Revell 05109 Amphibious Assault Ship U.S.S. IWO JIMA (LHD-7 Plastic Kit

Its not often I feel the need to write a review of a kit but when Revell release a kit like the Amphibious Assault Ship U.S.S. IWO JIMA , I think it deserves a bit of attention.

It's been a while since I built anything but this is tempting me back. although I'm not sure I could do it justice.

The first thing I noticed was the weight, this is a heavy kit! This is not for the faint hearted, with over 1400 pieces this will consume even the most experienced kit builder.

The quality of the casting of parts seems excellent, there is a huge amount of detail, even on the tiny jeeps and forklifts. Apart from the ship itself you have the pleasure of building Helicopters, Hovercraft, Tanks, Cranes, artillery guns, Humvee....the list is almost endless!

 The 36 page instruction will guide you through this complicated build, as with all revell kits the instructions are clear and easy to follow.

For extra detail Revell have included photoetched parts, the quality of which is excellent.

I have attached some extra photos to give you an idea of what is involved in this kit.

 As a special offer we are including the main 9 revell aqua colours needed to complete this kit absolutely free!

If you are looking for something to keep you occupied over the coming winter months this is perfect. . Its not cheap at €149.95 but with the amount of hours you will spend building this kit it is value for money.

 Box

 Some of the 1400 parts, and my toes.

 Contents on opening

 All the Helicopters get their own special little box!

 Even more parts, including the photoetched parts

The hull is very well moulded, nice bit of weight in it.

New Website

Well its been a while since my last blog post, the facebook page has taken over a little bit but I plan to blog a little more from now on.

We had some good news recently when we were awarded the Optimise fund, this is a fund set up by the IE Domain Registry (IEDR) to help Irish websites improve their web presence with a E-Commerce upgrade.

Over the next few weeks www.idmodels.ie will be getting a major upgrade. Our aim is to bring you an easier website to navigate, more interactive, with more items for sale and 100% accurate stock control.

We will hopefully launch the new site before Christmas, we will keep you up to date on our progress.

If you have any suggestions of what feature you would like please do not hesitate to contact us, all feedback is much appreciated. info@idmodels.ie

Thanks

ID Models.


Below I'm receiving the award from Eamon Gilmore.

Press release

- Fund established by IEDR to help SMEs address findings of IEDR report which revealed only 2/3 of Irish businesses are online and of those only 21% are transactional -

Wednesday, 28th September 2011: The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the managed registry for Ireland’s official Internet address .ie, today announced the ten recipients of the company’s €100,000 OPTIMISE Fund at a presentation attended by guest of honour, An Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore T.D. at the official opening of the company’s new office in Dun Laoghaire.






The OPTIMISE Fund will enable the owners of ten Irish SMEs and micro-enterprises to begin the process of upgrading their existing online presence to fully featured websites which incorporate ecommerce functionality and other facilities designed to support business growth and development. By utilising new online technologies, the recipients will be better placed to harness the potential of the Internet as a 24 hour sales and marketing channel through which to gain competitive advantage in an online marketplace.






The ten recipients, who will each receive €10,000 worth of professional technical and marketing support with which to plan and carry out a major e-commerce upgrade, comprise both start-up and established businesses:










Announcing the recipients, An Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, T.D. said, “I congratulate IEDR on ten years’ work in creating an important brand for Ireland in .ie, which McAfee has consistently credited with being one of the world’s safest and most trusted domain names. The company’s Domain Name Industry Report highlights that the company has its finger on the pulse of issues facing small businesses today and this initiative provides welcome support and complements a range of Government initiatives such as those supported by the County Enterprise Boards, An Post and Enterprise Ireland designed to develop Irish businesses’ trade prospects online. I wish the ten recipients well as they start work with the OPTIMISE Fund and I’m sure their success will encourage others to see how they can harness the potential of a fully transactional e-commerce website in the weeks and months ahead.”






Congratulating the recipients, Mr. David Curtin, Chief Executive of the IE Domain Registry, said, “Ireland has a terrific brand in the .ie domain name and it’s imperative that Irish businesses use it to fulfil their potential online. From our ongoing engagement with Irish Internet stakeholders we know that companies in Ireland remain slow to capitalise on the internet and new technologies. Our annual Domain Name Industry Report found that just 66% of Irish businesses had a website by 2009 and of those, only 21% had any kind of e-commerce functionality, an increase of just 3% since 2000. Our decision, therefore, to establish the OPTIMISE Fund on our tenth anniversary was to highlight that Irish companies need to make more of their presence online if they are to compete in a marketplace that demands e-commerce capability. We’ve had a terrific response from SMEs to the Fund with over 100 applications received. Our panel of independent judges has identified ten recipients that IEDR can really help make the transition to e-commerce enabled businesses and we look forward to helping them take this important next step in their development.”

Geoworld Fossils Minerals Gems and Dinosaurs!

Arriving into stock this week is a fantastic range of dinosaur related products. Geoworld is a line of educational toys which takes inspiration from the themes of nature and the past and was born with a mission to popularize. Fossils, gemstones, minerals and dinosaurs, real or as perfect copies, are the protagonists of toys and collections devised for children and teenagers, in order to bring them to the world of paleontology, to play and learn. All the products are complemented by in-depth material.

Replica Dinosaurs 

Play And Discover

Collection & Gifts

The full range will be available on our website this week, check them out in the toy section!

Corgi Shipping problems and delays.

Hi All,

This is a quick update on the status of Corgi orders. We have had a lot of complaints recently about the delay in stock arriving from Corgi, Customers are complaining items are on sale in England  3 weeks before they arrive into Ireland.

I have spoken to Corgi at great length about this problem but for the moment they are unwilling to fix it. Items released the week starting 21st of March in England will not be shipped to Ireland until  the 31st of March, Arriving into us on the 2nd of April, this is where the delay is.



Long term we hope Corgi can fix this problem but for the moment please be patient, all Items ordered do eventually arrive!

Thanks

Railway Section

When we had the shop in Dun Laoghaire we had a very good range of railway products, since moving into the warehouse in Kilcoole we have let the railway section of our business slide, but its back!

We have opened a new 'Model Railway' section and will be building back up our Railway stock over the coming months We have already received our first delivery of Murphy Models locos and coaches. In stock now are MM5602,  MM5609, MM5407, MM5401, MM5236 and MM0141A. Coaches are €49.95 and Loco MM0141A is €134.95 all prices include free delivery in Ireland & N.Ireland.

We are expecting our first order of Hornby early next week. As I Confirm new ranges they will be added to our train section.

More news to come soon....

NURNBERG 2011 - PART 4 - THE REST!

We called onto so many stands at the show that it is impossible to give a review of them all! So here are some photos to give you an idea of what's to come during the year. We start off with a picture of a superhero.....and Iron Man! I was over there with Darren (in photo) for the 2 days.  

 Below you can see some of the new NEO range, these really are amazing models. we spoke to the manufacturer who said they have had a 80% increase in sales over the past 12 months.  We will be increasing our range of NEO during the year. All models are available to pre order, so if there is something you like  just drop us a mail.

 Another popular range are Universal Hobbies, below is a small selection of 2011 models. lots more of the usual mixed with the unusual (back of the photo)

 Only had a quick tour of the Minichaps stand, as per usuall Minichamps seem to release about a million models every year, here is a photo of some prototype Porsches. We will have some new 1\43rd and 1\18th Minichamps arriving late Feb.

 One stand I love going onto is the Hotwheels stand. Every year they have a stunning Ferrari, stunning gloss white stand and a few stunning women waking around ignoring you....but very few model cars. They usually just have the top new items for that year. This year they are doing some really good TV & Film models. A Team, Ghostbusters and some new Batman, all were really impressive.

 Next up we have CMC. Below is a photo of the new Ferrari Transporter, as expected it is a perfect model. this will be out soon and will be available for pre-order through the site in the near future. I will also soon have more information about 2011 releases.

 We called onto Autoart, probably the most disappointing stand at the show. Most years it is my favourite. This year there were not many new models and the ones that were 'new' are variants of current models. We will wait and see what happens during the year.

 We were on the schuco, their range just keeps on improving. below you can see the Martini racing truck, we had the 1st version of this in late last year (now sold out) it looks great in the Martini colours. We will hopefully have it in stock in the near future. you can also see below they have some new farming models out, they have a great new range of Massey Ferguson tractors.

 Finally I just thought I'd put this photo in because its a nice car! A great show, already looking forward to next year.

NURNBERG 2011 - PART 3 - REVELL

We Popped onto the Revell stand to see what is new for 2011, Its a great opportunity to view the models fully built. The catalogue does not do them justice. The model that stood out the most is the new 1/34 scale Routemaster bus, it looked like a diecast model. It will be available towards the end of the year. There will also be a 100th anniversary edition of the Titanic, there are too many new kits to show so I have just added a selection below. Also we have expanded our Aqua colour range recently, adding all new colours to the site.

 REV07651 Release date late 2011. RRP €32.95

 REV05078 German Sub With Interior , Due for Release soon RRP €22.95

 REV04673 Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear RRP €18.95

 REV07404 1/24 Fire Engine Due For release soon €64.95 (will be up on the site soon)

NURNBERG 2011 - PART 2 - CORGI

In previous years Corgi stand at this show would be full of new exciting products but unfortunately over the past couple of years their stand is getting less exciting. They did have some of the forthcoming models on display, which did look very good and are hopefully a sign of things to come.

Below is the CC12828 Scania T AMC Cement Newcastle Co Dublin. I have to say to me this was the most impressive looking model on  the Corgi Stand. This model is sold out already from Corgi so register your interest fast!

 Below we have item CC13736, McGeowan International LTD Newery CO Down. This model have been done before by other Manufactures but Corgi have done a decent Job.

 I know Mulgrew has been done to death by so many people but they do make fantastic models and this is no exception, again like most other Mulgrew models I expect this to sell out fast.

 I have customers who have bigger collections than this!

Truckfest are becoming more and more popular, Corgi have done some great models over the past year and these will be great additions to the range. Below we have CC13729 Scania R C doyle Plant Hire and Construction. Getting the detail right on these highly customised cabs can be difficult but Corgi have done a decent job with this model.

We are due a Corgi delivery this week, so keep an eye on the new arrivals section or our Facebook page.

NURNBERG 2011 - PART 1 - OXFORD.

Well another Toy Show over, I always enjoy them but they are also a lot of hard work.

As always the show was impressive, lots of new releases from our current suppliers and we managed to pick up a few new ranges which will come online over the next few months.

The same as every year I managed to take terrible photos, so one again I apologise in advance for their quality. It may be time to invest in a super automatic camera!?

First up we have Oxford, They seem to release hundreds of new items every year....this year will be no exception. I had a look at the new Garda Land Rover, very nice little model which will be up on the website soon for Pre-ordering. We also had a look at the new Dublin Ambulance, beautiful model, this will also be up on the site soon for pre-ordering, demand will be high for this model.

Oxford will be doing a range of Top gear models, Minichamps did something similar this year with good success. The models Oxford will be doing are from the episode where the try to cross the English Channel. Below are some photos of The Lucey Volvo FH, the Land Rover transporter which is a stunning model and Some new Fire Engines. We have just received a shipment in from Oxford which will be up on the site soon.