Star Trek dilemma - Build it or keep it intact?

Jack@European_Parts said:

...you have a model sitting here I wanted you to have.

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Jack has just given me a thoughtful gift (thank you!), that comes with a serious dilemma. The gift is a 1980's vintage AMT Star Trek model kit, in the box. Normally a no-brainer to keep it intact as NIB, but someone has already removed the shrink wrap and tore into one of the internal plastic bags. I did not tear into the contents to see if the decal set or instructions were present, but it looks simple enough to assemble without instructions where I wouldn't need to consult with Scotty.

Anyway, please help me decide what to do with this vintage Star Trek collectible, because I am more torn than the parts bag inside.....

As you wish it's your toy now......................

vreihen said:

Anyway, please help me decide what to do with this vintage Star Trek collectible, because I am more torn than the parts bag inside.....

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Thread useless without pics.

I figured it would be fitting as a gift.

Our first meeting in regards to the VR6 VSR manifold was epic, because it was one of the few times Art was wrong.
He stated that the intake flap was switched electronically with a servo, verse what I refuted was done with a solenoid to divert vacuum by reservoir.
This was done with a special ECU & which I still am privy too two of them that support the programming and extra driver to do it from Jokeswagen @ VW Motorsports.







https://s22.postimg.org/p27q9d4ch/VSR.png




The back of Arts GTI had a college sticker.......... so I proceeded to squint my eyes at the rear window and was like what? "Starfleet Academy"

It's been controversial ever since!

jyoung8607 said:

Thread useless without pics.

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The inside bag is torn, and the decals are apparently missing:



It appears that someone started to assemble the stand, and broke one of the arms off:

You have a Star-Trek replicate "R" ..............make one!

Build it.

Collector fanatics would insist on the shrink wrap being intact anyway, so it would take a hit on collector value.

Way, way back in the day my buddy and I built a ton of 1/48 aircraft models. We always had a backlog of kits to be opened and put together. Our models were good enough to be on display in the glass cases at the local hobby store.

One day I brought in a Lockheed U-2 I had built from a kit that had not been available for many years. On a return visit I was told that some guy came in and flipped out that I built it, instead of preserving it untouched. I would do it again without hesitation.

I spent a good deal of my allowance during my pre-teen years buying dope...........and the requisite balsa wood sheets, stringers, and tissue paper needed to use it. Never really a fan of plastic models, because they just sat on the shelf and collected dust. My airplane models collected grass stains and crash damage.

One of the first plane kits that I built was the Guillow's 0-1E Bird-Dog, which remarkably is still on the market today:

http://www.guillow.com/cessnabirddog.aspx

Breaking the seals on one of these kits would be a no-brainer.

The damn kids these days (get off my lawn!) are spoiled by styrofoam ARF planes, where they rubber band the wing on and are flying into a tree within 5 minutes of opening the box. If they had to spend weeks between flights replacing crash-damaged balsa stringers, they would lose interest and go back to their Pokemon games.

Jack and I used to have a friend who obtained a 1/3 scale flying Predator drone model that someone had apparently built from scratch. The radio was removed from the bay, along with the engine. I had thought about offering the guy a few bucks for it, to see if I could slap on a weed whacker motor and if it would generate enough power to actually fly.

Unfortunately, the quad copter "drone" scene has made it politically difficult to take even a park flyer out in public these days.....

I would build it... To me it is like a car, you buy it to drive it... I am a bit different I guess, I would never pay stupid money for something that is collectable, like a model, I know it is worth what someone is willing to pay.. and yea, I don't like to pay retail prices..

Oh, yea, that reminds me, Jack, you got some cheap 1996 GTI parts?..

Also I think building it will be satisfying in its self and looking at it and saying I did that also is an awesome feeling...
- Do not forget to activate the ship's auto-destruct to prevent her from falling into the Klingons' hands.

Hope that helps,

drpeter

ps.. I did buy the original series on DVD (found a good deal used ), the older set, not the 'new' remastered ones... and I watch them

What you need Peter?

If it is the Mk3 GTI that I'm thinking of, I think a nice clean VSR manifold would go good with the white paint.....

Peter's GTI VR6 is black.

But it does not have "Ugly Green Heated Seats".

-Uwe-

Yes, black with blacked out windows, black interior, even the headliner...

What you need Peter?

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- Actually it is not in bad shape with just over 200k miles, NO rust!
I did fix the dash lights so Andy will not be able to complain about that now.

- I will email you a list of what I need Jack, to start off, it has the original timing chains, etc..

Thanks,

drpeter

Are you going to use the old double roller type or the later single roller chain and sprockets?

Uwe said:

Peter's GTI VR6 is black.

But it does not have "Ugly Green Heated Seats".

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Those hideous seats were mandatory equipment on all NA-spec cars in the 1995 model year.

The folks in Europe had them as an available option on their luxury Golf models, which is appropriate since they weren't "GTI" caliber performance seats. Remember, I had to open an NHTSA safety incident report because the bean counters that approved them let a stamped sheet metal jesus clip out the door as the only thing between the backrest and the seat base in a lateral-force maneuver.....

Jack@European_Parts said:

Are you going to use the old double roller type or the later single roller chain and sprockets?

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- I was going to run with the early double roller chain, seems to have worked fine so far ..

drpeter

Okay well I recommend that when doing the chains, that the carbon fiber shoe and or tensioner + rail be changed top and bottom with it, because it usually wears out down to the rivets. Then of course all the sprockets.

Dealer would be your best bet on all these parts for "quality" the aftermarket can't be trusted right now unless going direct to SWAG or IWIS.