Norev is definitely embracing exclusive online models. A handful of new colours will be made available in a few days for you to purchase. The featured model finds the 1:12 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL 1954 in Black. Though metal the shell is sealed. 300 units will be made available and priced at 149 euros. In 1:18 there is the Citroën Berlingo 2016 in Moka Brown and White. With the 1:18 Peugeot Partner 2016 in Silver rounding out the 1:18 examples. Each is priced under 70 euros.
Product# 123851 / 181643 / 181644 / 184896
There is absolutely no point in 1/12 sealed. None! Look at what most collectors (of the month) say about why they prefer a bigger scale over a smaller. It’s bad enough that some 1/18 are sealed or half-sealed.
It’s the new generation of collectors 12-18 year olds, who will ditch the models once they hit 20, the other breed are the middleaged men who buy them as a design element for their office. That’s why we see iconic and pop culture models like the 300SL, E-type etc. they are just shelf bricks. All of these don’t care for the hobby for what it is…The fact there are people who buy overpriced bricks, with axles that doesn’t even steer is enough to see how the things are going. Oh and if there is a plaque saying 1 of XXX they go crazy, like God himself gave it to them… If we want our hobby back, just stop buying garbage, it’s that simple!!! I don’t get the compulsive buying, like lab hamsters on meth. How many guys remember when AutoArt said they are switching to comsposite (posh word for plastic) so they can bring the prices down so more collectors can buy blah blah blah, now AutoArt is chasing CMC in terms of pricing…
At modelcarforum.de someone just presented their mid-90s 1/12 Ferrari 250 GTO in all-open diecast – bought for 100 Euros at the time! That tells volumes!
Excuse me, Sir, with all due respect: where was I arrogant or intolerant towards buyers and fellow collectors? I agree about Norev offering great value for money (please see my review of the sealed 308 Ferrari) and this is not arrogantly looking down on budget models. I find Amalgams sealed models equally pointless when opening options are available. This is not about the price tag. And if you don’t wish to open a model, by all means, go and buy sealed at 150 Euros, 1500 or 15000. I am sure there is demand for Amalgam’s efforts too.
Reply to Karsten and Razorblade: There is no need to get angry or nervous or arrogant when other model car collectors have different ideas and priorities. The model car market is huge and everybody has the right to buy what they like without other collectors looking down on them, whether it be all open or sealed, big or small, metal or resin or composite, cheap or expensive. And why shouldn’t Norev build 1/12 sealed model cars as long as there is a corresponding demand? Norev build very nice budget-friendly model cars, and there are collectors who want to buy and present model cars without being able to open and shut and move parts of them, by the way on any price-level (see BBR, MR, etc). So please be nice, friendly and tolerant.
Agreed! Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. I have one of the Jaguar XKEs, because I love the car and it’s big and pretty. I also own a 1:18 AutoArt version of the car which is flawed in its own right. They each serve their purpose.
I’m new to this hobby but I have to say based on these comments and some on other releases, I’ve never seen such toxic gatekeeping of a hobby before. How does the use of someone else’s diecast affect you all so deeply? Try to find more joy in your lives.
Matt, I know that there some “toxic gatekeepers” among model car collectors, but according to my experience they’re a small minority. So let’s just ignore them and keep up our great hobby. And to Karsten: No, you’re not arrogant, but there are collectors like me who feel excluded by your sweeping statement that there is “absolutely no point in 1/12 sealed”. By the way, I collect model cars of both categories (sealed and with openings). The overall quality is what matters to me.
What happens here is, I believe, very similar to e.g. opinions of connoisseurs of wine or connoisseurs of art. At certain point (or certain time) you just realize that something is a masterpiece and something else is just not.
To me, a sealed model in 1/12 that is not very detailed is rather a waste of materials and efforts that were made to produce it. In terms of overall quality and detailing, if you compare such 1/12 Norev model to e.g. some good examples of 1/43 LookSmart models, you will find that the 1/43 LookSmart is actually more accurate and more detailed than the 1/12 Norev! And a question arises: what is the sense of making a not detailed sealed model in 1/12 or 1/18 when the very same or even better detailing and accuracy is achievable in 1/43? Shouldn’t 1/12 and 1/18 models provide more details than 1/43 – and not the opposite?
This situation reminds me stories of the past about Japan buying cars and trucks from Soviet Union and then melting them out because the cars and trucks themselves were quite bad, but the metal from which they were made was good.
Surely, one can drive a bad car if you don’t have other options; one can also drink bad wine if he or she does not feel the difference. But it should not be a tendency: I mean, if everyone accepted bad cars and bad wine, the makers of cars and wine would produce worse and worse products. No one will benefit from this.
Reply to Vitaliy D: Of course a 1/18 model car that costs 50 Euros can’t be as accurate and detailed as one that costs 300 or 500 Euros, but it can still be a nice, i.e. reasonably well detailed and accurate model. Besides Corvettes I also collect AC and Shelby Cobras in scales 1/43 and 1/18. Since there are not an exceeding number of such Cobras on the model car market, I want my collection to be complete. I buy all of them as long as they are reasonably well done in terms of details, accuracy and paint. A 1/18 Cobra 260/289 from Exoto costs at least five or six times as much as one from Norev, but the latter is still a very nice (and, by the way, equally well-proportioned!) model. I also enjoy drinking a glass of good red wine. In terms of wine from Bordeaux (so-called “Claret” in English), it does not have to be a “Premier Grand Cru Classé” every day or week. A much cheaper “Cru Bourgeois” is still a wine of excellent taste. To sum it all up: Life is too short to drink bad wine…….. and to collect bad model cars!
A sealed 300sl gull wing. It literally ows it’s nickname to the door mechanism but in such a large model you can’t even have them in the open position. Seems to me like this is just the cheaper option to the older model by premium classixx re-released by Schuco last year.