worse and no pilot is included with a Stromberg Helo…I suppose the Preiser female figures could be converted…[^o)]
I think the fish was a goatfish, for anyone wanting to scratchbuild one.
And for those who are interested in a 1/6 figure of lovely Caroline Munro:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10324636
I noticed the Lotus kit has separate fairings for the wheel wells, so a road going version seems to be certain. Fujimi could simply tool a modified chassis plate to take suspension arms and mold separate wheel wells.
I’m tickled that we have a new tool plastic kit of my favorite Bond car!
Wow, now that’s cool G! Very good likeness of her, the face is perfect.
And it’s of her as Stella Star of ‘Starcrash’ even, I think the only movie she ever starred in. ‘Starcrash’ is an interesting movie, I’ll just say it’s entertaining in how you don’t think it can get anymore batguano insane and then it does. As one internet bad movie fan put it- if you ever want to see David Hasselhoff in mascara fighting stop motion animated robots with a lightsaber this is the movie for you…
My biggest complaint with the movie is they dubbed over Caroline’s beautiful sexy English accent with a dull bland American one… WHY!!!
And funny though a big Bond fan I’m not sure I’ve had a favorite car from the films. Though I’ll admit I loved the insane chase though the Greek olive groves in ‘For Your Eyes Only’ with that nutty little golf cart of a car.
Star Crash! That movie is an A-lister on my “worst movies of all time” hall of fame! Aside from Ms Munro in her fetching bikini and clear plastic space suit, I only remember that the ships looked like they were made from Foam Core board covered with model kit sprues, spray painted silver, then lit with Christmas lights. Oh yeah, David Hasslehoff and that mustachioed robot with the western drawl. “Ya can’t keep a good robot down!” I actually saw this steaming pile of excrement in the theater. Yes, I actually paid real money. Argh, my head wants to explode.
Back to happy thoughts. Lotus submarine. Okay, feel better now.
Gee friggin’ whiz, you saw it in the theater!?! Wow! I picked it up on Blu-Ray (yes it came out in Blu-Ray!) a couple years ago on the recommendation of a bad movie fan site mostly due to Munro.
I thought the ‘Star Hawk’ and the Imperial Battleship looked ok for a cheapie but the Floating City - well in Blu-Ray you can see it in all it’s glory! It wasn’t just parts from plastic kits used, there were entire sprues glued to the thing, the modelmaker didn’t even detach the parts! I was able to identify a few of them from Tamiya kits. There’s at least one thing that looks like a Thermos bottle with the rubber band tracks from a tank kit wrapped around it! And then the whole thing was hosed down with several coats of spray paint in different garish colours. And then the camera moves over the thing in slow ponderous motion so you can see all the detail, by golly they were proud of this piece of krap!!!
The commentary is interesting, seems when the film was almost done one of the French backers announced he had the perfect name- ‘Starcrash’ and demanded they change it. So the producer decided that it wouldn’t be fair if there wasn’t a ‘starcrash’ in the movie and came up with the idea of the Floating City and told the one and only FX guy to build it and have it filmed in two days. So it’s at least some little excuse why the thing looked like something tossed together by a third grader who failed art class.
Gee friggin’ whiz Gamera, you BOUGHT the blu-ray?! [:|] My friends and I left the theater feeling like we had just eaten pickled dog crap.
Happy thoughts - Lotus submarine. Happy thoughts - Lotus submarine…
…So sort of back on topic, what was Ms Munro flying in The Spy Who Loved Me, a Bell Jet Ranger? And where can we get a motorcycle with a missile sidecar? I think Revell did a 1/25 kit of a truck with a trailer and a pair of Jet Skis.
Lol, well as you can tell from my screen name one of my other hobbies is watching terrible movies!
Anyway to get back more on topic I think the chopper is a Jet Ranger. I think there’s a 1/32nd kit out there that’s not too hard to find. In 1/48th there’s a (I think) Fujumi kit that’s long out of production. I found one years ago I want to build as a ‘Santini Air’ chopper to go with my Aoshima ‘Airwolf.’
I’m a little surprised there aren’t more Bond models out there. I did a search and kept coming up with the Connery figure, Odd Job, and Bond’s car from ‘Goldfinger’. There seems to be a chopper from the new movie and the Moonrakker but not much else. There was a Moore figure, a Brosen one, and a model a Aki’s Toyoda from ‘You Only Live Twice’ but they’re all out of production and seem to go for a bunch of money today.
LOL I also saw Starcrash in 1979 in the theater, I remember the crowd being so upset that at the end some dissatisfied filmgoer threw a full bucket of popcorn which blew apart across the screen just like an exploding Death Star.
As for Bond kits I am hoping someone reissues the Little Nellie kit, I want to build one but they are $$$
PS re Starcrash, I always thought the spaceship models looked like they were made out of the Styrofoam packing from a TV set. I do know for a fact that the starfields were Xmas lights on a black painted backdrop. …and I also have the DVD, because well, why not?
Hmmm, was thinking that I suppose you could build Tiffany’s (Diamonds are Forever) and Jinx’s (Die Another Day) Ford Mustangs out of a regular car kit. Same with the AMC car Bond steals and does the corkscrew jump (Man With the Golden Gun). I need to think about this a little more…
Bashmonkey and Gamera - Shame on you two for buying Starcrash…where can I get one? [:P]
It would be cool to see new kits of Bond vehicles like Little Nellie and of course the Sean Connery Aston Martin DB5, the original Bond car. Too bad the other Lotus Esprits that Bond used were later models; you can’t just repaint the sub kit and put “burglar protected” stickers on the window.
BTW, back in the late 1980s I saw one of those wet subs used by Stomberg’s men on a trailer parked on the street by a family friend’s house. Unfortunately he didn’t know who owned it. But it looked exactly like the two man wet sub in the movie, color and all.
Per what I see online, the chopper flown by Stromberg’s pilot Naomi is a Jet Ranger…
http://www.themiamiautomuseum.com/0-jet-ranger-helicopter-from-the-james-bond-movie-the-spy-who-loved-me-c-1006.htm
dunno how good the kits already in existence really are, ergo; my thoughts of a new tool.
…Revell released a Moonraker Space shuttle in case someone wants a spacecraft that isn’t covered with Tamiya kit sprues…[whstl]
http://www.007collector.com/revell-moonraker-space-shuttle-usa/
Very cool guys! One of the guys in our club built one of the Moonrakker shuttles, I’m not sure of the brand. He had a trio of figures of Moore Bond, Dr. Goodhead, and Jaws to go with it.
Seems there were a couple of diver and sea-sled kits back in the day for ‘Thunderball’ but haven’t been reissued.
My kit showed up a couple of days ago. It looks good, and I didn’t see anything that raised a red flag.
https://flic.kr/p/C7BEoV]
[/url]Lotus-01 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr
As others have noted, the kit looks to have been engineered for a future road version. The decal sheet has both car and sub instruments.
https://flic.kr/p/BZkatv]
[/url]Lotus-02 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr
I didn’t know the anti-aircraft rocket blasted out of the middle of the rear hatch glass! Such is Hollywood. I noticed a small tube-like part on the side of the driver’s door (H18) - maybe it is supposed to be a bilge outlet for the filming vehicle? At least you can leave it off, as the hole is flashed over. Is that how the fish got in? [:P]
https://flic.kr/p/BX2Sqj]
[/url]Lotus-03 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr
IIRC the real Lotus Series 1 had ugly plaid upholstery on the seats, but the kit instructions say gray. It’s a pointless thing to wonder about though, as the louvers will prevent any view into the cabin. Anyway, super happy with the kit!
Good to hear the kit is worthwhile.[:D]
The anti-aircraft rocket was used to get Naomi and her Bell Jet Ranger off Bond’s back…so to speak.
As Bond always prefers to be on top…the event wasn’t too surprising…[whstl][;)]
.
The fish was released by Bond’s hand upon driving onto a beach full of startled sun worshippers.
Hmmm…not sure how the figh got in…[^o)]; Bond merely rolled down the driver side window and evicted the fish.[:O]
Thanks for the low-down G! Funny I watched the movie a few months ago and didn’t really think that much about the SAM or fish, I guess I don’t expect too much realism with a Bond flick!
Oh I’m in no way complaining about the plausibility of the gadgets - I loved them! When the rocket launched and blasted poor Naomi to bits, I thought “Holy cow, that was soooo cool!”
i think the fish got in via the bilge tube. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
I’m betting that someone is working on a fully convertible Bond Esprit right now. FYI you would need to make cutouts in the belly plate for the tires, as the kit part is solid and lacks any outlines. A second kit can provide parts for a retacted bumper. You would also need to fabricate a chin spoiler, which has a super simple shape, looking like it should flip down from the underbody to deploy.
And then you’d need a Roger Moore and Barbara Bach figure set. It never ends…