REVIEW: 1:18 LCD Models Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic

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mcaf123
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REVIEW: 1:18 LCD Models Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic

Post by mcaf123 » Fri Oct 19, 2018 6:47 am

When most people think of the words "Range Rover", they think of; luxury, size, luxury, presence, money, luxury, luxury and off-roading capability. One character trait obviously stands head and roofline above the rest - that is, of course, luxury. Pitched as "the world's most luxurious SUV" by Land Rover, I'm not sure they can make such a bold claim now that the Bentley Bentayga and certainly the Rolls Royce Cullinan are on the scene. Perhaps they should use the strapline of "the world's original luxurious SUV" instead? Whatever, I'm not a marketing guy so I'll leave them to it. However, go drive around any posh neighbourhood, park outside any expensive private school (not in a weird way - that will get you on the wrong sort of register!), cruise past any 5-star hotel and I can almost guarantee you'll see a Range Rover. Rich people love these things and it's easy to see why. Earlier this year I had a week-long test drive of the latest fifth generation Land Rover Discovery and when you drive around in that with the suspension jacked all the way up, the only things that can match you are a van and a Range Rover. I don't know what it is, but you very quickly gain this feeling of superiority over everyone else on the road and I found I was a much calmer driver because I had a much better view of my surroundings. In the Range Rover, you get that same sense of superiority and then some! The luxury and different leather and wood finishes, plus the immense breadth of its off-roading systems go some way to explaining the official £81,900 starting price for the short wheelbase (SWB) 275bhp 3.0 litre V6 diesel version. That's a lot of moolah, but then again you see loads of these on the road, so they must be selling pretty well!


Unveiled at the 2015 New York International Auto Show, the Range Rover SVAutobiography directly replaced the previous Autobiography Black version. The base cost was £148,900 - almost double the price of the 2016MY base spec released a few months later. Let that figure sink in for a minute! Exclusively crafted at Special Vehicle Operations' (SVO) Technical Centre in the UK, SVAutobiography features unique exterior design enhancements, an exclusive premium leather interior with unique trim finishes and the option of a 543bhp 5.0-litre V8 supercharged engine for the first time. As a result, the SVAutobiography was the most luxurious and powerful series-production Range Rover in the model's successful 45-year history upon its release.


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For the first time on a Range Rover, customers of the 2016MY SVAutobiography were able to specify a unique Duo-tone body colour option. The combination of Santorini Black upper body and nine colour choices for the lower body "create true distinction and individualism". Perhaps the best option of all was the SVO developed 'Event Seating' - stowed in the luggage compartment, these can be quickly and easily deployed to provide comfortable seating for two adults on the lower tailgate section. Handcrafted from beautiful Windsor leather with a highly durable aluminium frame. A costly option I'm sure, but if you're spending nearly £150,000 on a car something tells me a few options won't dent the wallet!


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All this talk of SVO, but who are they? For those who don't know, Land Rover/Range Rover falls under the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) parent company. The Special Vehicle Operations sub-brand seeks to engineer and develop specialised vehicles that sit outside of their normal model ranges - be it performance or luxury focused. JLR relaunched the SVO brand back in 2014, with the idea to bring all their specialist, low volume products under one roof. Kind of like what AMG is to Mercedes or BMW's M division. JLR have such faith in the SVO team and their capabilities that they recently constructed a purpose-built 20,000 sqm facility for them. Their first model was the bonkers Range Rover Sport SVR, followed by the Jaguar F-Type SVR. Both featuring stonking V8s with immense performance. The second badge is SVAutobiography - under review here today. The focus is not necessarily on performance like SVR is (although they do offer the 550bhp V8 as an option), rather it is more on luxury and refinement, with quality cabin materials and features only usually seen in long-wheelbase luxury limousines. Finally, SVX will see action on Land Rover's models and will signify that they have been engineered to offer the most extreme off-roading capability possible, but without compromising on-road competence. One also can't forget SVO's role in extremely low volume specials, such as the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 and XE SV Project 8.


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Released in January 2017, the facelifted and revised Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic showed how the brand could take things one step further. Starting at £132,800, it was cheaper than the outgoing SVAutobiography. This was due to less than 40 petrol V8s being registered on the roads since 2015 and competition from the likes of the Bentley Bentayga, meant JLR saw fit to drop the price a bit and keep it on buyer's radar. Only available in short wheelbase (a relative term considering it is still five metres long!), this Dynamic version sits alongside the long wheelbase SVAutobiography. Featuring the same 5.0 litre V8 as the Range Rover Sport SVR and pushing out 550bhp and 502 lb-ft, this colossus is able to do the 0-60mph sprint in an impressive 5.1 seconds.


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The Dynamic rides 8mm lower on a unique-spec, all-independent suspension that features updated air springs and dampers, modifications to its active anti-roll control (in effect, an automatically adjustable anti-roll bar that only really works when you’re cornering) plus slightly quicker steering. Buyers get a choice of 21 or 22 inch wheels. There’s a package of exterior changes that identifies an SVAutobiography Dynamic; including new side vents, detail changes to grille, front bumper and bonnet, and impressive red Brembo brake calipers visible through the alloy wheels. At the rear, the biggest giveaways are a unique SV badge and a fairly subtle set of quad exhaust tailpipes. Inside, the Dynamic gets diamond quilted leather seats and special trim with a choice of four special ‘colour pathways’. SVO boss Mark Stanton says most Range Rover customers at this level usually go for bespoke equipment worth around £25,000, and SVO has a huge range of colour and trim choices to accommodate them.


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Us mere mortals can but wish to own such a fine vehicle, but one can definitely afford a 1:18 scale version, especially as this only cost me $93/£72 shipped from China! So who is this new kid on the block called LCD Models? According to my source, LCD Models is the brand of the factory that produces models for EBBRO. It is a pretty old and experienced factory and LCD is the brand they registered not too long ago. Think of them a bit like Almost Real, in the sense that they're a factory pumping out models for other brands who have now seen the allure of releasing their own stuff to market. This Range Rover is sold in Japan under the EBBRO brand, whilst in China, it’s sold under the LCD brand - it’s the same exact model. There will be many of you wondering if this is the same mould as the Welly/GT Autos Range Rover released a few years ago. I have been told it is not, despite the similarities in appearance - they are both based on the same underlying 1:1 car though, so similarities are to be expected!


The eagle-eyed collectors among you may recognise the picture below. It is from the EBBRO stand at the 2018 Nuremberg Toy Fair. Lo and behold it is pretty much the exact same model we're reviewing here today! You will notice they went for the Ebony/Cirrus interior colour combination, however.


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As is customary with a new brand, we'll first take a look at the packaging. At first glance, everything looks good. Nice clean looking box with all the relevant branding and plenty of pictures of the model all around it and in different colours. However, I do find it a bit unprofessional not to include the actual full name of the model contained within. I also spotted that they've included pictures of their 1:43 model instead of the 1:18 model as the main feature images. Look at the silver model below and you'll notice the sealed shutlines and some missing parts such as the parking camera and sensors on the front bumper. Not to mention the fact the 1:43 version looks a bit off in terms of shape. Inside the model is encased securely in a standard polystyrene shell. Mine arrived from China with no damage whatsoever, so LCD have done well on the packaging front.


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After unboxing the model and holding it in your hands, you'll notice two things; firstly just how big a car the Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic is and secondly how hefty this good ol' hunk of diecast feels. Fans of diecast over resin and composite models will be happy with the weightiness for sure.


The spec of this model is really rather nice. The paint finish appears to be Loire Blue from their Metallic palette, with a contrasting roof finished in Narvik Black. The wheels are the 22 inch, 5 split-spoke "Style 514" alloys with a diamond turned finish. Inside we've got the perforated Semi-Aniline leather seats with quilted pattern as part the Ebony/Ebony colour scheme (basically black on the inner and outer seat sections). That colour scheme continues with the Ebony/Ebony for the carpets and door trims throughout the cabin. Certain sections of the interior are finished in the Grand Black Veneer wood with Red Keyline - as we'll see later on, LCD forgot to include the Red Keyline on some important sections. This colour scheme is one of those unique to the SVAutobiography Dynamic model.


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Looking at the above images I'm sure you're intrigued as to the level of detail shown in the reflection of the undercarriage. Fear not! The brand have done a really nice job for this circa $90 price point. In fact, it puts to shame many models costing double that!! There is plenty of detail under there, from the transfer cases, to the exhausts and the suspension components. It all looks a bit plasticky, but the definition of the parts themselves looks great and the contrast between the silver and black parts keep the eyes busy.


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If you were looking for a model that has FULL working features, then you've come to the right place! This beast has a few tricks up its sleeve. Firstly, you'll see that the wing mirrors are able to fold in and out nice and smoothly. This is a common feature on Chinese dealer edition models, but not something you really ever find on the more mainstream models such as this.


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Next you'll notice the shutlines around the fuel filler flap and realise that this also opens. The silver cap looks very realistic and I suspect many owners will try to twist it open, much to their disappointment - its a lovely and welcome detail that is not present on the Welly/GT Autos model. You can see how deep and rich the paint finish is here, with the metallic flakes shining through perfectly. The paintjob throughout the model is seriously good!


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The Graphite Atlas grille is another upgrade exclusive to the SVAutobiography Dynamic. I think LCD absolutely nailed the colour of it and looks like it has been coloured in with a graphite pencil. Based on pictures I've seen of the real car it would appear there are three chrome strips that run along the centre of each bank of vents, which LCD have clearly forgotten to include here. The Land Rover badge (Range Rovers don't actually have any of their own badging on the grilles, rather they are technically called Land Rover Range Rovers) looks spectacular. They've replicated it very well indeed! Yes, there may be some excess glue along the bottom edge, but that is hard to see with the naked eye. We are looking at the macro level here, after all.


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The excellent badging continues around the back of the model, with the SVAutobiography script replicated perfectly. The red section on the right hand side indicates this is the sporty Dynamic version and ties in very well with the red Brembo brake calipers and red gearshift paddles. You can just about make out the Special Vehicle Operations text surrounding the SV part of the badge. When a company nails the smallest of details such as these, they instantly go right up in my estimation. This somewhat contrasts with the excess glue holding the Graphite Atlas bootlid insert - this is a bit noticeable when viewing the model at normal distances.


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Open both front and rear doors and you'll see the photoetched SVO badge on the B-pillar. Again, this is very well replicated. You'll also notice how well the rubber door seals have been mimicked. Of course they're not real rubber, but they are the correct shade of black and even have a rubbery look to them. The way they curve around the door openings is also nice and smooth. There really are some cracking little details on this model that more often than not just don't seem to exist on other models in this price bracket and above.


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Another realistic touch is the frit going around the windscreen. The frit is a band of black ceramic enamel that is baked into the edges of the glass, accompanied by the border of black dots. Its purpose is to provide an etched surface that allows the glue to bond to the glass - glue sticks better to ceramic than it does to glass. An added benefit is that it hides the ugly adhesive and protects it from harmful UV rays. Tell me that doesn't look like its straight off a 1:1 car?!?!


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Onto the lights around the model now. LCD did a stellar job in my opinion. The plastic coverings fit flush with the bodywork and I couldn't see any excess glue anywhere. The lenses themselves look to be well replicated with the Adaptive Xenon bulbs and signature lighting doing a very convincing job. You can see the outline of the headlight power washers below.


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Flipping the model round to the rear and you'll see they've also done a great job with the tail lights. They do seem to have missed out the thin rectangular reflective strip inside the lowest red light, but I'll let that one slide this time.


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The 22 inch 5 split-spoke ‘Style 514’ with Diamond Turned finish alloys are exclusive only to the SVAutobiography Dynamic. The spokes themselves are accurately represented in scale form here, with the correct angles and dish effect immediately apparent. The two-tone finish of the alloy front and between the spokes looks spot on. I really really like these wheels! Amazingly they included the air valve as well - not something you'll always find on a model in this price range. You'll also spot the suspension spring in the background, part of the fully functional suspension system. Honestly the only thing missing from the wheels is any sort of branding on the tyres. If it had that, this model would deal a knockout blow to pretty much any model under €180 or so.


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Time to take a macro look at the wheels now. The SVAutobiography Dynamic has 380mm front and 365mm rear brake discs, versus the 350mm front/rear of the lesser variants. The disc finish looks good and the calipers are painted a lovely bold shade of red, although they could have added a touch more detail to them by painting the bolts in black like on the real car. The Brembo branding is spot on, however. As is the Land Rover badge on the centre cap. I've got zero complaints about the locking wheel nuts either.


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The only mistake I can spot on the front end is that they've put the Range Rover script on in the bog standard chrome effect, whereas the SVAutobiography Dynamic specifically has this upgraded to Graphite Atlas colour to match the grille below. Look below the front number plate and you'll notice all the parking sensors and even the front camera has been included. Again, not something you would always expect on a model in this price range.


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Pop the perfectly sculpted clamshell and you immediately notice the hinges. They're a three-part affair and it works nice and smoothly. The only thing you have to bear in mind is that when you shut the bonnet, you may have to press down on the corners where the hinges are located to get it to sit flush. When you look at the picture below, you question why BBR can't provide something better than the dreaded dogleg hinges on their new opening diecast 1:18 Ferrari F12tdf that costs at least three times the price of this model! I've said it before and I'll say it again - it really makes you wonder just how much money these higher end companies are making on what can certainly be considered a lower end model in terms of detail and functionality when you compare them to models such as this Range Rover and the multitude of Chinese dealer models being pumped out. Especially when they feature opening sunroofs, fuel filler flaps, moveable and foldable seats. Food for thought....


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Compare this picture of the engine bay with that of the real car earlier in the review and you guessed it, yet another excellent recreation of the car in scale form! Don't get me wrong, its not 100% perfect in the sense that it is missing some of the tubing coming out of the shock absorber mounts and a couple of other finer details. But everything important is right there. The Land Rover and Supercharged badging plus the various warning stickers dotted around the front area. They even remembered to paint the shock mounts the same as the body colour, which serves to otherwise brighten up a dull black plastic slab in there.


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Here are those labels in close up. I'm very impressed with the quality and detail of the graphics considering how small they are.


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I'm personally a big fan of split tailgates. When loading heavy items into such a tall car as the Range Rover, it provides a useful ledge to place stuff down on and slide it in. It also doubles up as a bench to sit on while you clean your boots after going clay pigeon shooting or fox hunting. The struts on the bootlid are as welcome as they are on the bonnet - they're not too stiff that the boot is difficult to open, but strong enough to hold it up without it dropping down. I just hate it when that happens on models. A couple of things that I noticed are missing from the boot area is the chunky plastic bits with strings attached to the bottom section of the tailgate in order to raise/lower it electrically. It also appears that the bank of buttons to control the rear suspension height and boot functions is missing from the inside. On the plus side the boot is flocked nicely.

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The rear view camera is also included, although I'm not sure why there are two lenses?

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I like the little open boot graphic on the button on the lower tailgate and the locking mechanism to the left of it.

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Looking inside the interior I just want to shrink myself and sit in those amazing looking seats! The diamond-stitched effect looks about as good as you can get on a 1:18 model and the stitching around the edges of the seats is excellent as well. Can I honestly say I'm going to forgive LCD for not adding the red contrast stitching around the edge when Bburago managed the yellow stitching on their Ferrari 488 GTB? I don't know, but I think the rest of the seat detail goes some way to garner forgiveness. On a sporty car, I usually prefer some red in the interior and if I was speccing up this car I would opt for the Ebony/Pimento colour scheme as shown on the picture of the 1:1 rear seats at the beginning of the review. The red Autobiography script looks simply amazing. LCD used photoetched parts for the seatbelt buckle - the red receiver is present and correct. Sadly it seems my passenger side buckle was bent. I'll try and straighten it out at some point.

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The doors are equally well detailed. Again, there's no contrast red stitching added, but the stitching itself is there. The door and mirror controls plus speaker grilles look pretty decent to me. LCD did forget to add the red Keyline along the Grand Black veneer inserts.

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The aluminium red gearshift paddles are missing that machined polish look, but that would probably be tough to attain on a low cost model. The steering wheel controls and the 12.3 inch Instrument Panel Display with virtual dials are clear and crisp to read. I did notice they missed out the red Keyline around the top of the rotary gear selector unfortunately.

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The 10 inch InControl Touch Pro is completed nicely with the Land Rover logo that presumably appears on startup. The climate and heated/cooled seat control buttons below are sadly missing any graphics. The Terrain Response 2 buttons by the drivers armrest do look good, however. Another mistake by LCD is that they made the silver grab handles solid pieces situated either side of the central tunnel (shown in the bottom right of the below picture). An easy solution would be to just colour it in with some sort of black marker.

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The air vents are another nice feature on the model, surrounded by that Grand Black veneer finish.

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As you can see below, the cabin is flocked as well. The electric seat controls are well defined, although I'm not too sure why the passenger side main dial has that extra silver dot on it over the driver's side? The illuminated aluminium treadplates with Autobiography script look brilliant - in fact they kind of look like they're lit up in the picture below!

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A neat touch is the fully operational armrests at the front - for both driver and passenger. LCD have replicated the knurled silver effect of the armrest adjusters plus the black for the knobs themselves.

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On the back of the front headrests the optional Rear Seat Entertainment system has been included. You can spec either the 8 inch version which is built into the headrest itself, or in this case, the 10.2 inch high definition seat mounted option with articulating screens.

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Much like the front, the central armrest in the rear is fully operational and drops down to reveal 2 cupholders.

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Finally, we get a better look at the real fabric seatbelts and photoetched buckles.

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Wow! What an amazing model this Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic by LCD Models has turned out to be. This could very well be the best model buy of 2018 for many people! The price is ridiculously low for the calibre of model you're getting. It is not perfect, make no mistake. But it is so close it feels almost painful to be spending money on any future models that are more expensive than this and have significantly less detail. Because LCD Models are manufacturing this themselves, it allows them to cut out the middleman (which would usually be them) and save on the extra cost of having someone else manufacture it for you. That must count for something when it is this cheap.

If you're a performance SUV fan like I am, or simply appreciate a model that has great detail, I doubt you could do much better than this right now. This has probably been the best bang for the buck model purchase of 2018 for me. At the 2018 Shanghai Model Car Expo, LCD Models have shown off the Range Rover Velar in two lovely colours with probably the best wheel choice. I'm hoping it will be priced the same as this SVAutobiography Dynamic. If it is they'll be onto a winner for sure and I hope this signals the start of the great revival of desirable, highly detailed, fully opening diecast models in the sub-€100 price bracket.

JamesonsViggen
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Re: REVIEW: 1:18 LCD Models Range Rover SVAutobiography Dyna

Post by JamesonsViggen » Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:13 am

Very cool. I have the GT Autos one which at $55 USD, was a GREAT score.

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Mr.Impreza
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Re: REVIEW: 1:18 LCD Models Range Rover SVAutobiography Dyna

Post by Mr.Impreza » Thu Nov 01, 2018 3:42 pm

This review deserves an OSCAR! haha...seriously wow....the review is so detailed!

The overall quality of the model looks superb!

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Yeow Yi Fan
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Re: REVIEW: 1:18 LCD Models Range Rover SVAutobiography Dyna

Post by Yeow Yi Fan » Thu Nov 15, 2018 2:19 am

This is an amazing review covering both the background of the actual vehicle and the diecast model in question. Well articulated, informative and overall a joy to read. The question now is not whether to buy but which colour to get!

#On a side note, there are many dealer edition 1:18 diecast models from China which I find increasingly fascinating, i.e. Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry. They do mostly your mainstream (read "boring") models which the major brands will no way even consider releasing.

mcaf123
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Re: REVIEW: 1:18 LCD Models Range Rover SVAutobiography Dyna

Post by mcaf123 » Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:21 am

Yeow Yi Fan wrote:
Thu Nov 15, 2018 2:19 am
This is an amazing review covering both the background of the actual vehicle and the diecast model in question. Well articulated, informative and overall a joy to read. The question now is not whether to buy but which colour to get!

#On a side note, there are many dealer edition 1:18 diecast models from China which I find increasingly fascinating, i.e. Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry. They do mostly your mainstream (read "boring") models which the major brands will no way even consider releasing.
Thanks mate! Just saw this reply - which colour did you go for in the end?
I've seen loads of pics about these Chinese brands around the net (in fact there's a whole Facebook group dedicated to them!) and they offer details way and above the mainstream brands. Trouble is they're boring subject matter for most people LOL :doh:

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Re: REVIEW: 1:18 LCD Models Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic

Post by [KRAFTIG] » Thu Oct 10, 2019 12:09 pm

Trouble is they're boring subject matter for most people LOL
Yup, you can say that again! If they more into sport and supercars they will steal much of the market share without hesitation. :popcorn:

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