Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
My father-in-law works at a BMW shop near me and one evening on his way home he stopped by this 1/18 scale BMW M8 GTE race car kit. “We sold so much of it,” he said with a laugh. I don’t need to twist my arm to play with the model, so I tore open the box and started building it as soon as he left. I had a ball with it and found it to be a nice middle ground between fancy and simple, making it a great gift for both nerds and casual car enthusiasts alike.
I built the model over several nights, taking just a few steps at a time. It was attractive enough that I couldn’t watch TV while assembling it, which shows a good level of attention worthiness for me. It’s not difficult; I like to methodically move models like this because it’s easy to break small pieces or lose them on the carpet. Besides, why scare together? My kitchen table is not factory and this model has a lot of small details that are fun to look at and appreciate while working with the set.
(Note: this BMW M8 the model is currently out of stock on Amazon, but RASTAR does Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghiniand F1 car which are similar.)
Another factor I’m a bit hung up on is finding a pilot. It’s a fully assembled remote control car, which means it will move. It would look pretty weird if no one was in the driver’s seat, right? I don’t collect humanoid figurines, and the kit didn’t come with a mini car racer, so I had to shop around among housewives to improvise.
First I found this African Penguin – a good size for the car, but not quite the shape to secure it to the seat. Then my wife made this amazing little rubber monkey. It fit perfectly, so I designed several seat belt concepts. I tried cable wrapping wire, a bread bag, and a paper clip, but in the end a piece of double-twisted electrical tape had the right combination of function and form, it does vaguely resemble a seat belt, doesn’t it?
Strapon, Mr. Monkey, you’ve just qualified for My Family’s Dogs Are Running All Over the House!
For convenience, I added the driver before assembling the rest of the car, but the doors do open on the finished model. Speaking of finishing, I only had two assembly hangs during the entire process. The final step of connecting the chassis to the body was a bit tedious (took a second to line up the pins) and required some backtracking to get the steering to work.
The steering works with a motor that moves a small assembly that acts as a steering rack. But it’s easy to mess up the compatibility of the assembly and the motor when you install it because you’re blindly connecting them. If you start this model and it won’t steer, take the front end apart again and disconnect the steering motor and steering box to double check that the tab on the bottom is actually engaged in the steering motor drive mechanism. (This will make sense to a troubleshooter).
The decals require a steady hand to apply, but they are forgiving until you press down hard until you’re happy with the alignment. Using tweezers is a must – the BMW emblem on the steering wheel was very small. I hope the little rubber monkey appreciates the precision with which I applied it. As for the glue on the model itself, there is none. One of the biggest advantages of this particular model is that it attaches without the need for glue. This is great because the modeling glue has a bad smell and can linger on your fingers for days – not dealing with it is very important.
The performance of this M8 as a car when assembled is… acceptable. I think that’s the bare minimum it should be to be worth your time. It can run on a smooth floor and make its way across a low-pile rug, but it’s quite slow and doesn’t seem to last long outside. It would be perfectly fine for buzzing around your kitchen, office or desk. You can do a short distance on your floor and have a time attack race with your housemates. You can place a cigarette on the wing and carry it across the table to someone. But it’s not something you’ll want to play with or spend more time modifying and racing like you might with high-end R/Cs.
That’s fine, I think the real fun here is the assembly. And it will sit stupidly on the shelf. I say “finished it” but I haven’t done most of the exterior decals yet. I think I will. In the end.
Unfortunately, between the writing of this story and its publication, I see that the RASTAR M8 has expired on Amazon and BMW accessories website (It has BMW part number: 80 44 5 A62 7A0). However, you can find one on the shelf at a BMW dealer’s parts rack, and a cursory search turned up a few on smaller retailer websites with at least one left. If the seller was this hot last month, I bet the seller will try to get another batch out before Christmas gift season so you can keep an eye out for retail links.
But if you want to take advantage of Black Friday deals or don’t want to wait, the same brand RASTAR has Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghiniand even an F1 car kit that’s in stock (and currently 20% off for about $50). Based on my experience with this model, I’m sure the others will be just as fun to build.
Know of any other good model kits that can be assembled without glue? Contact the author at andrew.collins@thedrive.com.
