Which Mythos?

[kiseca]

I have a hankering for a Ferrari Mythos and there are two options in 1/24 scale, one from Tamiya and one from Revell. Both are similar money on fleabay.

 

Now, if I was buying on brand reputation, it would be the Tamiya. They've made some stinkers, but overall Tamiya is a byword for good quality plastic kits. Revell, on the other hand, are much more of a lottery.

 

However, the Tamiya kit dates from the early 1990s, while the Revell kit was released in 2003 according to Scalemates. Tamiya may always have been good, but it will be early 1990s standard of good, while by 2003 the quality of kits in general had moved on a lot. An average 2000s kit is likely better than a good 1990s one.

 

I've searched the web, and found a partial build of the Tamiya kit on here. It does look decent enough. But I can't find any reviews or builds of the Revell one. It's a rare concept car that not many people who weren't car nuts in the late 1980s are likely to even know about, so I expect that interest in kits of it is rare too.

 

So my question is, has anyone who happens to be reading this built or have any knowledge of the Revell kit? Does anyone have any experience of these two models and can tell me if one is better than the other? If not I'll likely play it safe and go with Tamiya.

 

EDIT: I misread Scalemates. The Revell isn't new tool in 2000s but a rebox. It doesn't reveal what it's a rebox of though! Now I'm thinking the Revell kit is just a newer release of the Tamiya one..

Edited August 12, 2022 by kiseca

[kiseca]

OK never mind, my google skills let me down again. The Revell kit is a rebox of a Monogram kit, which itself is either a new tool in 1992, or is a rebox of Tamiya's kit. I'll buy a Tamiya one.

[Rob G]

One way to gain extra information about a kits heritage is to have a look at the instruction sheets when they're available on Scalemates. Even though kits reissued by another party often have redrawn instructions, the basic parts design and assembly sequence doesn't change - in this case, Tamiya use thin pins fitted from outside for the wheels, whereas Revell use thick pins captured between the halves. The steering rod on Tamiya's kit uses their clip-on design at the tie rod ends, while Revell have a 'put pin in hole, use hot screwdriver to seal' set up. There's other differences too, but you get the idea. I'd be confident in saying that the 2 kits are unrelated. 

[kiseca]

Thanks for that! I'd not have thought of checking the instructions to see if the sprues were similar in detail.

[Sabrejet]

If I recall correctly, BBR did a Mythos in 1/24 and going smaller, years ago I made the Provence Moulage kit of this car, which was a real sweetie

[Lucky13]

I remember the Mythos very well. I even had a picture with the car on my desk for years, from the Geneva Auto Salon. It looks alien today, imagine 30 years ago. Tamiya released it almost as soon as the real car came out and it was probably the very first Tamiya kit I have ever build. Or should we say, the very first Tamiya kit that I ruined. LOL. I have build the kit at least twice more since then. 

The real car is basically a rebodied Testarossa and as such it shares most of its parts with the Testarossa Kit from Tamiya. At the time no one knew this, but apparently Pininfarina made few of those cars and all of them  were 100% operational The Sultan of Brunei had at least three of them. And at least two of them had roofs. There were at least two additional cars, which have slightly different details. The reason why I am saying all this, is because The Tamiya kit would be very accurate to at least one of those examples. It has some really cool features from the real car, like the panel infront of the windscreen, which raises up for the wiper to come out and both the front and rear active wings can be positioned extended or retracted. The interior is very plain. Or should I say clean. And it depicts the real one to the T. The kit will come with self adhesive metal transfers for the emblems, shift gate and mirror, which was revolutionary back when it got released. The cool thing about building this model is that unlike some other concept cars, this thing was 100% bone stock Testarossa underneath, so finding reference material to detail it should be easy-peasy. The only difference under the hood was the mufflers in the Mythos, which have nothing to detail. If you want to detail the kit, you may notice that there are a lot of pictures showing the interior having these four point seatbelts, coming out from behind what looks like cushions on the seats. As far as I know only one car had those. The Tamiya kit is molded with no "cushions", so if you want to add the belts you would need to scratch build them. Other than that the kit falls together just as expected from Tamiya. In that regard nothing has changed in the last 30 years. 

   I have never build the Monogram Mythos. But what I know is that you are going to get inferior tires and wheels for sure, the rear hood will not have its sides open as it should and the seats will have the cushions with the belts molded in, which takes away from the quality of the mold and creates a nightmare if you want to add good detail or display the car without belts as some of the prototypes were. Also my main reason vor voting for the Tamiya kit is the metal transfers, which make a world of difference. 

   There are quite few videos our days of the car at different events.

Edited August 18, 2022 by Lucky13

[kiseca]

6 hours ago, Lucky13 said:

I remember the Mythos very well. I even had a picture with the car on my desk for years, from the Geneva Auto Salon. It looks alien today, imagine 30 years ago. Tamiya released it almost as soon as the real car came out and it was probably the very first Tamiya kit I have ever build. Or should we say, the very first Tamiya kit that I ruined. LOL. I have build the kit at least twice more since then. 

The real car is basically a rebodied Testarossa and as such it shares most of its parts with the Testarossa Kit from Tamiya. At the time no one knew this, but apparently Pininfarina made few of those cars and all of them  were 100% operational The Sultan of Brunei had at least three of them. And at least two of them had roofs. There were at least two additional cars, which have slightly different details. The reason why I am saying all this, is because The Tamiya kit would be very accurate to at least one of those examples. It has some really cool features from the real car, like the panel infront of the windscreen, which raises up for the wiper to come out and both the front and rear active wings can be positioned extended or retracted. The interior is very plain. Or should I say clean. And it depicts the real one to the T. The kit will come with self adhesive metal transfers for the emblems, shift gate and mirror, which was revolutionary back when it got released. The cool thing about building this model is that unlike some other concept cars, this thing was 100% bone stock Testarossa underneath, so finding reference material to detail it should be easy-peasy. The only difference under the hood was the mufflers in the Mythos, which have nothing to detail. If you want to detail the kit, you may notice that there are a lot of pictures showing the interior having these four point seatbelts, coming out from behind what looks like cushions on the seats. As far as I know only one car had those. The Tamiya kit is molded with no "cushions", so if you want to add the belts you would need to scratch build them. Other than that the kit falls together just as expected from Tamiya. In that regard nothing has changed in the last 30 years. 

   I have never build the Monogram Mythos. But what I know is that you are going to get inferior tires and wheels for sure, the rear hood will not have its sides open as it should and the seats will have the cushions with the belts molded in, which takes away from the quality of the mold and creates a nightmare if you want to add good detail or display the car without belts as some of the prototypes were. Also my main reason vor voting for the Tamiya kit is the metal transfers, which make a world of difference. 

   There are quite few videos our days of the car at different events.

Much appreciated, and happy to hear the recommendation since the Tamiya kit is already ordered, delivered and sitting in the stash 🤣

 

It does look good! Smaller than I expected but then this is the first 1/24 size kit I'll be building that's not an aeroplane.

 

I remember when it was released, magazines mentioned the Testarossa underpinnings. Not a bad starting point for a car, to be fair. Interestingly the Testarossa, and the Berlinetta Boxers that came before it, were always derided, to an extent, for having their gearbox below the engine. On the Tamiya kit it becomes obvious how high this actually makes the engine sit (assuming it's all scaled accurately). I've always known of that arrangement, but this is the first time I've seen the effect in 3D. You don't really get to see it when staring at the engine mounted in the car.

 

I loved the Mythos when it came out. There are some parts that I thought weren't perfect. The rear end is a big square slab, the windscreen... I dunno how they could have made that any better but as it was it also seemed a bit plain or featureless I guess. But overall it's a stunning car. The way the lines of the body fold over themselves where the waistline and the top intake line intersect. The smooth curves everywhere. The inlets so smoothly integrated under the headlights. The Testarossa proportions with the wide rear track, narrow front track accentuated by the shorter overall length. It's a beautiful thing in photos. Back in 1990 it was unlike anything that had come before. I've never seen it in the flesh but I'd expect it's just even more arresting.

[kiseca]

As mentioned in my previous comment, the Tamiya kit has been ordered and arrived. And so has the reference material. Thanks again for all the replies and help. A WIP thread will follow... eventually! There's quite a queue ahead of the Ferrari.

 

Box and reference images. I had this magazine when I was young. I am not sure this is where I first came across the Mythos...I think I was already aware of it when this came out, but this was certainly the most extensive writeup and image library I had of the car.

 

I find myself wondering what it would look like with a tan interior and... no. Maybe I shouldn't 😆

 

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by kiseca

[Marco F.]

....tan and.....🤔....come on tell us your Fantasie, where all are quite tollerant 🤫😇

Marco F 

[Marco F.]

....we all ...

Blame the Handy 🙈

[kiseca]

On 9/9/2022 at 8:17 PM, Marco F. said:

....tan and.....🤔....come on tell us your Fantasie, where all are quite tollerant 🤫😇

Marco F 

 

On 9/9/2022 at 8:18 PM, Marco F. said:

....we all ...

Blame the Handy 🙈

🤣 I know what you mean!

 

Whet was in my mind is, tan and red are the classic Ferrari colour. Red bodywork, tan interior. So I was thinking, how would it look if all the red part of the interior was tan, all the black bits in the interior stay black. Bodywork stays red. If the join lines between the bodywork and interior panels are smooth, it might look rather tasteful and might even break up the mass of car a little.

 

And it's a concept car. The two or three they sold would be whatever colours the buyer wanted most likely, so it would have been a valid combination. Only problem is, at my skill level I think I'd find it easier to pull off a red interior than a tan one.