Iconic Replicas 1/87 Flxible Bus: Is it any good? A Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- I needed a Bus for the Oakland, California side of my Alta-California model railroad. This model by Iconic Replicas looks like an enticing candidate to ply the streets of HO scale Oakland. Will it be a gem or a lemon? Let's find out!
We discuss the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly of this petite transit icon.
Full disclosure: This not a sponsored review. I bought the bus with my own money, wallet screaming.
If you enjoyed this review, please comment below to let me know what I should review next.
As always every dollar of support counts, and you can support my work on Patreon: / interurbanera
If you want to check out Iconic Replicas' other offerings, check them out here: www.iconic-rep...
Music: Woodblock Print - Epidemic Sound
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Do YOU own any Iconic Replicas buses? What are they like?
What bus model would you most want to see in HO Scale?
I really want to see an RTS at some point but it is outside the confines of the Alta
I would love to see a New Flyer D800 and I have a few iconic replicas and a few Rapido New Looks.
i currently own an alexander dennis enviro 500 in the demonstrator livery and an m23 megabus. both have issues.
the megabus had a bent third axle which made it look wonky. due to the horrid diecast bottom, the only way to fix it was to 1. unscrew the bottom 2. remove the glued on roof (resulted in damage) and 3. lift the interior out which damaged the decals. this resulted in my decision to convert it into one of those tourist sight seeing buses.
the enviros only problems were bad paint application, a small scratch on the side, missing black paint around the headlights per the prototype
Just wanted to say that I enjoyed your review... as a fan of transportation modeling, and also as somebody who once lived in Oakland and took the 40 many times
The base model Rapido bus (without lights) is only $49, making the Iconic Replicas a big disappointment. While much more fragile, molded plastic is better than die cast. Classic Mini-Metals began producing their lineup in plastic several years ago and they have finally lost that blobby look. I got a Greyhound Bus from Mini Metals, while it isn't Rapido level, the detailing, realism, and quality control is much better than Iconic Replicas, and for half the price.
The wheel hubs look like shiny plastic - I think they'd be better toned down
I have the NYCTA two-tone blue Flxible bus. A bit of a disappointment, as it's not true to the prototype and the paint is not evenly applied. I also own three of their 1/43 New York fishbowls, and those are very poorly produced. I also did a video on Iconic Replicas in general, and ponder the question if their models are worth it.
Well put. They need to up their paint quality before I'll ever spend a single dollar on another Iconic Replicas model
Interesting that you mention German offerings of American buses. I assume you mean "Busch" models of the New Look bus? Those are at least the ones I've seen here in Germany.
Our local H0 bus scene luckily has more manufacturers than the US scene seems to, but there are still problems. If you want a model of a 1950s-1980s bus, you're quite well catered for by the "Brekina" die-cast range, which looks very high quality, from what I've seen. If you want anything modern though, you're largely stuck with the manufacturer "Rietze", which from my experience has pretty terrible quality control. The models are plastic (not a bad thing, but it means cheaper to manufacture than Brekina), are as expensive as Brekina models, lack basic detail parts like mirrors and sometimes have paint errors from the factory too. On articulated buses, the model is sometimes so poorly put together, that not all wheels touch the ground simultaneously!
In terms of North American buses, I'd love for someone to make a good NovaBus LFS and LFS Artic model of the more/most recent generations.
Brekina, hands down, consistently makes the finest road vehicles in HO. I have a ton of their stuff, and I'm excited to see the wave of new US vehicles they're coming out with this year. I also feel like Rapido, Brekina, and Oxford have kind of ruined me on middling and low quality HO scale road vehicles to the point where this Iconic Repicas bus just doesn't cut the mustard for me at all anymore.
Floating wheels on Artic busses sounds so frustrating. It seems so surreal to me that someone would go through the immense effort to research/tool/produce a model that's poor quality in the 2020's, isn't it?
@@InterurbanEra Oh yeah, I don’t get it either, but they don‘t really seem to care. They just sell one paint scheme after another. On the surface their range looks great, but I would never pick any of Rietze‘s offerings for their common prices, if at all.
I once saw two Rietze models (regular and artic) of my favourite modern city bus in the scheme of my local operator and thought “Awesome! I gotta get one!” I then asked the shopkeeper to open both boxes for me (you can do that without having to purchase in Germany) just to find both models were flawed in the ways I described, and on top of that were just not capturing the original well enough for me. Disappointed, I left them there for someone else.
They are nice models but as you point out the Quality is not up to Rapido.
Yeah, I wish it was, because it would've been nice to have another mfg making great buses.
I think it looks good and it is cheaper too
That’s why it’s called Replicas and not authentic models. Iconic has produced some of the best models I’ve seen. For 1/87 Flxibles, blanks & NYCTA, there are things to add one if you wanna make it to look realistic. The models come with everything prepared with the exception of 2 things: the A/C out fan that is on top of the unit and radio communicator (small stick or large pod) that goes near the rooftop front of the bus. The 1/43 scale fishbowl buses come with the add ones and it’s bottom carries the motor style engine.
Allow me to kindly remind you of the exact definition of replica: ”an EXACT copy or model of something, especially one on a smaller scale." So they're promising precision and accuracy and not really delivering. Hopefully one day they'll get their act together.
I stick to 3d printing my own
Very ambitious. Makes me wonder when optically clear flush window glass will be possible with 3D prints?