A neat kit would be the space capsule used in a few comedy TV shows, especially the one where a couple astronauts went back to caveman days, starring Imogen Coca as a cavewoman. It was also used in a Gilligan's Island episode. Similar to the Mercury capsule but more faceted than round.
I think I know the thing you mean. I t think it would have to be in a pretty large scale to be worthwhile. Maybe 12th scale with a leisure? I didn't see 'Gilligan's Island' until i visited the USA. So it wasn't really something I grew up with and I do t have the same sort of connection with it. (I think it showed up in 'Lost In Space' a few times didn't it?).
Yeh.. I think there are some resin / garage kits of some of these. Here isa video of a guy working on the Metaluna ship. th-cam.com/video/c7WJyQkpcss/w-d-xo.html
The seamless door effect of Klaatu's saucer was acheived by filling the shut lines with glazier's putty, and painting it silver. The door was filmed opening when both putty and paint were still wet. Footage of it closing were simply reversed footage. For Gort's seamless look, actor Lock Martin had two suits - one with a zip at the front, and another with a zip at the back.
I would rush out and buy the Disco Volante tomorrow! I remember as a lad, building 'my version' of this out of Lego after watching that great movie. Great ideas - thanks so much!
I liked the Mars Attacks! ships. Quite faithful to the Topps cards with a nod to Ray Harryhausen's 'earth vs. The Flying Saucers' ships. I like that they had landing gear.. a bit of a rarity in flying saucers!
I had all three of the Black Hole kits. It would have been so easy to have made the Cygnus a lightable kit by making the girder work fit around a transparent core. Making the existing parts transparent is an option, but imagine having to do the masking!
Yeh. Thanks for commenting. It's a bit of a nightmare, however you do it. maybe if the hull were tinted clear parts - an appropriate yellow/orange (like the colour of the engine domes on the AMT TV Enterprise). that way it wouldn't 'need' painting. Ha Ha. Masking, or hand painting, the girder-work is already a pain with the grey styrene. when I did mine I think I painted the spaces either matt black or 'yellow' depending on whether that part was meant to be lit or not and then sort of dry-brushed the whole thing with gun metal. this only coloured one surface and not the sides of the girder but it looked OK to 12 year old me. I weathered it with a dark earth (brown) to give it that sort of rusty look that it has in the film.
Another great selection. The plane in This Island Earth was a high-wing Stinson monoplane. Airfix did a kit of James Bond and Odd Job from Goldfinger, but a kit of Bond with his Jetpack from Thunderball would have been great, in 1/12th scale, like their other large scale figure kits.
Airfix did the Autogryo from 'You Only Live Twice' - Little Nellie. And I believe Aurora did the Goldfinger Aston Martin, boxed as 'the secret agent spy car'I I have a fondness for their historical figure kits.
@@Matteline In the 1960s it was Airfix in Britain, Aurora in the USA, and the Japanese who did all the James Bond kits. Airfix did the James Bond and Odd Job double kit in 1/12th scale, with the Aston Martin DB5, Toyota 2000GT, and Little Nellie in 1/24th scale. Aurora did the Aston Martin Super Spy Car in 1/25th scale, with separate kits of James Bond and Odd Job in 1/8th scale. So many great James Bond subjects were never kitted..
I had the Jupiter 2 and it was made with a first and second floor. The second floor had a secondary bridge, individual sleeping areas and a kitchen. Also had empty spaces for the landing craft and the chariot, not included.😂
Cygnus was a challenge; and I took it! I had purchased two so I could cannibalize one of them for spare parts. As for lighting up the solid plastic derelict spaceship; a bit of imagination was used. It's solid grey metal light can't go through, unless you make the plastic light up without batteries. For it to light up; it must glow in the dark. I taped up sections of the ship and applied glow in the dark paint to the surface. After drying an abrasive paper would remove the paint off the grid work. I wiped off the dust with a small damp cloth. The next step was easy. A stiff flat brush applied a grey metal coating on the grid work. When I finished it just looked like white colored panel with steel grid work. I showed it in a brightly lit room to friends; who liked the paint job. Imagine their surprise when the Cygnus lit up; after I switched off the room lights.
That sounds like a great approach. Two kits to get the extra chunk for the '5 section' vs '4 section" hull? Were you able to get luminous paint with a yellow orange hue?
@@awol1703 I was fortunate to come around some of that paint back at an art and hobby shop. Now any Walmart craft department has folkart glow in the dark acrylic paint in different colors. I used a neutral white that gives off an effective glow.
One of my friends did it with something similar. He used a yellowish fluorescent paint, and pointed a black light at it when he wanted to show it off. It worked really well.
I’ve modelled the Bird 1 in CAD/ for 3D printing. It certainly makes for a nice model in 1/144 scale at about 11” tall. I also have a 3D print of the Atlantis base. About a foot across as my printer couldn’t fit anything larger!
@@Matteline I tried Bird 1 in Blender but found Fusion 360 much easier as it’s better for CAD modelling. If you have an email I can forward you the Files for Bird 1. The Atlantis base I got off Thingiverse.
Cool concepts! I would have loved to build these back in the day. James Bond movies came on the ABC Movie of the Week on Sunday nights, always the most entertaining thing on during that time slot.
As always, your "What if . . . ?" Fantasy Model Kit artwork is very well thought-out and fun to look at (and wonder about what might have been.) I was almost six years old when "Lost in Space" first aired, and I started building models around the same time. Though I built the Robot B9 and Cyclops Scene with the figures and somewhat undersized Chariot, what I really wanted was a model of the Robinson's Jupiter 2 spaceship. (It's my understanding that Aurora CEO's considered it at the time, but rejected the idea because they thought the Jupiter 2 was, "too plain and simple, and probably wouldn't sell." Maybe they should have asked us kids at the time . . . .) As it turned out, we finally got an injection molded kit from Polar Lights in 1998 (or about a year after the 'real' Jupiter 2 supposedly launched from NASA's Alpha Control on the show.) I had one on advance order at my local hobby shop, and asked them to call me when it came in. I was at work when they called me, and actually took personal time off to get it. When I got there, the hobby shop was about to open for the day, and there were plenty of other "late-30 / early-40-sommethings" who also "got their call," waiting for the shop to open, too. They sold out in less than an hour. I can't wait to see what other "What-if . . . ?" Fantasy Model Kit box art subjects you will treat us to in the future. Thanks for sharing this with us!
@@awol1703 I really liked that first kit and thought they did a great job encompassing the appearance of the various models and sets used to depict the ship in the show. It was a great size too. Such an elegant shape, Looking back I can maybe see why the kit manufacturers were coming from. the ship is stuck on the planet for al of Season 1 after the first 2 episodes I think. I could be wrong, but think it was only in the 3rd Season where it got to do more flying around. The Seaview on the other hand was active every week.
I do wonder if anyone ever thought about doing vehicles from comics and original serials too? For example I've seen in a collection of Flag Gordon comics some campy but interesting designs especially for big ships. Also recall finding ones like Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Captain Video and the Space Rangers, Space Patrol, etc. Also surprised no one thought about the tower or boiler from the 1927 film Metropolis. The design for that movie is really good even for today.
Two ships no one seems to talk about from the earlier eras (both very find designs): The Mars ship from CONQUEST OF SPACE (we even sent blueprints to Pegasus who wanted to produce it as a kit, but so far nothing happened), and the wonderful Stardust "satellite" ship from SATELLITE IN THE SKY. Much more interesting than EARTH STOOD STILL saucer in my opinion (as if anyone cares!). Exeter ship AND a Zahgon ship combination kit?? (Btw, the profile isn't quite accurate: The front of the disc blends off from a taper to a more "squared off" treatment toward the aft end, and is thicker. Hard to describe in just a few words.) The "dots" aren't portholes. They are "ray ports" for fending off Zahgon attack ships. Just fyi.
Thanks for the great feedback. I felt liek becaise there was a circualr view screen in the control cabin, that may in some way relate to a 'window'. Ooops. Regarding the shape, I also made it a bit taller to make the composition a bit more interesting. Artistic license? The checkerboard panelling is actually more of a plaid pattern on the real thing. Very 1950s! Ha ha. Imaginary parallel universe 'what if me' will get that adressed for the re-issue. I think 'Conquest Of Space' does not have the same sort of following and love as some of the other 50s sci-fi movies. it 's attempts at depicting the future lead to a rather austere story. And it is quite dated of course and can illicit some chuckles rather than awe. Although nowawadys that adds to the charm, and the very thorough Chesley Bonestall / Willy Ley design of the Martian ship - really the Moon Ship - in particular is very appealing. And as you say would make for an interesting kit. I'd buy a kit of it of they did it at a decent size!
Some of these have been made as kits, but not from the mass-production houses such as Revell. And the Cygnus from "The Black Hole" had the same feel to me as the Nautilus.
Yes there are some resin and/or garage kits nowadays. But I wanted a lot of this stuff then. When the films came out, or when I first saw them. I have seen a few of the garage kits. I have found theybare sometimes quite small. While this is to be expected, and they are scale models, I think there needs to be a certain heft, or mass, to do a decent representation. Not to mention the level of detail these things have.
Thanks for for the comment. I never had the E-Boat. it was a bit expensive. Matchbox did a really big freighter of some sort too, in 1/72nd I think. But I had and made the MTB. A really good kit from what I recall. I think it came with crew figures.
Many Thanks. If you havent already please subscribe to the channel, 'like' the video and share with your friends. These are fun to do, but do take a while.
01:20 As kids, my brother and I had all of those first 5 models listed, and challenged each other to see who could build and detail paint them the best. He usually won the Building part. But I was the better detailer. 👍👍& 10⭐ 7:10 Speaking of Thunderbirds... Anderson Entertainment store is re-releasing them now.
The Moon Buggy from Diamonds are Forever would have been nice, maybe on a diorama fending off the Security Guards? I had the Corgi one but the kit would have been impressive. It always narked me that the Corgi was in silly, innacurate colours!
I got the kitsbwhen they came out. In 79/80. The Cygnus is a truly awful kit. Molded in solider gray plastic with all of the latticework represented as raised detail. I painted it a sort of yellow - for the lit areas and black for the unlit parts and then sort of drybrushing the framework and the ret of the hull in gun metal. And addingba wash ih brown in places. This mDe it sort of passable..butbthe shape is incorrect - uts about 20% too short. One of the worst kits I have ever seen. But that is what you tended to sci-fi kits around that time I recall the VINCENT KIT was pretty good. It cane in several coloured sprees- maroon, silver and chrome and did not need to be painted.
i still have the robots but threw the cygnus away eventually i had painted it as in the photo you showed but it did nothing for me really as you said terrible in the way it was made.
The only model I ever built was the space shuttle. The main body was split along his length into two sections unfortunately the nose when you joined the two together was separated by at least a half an inch. So I took it back I got another one. It too had a gap somewhat less but still horrible. Literally unbridgable and you could not glue it together or at least I couldn't. I wound up filling The gap in the nose with putty it looked horrible. This was made by Ravell 1/144 scale.
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. There are some stinkers out there, but the problem you describes sounds like an anomaly. Kits today in particular are so well engineered and fit together really well, allowing the builder to really have fun and focus on making it look the way they want... and not just wrestle with getting it together.
I love the Jupiter 2, since the OG TV series way back when. I was most disappointed in the recent remake that the spaceship that took off from earth looked like the J2 then broke apart into the oddly shaped thing that was the new version. Wasn't the greatest movie in the world for sure, but it would have been saved in my eye if they kept the original J2 ship. Oh and the same with the Robot, sometimes things do not need to be changed.
A neat kit would be the space capsule used in a few comedy TV shows, especially the one where a couple astronauts went back to caveman days, starring Imogen Coca as a cavewoman. It was also used in a Gilligan's Island episode. Similar to the Mercury capsule but more faceted than round.
I think I know the thing you mean. I t think it would have to be in a pretty large scale to be worthwhile. Maybe 12th scale with a leisure? I didn't see 'Gilligan's Island' until i visited the USA. So it wasn't really something I grew up with and I do t have the same sort of connection with it. (I think it showed up in 'Lost In Space' a few times didn't it?).
Such fun!!! Great job and super knowledgeable!!!!
Excellent work again sir. Really wish all these kits had been made.
Yeh.. I think there are some resin / garage kits of some of these. Here isa video of a guy working on the Metaluna ship.
th-cam.com/video/c7WJyQkpcss/w-d-xo.html
The seamless door effect of Klaatu's saucer was acheived by filling the shut lines with glazier's putty, and painting it silver. The door was filmed opening when both putty and paint were still wet. Footage of it closing were simply reversed footage.
For Gort's seamless look, actor Lock Martin had two suits - one with a zip at the front, and another with a zip at the back.
I would rush out and buy the Disco Volante tomorrow! I remember as a lad, building 'my version' of this out of Lego after watching that great movie. Great ideas - thanks so much!
Never enough Goodies!
Ha ha - I wondered how many people would get that gag or just be ondering what that was all about.
Fantastic it's great to see your 'What if' model art. It would be great to see more flying saucer type models , like the ones in Mars Attacks 😂😂 👍
I liked the Mars Attacks! ships. Quite faithful to the Topps cards with a nod to Ray Harryhausen's 'earth vs. The Flying Saucers' ships. I like that they had landing gear.. a bit of a rarity in flying saucers!
I always thought the Jupiter 2 was a TARDIS, because it was " bigger on the inside than the outside".
I had all three of the Black Hole kits. It would have been so easy to have made the Cygnus a lightable kit by making the girder work fit around a transparent core. Making the existing parts transparent is an option, but imagine having to do the masking!
Yeh. Thanks for commenting. It's a bit of a nightmare, however you do it. maybe if the hull were tinted clear parts - an appropriate yellow/orange (like the colour of the engine domes on the AMT TV Enterprise). that way it wouldn't 'need' painting. Ha Ha.
Masking, or hand painting, the girder-work is already a pain with the grey styrene. when I did mine I think I painted the spaces either matt black or 'yellow' depending on whether that part was meant to be lit or not and then sort of dry-brushed the whole thing with gun metal. this only coloured one surface and not the sides of the girder but it looked OK to 12 year old me. I weathered it with a dark earth (brown) to give it that sort of rusty look that it has in the film.
Another great selection. The plane in This Island Earth was a high-wing Stinson monoplane.
Airfix did a kit of James Bond and Odd Job from Goldfinger, but a kit of Bond with his Jetpack from Thunderball would have been great, in 1/12th scale, like their other large scale figure kits.
Airfix did the Autogryo from 'You Only Live Twice' - Little Nellie. And I believe Aurora did the Goldfinger Aston Martin, boxed as 'the secret agent spy car'I I have a fondness for their historical figure kits.
@@Matteline In the 1960s it was Airfix in Britain, Aurora in the USA, and the Japanese who did all the James Bond kits. Airfix did the James Bond and Odd Job double kit in 1/12th scale, with the Aston Martin DB5, Toyota 2000GT, and Little Nellie in 1/24th scale. Aurora did the Aston Martin Super Spy Car in 1/25th scale, with separate kits of James Bond and Odd Job in 1/8th scale. So many great James Bond subjects were never kitted..
Another good video. I would like to see a model of the Orion 7 from the 60s German show Raumpatroille Orion,yet another saucer 🙂
I believe that Revell (Germany) made a model of that, several years ago.
@@brianartillery Bet an example would not be cheap now,but i'll take a look.Thanks,Brian.
@@stevekitt52 I don't think I am familiar with this ship. Can you point me to a picture or video of it?
Here you go.With English subtitles.Enjoy 🙂
th-cam.com/video/3TMimV9reNs/w-d-xo.html
Disco Volante is one of the reasons why Thunderball is one of my favorite Bond films.
I had the Jupiter 2 and it was made with a first and second floor. The second floor had a secondary bridge, individual sleeping areas and a kitchen. Also had empty spaces for the landing craft and the chariot, not included.😂
Cygnus was a challenge; and I took it!
I had purchased two so I could cannibalize one of them for spare parts.
As for lighting up the solid plastic derelict spaceship; a bit of imagination
was used. It's solid grey metal light can't go through,
unless you make the plastic light up without batteries.
For it to light up; it must glow in the dark. I taped up sections of the ship and applied
glow in the dark paint to the surface. After drying an abrasive paper would remove
the paint off the grid work. I wiped off the dust with a small damp cloth. The next step was easy. A stiff flat brush applied a grey metal coating on the grid work. When I finished it just looked like white colored panel with steel grid work. I showed it in a brightly lit room to friends; who liked the paint job. Imagine their surprise when the Cygnus lit up; after I switched off the room lights.
That sounds like a great approach. Two kits to get the extra chunk for the '5 section' vs '4 section" hull? Were you able to get luminous paint with a yellow orange hue?
@@awol1703 I was fortunate to come around some of that paint back at an art and hobby shop. Now any Walmart craft department has folkart glow in the dark acrylic paint in different colors. I used a neutral white that gives off an effective glow.
@@Phantanos It sounds great!
One of my friends did it with something similar. He used a yellowish fluorescent paint, and pointed a black light at it when he wanted to show it off. It worked really well.
The Space Ark's takeoff inspired Fireball XL5.
The 'V-1's in World War 2 were launched that way.
I’ve modelled the Bird 1 in CAD/ for 3D printing. It certainly makes for a nice model in 1/144 scale at about 11” tall. I also have a 3D print of the Atlantis base. About a foot across as my printer couldn’t fit anything larger!
Nice! I must look into 3D printing. I am slowly (very slowly) learning Bender
@@Matteline I tried Bird 1 in Blender but found Fusion 360 much easier as it’s better for CAD modelling. If you have an email I can forward you the Files for Bird 1. The Atlantis base I got off Thingiverse.
I had the Black Hole kit. I do remember being disappointed with it.
Cool concepts! I would have loved to build these back in the day. James Bond movies came on the ABC Movie of the Week on Sunday nights, always the most entertaining thing on during that time slot.
As always, your "What if . . . ?" Fantasy Model Kit artwork is very well thought-out and fun to look at (and wonder about what might have been.)
I was almost six years old when "Lost in Space" first aired, and I started building models around the same time. Though I built the Robot B9 and Cyclops Scene with the figures and somewhat undersized Chariot, what I really wanted was a model of the Robinson's Jupiter 2 spaceship. (It's my understanding that Aurora CEO's considered it at the time, but rejected the idea because they thought the Jupiter 2 was, "too plain and simple, and probably wouldn't sell." Maybe they should have asked us kids at the time . . . .)
As it turned out, we finally got an injection molded kit from Polar Lights in 1998 (or about a year after the 'real' Jupiter 2 supposedly launched from NASA's Alpha Control on the show.) I had one on advance order at my local hobby shop, and asked them to call me when it came in. I was at work when they called me, and actually took personal time off to get it. When I got there, the hobby shop was about to open for the day, and there were plenty of other "late-30 / early-40-sommethings" who also "got their call," waiting for the shop to open, too. They sold out in less than an hour.
I can't wait to see what other "What-if . . . ?" Fantasy Model Kit box art subjects you will treat us to in the future. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Thank you.
@@awol1703 I really liked that first kit and thought they did a great job encompassing the appearance of the various models and sets used to depict the ship in the show. It was a great size too. Such an elegant shape, Looking back I can maybe see why the kit manufacturers were coming from. the ship is stuck on the planet for al of Season 1 after the first 2 episodes I think. I could be wrong, but think it was only in the 3rd Season where it got to do more flying around. The Seaview on the other hand was active every week.
I was thinking about the contemporary spaceship from 'The First Men in the Moon'.
The 1960's one, with stop motion animated creatures and Lunarites?
You'd have to do the TDTESS saucer with an open ramp and a little Gort! 😊
Another great one Mat. I do not think the Marusan Jupiter was sold much outside of Japan. I think they made stuff in Japan without license.
Thanks Max. The illustration on their box favours the mock-up they used in the Roswell episode. A very off-model prop.
"Disco Volante" is Italian for "Flying Saucer"!
Yes. Lots of 'flying saucers' in this video.
Disco Volante is Italian for Flying Saucer.
Yes. Lots of Flying Saucers in this video:)
Nicely done!
Disco Volante still needs to be made as a kit. It is iconic.
Agree
Aifix do a 1/72nd scale Vulcan... what a diorama that could be. Two levels with the Vulcan underwater!
I do wonder if anyone ever thought about doing vehicles from comics and original serials too? For example I've seen in a collection of Flag Gordon comics some campy but interesting designs especially for big ships. Also recall finding ones like Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Captain Video and the Space Rangers, Space Patrol, etc. Also surprised no one thought about the tower or boiler from the 1927 film Metropolis. The design for that movie is really good even for today.
The polar lights Jupiter 2 does have the lower deck with the hibernation tubes etc. but once built you really can’t get to it.
Thanks for the feedback - The smaller one - which I refer to as the 1/72nd? or the later, larger 1/35th kit?
It wasn't a biplane in This Island Earth, it was a Cessna 172, most popular high-wing monoplane ever built.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Two ships no one seems to talk about from the earlier eras (both very find designs): The Mars ship from CONQUEST OF SPACE (we even sent blueprints to Pegasus who wanted to produce it as a kit, but so far nothing happened), and the wonderful Stardust "satellite" ship from SATELLITE IN THE SKY. Much more interesting than EARTH STOOD STILL saucer in my opinion (as if anyone cares!).
Exeter ship AND a Zahgon ship combination kit?? (Btw, the profile isn't quite accurate: The front of the disc blends off from a taper to a more "squared off" treatment toward the aft end, and is thicker. Hard to describe in just a few words.) The "dots" aren't portholes. They are "ray ports" for fending off Zahgon attack ships. Just fyi.
Thanks for the great feedback. I felt liek becaise there was a circualr view screen in the control cabin, that may in some way relate to a 'window'. Ooops. Regarding the shape, I also made it a bit taller to make the composition a bit more interesting. Artistic license? The checkerboard panelling is actually more of a plaid pattern on the real thing. Very 1950s! Ha ha. Imaginary parallel universe 'what if me' will get that adressed for the re-issue.
I think 'Conquest Of Space' does not have the same sort of following and love as some of the other 50s sci-fi movies. it 's attempts at depicting the future lead to a rather austere story. And it is quite dated of course and can illicit some chuckles rather than awe. Although nowawadys that adds to the charm, and the very thorough Chesley Bonestall / Willy Ley design of the Martian ship - really the Moon Ship - in particular is very appealing. And as you say would make for an interesting kit. I'd buy a kit of it of they did it at a decent size!
Some of these have been made as kits, but not from the mass-production houses such as Revell. And the Cygnus from "The Black Hole" had the same feel to me as the Nautilus.
Yes there are some resin and/or garage kits nowadays. But I wanted a lot of this stuff then. When the films came out, or when I first saw them. I have seen a few of the garage kits. I have found theybare sometimes quite small. While this is to be expected, and they are scale models, I think there needs to be a certain heft, or mass, to do a decent representation. Not to mention the level of detail these things have.
I still have the MTB and the E-boat models.
Thanks for for the comment. I never had the E-Boat. it was a bit expensive. Matchbox did a really big freighter of some sort too, in 1/72nd I think. But I had and made the MTB. A really good kit from what I recall. I think it came with crew figures.
Can't remember the Bond movie but, the one were they stealing ssbn's and they hide in an oil tanker. Would love to see a model of that.
That film is 'The Spy Who Loved Me'.
@@Matteline yes thankyou!
Keep 'em commin'.
Fantastic video keep up the great videos
Many Thanks. If you havent already please subscribe to the channel, 'like' the video and share with your friends. These are fun to do, but do take a while.
01:20 As kids, my brother and I had all of those first 5 models listed, and challenged each other to see who could build and detail paint them the best. He usually won the Building part. But I was the better detailer. 👍👍& 10⭐
7:10 Speaking of Thunderbirds... Anderson Entertainment store is re-releasing them now.
The vehicles and aircraft that was used in TOHOs Godzilla movies ?
The Moon Buggy from Diamonds are Forever would have been nice, maybe on a diorama fending off the Security Guards? I had the Corgi one but the kit would have been impressive. It always narked me that the Corgi was in silly, innacurate colours!
Corgi did a reissue off the noon buggy - maybe in the mid 90s - in the correct colour scheme.
@@awol1703 I picked-up that one, too.
How about Moon Zero Two or the UN rockets from first man in the moon
I had an built Vincent an maxilon kits but never saw the cignus kit was a rare find😮
I got the kitsbwhen they came out. In 79/80. The Cygnus is a truly awful kit. Molded in solider gray plastic with all of the latticework represented as raised detail. I painted it a sort of yellow - for the lit areas and black for the unlit parts and then sort of drybrushing the framework and the ret of the hull in gun metal. And addingba wash ih brown in places. This mDe it sort of passable..butbthe shape is incorrect - uts about 20% too short. One of the worst kits I have ever seen. But that is what you tended to sci-fi kits around that time I recall the VINCENT KIT was pretty good. It cane in several coloured sprees- maroon, silver and chrome and did not need to be painted.
i still have the robots but threw the cygnus away eventually i had painted it as in the photo you showed but it did nothing for me really as you said terrible in the way it was made.
Ive never Metaluna i didnt like.
The only model I ever built was the space shuttle.
The main body was split along his length into two sections unfortunately the nose when you joined the two together was separated by at least a half an inch.
So I took it back I got another one. It too had a gap somewhat less but still horrible. Literally unbridgable and you could not glue it together or at least I couldn't. I wound up filling The gap in the nose with putty it looked horrible.
This was made by Ravell
1/144 scale.
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. There are some stinkers out there, but the problem you describes sounds like an anomaly. Kits today in particular are so well engineered and fit together really well, allowing the builder to really have fun and focus on making it look the way they want... and not just wrestle with getting it together.
I love the Jupiter 2, since the OG TV series way back when. I was most disappointed in the recent remake that the spaceship that took off from earth looked like the J2 then broke apart into the oddly shaped thing that was the new version. Wasn't the greatest movie in the world for sure, but it would have been saved in my eye if they kept the original J2 ship. Oh and the same with the Robot, sometimes things do not need to be changed.
How about General Midwinter's command vehicle from "Billion Dollar Brain"?
I'd have to watch the movie again to remind myself. I recall lots of 'army' vehicles crossing a frozen lake.
Midwinter's command vehicle was a halftrack with the front wheels replaced with skis. The army vehicles were tanker trucks converted to APCs and ÀFVs.
..and of course Disco Volante means Flying Saucer!
I still have the Vosper MTB and the E-boat.