Robberbaron

This one is pretty infamous. The original release of the Ramblin' Wrecker tow truck included designer Larry Woods' actual phone number on the side. After getting way too many calls from little kids, the tampo design was revised to delete the real phone number.

Back in the 80's for a couple years Hot Wheels made a series of cars called "Crack Ups" that had simulated accident damage. Each car had a spring-loaded, latching panel on the front, side, or back that flipped from "normal" looking to crash damaged if it was hit. I had this hatchback car in burgundy metallic (think its a fantasy car, but seems kind of like an '80s Nissan Z car?). When the back panel is "normal", the vanity plate reads "NICE". When the panel flips after a crash, I remember that the plate changes. Can't really make it out in the below pic, but I think it changes to read "OUCH", or something similar.

My 3 local Walmarts never carry models either, and my LHS closed after the owner died. So pretty much my only brick and mortar source is HL (which never seems to get new inventory anymore) and whatever randomly shows up at my Ollies.

Comparison pics of 4-door hardtop vs. 4-door sedan:

That's gotta be a first in 1/25 scale! Sweet!

Well, that was unexpected! I've never gotten one of the bumpside kits before, but think I'll have to get one of these...

Nice to see they went the extra mile and made sure it was fully blown.

https://www.standard.net/entertainment/arts/2021/nov/18/hot-rod-artist-chambers-selected-to-illustrate-box-art-for-vintage-model-cars/

I was going to be near one of my local Michaels yesterday, so I checked their website and was surprised to see a 50% coupon. That clinched a drop in! All they had was one Revell X-KE Jaguar and a handful of the Monogram "Classic Cruiser" '55 Ford F100's. Hard pass. They had moved the models from their previous spot, and this now nearly empty section was about a quarter the size of the previous area. They've never had a great selection at this store, but this was a new low. My other local Michaels has never carried model kits that I've seen. On the flipside, I stopped at one of my local Joann stores and they now have a very limited selection of Atlantis kits. Unfortunately, nothing that interested me. About the best thing they had was the old Revell "opening everything" '57 Chevy, but I'm not that crazy.

Merrillville, IN store is down to just a couple Atlantis airplane kits. Nothing automotive right now.

Sorry to say there really wouldn't be much to leverage from the Monte for a Grand Prix. About the only thing could be the chassis, which is prototypically incorrect for a 1:1 '77, along with its goofy multi-position suspension. Possibly the window unit, but the GP quarter windows are larger, so I'm not even sure if that could be used. Even if Revell were to do a GP, it would probably be more efficient to just tool a new curbside-type chassis and window unit to go with everything else new, just so they could avoid having to mix and match components from different sets of tooling. Except for the roof skin, all other external sheetmetal is different between the two. Nothing from the Monte interior could be used either. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a '77 GP kit. (Truthfully, I would love to see ANY new '73-'77 A-body in styrene). However, the reality is that there's at least a hundred other kit subjects that are more likely to get kitted than a '77 GP.

Stopped at the Merrillville store again yesterday, nothing but a handful of 007 Galaxie police cars left. I'll probably never need to buy another one of those Galaxies, I still have half a case of the Hobby Heaven reissue from about 20 (?) years ago...

Stopped at the Merrillville, IN store tonight. Had the '74 Roadrunners, 007 Galaxie police cars, PL Charger funny cars, and Godzilla Jeeps. Good number of all those. In a separate location they had about 4 of the Ala Karts (RC2 tool). Almost picked one up one for hot rod parts, but started thinking it's probably not worth it, with the weird air suspension and the teeny tiny under scale engine. A Roadrunner and Jeep ended up following me home.

I'm no Ford enthusiast, but that engine looks about a scale foot too wide. If this is like most other mid '70s to early '80s Revell kits, there's probably not much usable for an accurate build.

The original '65 altered wheelbase had the scripts, since it was the the first butchering of the '65 annual/promo body. So in that regard, the new retooled version differs from the orignal. Since it's not based on any 1:1, it's personal opinion whether they should be on an AF/X car or not. On a 1:1, the quarters would need to be respayed after the extensive metalwork, so I suspect it's more likely the emblems would have been left off and the holes filled. But since this kit is all about pure nostalgia/duplicating a lost kit, I am a bit surprised at the deviation from the original.