Reviewer's Comments:

Hope you understand if this review contains some insight into the After The Battle standard presentations. These books, of which there are now over 86 issues (and this number does not count the WWI, Military, Aviation, Maritime or Ancient History books), take a photographic trip through the battles or campaigns named (e.g. Arnhem, Bastogne, Omaha Beach). These publications take great pains to compare the war time photographs to modern day images of the same location, which in most cases still stand today. Most of the titles are available as eBooks, Audiobooks, DVDs, and the original magazines.

These F/A-18E/F/ [F 414] Exhaust Nozzles (for the Meng Kit primarily) are a recent release by the Chinese manufacturer Fab Scale. Fab Scale’s online presence is hard to find with the provided QR codes stating that the site can’t be reached. The same is for the supplier, Warspite Model Company. These are nice drop-fit replacements for the exhaust on the Meng kit and I suspect it would also fit the Hasegawa kit.

The sturdy box protects the three pieces, each in their own protective Ziplock pouch. There are no instructions included but since this is a rather simple assembly, it is not detrimental. The box art [line drawings] shows the arrangement of the three parts. I removed the 3D supports with a hobby knife, which was easy, and after a quick clean up the parts were ready for painting.

“The History of Science Fiction and Its Toy Figurines” by author Luigi Toiati is a substantial and weighty hardback of 528 glossy pages with 470 pictures (See Photo 1). Although it may feel like one, the author claims in the Forward that it is not an encyclopedia or boring treatise or catalogue, but instead the reader should “consider it a promenade through sci-fi and the toy figurines linked to the subject.” And while the author doesn’t necessarily agree with those science fiction (SF) authorities he cites who trace the origins of the genre back to the ancient times of the Bible, Hinduism, Plato, or Lucian of Samosata (a 2^nd-century Syrian satirist and rhetorician), his review of the aforesaid genealogy is extensive and at times tedious.