- Welcome back, today I'm visiting
my favourite local aeroplane model shop.
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Hey, Elliot.
- Hey, Sam, welcome to Geminijets headquarters.
I've picked out a few really good models that I think
they're your personal favourites,
'cause I'm pretty sure you've flown
probably on every one of these planes.
This is a very special 100th anniversary plane
with lovely detail.
I know this one's very special to you
because you're one of the few people that actually
has flown nonstop from London to Sydney.
And here we have a Dreamlifter.
This is an interesting plane,
this is used by Boeing to transport fuselage,
parts of their new aircraft,
we even have the detail where the tail opens and closes.
It's magnetic, so it gives a nice close seal.
- This is really, really cool.
And all your wheels are rollable as well, right?
- Yup.
Turn this or not.
- Oh, you can even turn the gears, wow.
- Engine fan blades spin also if you blow in them,
the engine fan blades spin.
(blows air)
The next aircraft we've picked is the Thai Royal Barge.
The details on this model as you can see,
we've taken a lot of time to represent it accurately.
And one of our bestselling models is the Emirates A380,
it's displayed in the special Expo livery,
Expo liveries come in a blue livery,
an orange livery, and a green livery.
After that is the famous 747-8, operated by Lufthansa.
And the next one is the British Airways 747-400
featured in the Landor livery.
This model also has our special setup
that includes flaps down configuration,
full-span leading edge flaps,
full-span trailing edge flaps that are triple slotted
to represent an actual 747's landing configuration.
- Sometime I often sit here if you look
at my British Airways video, 14 kilo,
and I can look straight into these Rolls-Royce engine,
and then seeing the leading slats extended down
for landing configuration, this is as real as you can get.
- For your viewers, Geminijets would like
to give away three KLM 747 models.
This is for the retirement at the end
of this month of the KLM 747.
We're going to give away a 1:200 scale 747 diecast model,
a 400 scale version in a collector's box,
this is all diecast.
And we're going to give away a third model,
which is the cargo version of the KLM 747-400.
- I just want to let everyone know
I knew Elliot for long time.
I've been a Geminijet collector from day one.
This aeroplane as you can see the United 747-400 battleship
grey was one of their very first Geminijets model in 1998.
- That is correct, Sam, we started with four models.
It was this one, there were two Virgin Atlantic 747-400s,
and we did an Air China
747-400. - That's right,
the worst seller ever.
- Worst seller ever but it's sold out now.
So, Sam, one of the advantages of coming to the Geminijets
headquarters is it's actually like a museum.
We have every single model on display both in 1:400 scale
and 1:200 scale that we have ever produced.
So anybody that is a collector of this stuff
that comes in and sees this
is absolutely wowed by the fact that they can see
every single Geminijets model we've ever produced.
My personal favourite actually is a Northwest 747-400.
And the main reason for that is when I started
this business, I was back and forth overseas,
back and forth to Asia from the U.S.
on a Northwest 747, both a 200 and a 400.
So this one's got a little personal favourite in my heart.
- Talk about Northwest, I also remember this model you made.
This is the 50th anniversary of Northwest,
it's called a WorldPlane.
They have all their major Pacific cities
painted on the fuselage.
- Yep, it was an interesting model,
this was actually the fifth Geminijet we produced.
So we move on to the centre cabinet
that's got a lot of historical planes.
Actually, me personally,
I like the historical planes better.
But we do have to cater to a world market
and a lot of our collectors are younger folks,
they're not as interested as much in the historical planes,
so that's why we do a lot of current stuff,
but we also do some of the more historical ones.
One of my personal favourites is this Dominicana 707.
I actually flew on this exact plane
between Miami and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.
This was back, I believe, in the early '80s.
We even did some special livery aircraft.
This was the Concord that was leased
from British Airways to Singapore Airlines.
So on one side it's British Airways.
Then on the other side, it's Singapore Airlines.
And the real aircraft was actually painted this way.
- Look at this.
This is the Braniff, right, this Braniff Calder.
- That's the Calder artist, it was a famous artist,
commissioned by Braniff, he painted a DC-8-62,
which is in your hand.
They also painted a 727-200.
- So the thing is you look at this engine colour here,
they got a little, like a horse kind of animal on it,
a very creative, very creative paint scheme really.
Very little with little SAP and ATR,
and also like Lockheed Electra,
you got, you know, all sort of DC-6, DC-7, YS-11.
You made all the props?
- Yes, we did, Sam. - Wow, look at this one.
- These cabinets are almost like an aviation museum,
not just for Geminijets but we try to represent
as many airframes that actually flew over the years,
and we go back over 50, 60 years
in history in these cabinets.
Sam, aside from the passenger planes,
we even make Russian cargo planes.
This is the An-124 Ruslan.
- [Sam] Yeah, I've flown that one too.
- Yep, you were pretty fortunate to do that
because not many people could fly
on a Volga-Dnepr An-124 Ruslan.
So, Sam, over on this side of the store,
we have the 120 museum collection.
Over here is a lot of 737s and Triple Sevens.
One of my personal favourites is this Alaska More to Love.
This was not an easy livery to replicate.
It's a fade from a red into a very dark blue.
- [Sam] Yeah, that's amazing, the gradient on that scheme.
- We really focus on the various liveries
of an airline like Alaska, this is the special Salmon plane,
an actual fish painted on the entire aircraft.
The standard livery here, this was a Boeing special edition
to support, Alaska Airlines supported Boeing.
Retro planes for American,
we have the Mendoowoorrji version of the Qantas 737.
Okay, so some of our more interesting liveries
are the Iceland Air special edition planes.
These were very difficult to do also similar
to the More to Love on the Alaska.
A lot of work goes into the printing of these.
This is all computer-generated and printed.
The base colours are all sprayed on by hand
but the actual intricate liveries are done by computer.
This is a classic 747-100
that was flown by American Airlines--
- [Sam] Wow, this is unbelievable, look at that colour.
Look at the chrome on the American 747, wow.
- It's actually polish metal.
Back in the '60 and '70s, a lot of airlines operated
their aircraft in a bare polish metal livery.
Sadly, even though this was widely accepted
and loved by everyone, today's modern airlines
use a lot more composite, which of course is not metal,
so we've lost all the looks of the polish metal planes.
- [Sam] Oh, it's called Eurowhite.
- Yes.
- Wow, look at this.
The Emirates A380 with the animal, united for wildlife.
By the way, your model's really heavy.
Like, this is really heavy, you can even do like a dumbbell
and flexing your muscle, and practising on your model.
How heavy these models are, let me check them out.
Wow, 3.8 pound for this 200 scale 380,
that's a lot of weight.
It's definitely not a plastic model.
- No, Sam, it's not, that's the advantage
of having a diecast model, it gives you value.
- You know why I collect your model
is because I've flown lots of these planes,
I can personally relate to these models.
I want to ask you this,
you produce limited editions on all the models,
so once they sold out, does the value goes up over time?
- Yeah, the value will go up because once we run
the production, that's it, it is not reproduced.
It is a one-time production.
So it guarantees that the model
will not be available from the manufacturer anymore.
So over time, Sam, what people will do
is they'll put these models on eBay.
You could see a gradual increase in the value
of these models as the years go on,
because once they're produced,
they are technically discontinued.
So once they're discontinued, the value does go up on that.
So, Sam, in addition to the models,
we're making accessories,
including a full airport terminal, air bridges,
mats and everything to give the collector a full display.
The terminals actually light up.
- [Sam] Oh wow, there's actually power
inside your terminal, wow, look at that.
Wow, very cool.
So, Elliot, which airport does this represent?
- Well, I mean, I took cues
from airports all around the world.
It really doesn't represent one given airport,
but the collector can use their imagination
as to what airport they want to make it.
We have a night effect look
with the terminal lighting all up.
It really, it gives you an impressive look
of what the airport looks like in the evening.
- Wow, there's even a A380 gates upper deck bridge.
- Yes, there is. - That's amazing.
You know, it cheers me up a lot when I come
to the model shop because this is why I love
aviation and collecting diecast model.
It really brings good energy out
during a difficult time like this, right, Elliot.
- I totally agree.
Collectors enjoy turning to their hobbies in times of stress
and we're hoping to keep everybody happy with models.
(likes bubbling)
Sam, welcome to the Geminijets warehouse,
which is also in Las Vegas.
Similar to a Costco or Sam's Club,
we have similar racks as they do.
But instead of toilet paper and cleaning supplies,
we have Geminijets models.
- [Sam] All these are models inside, aeroplane models?
- Yes, all aeroplane models, nothing but aeroplane models.
- [Sam] How many model you think you have in this warehouse?
- Well, we normally have about $2 to 2.5 million
worth of inventory but with the Chinese New Year
and production slowdowns due to the coronavirus,
our warehouse is much thinner than it normally is.
These racks, normally, are completely packed.
Floor area is usually packed with pallets.
Models stacked even in the aisles here.
We should be probably in the next two months,
we'll be back up to full production at that time,
and the racks will be full again,
the floor will be filled up.
And we try to keep things so real here at Geminijets,
we even use real aircraft stands
to get up to our higher parts of the shelves.
This exact same type of equipment
when people are working on a 737 aircraft.
- So, Elliot, there are boxes and boxes
going up all the level to the roof, how many aeroplane models
you think you have in your warehouse?
- I figure, we, Sam, we probably got
about 15 and 25,000 models in stock right now.
- 15 to 25,000 aeroplane models
in this warehouse, that's insane.
That tells you how many collectors out there,
collecting these diecast model, that's incredible.
I'd like to think myself as one
of the biggest aeroplane model collector out there,
I've been collecting since the late '90s.
I'm sure that many of you, like me,
you have lots and lots of aeroplane collections.
At the end of the video, I'm wondering,
are you already a aeroplane model collector?
If so, what is your favourite aeroplane model?
Share with us in the comments below.
Thank you for watching.
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