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History of Monogram's Ford Pickups 1980-1991


Fabrux

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Monogram's first entry into this generation of pickup was in 1980 with the issue of Ford's newly redesigned F-150 pickup. Kit 2262, this version builds into a stock flareside four wheel drive pickup. Molded in red/orange plastic. Wheels are Ford chrome wagon wheels with Goodyear Tracker A-Ts.

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Next in line from Monogram was the companion Bronco to the F-150. Released in 1981, the Bronco borrows heavily from the F-150 tooling, just as the 1:1 vehicles they represent. The chassis is a direct copy from the F-150: shortened to fit the Bronco's wheelbase, the chassis retains the incorrect saddle tank in front of the rear wheels and replaces the F-150s spare tire with the correct fuel tank between the rails. Options include a roof rack with skis and a brush guard. Kit 2271, molded in black plastic. Wheels are the same as the F-150 kit.

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Continuing the company-wide High Roller theme, the F-150 was reissued in 1981. Modifications include a lifted suspension for bigger wheels, brush guard, hood scoop, roll bar with lights, and entry handles on the B-pillars. Kit 2274, molded in blue plastic. Wheels are 14-hole mags and Ground Hawg tires.

2274.jpg

The Bronco was also reissued in the High Roller Series. Modified suspension is shared with the F-150 High Roller. Kit 2286, molded in orange plastic. Wheels are unique to the Bronco kit and are a 5-wedge design; tires are Ground Hawg.

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With a monster truck craze sweeping the nation, the F-150 tooling was converted to depict a monster truck. Modifications include a supercharged engine, hole in hood for supercharger intake, monster truck suspension, roll bar with lights, and the Bronco's brush guard. Kit 2418 was released in 1984 as the Krusher in red and silver plastic.

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For 1985 the monster truck was released as the Quadzilla as kit 2419 and molded in black and white plastic. The Quadzilla was then reissued in 1991 (with the same stock number) and again in 2002 as kit 85-7702 in black and silver plastic.

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The Bronco was re-issued in 1992 (kit 2962, orange plastic), 2000 (kit 85-7682, white plastic), and 2011 (kit 85-7214, white plastic). Options were the same as the original 1981 issue, with the exception of the 2000 reissue which included a set of 5-slot mags.

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Edited by kataranga
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For 1991, Monogram designed a completely new tooling for the eighth generation F-series. The trucks depicted are among the largest trucks on the road at the time. First on store shelves was the 1991 F-250 extended cab, long box, two wheel drive. Kit 2922, molded in blue and charcoal plastic. Wheels are incorrect 5-lug chrome Ford wagon wheels and Goodyear Wrangler R/Ts. Builds as a stock pickup with the only optional parts being cab-mounted clearance lights and a roll bar with lights. This kit was reissued in 2010 as number 85-7212 and molded in white plastic.

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The same tooling was issued with slight modifications to depict an F-350 duallie. Modifications include duallie bed sides and wheels. Same options as the F-250 kit, however on 1:1 duallies the cab-mounted clearance lights are mandatory in most jurisdictions. Wheels are Ford 8-lug dually steel rims. Kit 2948, molded in red and charcoal plastic. This kit was reissued in 1995 with different box art but same stock number and again in 2005 as kit 85-7212 and molded in white plastic.

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Another nice write-up Chris!

I guess if I want to replicate my late uncle's '86 fleetside longbed F150 (that his young son's still own & cherish), I'd have to combine the pickup cab, with TWO Broncos sacrificing their sides to build the bed :o

A bit of work, but it would probably mean ALOT to them.

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Another nice write-up Chris!

I guess if I want to replicate my late uncle's '86 fleetside longbed F150 (that his young son's still own & cherish), I'd have to combine the pickup cab, with TWO Broncos sacrificing their sides to build the bed :o

A bit of work, but it would probably mean ALOT to them.

There was a Revell 1/24 Snap 80-86 Fleetside out for a while in the early to mid nineties. I don't remember the kit number, but I think it had a green truck on the box.

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With tweaking you can actually use the bed from the 87-91 Monogram pickup. I'm in the process of building an '80 regular cab, long bed styleside. The wheel wells have to be changed and its looking like I'm going to have to section the bed sides to match the cab.

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There was a Revell 1/24 Snap 80-86 Fleetside out for a while in the early to mid nineties. I don't remember the kit number, but I think it had a green truck on the box.

I think you are thinking of Revell's 1/25 scale "Night Rider" Flareside 4x4 snap kit, which was black.

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I think you are thinking of Revell's 1/25 scale "Night Rider" Flareside 4x4 snap kit, which was black.

No, it wasn't a flareside. I can count the number of modern flareside trucks I've bought/built on the fingers of one foot. It may have been 1/25, though.

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gray07: The only 1:24 scale Dodge trucks that Monogram produced was the Ramcharger, and I don't think there were too many of them. But I could do some research. :)

The original and a reissue w/ a boat and boat trailer (in the '90s?) are what I remember...there may have been a 'High Roller' issue also.

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There are too many things wrong with the Bronco rear section to make a fleetside bed. The tail gate is wrong for the pickup and the wheelwells are too far rearward. I got a rear section of a Bronco from Larry Spect that I was planning on making a bed with,but after looking it over,it would require way too much work. I'm just going to use the F250 bed and add the '80s fenderwells and tail lights to it. The top of the bed corners will need a little putty and the top of the tail gate will need some also to square it up a little. Someday.I want to build a replica of the '83 F100 that I had many years ago.

I think an easier way to do an '80-86 fleetside would be to use the AMT '92-93 as a starting point (they did shortbed and longbed fleetsides) w/ the MPC '82 Bronco for the front end (and rework the rear fenderwell openings to the older style). The Bronco was reissued about 5 years ago..

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Rob: Give me an hour and I'll post up what I know about the Ramcharger kit. :)

plowboy: Revell actually made 1:25 scale snap kits of the 80-86 body with regular cabs. There's the Night Rider that's already been mentioned as well as the Six-Wheeler dually. Even though they are snap kits they have opening hood and a low-piece engine. They share the same tooling as the Revell Bronco. They're pretty crude kits, however, with next to no underhood detail and rather boxy cabs.

Edited by kataranga
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No, it wasn't a flareside. I can count the number of modern flareside trucks I've bought/built on the fingers of one foot. It may have been 1/25, though.

Sorry, I mis-read and missed the bed type. Here are the three Revell snap-tite kits from the SAE article of a few years ago:

fords.jpg

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Sorry, I mis-read and missed the bed type. Here are the three Revell snap-tite kits from the SAE article of a few years ago:

Boy, was I off on the scale, manufacturer and color! The Styleside 4X4 is the one I have. As pointed out earlier, they're not great kits, but they're probably the only early 80's styleside trucks out there. I do remember that the front bumper went missing, and I did try one from the Monogram Bronco. The Bronco bumper was way too wide.

I have a stalled project that was converting the later F-250 kit into a Bronco using the Monogram Bronco and F-250 kits. It was going well and looked pretty do-able, but it got shoved to the back of the build list. It never got to the putty stage.

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Thanks for the history.

A couple of of points to note with this kit - the axles are "open topped" which would be visible if you lift it significantly and it has no floor - there is a huge gap visible from below between the body sides and the interior tub.

Having said that when I built in the early 80's that didn't bother me and I remembered it fondly enough to hunt one down.

That's a common problem with all of these Monogram kits, actually. They weren't too concerned with detail and accuracy on the chassis those days, its seems.

^^^ Taken from the Monogram Ramcharger thread, but I found a pic of the underside, showing what zenrat mentioned, so...:

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks Chris for the kit history articles.

I have been looking for the '80s styleside I think it is # 2257 (non step side short bed) for several years and still have not found a complete kit. Even at the NNL east with all the kits for sale I could not find one.

I found the cab and bed in a parts box at a model show and now have enough parts to build one. I plan on using the frame etc from the AMT '93 F-150s.

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