New Year, New Blessings

Man, 2023 was a big year, wasn't it? The Imagination Post saw a lot of successes in the year gaining followers and traffic on social media, resuming and completing models, and even having our work showcased by FanHome! Here is the 2023 Year in Review!

THE FALCON HAS LANDED!

Such a thrill to have this model in my collection. I started this build from Deagostini Model-Space in December of 2019 and between the pandemic and supply chain delays, including an eighteen month hiatus waiting for the month fifteen delivery, the ship took over three years to complete. It was a frustrating delay but I have to credit Deagostini as a company for complete transparency and outstanding communication through the whole process. My Millennium Falcon sports a custom paint scheme from the ground up. This was my first real foray into weathering as I usually gravitate toward the clean, museum display look but the Millennium Falcon demands differently. In addition to the paint scheme, my Falcon has upgraded cockpit and engine lights from Falcon 3D Parts. The Deagostini Millennium Falcon his now available through FanHome with an all new magazine containing updated ship profiles, technology briefs, and tour through all of the major locations in the Star Wars universe. Though the Millennium Falcon is an amazing build and looks great even if you do not customize or weather it, I highly recommend that you put your personality and vision into it and truly make it your own! To close on the Falcon, upon completion of the model my circuit board went out and several of the ports stopped working. Deagostini sent me a brand new circuit board, free of charge, in short order to bring her back to perfect working order.

FANHOME AND IXO TO THE RESCUE!!!

The biggest gut-punch from 2022 was, without question, the collapse of Eaglemoss Collections leaving so many subscribers, in the dark and out to dry with incomplete models. The situation had ripple effects through the community shaking confidence in the part work buildup business model. Eaglemoss had been in business for decades and if they could collapse, what is to stop another company from the same fate? The mismanagement of Eaglemoss has be documented and discussed at nauseum, but let's just say it became a huge risk on the part of the customer to invest hundreds or thousands of hard-earned dollars into a model that may never get finished. Less than a year after the collapse, the solution came through the hard work and partnership of Ben Robinson, managing director for Eaglemoss, Premium and Collectibles Trading, IXO Collections, and Deagostini Publishing. Like The Avengers swooping in to save the world, we had these heroes go to bat for us. All of our build-up collections were saved in some form! IXO Collections took on the Jeep Willys, Mercedes 300SL, and the Nissan GTR while Deagostini took on the pop culture brands of the Back to the Future DeLorean, Ghostbusters ECTO-1, Eleanor Mustang, and the Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise-D making the collections available under their FANHOME banner. The only 100% casualties in the build-ups were the James Bond DB5, the 1:250 scale wood Titanic, and the Mustang GT collection. With Agora Models set to release their James Bond Collection in 2023, leading off with the No Time To Die DB5, one of these was instantly rectified. Back to the consumer confidence piece, FanHome would have full right to take on the collections and require everyone to start from scratch, but they did not. We were given the opportunity to restart our builds where we left off and finish them. I was lucky enough to finish the DeLorean through Eaglemoss, but I am so grateful to have the opportunity to finish the other three from FanHome.

THE DARK KNIGHT ARRIVES

My favorite edition of the Batman story is Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. From the brooding nature of the character to the cinematography to the musical score this trilogy just does it for me better than any other Batman story. It only makes sense that the trilogy also contains my favorite version of the caped crusader's Batmobile. A combination of a battle tank, stealth plane, and a Lamborghini this vehicle is a perfect personification of the character that Nolan created. Since I started down the part work rabbit hole in 2019, I have thought of how cool it would be to have one of this car. Enter Hachette Partworks, whom I have embarked on two models from their range before in the Bismarck and Titanic. The problem? Hachette Partworks does not distribute to the United States and nor would any other publisher be taking on the distribution of it. I am so lucky to have a friend in the UK that is sending this to me and I am enjoying doing this model in large pack form. Look for the Tumbler to return sometime this summer.

MY BIGGEST PROJECT TO DATE

Inspired by others, namely World of Wayne and Sprueverse (both on my expert directory), and a deep desire to build one I have embarked on the largest scale model project of my range. The USS Enterprise NCC-1701 Refit is my brother's favorite starship and I have wanted to build this for him for a long time. Don't worry, I have another one that I will build for myself at a later date and document it from start to finish on this page but my brother has requested to see 'the process' but doesn't want to spoil the final reveal of the project. This model requires me to learn how to do my own electrics for lighting, paint with an airbrush, and work with Aztek paint masks for the ship's complicated panel scheme. All are things I have never done before and I am excited to see this model come together and give it to him!

WHAT'S IN STORE IN '24

While the only model I plan to finish in 2024 is the Enterprise Refit along with an F-14 Tomcat kit from Top Gun that I have in my stash, there will be lots of progress as I work through my part works. Knight Rider, ECTO-1, and Eleanor should be finished early next year. I will be resuming the Titanic which has been put on hold since the rescued Eaglemoss builds continued from FanHome. I am not made of money and had to make some decisions. Luckily, Agora Models would allow me to suspend the model indefinitely so I can finish it! I will be doing the FanHome release of the 1966 Batmobile in the first quarter of the year as well as doing the Agora Models James Bond DB5 toward the end of the year. The Batmobile will likely alternate months with the Enterprise-D for the moment to make the cost work for each model. I will be working on doing videos of my builds, adding to my YouTube channel, and increasing my footprint on social media to try and bring my projects to the forefront of the community! Come along with me in 2024! If you can imagine it...you can do it!