Quality of ERTL/ESCI kits?

[CeeElle]

Anyone know anything about the general quality of ERTL/ESCI kits? I've got my eye on a BMW M1 in Marlboro livery but know nothing about the two companies, which apparently collaborated on several kits...

Any help appreciated...

[MPWR]

The square topped box? Lauda's '79 Procar- yeah, I got that one. I'm considering doing it for the Alcohol/Tobacco comp.

In the box, it looks decent. It's full engine, and the detail level is not bad, but certainly not comparable to a 90's Tamiya. It's definately dated, and looks like it will take some work to get a good model out of it. I'd say the weak parts are the tyres, and the fact that my chassis is broken. To get the kit in Ertl's stupid square box, the sprue trees had to be broken down the center. Mine did not break cleanly, and some of the frame on the rear chassis broke away and is missing. Fortunately, I have an Esci (non Ertl) version of the kit with the sprues in one part and chassis intact- so with a bit of work i can recreate the missing bits. But I wouldn't be terribly surprised if this wasn't an uncommon problem with this kit (yay triple negative!).

Ertl had nothing to do with the kit, except distribution. I expect (but haven't verified) that the recent Revell Germany release is the same kit.

[CeeElle]

oh man... you're gonna do it for the alcohol/tobacco comp? mine will suck compared to yours.

[drunken monkey]

the revell bmw m1 procar is the same as the esci kit.
i have an esci non procar m1 and a revell procar and they are the same base kit.