Gotta love those crazy translations!

There have been some real howlers on the box side-panel blurbs on a number of Trumpeters kits, possibly the most memorable being the "quick fried tower" of the KV-II. (Read the scrolling description here: http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=279 )

The box-side description of the SAM-6 is a little less amusing, but still chuckle-worthy. http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=305

Oh, and I seem to recall the instructions of an A-4 Skyhawk kit I once built in the late 70's stating that the aircraft carried "Bluepipe" missiles. Oh well, I guess it sounds close enough to "Bullpup".

Phil_H wrote:

There have been some real howlers on the box side-panel blurbs on a number of Trumpeters kits, possibly the most memorable being the "quick fried tower" of the KV-II. (Read the scrolling description here: http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=279 ) The box-side description of the SAM-6 is a little less amusing, but still chuckle-worthy. http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=305 Oh, and I seem to recall the instructions of an A-4 Skyhawk kit I once built in the late 70's stating that the aircraft carried "Bluepipe" missiles. Oh well, I guess it sounds close enough to "Bullpup".

Wow! That is bad...

You wanna crazy translation? Have a look at this:

(It's a flashlight.)

Phil_H wrote:

There have been some real howlers on the box side-panel blurbs on a number of Trumpeters kits, possibly the most memorable being the "quick fried tower" of the KV-II. (Read the scrolling description here: http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=279 ) The box-side description of the SAM-6 is a little less amusing, but still chuckle-worthy. http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=305 Oh, and I seem to recall the instructions of an A-4 Skyhawk kit I once built in the late 70's stating that the aircraft carried "Bluepipe" missiles. Oh well, I guess it sounds close enough to "Bullpup".

Those are priceless!

Of course, I can't be too hard on them. My Chinese is FAR, FAR worse than their English!

Never ran into anything like that, but one thing i thought was a bit odd today at the LHS.

I ran across a particular kit on the shelf that had my head scratching. It was a Mig 21, if i remember correctly. I wasn't too interested in that kit at the moment, but pulled it off the shelf anyways, cause it was an older kit. A Revell from the late 80s or early 90s. I just wanted to check out the box art. But upon examination, i noticed that they forgot one little detail- nowhere to be found on the kit was the scale! It was kinda an inbetween sized box, so i had no way of telling. I just woulda thought that a mistake like that woulda been noticed at some point being on the shelf, ya know?

Started keeping trrack of this site while living in Japan.  Most of it is weird English translations on Japanese goods. 

www.engrish.com

This one isn't too bad, but pretty darn obvious.  My new 1/48 Hasegawa N1K1-Ja cover:

"Japanese Navy Interseptor"...on the box lid, no less...  

Phil_H wrote:

There have been some real howlers on the box side-panel blurbs on a number of Trumpeters kits, possibly the most memorable being the "quick fried tower" of the KV-II. (Read the scrolling description here: http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=279 )

What are they even trying to say?? 

The word Turret in Chinese can also mean Tower, depending on the context. When you precede the word GUN infront of the word TOWER, its unambigous that its means Turret. Beats me how they got "quick-fried". Just proves, online translator and a dictionary doesn't make one bilingual!

Actually, it always astounds me that companies don't just hire some local translators to prove read their stuff to make sure they don't sound ridiculous before they come out in print. Makes for some good laughs though.

waikong wrote:

Beats me how they got "quick-fried".

waikong wrote:

Actually, it always astounds me that companies don't just hire some local translators to prove read their stuff to make sure they don't sound ridiculous before they come out in print. Makes for some good laughs though.

it's mindboggling considering nowadays they have so many students graduating colleges with a good deal of english experience (I don't think my old TAs back in school were among them...).  plus you'd expect the people who actually did the research and design of the kits/prototypes must have been good enough to read english documents and are familiar with common armor related vocabs.  it'd surprise me a great deal if i were to hear that at least 2/3 of the people in these companies aren't avid modelers themselves. 

n KV-2 practically does have a Gun in a tower.  just look at it.  it had handrail/ladder points on the side of the turret.

J-Hulk wrote:

waikong wrote: Beats me how they got "quick-fried". I think it's a very, very loose translation of "welded." Didn't that particular version have a welded turret?

for what i know, most of the KV-1 turrets are welded rolled steel slabs if not casted (were there other ways of construction turrects at that time??).  such as the small turret version and the kv-1B ehkranami that's basically the small turret with welded/bolted extra steel plates, or the big turret version that trumpeter released that looked like a predecessor to the kv-II.  then there are the heavy casted turret of the KV-1C n the light weight version casted turret (didnt read much about it).

come to think of it, you haven't shown up around here often lately have u brian?

Yann Solo wrote:

I do recall Luckymodel refering to the new Trumpeter "Dicker Max" armor model as the "Dick marks" model.

As did Voyager for their PE sets for the same.

Phil_H wrote:

Yann Solo wrote: I do recall Luckymodel refering to the new Trumpeter "Dicker Max" armor model as the "Dick marks" model.  As did Voyager for their PE sets for the same.

Oh yeah, you're right, it was the Voyager set.