One of the biggest releases ever? The story behind the 2021 release Delta CRJ-900, and its letdown.

[MIAv8Diecast]

That CRJ is a trainwreck I'm glad to know it was re-released with no issues!

Actually, the re-release of this had issues... They still managed to glue the main wheel gears on backwards.

 

[MIAv8Diecast]

The thing is this was one of a number of releases that were made for Gemini with massive QC issues around that time or in the years after: Two other examples are the:

Aer Lingus ATR 72 EI-GPP in September 2022

View attachment 57645

and the National 727 with hushkits also in 2022

View attachment 57646

Now you could forgive these as honest mistakes (and this was during the Covid period) but I have been told by sources very much in the know that these issues were A) known about when the models were sent out and B) Gemini got a full refund for these models and still chose to release them on to the market without them being fixed (The 727 could have presumably been so).

Pretty sh*tty treatment of your customers frankly.

Why do I not find that surprising... This and the fact that NG was breathing down their necks competitively.

 

[MIAv8Diecast]

As long as GJ are the only ones in this market there will be no need for them to improve. That being said I do not expect anyone to introduce a CRJ or ATR mould anytime soon.

Too bad they don't use the ATR that much... We're long over do for some classic content.

 

[MIAv8Diecast]

The current CRJ-900 mod is different then the 2021 I believe and it’s gotten better.

The main gears are still glued on backwards though.

 

[JJ Skippy]

That 2024 release they did was out of the same batch as the 2021. If you look at the box it still has the 821 fleet code on the tail.

 

[BubblesAviation]

I’m back to this thread. The more I looked, the worse the model got. About a week ago I had enough looking at this and snapped the horizontal stabilizers off and glued them into the right position. I’m so used to the horizontal stabilizers looking so bad that every time I look at it, I feel even more relived.




I also noticed the blue underbelly goes too high up on the right side of the fuselage. Not a huge problem for me, but I noticed it early on when I got this model and didn’t confirm until now. I checked real pictures of N821SK and pretty sure I can confirm it’s not like this in real life.

You can see the difference here too.

 

[MIAv8Diecast]

I’m back to this thread. The more I looked, the worse the model got. About a week ago I had enough looking at this and snapped the horizontal stabilizers off and glued them into the right position. I’m so used to the horizontal stabilizers looking so bad that every time I look at it, I feel even more relived.

View attachment 71956


I also noticed the blue underbelly goes too high up on the right side of the fuselage. Not a huge problem for me, but I noticed it early on when I got this model and didn’t confirm until now. I checked real pictures of N821SK and pretty sure I can confirm it’s not like this in real life.View attachment 71957View attachment 71959

You can see the difference here too.
View attachment 71960

Per Gemini fashion, they also glued your main gears on backwards

 

[BubblesAviation]

Per Gemini fashion, they also glued your main gears on backwards

I’ll be fixing that - I don’t give a damn about model value anymore for this guy. Gemini’s fault and I got it for like 30 bucks and don’t plan on selling.

 

[MIAv8Diecast]

I’ll be fixing that - I don’t give a damn about model value anymore for this guy. Gemini’s fault and I got it for like 30 bucks and don’t plan on selling.

Gemini has messed up a bunch of their CRJ-900’s in the last 5 years… Crazy how much better they were in the early 2000’s on the same casting. My America West Express and Northwest Airlink CRJ-900’s are superb!

 

[BubblesAviation]

Gemini has messed up a bunch of their CRJ-900’s in the last 5 years… Crazy how much better they were in the early 2000’s on the same casting. My America West Express and Northwest Airlink CRJ-900’s are superb!

Speaking of that Northwest Airlink, that registration that Gemini did (N901XJ) is the same I’ll be flying tomorrow!

 

[MIAv8Diecast]

Speaking of that Northwest Airlink, that registration that Gemini did (N901XJ) is the same I’ll be flying tomorrow!View attachment 72249

Wow that’s crazy!!

 

[BubblesAviation]

Wow that’s crazy!!

Actually got swapped to N337PQ…

EDIT: swapped again to N331PQ

 

[N907CL]

Desert Model

 

[BubblesAviation]

Desert Model
View attachment 72347

Great place to put it. I’m thinking of making mine into N302PQ when it had that replacement tail after it struck the A350.

 

[B767Avia]

This was for sure one of my most memorable moments as a collector who started out relatively recently in the late 2010s. The pure chaos it unleashed was nothing like I've ever seen in the 1/400 collecting world. I do remember all the backlash because of the QC issues -- in fact I was lucky to be one of the first to receive it and find out about them -- but now that I've fixed the gear and stabilizer issues on mine, it looks as good as it gets. Far from a perfect model, but it serves as a memorabilia of what was a pretty exciting event looking back.