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Hitachi ASTACO NEO
CMOT
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ARMORAMA
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England - South West, United Kingdom
Joined: May 14, 2006
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Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 12:14 PM UTC
A build review of the other worldly looking Hitachi ASTACO NEO in 1/35th scale from Hasegawa. While not strictly a military model, it is a disaster relief vehicle and so will likely be seen with military vehicles during those events.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
MikeyBugs95
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New York, United States
Joined: May 27, 2013
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Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 12:34 PM UTC
Very interesting piece of machinery to say the least.... Recently I saw someone on Facebook selling one these.
Bizarre
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Akershus, Norway
Joined: July 20, 2010
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Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 01:39 PM UTC
Stalinetz set looks good
Cantstopbuyingkits
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European Union
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Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 03:00 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Stalinetz set looks good



This review is about the ASTACO, not the Stalinetz
Bizarre
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Akershus, Norway
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Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 03:15 PM UTC
haha. this topic shows up under ET model new PE sets
Maki
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ARMORAMA
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Croatia Hrvatska
Joined: February 13, 2002
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Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 03:18 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Stalinetz set looks good



This review is about the ASTACO, not the Stalinetz



Two news stories got mixed up somehow...

Mario
jvazquez
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New Jersey, United States
Joined: September 26, 2006
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Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 10:05 PM UTC
I was about to say, these PE sets are already out for ET
C_JACQUEMONT
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Loire-Atlantique, France
Joined: October 09, 2004
KitMaker: 2,433 posts
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Posted: Monday, April 25, 2016 - 12:45 AM UTC
I think I read somewhere JGSDF had ordered two of those
machines?

Thanks for the review.

Cheers,

Christophe
clovis899
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California, United States
Joined: May 05, 2002
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Posted: Monday, April 25, 2016 - 01:06 AM UTC
thanks for the info Christophe! On the Hitachi website it says that they won't sell them outside of Japan. Seems odd for non-military equipment but I guess it's their call.
sampiero
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Cote-d`Or, France
Joined: January 14, 2008
KitMaker: 257 posts
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Posted: Monday, April 25, 2016 - 02:44 AM UTC
For information in the public works series, Hasegawa Was out at first is mini excavator Kubota at 1/32.
this is a very functional model
srmalloy
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Posted: Monday, April 25, 2016 - 08:21 PM UTC
It looks as though the Hasegawa kit is of an earlier version of the ASTACO Neo; watching the videos of the unit (all of which look like demonstration videos), the cutter arm is short a joint. In the model, the cutter arm is mounted on the turning body with a vertical pivot, allowing the arm to swing left and right; the videos and images online show the base of the cutter arm mounted on the end of a horizontal shaft, allowing the cutter arm to be rotated into a horizontal position, giving it more flexibility for working around obstacles. The base of that shaft is mounted on the vertical pivot. The arm itself appears to be the same, though.

It's still a fascinating design, and unique enough to stand out whether you build it straight up as civilian equipment or as a military engineer vehicle. The arm mount discrepancy makes me wonder whether we'll see Hasegawa release a second version of the kit with a small sprue containing the pieces for the newer arm mount.
srmalloy
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KitMaker: 336 posts
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Posted: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 08:41 AM UTC
Doing more digging, the version of the ASTACO NEO with the horizontal spindle on the left arm is indeed a newer design; the Hasegawa kit is the ZX135TF-3 that was exhibited at the 2015 Forestry and Environmental Machinery Exhibition at the Mondeusu Hida Mount Kurai Snow Park in October of last year, while the one with the additional rotation axis is the ZX135US-3 (with an operator's compartment redesign as well, from the pictures). An opportunity for someone with more skill than I have to scratch up the upgraded arm mount and controls if they felt they really needed the most up-to-date version.
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