After years of speculation, I've managed to solve a mystery of sorts.
box art on the Entex 1/20 scale BMW 3.5 CSL puzzled me. While it was clearly a builtup model of a 3.5 CSL model, it was definitely not the one inside that box. The decals photographed were, AFAIK, never found inside (although another mysterious set of 'Hermetite' decals was!) and the model's body was different in a number of subtle ways. I've now had three of these kits as well as the same kit repopped and stuck into "Union Model" boxes as the G=F6sser Bier/Schnitzer car (which *does* have photos of the correct builtup on the box).
I thought I had it pinned down to another 'Entex' kit; the 1/16 scale offering with a set of custom made decals. For years, that was my story. Last week, an ebay buy set me straight and gave me a new surprise. I bought a 1/20 scale Nitto Kagaku BMW 3.5 CSL kit from a guy who also owned at least one of the Entex kits but who had apparently never compared them directly. I dug out one of my Entexes last night and started comparing them. I figured the Nitto would be just an earlier incarnation of this mold, but I found they were totally different! The Nitto is a curbside (Entex has an engine/transmission) that displays *each* of the subtle differences on the Entex box, from front air dam and grille to the rear wing and undertray. Not only that, but the decal set is *exactly the same set* as pictured on the Entex box. IT'S A NITTO MODEL used as the box art FOR A TOTALLY DIFFERENT 'ENTEX' KIT!
Now, it's no surprise to me that Entex simply boxed up other manufacturers' kits (Bandai, Otaki, etc.) and sold them under their name. What amazes me is that someone in the organization thought it was a good idea to use a (probable) competitor's model for their box art. So who knows who was involved in Entex? What's the whole story of this company? Curious minds want to know ...
-- C=2ER. Krieger