I was at the flea market today as I always am on Sunday mornings… I am always on the look out for model kits, especially rare or odd ones. So far I have found 2 of the 4 that I have really been after, those 4 being. The Mach 5 from speed racer, The Mystery Machine from scooby doo, The Delorian from Back to the future, and the Ecto 1 from Ghost busters.
I was walking, looking around, mostly of the kits I see are NASCAR kits, which are wholly uninteresting to me. Under a pile of them I see the Deloean back to the future kit. I do a 180 and make a B line for the table. Grab the box and open it to look… it was started… not to bad, nothing but some parts snapped on where snapping could be done, but it was all open and parts were laying everywhere to the point that I couldn’t trust it without sitting there for a good half hour and counting every single part two or three times to make sure. It was just such a disappointment, one of my 4 grail kits (as far as cars go).
Yes, I can get the polar lights ones on ebay, but its a minimum of 15$ and its not the same as getting them for 5$ at the flea market like I did 2 polar lights planet of the apes kits today (5 each)
So you wanted a complete kit for 5 bucks and passed because it might have been a few parts? If the instruction sheet was still there, it would have been easy to do a parts inventory…
Otherwise youi don’t know if you were right or not… You may have just set your Grail Kit right back on the pile…
Plus, you may have been able to scratch-build any missing parts, or substituted others from say, one of the NASCAR kits…
Also, there’s a chance that you’d come across a parts-kit later on down the road… Or use that kit for a parts-kit… Can’t build up your spares box if you don’t have spare parts…
When you buy a kit that’s been outta the box, you gotta THINK outside the box…
I’d have dropped the 5er if it seemed reasonable condition and it meant so much.
All 4 of my Tamiya 1/350th kits were found at train shows of all places. Never paid more than 50 bucks for them. Granted these were unopened, but the point it, you need to be ready to use those moments.
Liberated a 48th scale Lanc from a trainshow as well. It was easy to get some parts clean up by simply scoring some spare parts from Borgfeldt.
Actually, I am that poor. The job market is horrible right now, I went to said flea market with 17$ to spend. The kit wasn’t 5$ it was marked 10$ as well.
Also hans, it wasn’t parts from the normal car that may have been missing, but parts from the time machine parts, the little fidley bits that would be really hard to replicate that would have been missing. Plus, didnt really have a half hour to sit there going through every part 2 or 3 times to make sure it was there.
People are the flea markets with kits are dishonest at best. I have had them reseal kits with missing parts. reseal the bags INSIDE of the boxes with missing parts, put pieces to differnt kits together in a box to make it seem like its all one kit.
Then there are the people taht have no idea of value, had one lady ask 5$ for a figure kit that goes for 3.50$ online
Well if you didn’t have half-an-hour to check out your “Holy Grail” kit-find, and you had cash in hand to get it, I question how much of a “Holy Grail” to you it really was…
Ah, I didn’t realize I was posting to have the placement of my symbols and the spelling of my car names commented on. I didn’t get the spelling right because the in forum spell checker didn’t know either. And ya know, im tired of a select few of you being well… complete ***holes to me on the majority of the treads I start, you can go to hell for all I care.
But you are right, Smeagol. We shouldn’t be bustin’ yer chops over such trivial stuff as grammar and spelling.
So, about that model - I gotta tell ya, if it was one of my ‘holy grail’ kits, I’da snagged it, even with a chance that it was missing parts. Maybe that kit isn’t as important to you as you think it is?
It was a Holy Grail car for me too, but the real one. I have never experienced “love at first sight” with any machine, except with this car. It sounds funny and stupid, but when I laid eyes on a DeLorean cruising up the street back in 1982 (yes before the movie) I felt like I was staring at the most beautiful girl in the world! Being that I was in high school with only a paper route for spending money, a $25,000 car (well $18,000 if you could haggle effectively) was way out of my league. I went through college dreaming of getting one, but the longer I waited, the more unrealistic the dream became. I almost had a chance to drive one at a car dealership that was trying to unload it, but guess what, the car wouldn’t start! Just like in the movie. We couldn’t get to the battery because the front hood release handle was torn out! Recently I noticed that someone is selling DeLoreans that have been built on a new stainless steel chassis with a combination of original stock and rebuilt parts, but the asking price is now something like $57,000. I have no illusions about what the car is and what it can and cannot do, but sigh… Becoming older has taught me that some things are not meant to be, and the mature thing is to let it go. So that’s why I build sci-fi models instead! [H]
Smeagol, sorry to invade your thread, but I had to share. Is everyone asleep, or on another thread yet? Good. Shoot me a conversation, and I might be able to help you “live the dream.”