| The following are reader's opinions of the Starship Carrier/Rodger Young made by Hoto Models. |
| Reviewer | TSgt Durie D. Hunter |
| Date Reviewed | May 30, 2001 |
| Overall Rating | 
Well worth getting.
|
| Comments | Like Mr. Worthen, I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi spaceship models and was over the world when Monsters in Motion had the Starship troopers carrier model from Hoto models (I had never heard of Hoto) but I wanted the model pretty bad so I placed my order. I had read Mr. Worthen's preview of the kit after I already ordered it and looked at the Erasmus designs carrier (I liked the Erasmus one better) but I figured I could handle the problems with the Hoto model. One month later I still have not received my model. After a few e-mails to monsters in motion, I was told that they were expecting more in stock and to be calm. Another month later I still have not received my model (I'm getting riled now because I've been down loading all sorts of information on the ship off the net for painting and detail) another e-mail and I was told that they are moving to a different location and once more to be calm. Two month after that (I'm steaming mad now) I e-mail Monsters in motion and politely ask them to cancel my order, I then I went to the Federation Models web-page and ordered the Erasmus Designs carrier (after looking at the model I figured this one was the better model because it had three different versions). Two weeks I received the Erasmus Carrier in the mail, I was over the world, two days later I received the Hoto carries from monsters in motion (I guess they ignored my e-mail to cancel the order). I figured "o.k. i have two models and i'm out about $350 bucks but i was still happy.
The Hoto carrier is pretty much as Mr. Worthen said except for a few things. The detail was excellent, of course there has to be some sanding and fixing, very little pitting or holes to be filled, Hoto must have got the're stuff together because the parts came out pretty good, i don't know if they got mew molds or what. Another thing is the Hoto kit comes in two versions, the troop carrier and the cargo version, it also has two versions of the aft "conning" tower (the one that got hit by the astorid in the movie) all and all it's a good kit. The Erasmus kit is even better, the resin is cast in white (Hoto's is yellow) they both look like they were cast from the same molds except the Erasmus kit has even more detail overall, there is more to put together then the Hoto kit, it(Erasmus) has about fifty parts, the cargo pods are better in the Hoto kit. There is no pitting or holes to fill, very minor sanding. The gantry and radar are better in the Hoto kit. The Erasmus kit also comes with two conning towers and a flight deck with about fifteen really small aircraft. The little anti-aircraft guns are much better in this kit. The instructions are much better with Erasmus and you also get a decal sheet in a separate letter that's mailed to you, it has the numbers and names for about eight ships, such as Godzilla, Valley Forge, Chupacabra (that's right... goatsucker), Frankislove(???) and others and since I have two models it' cool. The one thing you might want to do with both models is pin them when building, these or heavy kits and they will need support, I cant wait to start building, I figure I'll make the troop carries and cargo carrier versions. Both kits are the same scale so I could interchange parts to make both look good, as for the color, Erasmus says panzer gray and green but from looking on the net and watching the movie, I'll going to paint them either a blueish gray or a medium tan color. I wish i had photo's of the Erasmus kit to show you but after spending $350.00, it can wait. The kits don't seem that hard to put together, you will need some extra strong epoxy because super glue just won't do the job. Like I said before, I like both kits and I'm going to take my time building them. |
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