Photo Review of Meng's 35 scale Pick-up Trucks

[Sharkmouth]

The first of Meng's releases are unusual in that they are not truly military. These are Toyota HiLux trucks as used by different armed forces in African and the Middle East. They are part of the aptly named Velociraptor series, following Meng Models dinosaur theme.

We will begin with VS-001 Pick Up with ZPU-1.

Box Art.

Sprue A. Only one sprue is in the box.

Sprue B. Only one sprue is in the box.

Sprue C. Only one sprue is in the box. The red sprue is from VS-002 but identical other than color.

Sprue D. Only one sprue is in the box.

Sprue E. Only one sprue is in the box.

Sprue X. Only one sprue is in the box. Unique to VS-001.

Sprue Z is for a militant figure. One sprue in VS-001.

Tires, five in VS-001, six in VS-002. Note that the mark is DUNLCP.

Only on body is included per kit. White for VS-001, red for VS-002.

Pre-painted PE is common to both kits. Decal is common to both kits and can be used to spell TOYOTA on the rear body drop gate if desired.

Pre-painted PE for the ZPU-1 gun. With the label only listing ZPU-1, I am hoping this fret and Sprue X will be released separately as a kit.

Box art.

Second decal sheet included with VS-002 has familiar looking soda labels.

Sprue V. One sprue of a contractor.

Sprue W. Two sprues of refreshments.

Sprue Y. One sprue with coolers, Barrett M82Al rifle, M240B, water cans, and stowage gear.

Another view of the red body included.

Regards,

 

[SA Dave]

Damn where can I get them. I can see some interesting looking Dioramas made of these vehicles.

Its so familiar to me that follows the news here in Africa. It can be from any war here in the last 20 years. Great idea by this company. Hope they might compliment it with some african "Freedom Fighters"

I will suggest that they add some Panga's to the frets though.

 

[moon puppy]

That's cool! Possibilities are endless.

On the DUNLCP tires, I know a guy in town who can get you a set for CHEAP!!

 

[jknaus]

The only things I dont like about the kit are the glass and the doors. Its too bad they didnt make separate windscreens and windows. It will be harder to do the insides nicely. And pose able doors would have been great to add more character. Other than that it is a nice crisp model with nice detailing.
James

 

[Sharkmouth]

Well, Meng Models are watching... all constructive critiques should be posted!

Going by their 'fact sheet' there may be other Pick Up releases so Dave, post some photos of Pangas so they know what to mold!

In the meantime, I am reposting the images from Model Maniac's thread which we inadvertently hijacked:

These were posted by Adam Baker...

These are the set I posted...

Pintle mount with UB-16

Another with frame work:

http://www.dangerouscreation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Libwar1.jpg

again, although here it seems like a special weapon thanks to the angle of the photo which hides the other pickup behind it:

UB-32 with pintle mount:

Other UB-32 mounted in pick ups:

Great Wall Deer pick up (Chinese copy of Toyota Hi-Lux):

Toyota Hi-Lux:

Reloads carried by other vehicles:

Fuses in the green boxes:

Regards,

 

[SA Dave]

Sorry my bad a Panga is an Machete and it has propably killed and maimed as much people in africa as the AK47 has.

What I would really like to see is an truck with heavy Russian machine guns. This one is more just for the Arab Spring revolts where mobile AA was needed. Further Sub sahara we see an lot of trucks armed with those guns. Think DRC and Ruwanda but also in Magadishu they had these heavily machine gun armed trucks.

Also they might consider doing an Toyata Landcruiser as the truck. They get used all over Africa by "Freedom Fighters"

African figures also would be an great niche market. I have not seen any company do Child soldiers and it is a reality here. These soldiers have sometimes very sparse clothing but they are extremely heavily armed and the poses are endless as these soldiers are poorly trained. We joke sometimes that the only training they get is watching an "Rambo" movie.

 

[shawngehling]

Great Review:
Great looking technicals...
Sweet.

 

[kaleu]

I'm really hoping they release the ZPU-1 as a separate kit. And maybe do a ZPU-4 or a ZU-23-2. I have some ideas to used the ZU-23-2 on a MTLB.

 

[Sharkmouth]

I have some ideas to used the ZU-23-2 on a MTLB.

There already is a kit of the ZPU-23-2 from Scale. It has been re-boxed by Azimut with resin and PE.

Regards,

 

[Sharkmouth]

Some more images for inspiration:

DShKM

As in the Meng kit:

Regards,