Welcome to yet another unboxing and review of another classic car, the Volkswagen Beetle
What's in the Box?
For a model of its age, the amount of plastic in the box is actually promising I think. I'll start with the decals though, all one of them! That's right, the only decal in this kit is actually just a metal emblem, very well done at that. Tamiya packaged it into the clear sprue bag so it wasn't getting lost, speaking of the clear sprue though, the glass elements all appear very clear and free of distortion. Parts are included for all the windows, as well as the lenses for the headlights and taillights with their complex curves and no flaws were to be found.
Next up, the chrome sprue. Tamiya has always done a fantastic job with the chrome paint application on parts, and I'll probably leave them as they are, parts on this sprue include the front and rear bumpers, as well as the headlight backings, wheel caps, and a few other chrome details to be found inside and out. Next up on the list was the wheels, 5 identical rubber pieces are included, with poly caps so that the wheels can spin on the finished model. molding was excellent with a small amount of flash where the seam line was from the injection process, easy enough to clean up later.
The shell of the body was next, again because of the complex curves of the model it's impressive that Tamiya managed to pull off the one-piece body the way they did, however, it wasn't without flaws. There are points where sanding will be required where the different pieces of the model join up, resulting in minor seam lines, but they aren't pronounced too much. The next sprue was molded in white, and contains parts for the hood, and trunk, as well as the interior pane and details for that like the dashboard. The detail on the parts is crisp, well molded, and will take any weathering or effects wanted just fine, however the gauges will have to either be left unpainted or very very careful painting will be needed.
The final sprue, molded in black, contains all the parts of the engine, a lot of pieces are actually modeled of it, which surprised me, as well as all the suspension and some of the seat and chassis details. Overall the detail level is really good on them all. This model will build up well, as Tamiya models always do, head on over to the model section to see the build process, and come back here for my final thoughts when its done.