1/18th Melina Dealer Model Review.

Very entertaning article - I love the description of the UIM as a pile of sausages :)

I need another one so I can strip it, paint it Ebony, put the correct plates on it and hit it with a punch.

There's a model seller that I've seen at shows for the last 4 years who wants £50 for one of these. T said I should try to bargain him down but he's not open to that. Can't sell it? Hurr. Wonder why.


See you later - I'm off to eBay.

:edit: ...and why does the 1:43 have an aerial but the 1:18 doesn't?
 
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I need another one so I can strip it, paint it Ebony, put the correct plates on it and hit it with a punch.

There's a model seller that I've seen at shows for the last 4 years who wants £50 for one of these. T said I should try to bargain him down but he's not open to that. Can't sell it? Hurr. Wonder why.


See you later - I'm off to eBay.

:edit: ...and why does the 1:43 have an aerial but the 1:18 doesn't?
Because they realized the aerial looks rediculous and shaved it on one

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Ive amassed a collection now of 2 of this size model one melina and one ebony proudly sat in my display cabinet along with a frosty, melina and red 1:43 models.
 
Got this little beauty number 180 of 1111
not quite sure of the scale or what it's made of as it's very heavy.
 

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Just had a read of that

The colour is a passable representation of Melina Blue, probably the worst colour that the Cougar was available in

:LOL:

And I can relate to this with my Cougar :)

I suspect they all think I have a serious internal imbalance to be this excited to own a model of a worthless old car.
 
Well, it happened. Collecting 1:18 Scale models was a hobby which had been put on hold since I “Grew Up”, moved out of my parents house and got a place of my own. My old bedroom used to have adjustable racking along one wall, and the shelves were stacked with so many boxed models that it was like living in a branch of ModelZone. I bought a few more during my time at University, but limited space in the Dickensian hovels I squatted in during education meant that the main collection stayed at home. It was always nice to come back to at the end of each semester; the models, which I had collected since I was seven, were a tangible link to my childhood. For about ten years now the majority of the collection has been in the attic, safely on stand-by, ready to be enjoyed again.

Allegedly,  I’m now a grown-up, and have easy access to 1:1 scale cars. However, I also have occasional spare time in close proximity to a web-enabled computer. eBay is prominently bookmarked. Inevitably, my fever for 1:18 has been rebooted, and a package arrived for me on Thursday from Germany. It’s a 1998 Ford Cougar, and it may well put me on a slippery slope back towards obsessive collecting.

Click the jump for the first in a series of reviews as I look back at the good, the bad and the downright inexcusable from my collection. Click the images to activate the Enormocator.

The first 1:18  I ever received was a red Jaguar E-Type by Bburago. In fact, that Christmas ’88 I actually recieved two copies of that model; by total coincidence my Parents and my Grandparents had exactly the same idea about what I’d want. This was awesome; it meant I had one that I could de-box and play with, and one to stash away for posterity. In fact it remains stashed away to this day. The unboxed Jag was ruined in pretty short order, but I still have its remains in a rather gruesome carrier bag full of mangled, deceased models that may, one day, be rebuilt or restored… but probably won’t.

Bburago was the go-to brand for large-scale model cars in the late ’80s, of course there were other marques but none readily available unless you knew where to get them. Looking back at those models now they all appear somewhat crude. Tooling for the die-casting process has developed immeasurably since then, in fact it’s probably evolved in the same way that automotive production has. In both 1:18 and 1:1 scale, components can be made with ease today which wouldn’t have been possible twenty years ago.

Bburago used to cut a lot of corners. The “wire wheels” used on my E-Type, for example, were also used on various other totally unrelated models. If it was at all possible tooling up to produce specific parts which could only be used in one application would be avoided. Today, that just doesn’t happen. Every model manufacturer out there, and there are dozens of them, all know that they can’t get away with that kind of thing. Savings have to be made in other ways, and the most common cost-cutting measure is to cut down on attention to detail.

CMC are an absolute top-end brand, and the fit and finish, the detail and thoroughness in execution are sublime on every one of their models that I’ve seen. Unfortunately, their products sell for far more than my 1:1 cars are worth and are therefore well off my radar. I’ve never been one for money-no-object though, anyway. I love the feeling that you get when you buy something for cheap and have low expectations of it, and then get absolutely blown away when you find it to be infinitely better than you ever imagined.

This is a New-Old stock model of a Ford Cougar which I found on eBay for the princely sum of £15.95, plus £8 postage from Germany. To be perfectly honest I immediately felt guilty when I clicked on “Buy It Now”, I have far more important things to spend my money on. Still; I countered my buyer’s remorse by considering the increasing rarity of the actual Ford Cougar, and how I’ll never own one. This Ford-Authorised model will be the closest I’ll ever get. It arrived from Germany within four days of the order being placed, packaged in stout cardboard box, padded internally with sheets of German newspaper (including news of current special offers in ALDI…. tempting) and then further protected by a sleeve of bubble-wrap. This model could have survived a direct hit from a paveway.

I always get parcels directed to my work address, this way their arrival brightens up whatever monotonous task I’m working on. As soon as this appeared I began excitedly parading around and showing it to other members of staff. They all wrote me off as a lost cause ages ago and feigned interest to placate me; in truth I suspect they all think I have a serious internal imbalance to be this excited to own a model of a worthless old car.

I think this is a superb model, and think so more and more every time I look at it. I’ll list its negatives first, to try and appear as even-handed as possible.

#1: Panel fit. The shut-line on the left hand side of the hood is not as even as it could be. I suspect there’s nothing that can really be done to address this.

#2: Door fit: Neither door seems to be able to shut correctly. No, scratch that- they push closed but then spring back. I think this is because the fixed side-glazing is slightly out-of shape. I may be able to gently fettle this.

#3: Wheel fitting: There’s a bit of play where the wheels are attached to their mounts which leads to all kinds of strange camber inclinations in photos unless prior dicking about

#4: Paint thickness: The Cougar was part of Ford’s Edge-Design adventure, all cars from this stable had very defined character lines which gave the car a cohesive form as light and shadow played over it. On this model there are some areas where the paint is so thick that it manages to erode the definition of these lines, as seen next to the tail-light on the above photo. However, I reckon some precision polishing might help things here.

#4.5: I’m only going to call this half a complaint, because I’m nit-picking here. The under-hood detail could be a mite better….

…but only a mite. The “Duratec” labling is present and correct and the famous “pile of sausages” manifold casting is there in all its glory. Actually this model reminds me how much I used to enjoy looking beneath the hood of my Dad’s Mondeo. However, it’s slightly (and only really, reallyslightly) disappointing that all the black things, battery, air-cleaner etc are the same gloss-black finish.

And that’s it for complaints. The rest, overwhelmingly, is positive.

The interior, though shorn of the flocking on floor and upholstery that you get on models from a high price-point, is undeniably accurate, right down to the aluminium bezels to the correctly-shaped air vents; the HVAC controls and the Mondeo-sourced steering wheel with cruise-control buttons. Furthermore, though I’d love this model to have been right-hand drive, I’m pleased that it depicts a manual car. The 2.5 V6 Cougar was a damn good car to drive when you were allowed to row your own.

Late ’90s Fords had a very specific interior aroma, I always thought, and I can smell it from here just looking at these images.  Sad to consider how limited was the success of these cars in this country. It seems the Cougar had two problems: The brand on the nose just wasn’t aspirational enough to cut it with the BMW’s and Audis available thanks to aggressive finance terms which saw people flocking away from the “non-premium” makes. Also, the Cougar just wasn’t sexy enough. It was terribly undermined by its sexy little sister, the Puma, which was small, cheap and cute enough to appeal to a huge chunk of the market. Shoppers in the V6 Coupe market were much thinner on the ground, and it seems not many of them wanted a Ford.

Anyway, back to the model.

The colour is a passable representation of Melina Blue, probably the worst colour that the Cougar was available in. There is slight darkening of the paint around the shut-lines, but it’s by no means the worst I’ve seen on a 1:18 car. The headlamp detail is superb, the decals are crisp, even extending to tiny “Cougar” stamps on the wheels. The rear wiper is shown parked in the correct vertical position, which is a nice touch.

The overall proportions of the model seem to be bang on, something that model makers get wrong with surprising frequency. Here the pillars are the correct thickness and the glass area seems accurate. There are little teeny brake calipers on the little teeny disks; it appears that the rear ones are the same as the fronts which is incorrect but, hey, maybe the owner upgraded them.

As this is the first instalment of what is bound to become a new series under the Die-Cast Delights franchise, let me introduce you to the scoring system I’m going to use in rating these models.

It’s called the Rust to Dust ratio. A model which is so bad it makes you want to stab the CEO of the company in the eyes with a fork and then do the same with your own for having allowed them to receive and interpret light reflected by it, such as this Majorette Mercedes CL600, has no right to your display space. It should be condemned to rot away until there’s nothing left and gets a score of 0%.

Today’s model, taking into account the little flaws it suffers from, deserves an opportunity to sit on a shelf and gather dust for the rest of time. Taking into account that you can find it on eBay for less than $20, I give it 85%.

Join me next time for something I’ve had in the collection for a good while longer. Remember; I buy this crap so you don’t have to.

The pictures werent saved

https://web.archive.org/web/2015041...die-cast-delights-ford-cougar-in-118th-scale/
 
Just to throw a pigeon among the cats, did you know that there is a 1/18th scale 'body kit' available for these models ? It came up in an eBay search when I bought my model around Christmas time ( a present to myself ). The problem was it was neutral plastic colour, sort of 'off white', probably 3D printed when you get up close and the cost was around £20 from Germany. Almost as much as the models were then, although I see some entrepreneur is asking £50 for the only model offering at this time. Unfortunately, I cannot find a link for the body kit any more, but doubt I would ever buy one...
 
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I was going to attempt to buy every colour of C1 in 1:43 Minichamps to complete my collection but...

1) They're as expensive as the 1:18 version.

2) I need a Melina and a Tourmaline, and neither are available.

Hmm.
 
LOL It's safely in one of my boot crates, waiting for the day we can meet up again.

I could keep it in the garage but:

1) I'd probably forget it and,

2) At least back there it's being constantly shaken.
 
Rod, the Frosties were a very limited edition associated with the UK public launch of the Cougar at Silverstone during the weekend of the British Grand Prix in 1998.
The Melina versions were available from Ford dealers across Europe, hence them being more common.