Dragon continues its Marvel figures with the Iron Patriot from Iron Man 3. Let me say right up front that this is one of the finest molded figure kits I have ever seen. Dragon uses the same slide mold technology they use on their armor on their figures. For example, the lower legs are one tubular piece. The kit is 80 flash free excellent gray parts with 2 clear parts, three vinyl parts, a metal piece and a large base. The plastic is excellent and sand beautifully which is important because he is metallic.

Value Gear is an aftermarket company that I have never heard of before. My apologies to Value Gear for that. Now I’m glad I have heard of them as they have some really neat stuff. Reading on their website you can tell it is a business that is run by a modeler who chooses to release items thinking on what a modeler would like to see and use.

This set consists of 49 pieces -all of them casted on dark grey resin- representing at least 9 different shapes of wooden crates. They have nice surface detail, including wood texture on the surfaces. There are no mold casts that need to be removed and you can just start working with them as soon as you take them out of the bag.

This excellent book is a showcase of show rod model kits from the perspective of a collector rather than a model builder. The book is an excellent read and includes hundreds of photos of classic show rod kits.

The first chapter is An illustrated History of Show Rod Modeling. The section describes how in the 1960s scale hot rod models begin to replace factory cars and older classic cars in popularity. Several examples of early show cars included the Lincoln Futura, Leva Car, and Outlaw as examples of early show rods. The chapter has 50 pages listing some of the most popular and most collectible show rod kids.

Chapter 2, The Corporate Sprue, describes the formation of the early model car companies and again includes some early kits as examples.