AMT #31980 1/25 scale 'The Fast and the Furious' 1995 Toyota Supra tuner

The immense popularity of the Fast and the Furious movies has lead to many licensed products being released. The film has helped publicize the Import street car scene, the fastest growing segment of the automotive aftermarket today. AMT has announced a line of kits tied into the Fast & Furious franchise. This Toyota Supra was the first on the hobby store shelves.

This is a full detail kit, with all engine, chassis and suspension details included. The parts are molded in light gray, clear and clear red, with a tree of chrome-plated parts. The kit builds into only the street racer version as featured in the movie, so you cannot do a factory stock version. But I assume that most Fast & Furious fans that buy this model want to do the street racer featured in the film, so that will bother very few modelers who buy this kit.

Chassis: The chassis is one main piece, with exhaust, drive train and fully detailed suspension all separate pieces. The muffler and exhaust tip are chrome plated.

Wheels and Tires: There is one set of chrome five spoke wheels included, with vinyl low profile no name tires.

Engine: The inline six-cylinder engine in the kit is a fully detailed nineteen-piece assembly. The valve cover and some of the turbo pieces are chrome plated. Again, only one version is included.

Interior: The interior builds from a tub style assembly with separate side panels. There is no back seat; instead there is a platform for the stereo speakers and nitrous bottles. There is a roll bar. Two types of seats are included, the stock seats and Recaro style race seats. Both feature engraved seat belt details. The dash gauges are decals.

Body: The body is one basic piece, with a separate hood, front and rear bumpers. The aero package is molded in. There is a separate high rear wing, with bad mold line along the side that is right along the molded in bolts, so it will be hard to clean off without removing the detail. The wing in my kit was slightly warped. The roof is a separate piece so you can do an open version.

The headlights are clear plastic, and the taillights are clear red. The windshield glass is two separate pieces, the windshield and the rear glass, which attach from the inside. The windshield wipers are separate pieces.

The sheets of decals included are to replicate the movie car, so the side graphics are the main component along with GReddy and Sparco stickers and a California license plate. The movie car was orange with green graphics, as shown on the box art. So all that needs to be done is to spray the body orange and add the decals to replicate it.

The pieces are secured very heavily to the sprues, so you will need to be careful be careful in cutting them off.

AMT does not often model an import car, but this looks like a nice kit. Along with the recent Revell import and tuner kits, hopefully the hobby can attract some new blood with these contemporary and popular subjects.