Thanks for posting, Real! Had no idea these were coming available. They are really quite cool! 

Lol, I saw some of these over on HLJ and thought they'd make a great Bert I. Gordan style giant critter '50s SF/horror movie diorama! 

Ahhh Those will give me nightmares

When I was small, I craved those Bandai bug kits with the wind-up motors.  My favs were the praying mantis and the diving beetle.  I remember my diving beetle "swimming" in the kitchen sink!  Now how it was supposed to NOT corrode the clockwind motor, I'll never know.

There have been animal kits in the past, like Revell's endangered species series, Heller's really bad bugs, and even kits of mounted fish trophies (I saw those at Tokyu Hands department store in Shibuya).  But nothing recent.  I built a fiddler crab in college, out of sprue, sheet plastic, styrofoam and... spackle!  I think realistic animal kits might be just the cure for Bf-109-itis.  Not cartoon caricature approximations, but scientifically accurate models.

The movie Starship Troopers came to mind.

Trying to get that metallic green those beetles have would be something else. Looks like their right up your alley G.

I remember a visible cricket some eons back but for the life of me I can't remember who produced it.

BTW, maybe someone makes those huge centipedes you have over there. BLA!

I remember way back when Airfix did a series of 1/1 scale birds. Those were pretty good for their time. Wouldn't mind seeing those again.

Steve,

Nah Hawaii centipedes are only about 6 inches long.  Now this, THIS is a centipede:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scolopendra_gigantea

Some Japanese maker (LS?) may have reboxed the Airfix bird kits.  A friend picked one up while over there.  It was a blue tit I think.  Huh-huh-huh, I said "tit"!

Renwall made those "visible" models with clear bodies and internal organs.  My sister had the horse, and I remember sneaking into her room and stealing its brain!

Oh gosh I'd love to have had a motorized diving beetle way back then! 

I might be tempted to paint them bright red or something- it's from the 'radiation' that caused them to grow..... 

Anyone remember this kit:

They had a giant Scorpion, Praying Mantis, and the Tarantula. I build these when I was kid, my first foray in painting a model. 

I remember those!  I think those were originally made by a company called Fun Dimensions.  They even had a wasp! 

Ah yes, I had the scorpion and mantis kits way back when.  The scorpion had a crushed Corvette Stingay!  I saw the wasp kit only once at the store.  Someone re-released these kits, except for the wasp.  I picked up the mantis - it was pretty good, but needs a lot of work to bring it up to modern standards.

Now, an R/C diving beetle with functioning swimming legs would be a hoot!  It would scare the hell out of the ducks in the pond!

Hey ;

   Now that you woke me up with your bad " Bug " dream I gotta ask you . Did any of them have a candy pearl paint-job with the single exhaust stack in the back ? Oh , you were referring to " Bug " Bugs .

  I thought you meant V.W.s  Go Back to sleep .

Yes ;

   Airfix did do the Birds . And then Pyro picked them up .  A Robin , Blue Jay ,  Sparrow and yes a Blue Tit ! Have you ever seen the last bird ? They are almost as small as Humming-Birds !

  I had all four and I gave them to my sis when I left for boot camp . A few years later in Japan I found a life sized Red Tailed Hawk and an Eagle .  What I would like to see now is a Burrowing Owl and an Osprey ( bird , not the plane ) life sized .That small burrowing Owl would get your laughing juices flowing . Oh , and last but not least a great Snowy Owl !

Oh wow, these are great! I've seen little mechanical toy robot bugs at ToysRus. Maybe kit-mash the mechanism with these.

Look what I saw from Tamiya.

Tanker - Builder

Hey ;

   Now that you woke me up with your bad " Bug " dream I gotta ask you . Did any of them have a candy pearl paint-job with the single exhaust stack in the back ? Oh , you were referring to " Bug " Bugs .

  I thought you meant V.W.s  Go Back to sleep .

 

Um TB you're not thinking about 'The Giant Spider Invasion' by Bill Rebane are you? They covered a VW Beetle with fur, added legs to it and then drove it along behind some extras in a few scenes of the movie.

If you ever want to see it the 'MST3K' version on YouTube is probably the most tolerable.

modelcrazy

Look what I saw from Tamiya.

 

Ohhhhhhhhhh, that's creepy! I WANT ONE!!!

I'd be tempted to stick some LED lights on it and send it after someone in the dark!

Steve, the caption on the bottom of the Tamiya centipede thing says it follows irregularities in the terrain, moving like a living thing!

Gamera, I saw that movie when I was in grade school!  It scared the crap outta me!  Horrifying scenes I remember include the farmer getting eaten, the largish spider jumping out of a drawer, and the VW Beetle powered full scale spider running amok among the screaming extras!

Hmm;

 That's better than the Little ones I see everywhere ! Even those teensy ones are fascinating though .

Real G

Steve, the caption on the bottom of the Tamiya centipede thing says it follows irregularities in the terrain, moving like a living thing!

Gamera, I saw that movie when I was in grade school!  It scared the crap outta me!  Horrifying scenes I remember include the farmer getting eaten, the largish spider jumping out of a drawer, and the VW Beetle powered full scale spider running amok among the screaming extras!

 

I can see where it would be disturbing at that age! On the other hand I first saw it in my '20s on 'MST3K' so it was more funny than scary. 

And odd that I just came back from vacation at Mammoth Caverns, Kentucky and people were selling geodes everywhere- if I remember the spiders came out of geodes, or maybe meterites played by geodes?  

Gamera, you are correct - the spiders came from the inside of meteorite geodes!  How they survived re-entry heat and the impact of landing is anyone's guess.

The scene with the farmer getting eaten is one of those traumatic movie moments I will always remember.  Kind of like when Kane gets the facehugger in Alien.  I saw that one in intermediate school (1979).  I must say that Alien scored higher on the "Scared the Crap Outta Me Meter".

Oh geez, I just remembered another traumatic childhood movie moment - when the killer cockroaches swarm the survivors in "Damnation Alley"!  I already had a healthy dislike of roaches, and the scene made me want to run out of the theater.

modelcrazy

Trying to get that metallic green those beetles have would be something else.

Probably have to take a clue from the automotive folks, and use undercoats.  Then layer on black and green.

Or a pearlescent base.

Which might get fiddly on a 3-4cm kit

Renwal!

Mopar Madness

I remember those!  I think those were originally made by a company called Fun Dimensions.  They even had a wasp! 

 

Yup, I remember those. I had the scorpion and tarantula kits back in the 70s.

Hi;

 Fundimensions did them under License from MPC.

So here is what the new Aoshima Stag Beetle kit looks like:

https://flic.kr/p/PaMXCm][/url]Stag-07 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/MxEbjn][/url]Stag-08 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

The thorax is molded from polyethylene, so will be a challenge to clean up and paint.

And here are some "friends", from the pre-painted/assembled aisle in the toy store:

https://flic.kr/p/28xz8KC][/url]Stag-09 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr