HYJLwings: Phase 1 |
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HYJLwings was the brainchild of the Chinese-Canadian student Jelly Huang and his brand produced a nice range of, mainly 400 scale, plus a few 200 scale, models in two phases over 8 years from late 2016 into mid-2024. The models were mostly sold in China, focusing on Chinese airlines, but there were also non-Chinese airlines made and in the 8 year period over 130 models were produced. The models were produced by NG Models, but HYJL actually predates NG as a brand and was responsible for the creation of its own Airbus A321 mould, which was far and away the best at the time. Additionally, HYJL focused on smaller production runs and a higher quality overall product finish that in many ways pioneered the more recent premium offerings from several brands. As such HYJL was something of a trendsetter that produced a range of excellent models. In part one I take a look at the brands beginnings and first phase, which lasted from 2016-2019.
PHASE ONE
2016 Beginnings
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I first wrote about HYJL back in December 2016 when some Facebook posts led me to discover a Taobao site for the new brand featuring their first releases. That store still exists today (see HYJLwings Official Store), but is the last real aspect of the brand that does. The first batch of models made were produced by Panda Models using their Airbus A319 and A320 moulds, updated with aerials. The subject matter was a trio of Beijing Capital A320s, a trio of China Southern A319s and a trio of Air Guilin A319s.
The models all came with a custom artwork box, a collectors card and a glove for handling the models (entertainingly sized for Asian hands).
2017 Widebodies
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The next four models would be collaborations with both Panda Models and JC Wings. They would feature a pair of Air China A330s and Airbus House colours A380s. It would not be until 2022 that HYJL once again made any widebodies. The production runs of the A380s was 300 units each, substantially more than 90% of other HYJL releases.
The releases were covered here at the website:
200 SCALE CRJs
July 2017 would bring the news that HYJL was developing its own 200 scale CRJ 100/200 mould. This was being undertaken by the NG Models factory, but at the time NG Models had yet to come to market itself. HYJL would use this mould at least 12 times before it began seeing regular usage for NG themselves in 2018, so it would seem it was really NG's mould rather than HYJLs. I covered the HYJL CRJs in multiple posts here at the site:
I also note that some of these CRJs would be later sold rebranded as NG Models.
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Using the NG 757
By early 2018 NG Models had broken cover as a brand and was using their excellent Boeing 757-200. HYJLwings also capitalised on this and between April and May 2018 produced a series of 15 mainly Chinese examples. All came in the then standard tin NG Models box packaging. As per usual I covered this here at the site:
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The exception to the Chinese 757s was a pair of Singapore Airlines examples made in May 2018 that remain some of HYJL's rarest and best offerings.
400 SCALE A321s
Whereas the CRJ seems to have been an NG mould the Airbus A321 that HYJL started showing sample photos of in August 2017 proved to be their own and they would keep exclusive use of it until January 2020 when NG would begin to use it themselves. NG would not create their own A321 casting until mid-2022, as part of the development of their entire range of Airbus narrowbodies.
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The new A321 mould for HYJL was a revelation and was easily superior to the other A321s on the market at the time, especially as it featured correct double slotted flaps on the wings, for both wingtip fence and Sharklet equipped wings, and aerials. Additionally all engine variants were available, including different engine casts for the two NEO options: CFM LEAP and P&W1120. Not only were the pre-existing A321 moulds either poorly shaped (Phoenix and Gemini / JC) or lacking details (Aeroclassics), but the Phoenix mould featured an A320 wing for all its A321s (as does the Aeroclassics for Sharklet versions).
My initial posts about the A321s can be found here:
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The initial HYJLwings A321s stood out in the market as they came in a wooden box, with cardboard sleeve, plastic insert and a cardboard gate section for the model to stand on. This packaging would persist for most of the phase one period before transitioning to the standard cardboard box with plastic insert common to all brands.
The A321 would quickly become HYJL's standard offering and at least 88 different models would be made in their history. Usually HYJL would produce multiple similar variants splitting the production volumes so they could make small numbers (60-90) of each, which would often be distinguished by different engines, registrations and/or special logos.
Releases would often be formed into groups for an airline. For example HYJL81001-4 were Air China, HYJL81005-7 were China Southern and HYJL81013-23 were China Eastern. A wide range of Chinese A321s were produced, some of which have never been made by any other brand, such as Yunnan Hongtu Airlines.
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It wasn't all Chinese A321s however as HYJL81032-35 featured Skyteam and Star Alliance themed liveries for non-Chinese airlines like Air France, Lufthansa, Air Canada and EVA Air. Lufthansa would get more special treatment in July 2018 when a series of 8 A321s would be made in various special schemes. These sets were covered here at the site:
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Another specialty of HYJL was Airbus house colours A321s, extending from the A321-100 prototype, made in October 2018, to the A321-253NY, one of their last releases. Altogether 5 different house scheme A321s were produced.
THE END OF PHASE ONE
Towards the end of 2018 HYJLwings went quiet and it appeared that the owner had either run out of money or lost interest. By that point they had produced an impressive roster of 101 models including:
Fortunately, although there was a significant break this wasn't to be the end of HYJL and the brand would reappear in 2020 operating with a wider mould portfolio.
