knight rider online

Better question we should be asking: Will they also be release KARR as well, or do we have to buy two and give one of them a gray/silver bottom?

The 1:18 ERTL model is not perfect. The orange foglight is not supposed to be orange, the nose is too high and a bit short, the A-pillar that supports the front windshield is a bit thick, the tires are not supposed to be "low-profile" pirelli types, the rear spoiler looks a bit ackwardly high, and it appears that the model even has an AUTOBOT STICKER on the rear side under the roofline and near the rear windshield!!! Weird huh? But this may probably be remedied, hopefully before distribution. I'll still save my $40.00 for it.

HondaSiR wrote:The 1:18 ERTL model is not perfect. The orange foglight is not supposed to be orange, the nose is too high and a bit short, the A-pillar that supports the front windshield is a bit thick, the tires are not supposed to be "low-profile" pirelli types, the rear spoiler looks a bit ackwardly high, and it appears that the model even has an AUTOBOT STICKER on the rear side under the roofline and near the rear windshield!!! Weird huh? But this may probably be remedied, hopefully before distribution. I'll still save my $40.00 for it.

An autobot sticker!!!! No way!!!! Are u talking about these "marks" that have been circled in the pic? If u ask me, they look more like reflections... (thanks to dj_chalky from knightrideruk forums for the edited pic)

Whatever those red marks are (reflections or not), I hope they don't make it into the actual model. My best guess is...they are Firebird decals designed for stock Trans Ams. How they made it to the KITT model I don't know. ERTL probably has plans of releasing stock versions of Firebirds.

HondaSiR wrote:The 1:18 ERTL model is not perfect. The orange foglight is not supposed to be orange, the nose is too high and a bit short, the A-pillar that supports the front windshield is a bit thick, the tires are not supposed to be "low-profile" pirelli types, the rear spoiler looks a bit ackwardly high, and it appears that the model even has an AUTOBOT STICKER on the rear side under the roofline and near the rear windshield!!! Weird huh? But this may probably be remedied, hopefully before distribution. I'll still save my $40.00 for it.

.another nitpick to add is that the side mirror struts are way to thick and protude out of the wrong part of the door. It should be in the small triangular section in the corner of the window section and not some way down the door.

This sort of detailing errors should simply not be happening with 1:18 scale models. They are much bigger....actually its the most common car model scale and should be more detailed than the 1:43 KITT cars. As things stand, this is a ok/good model but by no means a great 1:18 model let alone a great KITT model. The 1:43 KR cars are more accurate and much smaller...making it much more difficult to do. To be honest, if it were not for the fact that this is the only 1:18 KR car available I would not get it, its too flawed for its scale.

Sarfraz

HondaSiR wrote:Whatever those red marks are (reflections or not), I hope they don't make it into the actual model. My best guess is...they are Firebird decals designed for stock Trans Ams. How they made it to the KITT model I don't know. ERTL probably has plans of releasing stock versions of Firebirds.

this is exactally what i think they are. it should have trans am on the fenders and eagles on the b pillars.technically it should have painted ground effects with 3-4 pinstrpies above the ground effects and a bunch of lines going up the hood scoop with a bigger eagle on the scoop but you cannot see it good enough in the pic to see if it is there.i heard they are supposed to release the regular trans am in the future.

it looks plastic and not die cast to me...

Skav

sarfraz wrote:

HondaSiR wrote:The 1:18 ERTL model is not perfect. The orange foglight is not supposed to be orange, the nose is too high and a bit short, the A-pillar that supports the front windshield is a bit thick, the tires are not supposed to be "low-profile" pirelli types, the rear spoiler looks a bit ackwardly high, and it appears that the model even has an AUTOBOT STICKER on the rear side under the roofline and near the rear windshield!!! Weird huh? But this may probably be remedied, hopefully before distribution. I'll still save my $40.00 for it.

.another nitpick to add is that the side mirror struts are way to thick and protude out of the wrong part of the door. It should be in the small triangular section in the corner of the window section and not some way down the door.

This sort of detailing errors should simply not be happening with 1:18 scale models. They are much bigger....actually its the most common car model scale and should be more detailed than the 1:43 KITT cars. As things stand, this is a ok/good model but by no means a great 1:18 model let alone a great KITT model. The 1:43 KR cars are more accurate and much smaller...making it much more difficult to do. To be honest, if it were not for the fact that this is the only 1:18 KR car available I would not get it, its too flawed for its scale.

Sarfraz

Hmmm.... U have a point there sarfraz.. These being 1:18 in scale shd at least be as accurate as the smaller 1:43 KITT car or maybe better.... But so far we have picked out quite a few minor flaws just by looking at the 1:18 KITT picture... Lets hope by the time the model is released, it will look better than how it is shown in the pic, provided if ERTL wld change anything that they have perhaps overlooked.... (for eg; the orange fog lights and the side view mirrors)

The front reflector is also orange, it should be yellow. And on the rear window, it looks like it's got a frame around it.

Another flaw I just noticed, the driver's seat is too close to the dashboard! Michael cannot possibly drive this car because he would be too close to the steering wheel. In the series, the driver side PMD seat would be reclined far towards the back so that Michael can fit in (he is quite a tall individual). The MPC and AMT model kits also made this mistake in their tooling, I am surprised that ERTL has also followed on their mistake (the 1982 1:24 scale Monogram Firebird model kit has the PMD seats correctly positioned). So far we've had a look at the front/side exterior of the model. Who knows what irregularities we may yet find on the back side and interior. Gosh, I'm starting to wonder if the long wait (and SRP$40.00) would be worth it when it gets into our hands.

HondaSiR- That's true, and a lot of models have that problem. It reminds me of my Back To the Future DeLorean model which has the steering wheel too close to the seat so that if anyone were to sit in the car, they would have no leg room.

there's still time to make changes, perhaps we should email ertl if they would listen and ask them to ammend the car.

who knows?

...I don't know Skav. Its not like the DVD cover which had a simple remedy. This a model car with fundamental design flaws. It would require a great amount of time and money to alter any moulds already cast for it. Does anyone have ERTL's e-mail handy and e-mail then a link to this thread, it may prove useful to them if its not too late.

Sarfraz

EDIT: fount it: FAQ@rc2corp.com

Well have some hope, that picture is of a prototype. Those red spots that were circled are logos for the ordinary Trans Ams. Do you really think they would make a huge oversight like that on the mass production of these models and have every K.I.T.T. model have those spots? I think the picture is just to give a general idea for the time being and is subject to change like most other pictures released before a product officially debuts (i.e. movies, video games, or even K.A.R.R.).

Yeah, this could just be a prototype we're seeing. Besides, if they do mass produce it with these flaws, we can buy them and fix them ourselves.

...not all of us have the skills or patiences to repair flaws made by manufacturers. Hope it is just a rushed prototype but we are heading for the release date pretty fast...

Sarfraz

Anyone tried sending them an email about the flaws?

The K.I.T.T. model is now available for preorder at the following sites:

http://www.diecastmuscle.com/store/33844

http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodi ... er=RA33844 (November release at this site)

http://www.showcasetoys.com/knrikie1dioc.html

http://www.diecastdirect.com/asp_module ... ode=E33844

...well I've sent an e-mail via that address above and linked this page. Hopefully ERTL will have a look and find our comments justified. However, I don't hold that much hope as its far too close to the release date. By now I would expect most moulds to be finalised and put into production.

Sarfraz

Skav wrote:it looks plastic and not die cast to me...

Skav

I was thinking the exact same thing. I think it's just a plastic kit with an orange fog added, maybe to resemble someones street-legal KITT.

The picture above may or may not be made out of plastic with black paint covering it. It's just a prototype car so it is highly possible that it is made of plastic. But the final product will definitely be made of metal, or else there will be a riot of sorts from the consumers. October is just around the corner...our long wait will soon be over.

HondaSiR wrote:The picture above may or may not be made out of plastic with black paint covering it. It's just a prototype car so it is highly possible that it is made of plastic. But the final product will definitely be made of metal, or else there will be a riot of sorts from the consumers. October is just around the corner...our long wait will soon be over.

Yup... Touch wood...no delays please....!!!!

HondaSiR wrote:The picture above may or may not be made out of plastic with black paint covering it. It's just a prototype car so it is highly possible that it is made of plastic. But the final product will definitely be made of metal, or else there will be a riot of sorts from the consumers. October is just around the corner...our long wait will soon be over. :)

this is a very KEY point. in fact most items released are doen this way. if you look at probably 90% of toy packages that are released, they say somewhere on it that actual toy may vary from image on package. they make mock ups or prototypes just for publicity on almost everything that is made so they can advertise in advance and then already have material for packaging when the product is finished. sometimes the prototypes look better than the released version because they'll take more time on it to better promote the product...but lets hope not in this case : )

themarvelous3 wrote:

HondaSiR wrote:The picture above may or may not be made out of plastic with black paint covering it. It's just a prototype car so it is highly possible that it is made of plastic. But the final product will definitely be made of metal, or else there will be a riot of sorts from the consumers. October is just around the corner...our long wait will soon be over.

this is a very KEY point. in fact most items released are doen this way. if you look at probably 90% of toy packages that are released, they say somewhere on it that actual toy may vary from image on package. they make mock ups or prototypes just for publicity on almost everything that is made so they can advertise in advance and then already have material for packaging when the product is finished. sometimes the prototypes look better than the released version because they'll take more time on it to better promote the product...but lets hope not in this case : )

That's true. The original MPC model has on the box "Pictures of prototype", clearly printed on one of the corners of the box.

Let's hope it's the opposite of that case.