This is my entirely personal and openly biased roundup of the kit manufacturers which most impressed or disappointed me by punching above or below their weight in some particular way over the last twelve months.
Neither shortlist can include any number of manufacturers which have consistently delivered a certain level of quality and imagination, and therefore performed just as we would expect, for better or worse. Nor will I criticise any company for making my favourite subject in the “wrong” scale or variant!
If you have any suggestions of your own for either category, please comment.
My nominations for the most disappointing…
Revell
It announced the McLaren 750S a year ago… How long does it take to produce what is likely to be — if we go by the 570S — a simplistic kit? I wonder if I might be disappointed twice: first by the long wait, then by the product. In the meantime, it rushed out the Revuelto and made a hash of it.
But before that, Revell decided to do what we in Britain like to call taking the piss by re-releasing an older kit with a book which no-one requested, calling it a “70th Anniversary Exclusive Edition”, and slapping on a £70 price sticker. Someone at Revell was literally having a laugh at our expense. Had the BMW Isetta been released at the right price for a near-decade old Revell kit, I would undoubtedly have given it a shot. Even with my prior experience of Revell's automotive kits.
Italeri
Not content with re-re-rereleasing its own old crap, it buys in other companies’ cast-offs as well. Like the Fiat 500 Abarth which momentarily raised my hopes before I saw that it was just the 16 year old Fujimi runners. A kit which I started, but binned before finishing because it’s really quite bad. Italeri could be inspired by the wealth of beautiful Italian classic cars and bikes which have never been modelled, but it looks like a company which long ago ran out of ideas.
Tamiya
Hold on; hear me out! I counted just six all-new kits in Tamiya’s 2025 schedule, which feels like a small number for a major player (though it was actually about the same in 2024). The R35 would have joined my collection of French tanks, but I doubt if I can muster enough enthusiasm for bringing a Tamiya tank up to a nice level of detail and fidelity any more. It has made a few kits with individual links and some with more detail, but then backtracked from those paths.
I was more disappointed to see that the nearest thing to a new motorbike kit amounted to lipstick on what is, aesthetically, a bit of a pig. And it still had the same careless out-of-scale simplifications as its predecessors. When will that ever change? There was also an all-new car kit, but of a fatally dull subject. And, like the other shortlisters in this segment, it annually digs up plenty of archeological finds from its back-catalogue of antiquity. I view that as a waste of resources.
I quite like some of Tamiya's kits, but I can’t figure out why it inspires such uncritical religious fervour among its cult members. I’m convinced that it’s capable of doing more and better than we had last year, which is what qualifies it for my list.
The wooden spoon goes to:
Revell, not least for the overpriced “special” edition money grab. 💩
…and for the most impressive
Rye Field Model
RFM’s busy release schedule was light on new tool kits, but not lacking for ideas. Some of its 2025 kits included printed parts, which should be commonplace by now. It has released printed track sets [although its kit tracks are excellent in my limited experience] and barrels. It shows a welcome dedication to interiors and ways to show them, including a transparent turret. How many companies have tried that?
RFM wasn’t the first to do any of these things, but it may be the only kit manufacturer currently doing all of them.
UMA
UMA made an ambitious and surprising (but apparently commercially smart) choice for its debut kit. I’m told that the AV-8B Harrier is not perfect, but UMA virtually pulled off a blinder and deserves credit for showing a modicum of imagination and ambition. The challenge now will be to follow it with an even better “second album”… after the inevitable remixes. On that front, it’s currently a bit quieter than I hoped.
Thunder Model
With a dedication to four-wheeled subjects largely ignored by the conservative mainstream, I view TM as the spiritual successor to Mirror Models, but with more competence. Like RFM, it has been keen to adopt printing, though in this case mostly in the form of detail parts and figures in limited edition reboxes. A bit light on new or significantly changed releases in 2025.
AK Interactive
AK has continued to appeal to the likes of me by focusing on quirky civil vehicles. 2025 included a Citroën H Type van and the iconic Trabant. Although, in 1/35th scale, that must be one tiny Trabbie. If I were to rule out AK, it would be because I think that it had a better year in 2024.
Gecko Models
You may notice a pattern here. This company made my shortlist by aspiring to be different and serving neglected niches. I’m not interested in the Vietnam War but well done to Gecko for realising that some modellers are. I’m more keen on the British vehicles, so I’m a tad miffed that some of the announcements from spring/summer 2025 haven’t made their bow yet.
The [imaginary] trophy goes to:
I have to hand it to RFM for doing so much which appeals to me, with a rookie award to UMA for landing it pretty cleanly on the deck first time out. 🏆
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