Nichimo quality?

[bergerac54]

I came across a Nichimo 1:20 Toyota Celica 1600GT High Detail on ebay. Starts at AU$120 and that seems a bit expensive to me but Ill probaly get it if its a good kit. Can anyone comment on the quality of that kit or of Nichimo 1/20 kits in general???

[ratdat]

First off...visit http://www.f1kits.com as that's the seller. Not only has he got other Celica kits but this kit is listed at only $79 on his site.

Almost every Nichimo kit I have seen has been motorised. I personally have not seen the contents of this kit but from my experience Nichimo stuff can be excellent. I did have a 1/20 KHGC211 Skyline kit which was motorised but you would never have known once it was built. The motor actually fitted inside the engine block and passed the drive down inside the driveshaft to the rear axle which had gears inside. Very neat design. It also had opening doors amd hood too.

I have a Nissan Gloria 430 Turbo kit by Nichimo and the moulding quality is excellent as are the chrome parts (not only chrome but satin aluminium plated bits too!) and the windows are tinted.

Some Nichimo kits can be pretty basic. Take the Datsun Violet Turbo and the others in that series. They are very basic kits although still well molded. They're motorised and lack any real features and detail and don't come with the decals included to make the race versions shown on the box. I suspect these particular models are quite old tooling though.

I don't think that Celica kit is easily found so could be worth getting but I'd ask the seller a few questions first about what the kit is like (opening doors engine detail etc) as that'll give you some idea at least of what you're likely to get.

[tonioseven]

Their 1/24 Mazda RX-3 kit is available at HLJ .

[bergerac54]

hehehe Im not going to post anymore threads late at night before Ive had a chance to think about it