Academy Hyundai Excel GLS

To say that Hyundai got off to something of a shaky start in the car biz would be an understatement. You'd think a company famous for building large, complicated vehicles like oceangoing ships could tackle economy cars. And early on, they did. The rear-drive Pony gained a reputation for being a fairly tough customer. But the changeover to front-wheel-drive, which seemed to be problematic for every automaker, and a company CEO more concerned about quantity than quality conspired to make the Excel only one or two pegs above the infamous Yugo on the good old automotive craptastic-ness scale. Sadly, the car itself was designed fairly well, but when you factor in the shoddy Mitsubishi-sourced engine and apathetic construction, it sort of canceled out any inherent strengths in the overall design. Speaking of... Mitsubishi actually sold a badge engineered version of the Excel, giving it the alien-sounding name Precis. Today, you have better odds of seeing a sparkly, three-legged unicorn than seeing a still-running examle of either car.

We looked at Academy's kit of the elusive Stellar, but this South Korean kitmaker also produced a model of the first Hyundai sold in the US. If you're familiar with the Stellar kit... oh, who am I kidding? Just go to http://chuckmost.wix.com/madhouse-miniatures#!Academy-Hyundai-Stellar/ccly/55c1668e0cf26ee1087ece8f and check it out for yourself. I promise I'll still be here when you get back.

Now, where were we?

So far, so good. We actually see a photograph of the actual model on the box, not a painting as with the Stellar. But even that's no guarantee...

The body is cleanly molded in white, with minimal mold seams. I'd suggest carefully cutting the windscreen support out with a hobby saw to avoid breaking the thin roof. The kit body captures the angular 1:1 Excel body well, though I have a feeling (I haven't measured yet) that the model may be just a tick or two larger than the listed 1:24.

Like the Stellar, this is a motorized curbside kit, so chassis detail is minimal at best. A skinny driver figure is also included.

The interior side panels are a bit sparse, but then again, so were the real Excel's. All three wipers are separate, but there aren't any positive locators for them on the body or glass.

The box art photo shows clear glass, but the kit provides this unit, molded in an odd blue-green. I have heard that leaving kit glass like this out in the sun for a few weeks will "bleach" the color away and give you clear glass. I've never tried it... sounds like a good way to end up with warped and/or (even more) discolored clear plastic to me. But if that method has worked for you, or you're willing to try, it may be one way to solve any issue with color-tinted "glass" like this.

Also not on the box art model, but in the box itself, are these alloy wheels... not the steel wheels with hubcaps shown on the box. Minor disappointment there. As with the Stellar, the chrome is some of the best I've seen- very smooth and bright, and no engraved detail is obscured.

Tires are the same Michelins used in the Stellar, and in this case they don't look way too tall... something else that makes me wonder if perhaps the Excel is a tad larger than 1:24.

Here we have the polycaps, and all that electric motor witchcraft to make the model run around in circles on the living room floor, if that's your thing. Here we also see the geared rear axle and the shorter rivets used to retain the front wheels.

Ten steps to a better Hyundai... or a completed one, anyway. No decals are provided... in fact, there is a reference to decals on the instruction sheet which was blacked out with a marker at the factory.

So... yes... it's an unipressive little curbside kit. But in a way, that's sort of fitting, as the Excel was something of an unimpressive little car. I haven't had time to do much other than some test fitting, but from what I see, it should fit together as well as the Stellar... which fits together pretty well, as you might have imagined.

I love "oddball" subjects like this, and an Excel would be a great candidate for a beater or junkyard filler. I paid a mere fifteen bucks for this one, still in its factory shrink wrap. Despite the simplified nature of the kit, the green glass, and the lack of decals, I think I got my money's worth. It may not be everybody's "thing", but I can almost guarantee that if you tracked one down, built it, and took it to the next contest or show, you'd get all kinds of looks... and, you wouldn't see fifty other models just like it.