Tom Pope
Reviews By Author
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Back To The Future II Time MachinePublished:
Introduction
The "Back to the Future” (BTTF) movie franchise began in 1985 with the release of the first movie. The film series featured the adventures of Marty McFly as he traveled back and forth in time in a Time Machine built by wacky scientist Emmitt “Doc” Brown. Brown had built that first plutonium-powered Time Machine creation from a vintage DeLorean sports car. At the end of the first movie, just when you thought the timeline had been restored and all was well, Doc Brown pops out of a worm hole in a newly modified, flying Time Machine, digs through the trash to find vegetable remains and banana peels to fuel the new ‘Mr. Fusion’ power cell and… more |
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Back To The Future III Time MachinePublished:
IntroductionThe “Back to the Future” (BTTF) movie franchise began in 1985 with the release of the first movie. The film series featured the adventures of Marty McFly as he traveled back and forth in time in a Time Machine built by wacky scientist Emmitt “Doc” Brown. That first plutonium-powered Time Machine creation had been built by Brown from a vintage DeLorean sports car. For the second movie, “Back To The Future Part II”, the DeLorean had been converted to a flying Time Machine. At the end of the second movie, just as order had been restored to the 1985 timeline (once again?), the Time Machine was struck by lightning which fried the time circuits and sent Doc Brown whirling back to 1885. A third iteration of the movie franchise was needed to rebuild the Time Machine… more |
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Gemini Space CapsulePublished:
IntroductionOn March 23, 1965, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young blasted off into space onboard the Gemini 3 capsule atop a Titan II Rocket. Gemini 3 was the first manned Gemini flight, and Grissom and Young made three orbits around the earth and returned to the surface after 4 hours and 52 minutes. Revell originally captured the spirit of the Gemini program historic event in the 1970s with this great 1/24 scale kit. They rereleased the kit in the 1980s as part of their History Makers series of kits. Now they have rereleased the Gemini kit, with the original artwork on the box, in a Limited Production run. I would like to thank Revell for returning this great old kit back into production. In the BoxWhen you open this colorful,… more |
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Saturn V with Lunar ModulePublished:
IntroductionAs I sat down to write this review, it was 45 years ago on Sunday, 20 July 1969, at 10:56:15 EDT, that Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. I watched in complete amazement as the Apollo 11 events unfolded on our old black-and-white TV, from launch preparation to splash down and recovery. As far as I can tell from some quick Internet research, AMT originally released their 1/200 scale Saturn V Rocket (kit # S945, I think) in late 1969 or in 1970. It has been rereleased a couple times since. This same Saturn V Rocket with Apollo Lunar Module kit launched the most recent reissue in March 2014, courtesy of Round 2 Models under the AMT banner. I would like to thank Round 2 for reissuing and providing this great old, new, kit to IPMS/USA for review. In… more |
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Star Trek USS DefiantPublished:
IntroductionWhen the space station Deep Space 9 got caught up in the conflict with the Dominion over control of a stable wormhole, one of Starfleet’s responses was to provide support in the shape of the USS Defiant. The Defiant was a new ship design for Starfleet and incorporated new, powerful weapon systems and even a cloaking device. Once the bugs were worked out of the new design, the defiant proved to be a powerful weapon in the fight against the Dominion. Almost 20 years ago, AMT first released their model kit of the Defiant during the run of TV’s Deep Space 9 series. In January 2014, Round2 rerelease the Defiant under the AMT name. Round2’s re-released Defiant kit, like all those kits from the Star Trek series, are delivered in a sturdy box with colorful new… more |
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Battlestar Galactica Colonial ViperPublished:
IntroductionMany stories have been told in science fiction of man’s development of artificial intelligence and the subsequent enslavement of man by the machines he created. One such story was Battlestar Galactica (BSG) which first aired on ABC television in 1978. Mankind had created an army of automatons known as Cylons to protect and serve them but the Cylons evolved a sense of purpose of their own, destroying the human civilization and chasing the last few thousand human survivors into deep space and forcing them to search for a new home - Earth. In 2004, a darker and more sinister Battlestar Galactica was reimagined as a miniseries on the SyFy Channel. Over the last few years, Moebius Models has developed several great and accurate model kits devoted to the new… more |
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Space:1999 Eagle 1 TransporterPublished:
IntroductionBy 1999, a human colony had been built on the Moon (you remember, right?). Moonbase Alpha safeguarded all the nuclear waste shipped from Earth, and carried out research. Then, on September 13, 1999, disaster struck when the nuclear waste exploded in a chain reaction, and the Moon was blasted out of Earth's orbit, into deep space. Thus began the adventures of Space:1999. Space:1999 was a British produced science fiction television series that aired from late 1975 to early 1977, and for us science fiction fans, there was nothing else like it on TV at the time. The workhorse of Moonbase Alpha was the Eagle spacecraft. Eagle spacecraft were cleverly designed, modular utility ships (like the Huey helicopters of the day), and were used for work tasks… more |
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Soviet Aircraft Carrier BakuPublished:
IntroductionA quick search of the internet finds the Baku was a Kiev-class aircraft carrier of the Russian Navy. Her keel was laid down in 1978 in Ukraine, she was launched in 1982, and commissioned in December 1987. The ship was actually renamed Admiral Gorshkov after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the paint scheme and markings for this kit are more in line with those of the Adm. Gorshkov era. Plagued by difficulties since a boiler room explosion in 1994, she was offered for sale and 1996 and eventually sold to the Indian Navy in 2004. The Baku is an assault carrier, somewhat comparable to the newer USS Wasp class amphibious assault carriers of the U.S. Navy. The Baku generally sailed with 6 × twin SS-N-12 Sandbox… more |
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U.S.S. Boxer - LHD-4Published:
IntroductionThe USS Boxer, LHD-4, is the fourth of the Wasp class amphibious assault ship line. She entered service in 1995 and spent several years deployed to the Western Pacific. After 9/11, the Boxer has deployed to the Persian Gulf several times and recently served as the flagship of Combined Task Force 151, fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia. She participated in the activities surrounding the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips of the container ship Maersk Alabama. After Capt. Phillips was rescued he was taken to the Boxer for medical treatment and rest. In February 2013, HobbyBoss released a very precise rendition of the USS Boxer in a 1/700th scale kit. I would like to thank MMD/Squadron for providing this kit to IPMS USA for review. In… more |
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HMAS Collins "Collins Class Submarine"Published:
IntroductionShowcase Models Australia is a relative newcomer as a model distributor in Australia (founded in 2011, according to their Facebook page) and has recently branched out into manufacturing their own kits. In May 2013, the production of the Collins Class subs was completed and the kit made it to the Showcase Models showroom and subsequently, other retailers and distributors. A big Thank You goes to Dragon Models USA for providing this review sample to IPMS/USA. In the BoxInside the box, you'll find two individually bagged sprues – one gray sprue with 20 of the 21 parts of the boat and the other, a clear sprue containing the four parts for the stand and the sub’s conning tower. You’ll also find a bagged decal sheet from Cartograf… more |