I remember back in the '70s that Bandi had some nicely detailed kits in 1/48 scale, What ever happened to them? I had an Africa Korp Opel Maultier, a friend had tanks that had interiors. Where are they now? Bob
ebay [:D]
Ditto, check ebay. I found some sitting on the top shelve way in the back at a hobby shop in germany about ten years ago, so you never know. They turn up at flea markets and garage sales sometimes too.
They do constantly pop up on E-bay … some of the line are getting a little harder to find and therefore rather pricey … but I have seen quite a few there.
Fuman reissued them about 5 years ago under the old Frog/Fuman label. I picked up the M4A3 Sherman and Hetzer when they were reissued. The same kits but instead of decals they included a precolored sheet of stickers (yes, peel-n-stick). The Sherman stickers were white stars and markings on a green background (had to cut them out yourself) and the Hetzer was black and white German markings on a sand background.
Ebay is the best place to find them, although I did find the old Bandai issue Maultier last summer at an out of the way hobby shop for $8-9. I’ve also got the M-12 self propelled howitzer, but it came in an Academy box (everything on it says Bandai though).
Eduard did a PE set for at least the M4A3 Sherman, I have that for my Sherman kit.
I agree E-bay would be a good place to look. Good luck.
mark956
This is why I enjoy this forum so much, even on Christmas Morning I get fast answers. THANX Guys and MERRY CHRISTMAS! Bob
Had to restart this.
Who acquired the Bandai molds? Fuman? Anyone else? How would one go about finding this out?
to continue the trend…definitely check e-bay. I saw some there yesterday actually. However, they were not that cheap…
they were great kits, all with interiers
built 20 years ago, abandoned & rotting away in my closet ! (lol)
I just loved those old Bandai kits!
The question still stands. More important than splurging mucho dinero on eBay.
Who acquired the Bandai molds?
Fuman has the Bandai molds. They are a Chinese company that uses the old British brand Frog. Read my first post on the subject (5th one down).
I always liked those kits, but didn’t think much of their choice of scale. At least ONE manufacturer clued into the fact that WE LIKE INTERIORS!
Ron
I think it was actually a better scale than 1/35. At least it was a constant scale with a major aircraft scale. 1/48 scale has several benefits, larger than 1/72 & 1/76, but uses up less space than 1/35.
I think that they tried to continue with the scale Aurora made popular. Tamiya even tried this scale a long time ago.
Tamiya has the 1/48 Kubelwagen, maybe they’d be nice enough to bring back the old Bandai line.
Bandai is the largest maker of plastic model kits in the world, I’m told. They make Gundams which account for like half of all models sold these days.
Guess they got out of the not so profitable part of the business.
Actually I like 1/48 as well. I have been keeping an eye on them on e-bay fro quite some time. But the bandia are a bit pricey. I have several of the Zhendufu/Kitech kits. The range from poor to poor by most standards but I still enjoy building them. The Abrams, Challenger 1, Merkava and the M2 were the best ones I’ve bought with the M2 still being the poorest of the lot. I even posted the abrams on this site. Cutting the flash and making them look good is part of the challenge for me.
To show how poor one of the kits is I have the M-60 Marine tank with passive armor. Nice box art but what you get inside is obviously a VERY old mold with a couple of passive armor panels for the front and a small panel I assume you are supposed to “cut to fit” even though there isn’t enough panels to even do half the job. I bought some evergreen plastic, which I happened to find in the EXACT pattern by the way, and have already started cutting out the proper panels based on reference photos. They also have often very vague instructions. The M2 I just got has the “new” M2a3[?] Iraqi freedom type armor on the box art but what you get in the box is a standard M2 with the ‘old style’ original armor. WTF?!
I could never recommend these kits to any serious modeler but like I said I still enjoy building them. Go figure.[:-^]