A couple of months ago in a fit of momentary insanity I went a bit nuts on eBay and bought another Martini-themed 1/18 model. This time it was different, it was Porsche-themed, but it wasn't a Porsche, it was in fact a Mercedes truck, designed to haul Porsches around various racetracks in the late sixties and early seventies.
Yes, a 1/18 scale truck. After an initial phase of happiness I started wondering where on earth I was going to keep the damn thing, because it's ridiculous (for a model).
My Renntransporter, with my iPhone 4s as a size comparison.
Said Renntransporter in my display, with a couple of normal 1/18s looking a bit tiny...
So yeah, it's pretty damn big. But now, on to the review, and taking a leaf from EL_ULY's book I'm going to use his scoring system.
Design and Accuracy: 9/10
Schuco obviously had a lot of real estate to play with on something this big, so they really did some good work. There are lots of little details which make it a lovely thing to look at. Numberplates, warning stickers and lots of small details are replicated very well
Fit and Finish: 7.5/10
For the most part this is a very well screwed together model, however one little detail lets it down. The large rear doors don't align perfectly. On the non-Martini version where there are less graphics on this surface it wouldn't be such a big deal, but here, with lots of horizontal design work going on it slightly detracts from the overall feel of quality. It's not a massive thing, but this is marketed as a high end model and small things make a big difference.
Below you can see that the doors don't align perfectly.
Features 10/10
Opening driver and passenger doors? Yup.
Opening access panels dotted over the body with little realistic truck-related gadgets inside? Yup.
Enormous double rear door with fold-down ramp which helps you load your Martini-sponsored Porsches inside and cavernous interior? Yup.
Value 7/10
The big old girl was €420 shipped from Germany. Yes, that's a fair old amount of money. But if we're talking Euro/metal ratio I think it's actually not too bad, I've paid nearly €300 for Exotos which are less than half the size with comparable detail levels. Plus a CMC-produced Fiat-Bartoletti transporter of similar size is knocking on €700.
Oh ok, let's be honest. It cost a freakin' fortune and the only reason I'm making the above arguments is to feel less of an idiot for laying out that kind of money on a damn model...
Rarity 7/10
It's still in production so we're not talking unicorn Exoto Martini 934+935 levels of rarity, but at the same time I don't think many people will end up with one because of the amount of space it takes up, plus Schuco doesn't churn out models at levels comparable to Auto Art, Hot Wheels or Bburago.
Final score 40.5/50
Should you buy one? If you have the space and the desire to, yes. 1/18 scale transporters, trucks and generally bigger castings are pretty thin on the ground, plus Schuco also makes this truck in a standard Porsche livery as well as a Gulf version. To me the coolest thing about this model is the ability to do this...
