TOPIC:

I have acquired a brand new in box Monster Beetle body set. I want to put it together and paint it soooo badly. Am I better off leaving it in the box? What is the best way to assemble these and paint? I have to done an ABS body for over 20 years!

And I will post piccys ASAP.

Btw the box is a little tatty and its the red plastic kit. My original MB was white plastic. Does this matter?

Not sure why this posted here? It wasn't supposed to! Can a mod move it? Stupid iPad

dreadly wrote:

I have acquired a brand new in box Monster Beetle body set. I want to put it together and paint it soooo badly. Am I better off leaving it in the box? What is the best way to assemble these and paint? I have to done an ABS body for over 20 years!

And I will post piccys ASAP.

Btw the box is a little tatty and its the red plastic kit. My original MB was white plastic. Does this matter?

Not sure why this posted here? It wasn't supposed to! Can a mod move it? Stupid iPad

Early Monster Beetles had white mouldings, later ones were red. Also check the stripes on the decals - early ones have a stripe that's almost orange, later ones are more lemon yellow. IMO only an early body kit in a near perfect box would be worth putting away as an "investment" - past re-releases have shown that anything less than perfect lose money, the value of tat (& I'm not suggesting yours is, just syaing) gets pratically wiped out, whereas the best examples hold their value... I mention it because nothing seems to be safe from Tamiya's re-release program, and the Monster Beetle is very popular ...

You don't have to say how much you paid for the body kit, but bear in mind it could be worh selling on, especially if yo part it out - used nose cones go for 20+ GBP, and I sold a tatty set of decals for over 50 GBP recently

If you do want to assemble/paint it, I'd suggest ... well, read these & these


Edit - it was 49 GBP + postage for a set of early genuine decals, and they sold in 2 hours ... I probably could have asked a lot more but I felt I was profiteering as it was

Jonny wrote:

dreadly wrote:

I have acquired a brand new in box Monster Beetle body set. I want to put it together and paint it soooo badly. Am I better off leaving it in the box? What is the best way to assemble these and paint? I have to done an ABS body for over 20 years!

And I will post piccys ASAP.

Btw the box is a little tatty and its the red plastic kit. My original MB was white plastic. Does this matter?

Not sure why this posted here? It wasn't supposed to! Can a mod move it? Stupid iPad

Early Monster Beetles had white mouldings, later ones were red. Also check the stripes on the decals - early ones have a stripe that's almost orange, later ones are more lemon yellow. IMO only an early body kit in a near perfect box would be worth putting away as an "investment" - past re-releases have shown that anything less than perfect lose money, the value of tat (& I'm not suggesting yours is, just syaing) gets pratically wiped out, whereas the best examples hold their value... I mention it because nothing seems to be safe from Tamiya's re-release program, and the Monster Beetle is very popular ...

You don't have to say how much you paid for the body kit, but bear in mind it could be worh selling on, especially if yo part it out - used nose cones go for 20+ GBP, and I sold a tatty set of decals for over 50 GBP recently

If you do want to assemble/paint it, I'd suggest ... well, read these & these


Edit - it was 49 GBP + postage for a set of early genuine decals, and they sold in 2 hours ... I probably could have asked a lot more but I felt I was profiteering as it was

Thats all the advice I needed And it's made my mind up that i probably paid too much at

Dreadly,
I moved your post and the following two replies away from The HP Freak's Toyota Toms thread and made it into its own thread.

larbut wrote:

Dreadly,
I moved your post and the following two replies away from The HP Freak's Toyota Toms thread and made it into its own thread.

Many thanks, sorry about that

dreadly wrote:

Many thanks, sorry about that

No problem

That does sound like a lot, but to put it in to perspective, I paid a lot less for a boxed, part built kit ... but then, the seller was a liar - it was water damaged (the box was still wet & disintegrating), incomplete (missing nose & some other bits), the tyres were rotten, and the body seemded to have been painted with a wire brush

... So if you were prepared to pay that much, and you actually got what you paid for, it's difficult to say it was "too much" - I'd have rather paid more to get what I thought I was getting, as I'm still annoyed off with it every time I look at it...

What are you doing for a chassis, BTW?

Jonny wrote:

That does sound like a lot, but to put it in to perspective, I paid a lot less for a boxed, part built kit ... but then, the seller was a liar - it was water damaged (the box was still wet & disintegrating), incomplete (missing nose & some other bits), the tyres were rotten, and the body seemded to have been painted with a wire brush

... So if you were prepared to pay that much, and you actually got what you paid for, it's difficult to say it was "too much" - I'd have rather paid more to get what I thought I was getting, as I'm still annoyed off with it every time I look at it...

What are you doing for a chassis, BTW?

I have about 6 MB chassis, one of them perfect and original to go with the body set. I will post some piccys. I do need some body mounting posts for my basher beetles though, any idea?
I also have half a frog! Half a sand rover and about 5 or 6 KBF chassis, but the KBF's are all bashers, although some are near perfect. I also have a KBF body with some splits to restore, but I am not sure how to do this yet.

I don't do this hobby for the money, it is therapy

dreadly wrote:

That's why we are all here