Miami Vice minis

[wolfie65Participant 1250xp 0]

My search for a time machine capable of taking me back to the 80s having been unsuccessful so far, I am coping by binge-watching Crockett, Tubbs & friends on DVD.

I’m pretty sure there aren’t any ‘official’ Miami Vice miniatures – even Fleabay offers surprisingly little in terms of show-related merch – besides a few massively overpriced action figures and plastic car kits, but I reckon any generic detective type minis, preferably sporting stylish blazers, would do nicely. Any suggestions ?

[grantinvanman 2469xp 2]

Crooked Dice have EXACTLY what you want.

spam filter picks up the link weirdly.

Look under Crooked Dice, miniatures, action, law and order. Yacht Cops!

 

[wolfie65Participant 1250xp 3]

‘Yacht cops’ – I love it ! Excellent description. Legend has it that the show started when the producer wrote ‘MTV cops’ on a napkin.

Now I need to track down a few accessories, like a Ferrari look-alike (the show original was a fake until Ferrari actually donated a real one) and a speed boat.

[somegeezer 18441xp 1]

Studio miniatures also did a pair. I believe you can still get then from Hayland Terrain

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 1 day ago by  avernos.

[pagan8thParticipant 12559xp 2]

If you don’t mind crossing the streams @wolfie65 then crooked dice have KITT from Knight Rider and Doc Brown’s time travelling delorean.

[somegeezer 18441xp 0]

Speaking for myself, crossing the streams is highly encouraged 😁

[wolfie65Participant 1250xp 0]

Crossing streams ? Talking cars ? Time traveling cars ?

Nevah, I say, NEVAH !

I will not have the pastel noir yacht club of Hookers & Blow stepped on (…) by such silliness……

On second thought, I could use a time traveling car. Looking at the developments of the past 30 years, however, I don’t think I would want to use it to go to the future….

I used to have the entire series of Magnum P.I. on DVD, but ended up keeping only season 1, the rest became too schematic and increasingly unrealistic, haven’t watched Knight Rider or Back to the Future in a very long time, but I do remember liking them when they were new.  Cop- and detective shows do lose a lot of their luster when you start to realize what’s actually going on in the world, one thing I like about Miami Vice is that it’s relatively ‘realistic’ in the sense that the cops aren’t without faults, Crockett is not only quite the loose cannon who flies off the handle very easily, he’s also very naïve in some ways, especially when it comes to women. Any pretty face can rope him into pretty much anything, often much to his detriment. And Tubbs isn’t much better in that regard. Not to mention the fact that it had quite possibly the best soundtrack of any cop show ever made.

[pagan8thParticipant 12559xp 0]

Different genre, but the reason I like Babylon 5 so much is the flawed characters. It’s the same thing that drew me toward X-men comics. Flawed characters are more interesting.

[jeffersonpowers 288xp 0]

Crooked Dice do a pretty good stand-in for Magnum PI as well.

[wolfie65Participant 1250xp 1]

Crooked dice minis came in, the alloy is a little fragile, Tubbs’ gun hand actually broke off and standard super glue is till messy…

Got a ‘femme fatale’ figure to represent detective Gina Calabrese undercover, the real star of the show – Elvis the Alligator – is arriving separately from Temu, now I need to find reasonable facsimiles for Lt. Castillo (suit, 80s hair, 70s mustache), Trudy Joplin (maybe a punk rock mini would work), detectives Stan Switek (chubby guy in casual/Hawaiian shirt) and Larry Zito (skinny guy in casual clothes).

Vehicles might be a problem scale-wise, the ‘official’ Spyder and Testarossa come in either 1/24 scale or Matchbox size and most cars in 28-32-ish mm scale are either too old or too Mad Max looking.

For aircraft, I have so far found a Piper 47 in 1/72 scale, which would look ok as long as the plane stays high up in the sky….and a Piper Cherokee 140 in 1/48 scale, which is a tad small, but looks ok next to the figures if you’re not too anal about it. Put it at a distance, the 1/48 scale drug runners trying to take off as the 28 mm scale Vice squad close in and you’re good.

The prices of cigarette boat scale models make me think that they will have to remain moored in the marina trying to sell them….

 

• This reply was modified 1 week, 3 days ago by  wolfie65. Reason: typo

[grantinvanman 2469xp 0]

Email Crooked Dice if you had flaws, they will 100% make it right. One of the best mini companies in existence.

For cars, I was at Canadian Tire (a big box legend here in Canada, eh), and they had a huge rack of 1:43 scale cars of all kinds for next to nothing. I’m sure if I had looked closer, there would be what you want. For postage I’d grab you something appropriate. They’re perfect for 28mm gaming.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 3 days ago by  grantinvanman.

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