I seriously need to put the brakes on my spending this year. I mean, it's still January!
I've added a bunch to my stash this year on top of the F-84F Thunderbird that I got in the first week of January. Most have come via eBay, but a coulple came by way of Amazon, believe it or not.
I eye-balled these first two for years before finally deciding to pull the trigger:
Had to add the lighting kit for the U.S.S. Enterprise, and would have gotten the lighting kit for the Klingon but it literally disappeared from all sites that I had seen it on just a day before. I'll keep looking for that lighting kit but can probably just do the lighting myself, as the Klingon ship doesn't have the spinning lights in the nacelles like the Enterprise does, which was the entire motivation for buying that lighting kit.
I have the old Monogram Tu-16 Badger in the 70s white box, but could not resist even at the steep $40 price for a baby blue boxing from the 60s.
Despite having built the old Monogram P-40B countless times, and having 2 unbuilt examples in my possession (one I keep in one of my display cabinets on the Warhawk shelf, still in the original cellophane wrapping, as it was the first model I built at age 3), I could not resist this even older boxing, early 60s, with a bunch of extras included to do that old kit justice. Oh, and there are actually two complete P-40s kits in this one box.
Christmas of '76 Santa brought me the Monogram B-24J Liberator. Having built an original '77 release of the B-29 recently, and with an original '75 release of the B-17G in my stash, I decided I wanted that Liberator in the original boxing as well. I keep all these old Monogram boxes, get them laminated and have them mounted on the walls in my garage. This came from eBay, was a great price considering what these often go for, but was missing decals. I bought decals for The Dragon and His Tail from another eBay vendor.
There is a bit of a story behind this next one, Monogram's original 1980 release of the huge B-36 Peacemaker. I was 13 and entering that time in my life where my interest in models was waning while my interest in girls and my baseball team was increasing. I was in a store, K-Mart maybe, when I came across this. It cost a whopping $20. My dad said I could get it. I hemmed and hawed over it, but ended up saving that money to spend on records instead. And that decision weighed on me even after all these years, so when I saw this eBay offering for a damn good price (~$70, still in the shrink wrap), yep, I jumped on it.
And then the one that I never thought I would acquire. This is an original boxing of Monogram's Snoopy and His Sopwith Camel. This kit is my second oldest memory of kits (behind Monogram's P-40). The kit didn't survive the years, but my mom did tracings of the box art, and did a wood cutout of the Camel with the world's most famous beagle flying it, painted it and had it mounted on a wood plaque that I have had in my possession ever since. My mom actually found a built kit just a few years before she passed and gifted that to me, and that's where I thought that would end. A couple of years ago, I grabbed the Atlantis re-boxing and enjoyed every second of building it, but given that unbuilt copies were going for more than $200 on eBay, I did not expect to ever have a desire to spend that kind of money for that kit. Then I came across this listing. I got it for less than $50. Yes, it had actually been built then disassembled, but all the parts are in the box. I have not tested the motor but I'm not really that worried about it. I'm just elated to have an original of the kit that I can build, and I have the box as well.
I have another kit still on the way to the house, but as it is coming surface mail from Asia, no idea when I'll get it. It's Bandai's R2-D2 and C-3P0.
I recently reorganized my garage, which opened up significant wall space. I believe that is where I will mount the B-36 when I finally decide to build it. I already have an RB-36 hanging from the ceiling, but I want to build it wheels down and maybe cut open the gun bays and scratch build the guns.
I am also considering getting that huge 1/32 B-17G that would also go on that wall, but I really don't think I'm going to part ways with that most cash. I may get the scaled down version for 1/3 of what the 32nd scale kit goes for to build along with the Monogram Fortresses that I have in my stash.
I've also set my eyes on a couple of future releases from ICM - a 1/48th Ki-21 Sally, and a totally needed release of a 1/48th Martin B-26 Marauder. No idea when those will hit the shelves, hopefully not any time soon as my wallet needs a break.