"That's not what's in the box!!"

[McColm]

Hi there,
A few days ago I opened  what I thought was the VC-25 Presidential Boeing in 1/300 scale. On the back of the box was other aircraft in the series. All of the Boeing 747's depicted the 400 model and suprise suprise so was this. No communications hump or in-flight refueling hump just a Boeing 747-400 and a stand.
I did some research and found that the President of the U.S.A. doesn't use the 400 series.
As I recall there was a topic on the useage of a  proposed Boeing 747X for the Australians as a tanker/cargo transporter and I think I made the comment of the RAF using them in the 'Alternative History' topic.

Have you had any similar experiences when buying model kits?

[The Rat]

Happens every time you open a Starfix box. 

[RPadavan2]

A few years ago I bought a 1/144th scale Revell Eurofighter.  When I opened the box, it contained 2 spruces of the left half of the aircraft.  No right half.  I am using the kit as parts and paint/weather tests.

[PR19_Kit]

Revell got into serious Euro-trouble some years ago when they re-popped their old 1/64 scale DC9 PROTOTYPE kit as an MD80 for goodness sake! It had a piccie of an Austrian Airlines (I think...) MD80 on the box lid and came with a good set of Austrian decals too, but the plastic was the same old DC9 inside.

I bought one, as there wasn't an MD80 of any sort on the market at the time and I was SERIOUSLY tee'd off about it and took the issue to my Trading Standards people. At first they didn't understand the problem, thinking 'Oh, it's 'only' a toy' but I kept to my guns and they eventually pushed it up the tree, and I got my money back. But in Germany it got really serious and they took Revell to court over it I think. The kit was withdrawn from sale, and of course now has some rarity value, although why anyone other than a collector would want one I have no idea.

[Rheged]

Slightly off thread (for which I apologise) but I once opened a tin of processed peas and found 8 four inch nails and some  foam packing instead of the vegetable I expected.  I didn't complain, the nails were probably worth more than the peas.   Should I refer to this as POSESSED peas?

[Mossie]

Airfix has offered the 'original' BT-K Spitfire reboxed on a few occasions, but it turns out the mould has been lost & the 're-pop' is the previous incarnation of the Mk.Ia in a blue sprue & appropriate decals.  When I was getting back into the hobby, I thought I'd pick it up for nostalgia & to wind a few JMN types up, I was a bit miffed as it wasn't quite what was advertised.  Turns out most modellers knew this at the time but I hadn't picked up on it.

I picked up an Academy F-104 once that had different decals than the box (my main reason for buying it) & the kit turned to be hugely overscale, a bit of surprise!

[PR19_Kit]

Slightly off thread (for which I apologise) but I once opened a tin of processed peas and found 8 four inch nails and some  foam packing instead of the vegetable I expected.  I didn't complain, the nails were probably worth more than the peas.   Should I refer to this as POSESSED peas?

MAGIC! 

How many minutes at 180 deg did they take to cook? For sure they'd have put some iron in your diet too...... 

[Rheged]

Slightly off thread (for which I apologise) but I once opened a tin of processed peas and found 8 four inch nails and some  foam packing instead of the vegetable I expected.  I didn't complain, the nails were probably worth more than the peas.   Should I refer to this as POSESSED peas?

MAGIC! 

How many minutes at 180 deg did they take to cook? For sure they'd have put some iron in your diet too...... 

Let us merely say I don't suffer from Anaemia!  The nails became part of a shelf I put up  in my fathers garage. It now has his home wine making kit assembled  on it.

[Weaver]

I bought an "M60A3 with Blazer reactive armour" kit off ebay a couple of months ago, made by some Chinese-never-heard-of-it company. Sealed box said Blazer and the pic was of one with Blazer (so it wasn't the vendor's fault), but the kit inside was a bog stock M60 with no sign of Blazer or any other add-on goodies. I could have complained, but it was so cheap I couldn't be bothered....

[Hobbes]

Hi there,
A few days ago I opened  what I thought was the VC-25 Presidential Boeing in 1/300 scale. On the back of the box was other aircraft in the series. All of the Boeing 747's depicted the 400 model and suprise suprise so was this. No communications hump or in-flight refueling hump just a Boeing 747-400 and a stand.
I did some research and found that the President of the U.S.A. doesn't use the 400 series.

Sounds like they simply packed the wrong model in the box. Have you tried contacting the manufacturer?

[McColm]

No I haven't, thanks for the advice.

[Green Dragon]

The 747 kit sounds like the Zhengdefu/Kitech one which is always the -400 no matter what it says on the box, though I seem to remember someone wrote about his VC-25 box having a weird looking 777-oid in it!

Paul Harrison

[kevincallahan]

Interestingly, I had an experience like this not 20 minutes ago. I had ordered an Airfix Harrier GR9 from Great Models in Utah. The box was shrinkwrapped and had the little plastic seals in place. As I was rooting through the kit, the decals and instructions were correct, but the plastic was for their Bf-110! Despite the temptation to do the 110 as a Harrier replacement..... I sent an email to GM for instructions on how to exchange.

[PR19_Kit]

I sent an email to GM for instructions on how to exchange.

I wish you well but don't hold your breath......

I had a very frustrating experience with Great Models and will never EVER deal with them again!

[kevincallahan]

Kit:

Yeah, I haven't heard anything back from GM yet. My usual go-to dealer in the US, Sprue Bros, is actually pretty quick to respond to emails, but unfortunately they were out of the other kit I was after (the Trumpeter J-20) at the time I placed the order. I do want to give GM full time to respond, but yours is not the first disquieting thing I've heard about their after-purchase support.