Qantas | Airbus A380-842 | VH-OQH | Apollo Models

Competition is stronger than ever in 400 scale and part of that has been a strong competitive response to new brands. This has been seen recently with the A380. The new HX Models A380 came out last year, and not long afterwards the long dead brand Apollo Models reappeared using the old Witty A380 mould. This is no coincidence and Apollo have been busy since releasing 12 new A380s. I've got my hands on a couple and here I take a look at one of them.

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Each review is to split into three key areas:

• The model mould
• The paint and livery reproduction
• Printing and quality control

Each section can get a maximum score of 10 for a maximum combined score of 30

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This review is sponsored by Northeast Diecast. Check out their store for an excellent range of hard to find 200 and 400 scale collection sale models and get 15% off!

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MOULD

Witty Wings, and their sub-brand Apollo, flew high but burned out quickly between 2012 and 2014. They created an all-new Airbus A380 in 2013, but only managed 13 releases before their bankruptcy. For more on the original Witty / Apollo see my brand history:

Witty Wings / Apollo Models Brand History

At the time the most important active A380s were the Gemini Jets and Phoenix moulds (the Dragon Wings and Magic moulds were about to exit the scene). The Gemini A380 remains basically unchanged in 2025 from 2013 and still has a very inaccurate nose region. The Witty mould at the time provided the main competition, in terms of quality, to the Phoenix mould. It's reputation has remained strong, but as the memory of Witty has faded so has the memory of this Witty A380, which was always quite hard to find.

Competition in 2025 is much stronger than it was in 2013. Aviation400's mould is one that I've lionised before and reviewed a few times (see this Qantas version for example). It has excellent detail and comes with detachable mag gear too, but it is aimed at the top of the market pricewise. The new HX Models mould is also excellent and got a review recently (see the February review of a China Southern example here). Even so, despite its quality it is aimed at a cheaper market. The HX A380 in China retails for around rmb240-270 whereas the Phoenix edition retails for over 400. 

These Apollo A380s are retailing in China at rmb199!! The sudden appearance of this mould and at such a cheap price tells me that the re-emergence of the Apollo A380 is intended to directly compete with the HX version. So the question is, can the Apollo stand up to the HX mould?

The answer is both yes and no. There are areas of the mould which are as good as any other A380 in the scale. The fuselage barrel for example is excellent, with a nose and cockpit region that is arguably slightly better than the HX and on par with the AV400 versions.

The wings slot in tightly and the rest of the fuselage shape works well. The detailing at the tailcone could be better and the blade shape there sharper and flatter. On the underside of the fuselage detailing is also good, but the shape of the maingear doors not great.

The vertical stabiliser looks good and has a nice free rudder form - surprising for such an old mould. The undercarriage units have plenty of nice detail and rollng gear. The maingear does present one of the moulds biggest problems - the spacing of the gear bogeys. The inner rear main bogies are too far back and don't overlap the outer bogies. This is an issue the AV400 mould also had (but has since been revised), but it is actually worse on this mould than it ever was on the AV400.

Another strength of the mould are the engines and pylons. This mould was one of the first to introduce hollow core engines. The blades are a little too thin compared to the real thing, HX and AV400 versions but in general the engine nacelles look great.

The weakest area of this mould seems to be the wings. There is  lack of detailing in several areas compared to the newer moulds (such as flap hinges) but more importantly the underside rear flap structure doesn't look accurate. The flaps look undersized and the inner ones seems to have a double slotted look, when they should be massive single slotted flaps.

The other issue with the wings relates to dihedral. The Apollo mould seems to have too much of it. The wings rather lack the graceful curve of the real thing, which means the wingtips are noticeably higher than the other A380 moulds (Aviation400, Gemini Jets, HX Models and Phoenix) that I have compared it to.

This is a nice A380, especially considering its age and the price point it is selling at. The majority of the mould competes admirably with the newer excellent A380s on the market, but the placement of the inner maingear bogies, flap structure and wing dihedral are all drawbacks. While I would select this over the old Gemini Jets / JC Wings A380 and sometimes maybe over the Phoenix the two newer moulds have the edge.

SCORE - 7

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PAINT & LIVERY

This Go Wallabies livery, supporting the Australian Rugby Union team, was applied to VH-OQH in September 2015 in time for the 2015 Rugby World Cup (which Australia lost to the All Blacks in the final). There's actually a cool video of the livery being applied on Youtube:

The scheme fitted nicely over the top of the existing 2007-2016 'New Roo' livery. I much prefer the kangaroo on this scheme. It looked more like the animal than the previous and following versions. 

I can't fault the livery application on the model here. The AussieAirliners page for VH-OQH offers plenty of opportunity for comparison. The colours on the model are vibrant and the placement of the livery elements spot on.

Equally the gold and green Rugby components look fab and the scheme really suits the megajumbo. 

SCORE - 10

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PRINTING & QUALITY CONTROL

Considering the pricepoint you might expect the print and detailing to be an area that suffers by comparison with other brands, but that isn't the case. The printing is crisp and fine across the entire model. As is often the case flipping the model over to inspect the belly and engine nacelles is telling. There's just as much detail here as on the best A380s.

One small area of criticism in terms of paint and finish is the undercarriage. The gear legs and tyre hubs are left grey - almost the same colour as unpainted plastic. While they are painted they don't look as accurate or good as the silvery gear legs on the HX and AV400.

Build quality of the model shows no concerns. One aspect of cost-cutting with these Apollo A380s is the box. They all come in generic A380 boxes with a sticker the only way to differentiate them from each other. I'm not knocking off anything for that - I'm not collecting boxes!

SCORE - 9

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CONCLUSION

Given the price point, which I should remind you in China is about half the price of the Aviation400 or Phoenix versions, this is a superb model, which scores well despite the base mould being so old. Even in the UK I was able to pick this up for less than £40. While the two newer moulds are definitely better the Apollo A380 still has plenty to give, especially when paired against the older moulds from Gemini and Phoenix. 

FINAL SCORE - 26/30