Fan Nickname/Toys

Examples of Fan Nickname in Toys include:

LEGO: The Danish Crack.

Scale models

Note: some of these are also used by LEGO fans.

The Carpet Monster / Feeding The Carpet Monster: Losing small parts that fall off the desk or workbench. Every modeller fears the Carpet Monster.
Rivet Counter: usually derogatory nickname tending to refer to the "Stop Having Fun!" Guys of scale modeling. Though sometimes it just means someone has an eye for tiny details, more usually it refers to people obsessed with scale accuracy even in ways nobody but them will ever see on the finished model.
AMS: After-Market Syndrome, a terrible condition where modelers find themselves instinctively detailing every model they buy to a ludicrous extent with photo-etch and other aftermarket parts.
Trumpy: Trumpeter Models.
DML: Dragon Models Limited.
PE / PE Parts: Photo etched metal, a medium often used for particularly small or fine details that wouldn't be practical to make in molded plastic.
Build pile: Term used for any kits you haven't yet made to imply an order that seldom exists.
WEM: White Ensign Models, a company mostly specialising in aftermarket warship parts.
- Mad Pete: Peter Hall, WEM's chief designer. So called for the incredibly fine details of the company's products, such as windscreen wipers for a 1:350 scale battleship.
GMM: Gold Medal Models, another company mostly specialising in aftermarket warship parts.
Sinkhole: An area on a model where the plastic has warped inwards, typically due to something on the other side.
Ejector pin mark / Knock-out mark: Usually shallow depression on a kit where a metal pin is used to punch a sprue out of a mold. The bane of the Rivet Counter.
Flash: Thin excess plastic around the edges of kit parts, caused by molds not fitting together firmly.
Motorisation Hole: Large holes present in the undersides of many 60s / 70s armoured vehicle kits which were originally intended to have battery-operated motors installed.
Link-and-length: One method of assembling track links for armoured vehicles, consisting of several "lengths" of track links cast as single pieces (typically the top and bottom runs) with the remainder seperate "links" which have to be manually attached to each other.
CA: Cyanoacrylate, better known as superglue.
Dio: Short for diorama, an extended model base involving scenery. Many model contests require at least one vehicle in a diorama and use the term "vignette" to refer to a dio without any vehicles in it.
Aztec stairs: Ship modelling term for crudely molded plastic kit stairs more closely resembling the side of a stepped pyramid than anything that might concievably be fitted to a ship.
Kitbash: Model made from two or more seperate kits. Directly mentioned in the various incarnations of Star Trek—if you see a new (and/or odd-looking) space-station or ship, chances are it was constructed via kitbashing.
- "Kitbash" has also worked its way into Transformers fandom to refer to the same phenomenon: custom figures constructed by incorporating parts other than those originally from the figure being customized.
Scratchbuild: Model made largely or entirely from basic materials rather than manufactured ones.
- A common epithet among scratchbuilders is to call a model kit a "shake-the-box" kit, on the implication that Real Men Scratchbuild because all you have to do to assemble a kit is shake all the parts around in the box that it came in. Has expanded to be applied by non-scratchbuilders to some excessively easy/beginner-level kits, too.
OOB: Out Of the Box, building a kit only from the parts actually included, plus paint and glue. Also called "Box Stock".
Factory Stock: A model that's exactly as built by the the subject's manufacturer. May or may not be Box Stock. Used mostly in car modelling.
Bitz Box: A box of all the excess arms, guns and other add-ons that come with Games Workshop models, and are saved for later customisations. Also called the "parts box".
Revellogram: Revell-Monogram.
Darkside: NASCAR race car, pre-early '70s
Mainstreamer: Car that's been converted from the high performance or otherwise top-of-the-line version as kitted, to a middle-of-the-line spec.
Light commercial: Pickup truck, cargo van and sometimes civil emergency vehicles.
NNL: Model show/contest where each entrant gets to vote best in each category, as opposed to a "people's choice" where everyone who comes through the doors gets a vote (usually won by a large-scale red '57 Chevy)
1:1 (pronounced "one to one"): The real thing.
Promo: Factory-built models commissioned by the vehicle's manufacturer.
Annual: Car or light truck kit that was updated yearly to reflect the latest version of the kit's subject. Usually based on the same tooling as a promo.

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