10 Worst Sci-fi kits?

Playing Mantis 1960's Bat Plane.

You're kidding - right? Ten models? Only ten?  I think I've bought about 50 of them! The worst one - I can't even hazard a guess.....  I've had so many that wouldn't fit together properly,and parts that had to be refined,and refitted to even make sense out of them! Some parts had to be remade from scratch,as they were so horribly mastered.

 The one that I most recently built was,Airfix's 1/72nd scale P51B turtle neck. I repainted this twice fixing parts(fuselage,wings,and tail)that didn't align,and painted it with Testors' Metallizer non-buffable aluminum,only to see that the wing to fuselage joint was more than irritatingly obvious - after all my hard work!!! This is the only real flaw in it after airbrushing this to make it look as perfect as possible. I even went over the wings to make them look passable,not to mention masking off the cockpit,as I had done a pro-job on it,and not wanting to ruin it,only to see a joint that can't be easily fixed,and repainted without ruining everything I have already done to perfection! The problem started after I painted this fuselage,and wing assembly separately,but I thought that this would fit like it did before I painted it,but the joint was too wide in the front! I didn't see this until after I airbrushed it,and finished the cockpit,and installed the pilot. This is something I'll just have to live with - it's not a huge gap,but it IS noticable enough to embarass me.

The other one that I think I remember is,AMTs' 57 Chevy Bel Air. This was so horrible that it didn't even get a coat of paint! This was every modelers' worst nightmare! Everything that wouldn't fit,or look right,or even have the decency to be accurate to the original was in this Sh--kit!  Think of something that could go wrong,and it did! Murphy's name was all over this one... Poor detailing,and lack of it on the fins(decals were offered instead of moulding),poor quality fit along the windshield,and tires,as well as the bumpers looked cheap(chromed flash). An all around mess! The interior looked like whoever modeled it was either high,drunk,or both!!!!  

The engine,undercarriage,seats,and door panels looked as if they were originally modeled from playdough,and cardboard! Not to mention the poor fit of all these parts to each other,including a disproportioned engine with extremely poor detailing. This is truly the ultimate junkyard model car!!!! I think this one tops my list of worst car,or model kit offered by an American maker. Needless to say,I took a soldering iron,and firecrackers to it.

Bandai's 1/144 Non-grade line from gundam seed.  I built the buster and was really dissapointed.  I'd never seen one of these so I didn't know the difference.  I was about to throw him out when myth busters gave me an idea.  He took on the role of his Myth Busters brother and I only recently threw him away, burned gundam markered and full of pin vise holes.

Skullgundam - that made me laugh! Thank you for sharing your experience with us on this one. I've burned up a few models myself in my day,and yes a few holes drilled here,and there on some always help to alleviate some stress! I can write a paperback novel on my exploits with bad models alone - one that I'm sure we're all familiar with, the MPC line. They've had some that were decent,but most of their stuff is the usual mass-produced garbage that we all grew up on! 

The X-wing fighter was one of the most prolific,and I've seen my fair share of mediocre,and horrible paint jobs on these all over the modeling forums. This isn't a bad model to start off with,as it has few parts,and is a decent build up even for those not familiar with the ILM models of the first Star Wars movie. Although there are a lot of inconsistencies with it - it's still studio accurate,as this is what was used for far away shots in the last two Star Wars movies. It doesn't have all the correct details for the R2,canons,canopy,cockpit,and the engine housings,as well as the bottom of the fuselage,and has a few misalignment issues with some parts,but that's expected of a mass-produced model kit.

 The insides of the afterburners are also incorrect,as are the details inside the wing wells(engine bays),inside detail completely missing(open holes on the inside of the wing panels). Details from the side panels that were to hide the panavise mounts on the fuselage of original ILM models are completely missing(smooth)and the ends of the laser canons(towards the back of the fuselage)are also wrong! The Luke Skywalker figure is also a recycled dragster driver from a seventies MPC funny car kit. Finally,the wings have panel chips on them that weren't on the original ILM models,and the aft end of the fuselage has the incorrect shape,as well as the pieces that go on the front of the wings around the engines are missing the correct detail.

 This is why I've decided to make an accurate version of the ILM four foot X-wing as a tribute to the original ILM modelers of the seventies. The Captain Cardboard,and Salzo kits are close,but still inaccurate to the original X-wings. I've already seen these,and I want mine to be as accurate,and as realistic as possible. 

Wow, this is a tough topic - most sci-fi models are pretty bad, especially when compared to other genres like aircraft or armor.

 Glencoe Models put out a re-pop of the Piasecki VZ-8P Airgeep - that was a bad model. Lousy fit, no detail, way disappointing.

 I remember a small scale X-Wing that came out years ago, snap-tite I think. The pilot was molded into the cockpit, and his head stuck up too high to allow the canopy to fit on the model. I had to sand off his head and paint the interior of the canopy black.

Lindberg!!! I forgot about them! Agreed - they weren't worth the plastic that they were made from! That reminds me of another company from England that made some of the worst models ever,but I can't remember their name right off hand! I'll have to check on some old sources. As soon as I can get their name,I'll post it here.

MPC's 1978(?) vintage R2D2 was pretty horrible.

All of the ARII 1/100 scale (original series) Macross VF-1 Valkyries (in all 3 forms) were pretty awful.

Imai's 1/72  VF-1A/J/S Gerwalk kits suffered from a horribly mis-shapen "droopy" nose. The nose shape on the VF-1D kit was much better.

modelmaniac1967 wrote:

Most any lindberg model...

 Hmmmmm, a moment of thought, I've sliced, diced, cut, drilled, added, subtracted, and puttied enough Lindberg kits to know they are a great start.........for building something other than what they were intended to be! And.........there's usually a lot of neat "leftovers" for use on another project.

Then again......I can say that about almost every kit I've ever built. If I left a hobbyshop with a plastic kit, and didn't also get a new razor saw, the owner would ask what I was going to do with the kit.

I've run into a few.

MPC Star Wars AT-ST. inaccurate, huge seams, terrible fit.

The old Star Destroyer gets honorable mention, for having almost no fine detail. Is it that hard to model the main gun batteries? Oh, and the Tie Interceptor wasn't much better.

 Testors Area 51 Flying Saucer. Seriously. WTF? Barely a kit.

 Atelier Sai Vic Viper. I want to love this. It's an awesome subject. But the kit itself..the plastic is horrible, the parts fit is worse. Everything needs serious modifications, just to go together! I WILL get back to this one, but JEEBUS. What a total pain in the ***.

For the kit with the worst INSTRUCTIONS I have ever seen:  Polar Lights' big 28" spaceship C-57D (Forbidden Planet) gets my vote.

The model itself is fine, good fit, pretty accurate design, but the instructions are totally inadequate.  Just a single sheet of paper with three tiny exploded view drawings and very little "how to" text.  An inexperienced modeler couldn't build this thing using those "instructions".

I thought of another series of kits: the cheaper versions of Bandai's LM and LMHG Evangelion series kits, with a diamond-shaped logo saying "Bendi" on the box.  Warped parts, more flash a Hollywood red carpet event, and I think they used something other than styrene for the plastic ( it had an almost waxy feel to it, like a softer variant if the plastic for milk jugs ) in a few of the kits.

These things make the worst AMT Trek kit I've dealt with look like a Tamiya release.

Cosmic J wrote:

Wow, this is a tough topic - most sci-fi models are pretty bad, especially when compared to other genres like aircraft or armor.  Glencoe Models put out a re-pop of the Piasecki VZ-8P Airgeep - that was a bad model. Lousy fit, no detail, way disappointing.

The Airgeep isn't sci-fi, it exists and is on display at Ft. Eustis, VA Transportation Museum.

http://www.transchool.eustis.army.mil/MUSEUM/Airjeep.htm

Rob Gronovius wrote:

Cosmic J wrote: Wow, this is a tough topic - most sci-fi models are pretty bad, especially when compared to other genres like aircraft or armor.  Glencoe Models put out a re-pop of the Piasecki VZ-8P Airgeep - that was a bad model. Lousy fit, no detail, way disappointing. The Airgeep isn't sci-fi, it exists and is on display at Ft. Eustis, VA Transportation Museum. http://www.transchool.eustis.army.mil/MUSEUM/Airjeep.htm

Cool. I had no idea they actually got around to making one. I really wish the model had looked anything like those photos.

 I was also going to say that the Toy Biz Ghost Rider model was another genuinely awful kit, but I suppose now you'll tell me that it was a figure model, and therefore doesn't count?

modelmaniac1967 wrote:

Could that company be Keil Kraft? Those are just boxes of flash waiting to happen!!!

 All the parts were horribly cast,and ill-fitting with flash everywhere. The plastic was soft,and waxy feeling,like polypropylene(milk jug material),and the instructions had no real designation for the parts themselves,or a real explanation as to where they went with only arrows to show the parts placement. I was amazed that this even came with instructions,as the decals were soft,and melted away if exposed to water too long! Truly one of the worst models ever made to mankind!

smeagol the vile wrote:

nah, ghost rider counts... but its technichly is fantasy, not scifi

Dang it!

Okay, how about this one: The old Airfix 2001 Orion III Pan-Am shuttle. Poor fit, completely inaccurate, and way too expensive for what you get.

AMT Enterprise D.  Fit is HORRID, and there is a pebbly surface texture.  Not to mention the ejector pin parks I guess you would call them because they are never in alignment with the rest of the lines.  Speaking of the detail lines they are kid of soft and squigly.  HUGE gaps in VERY bad spots.

AMT Romulan Warbird, fit issues extreme.  Seams in bad spots.

Original X-Wing kit, where would I start. 

If I can think of any others I'll mention them later.

Cosmic J wrote:

smeagol the vile wrote: nah, ghost rider counts... but its technichly is fantasy, not scifi Dang it! Okay, how about this one: The old Airfix 2001 Orion III Pan-Am shuttle. Poor fit, completely inaccurate, and way too expensive for what you get.

Ghost Rider counts, whether you consider it sci-fi or fantasy. But calling a kit of an actual vehicle that exists a sci-fi kit is rather strange. Anigrand does a neat line of the experimental US flying machines of the 50s and 60s, including the AirGeep. Those aren't sci-fi because they existed.

Cosmic J wrote:

Yes, we heard.

I always regret whenever I enter into this sci-fi forum.