Lindberg Kits?

[Aaronw]

Lindberg has a reputation of being on the bad side for kits and many modelers including myself are wary of their kits. I know the new management is trying hard to bring us new stuff so I'd like to support them but also don't need a bunch of bad kits added to my stash.

So what Lindberg kits really stand out as good or bad?

I know the 1934 Ford pickup 3 in 1 is a decent kit because I'm building one, and the Dodge A100 pickup Little Red Wagon looks pretty decent as well. I've also heard their new Dodge Charger is a nice kit.

The '48 Lincoln, Cord and Auburn are legendary in their badness.

What about the rest? If you've built a Lindberg kit tell me about it, what was it and how was the quality.

Thanks

[Rob Hall]

Lindberg has a reputation of being on the bad side for kits and many modelers including myself are wary of their kits. I know the new management is trying hard to bring us new stuff so I'd like to support them but also don't need a bunch of bad kits added to my stash.

So what Lindberg kits really stand out as good or bad?

I know the 1934 Ford pickup 3 in 1 is a decent kit because I'm building one, and the Dodge A100 pickup Little Red Wagon looks pretty decent as well. I've also heard their new Dodge Charger is a nice kit.

The '48 Lincoln, Cord and Auburn are legendary in their badness.

What about the rest? If you've built a Lindberg kit tell me about it, what was it and how was the quality.

Thanks

Any of their '90s era 1:25th tooling is quite good.. I've built the '53 Fords, '64 Dodges and Plymouths, the '61 Impalas and '67 Cutlass. Most of these are currently available.

I've also built the '90s era 1:25th snap kits, also nice--the Caravan, Sebring, Dakota and Crown Vic.

Lindberg has a variety of tooling that has origins with other companies---for example,

The '34 Ford truck 3n1 was an AMT tool, and the Little Red Truck & L700 were IMC tools, by the way.

The Lincoln, Cord and Auburn are ancient Pyro tools or something similar.

etc, etc..

Edited February 15, 2008 by Rob Hall

[SteveG]

Lindberg has a reputation of being on the bad side for kits and many modelers including myself are wary of their kits.

Aaron, I certainly disagree with the first part of your statement. However Lindberg has wide range of kits from many sources ranging from the most simplified of early tooling to level 3 kits like the Charger Super Bee and Raminator Monster Truck. Very few would I classify as "Bad or Poor Quality kits" and I have built and proudly displayed some beautiful models from some of those early tools.

It might be easier to discuss specific kits you might interested in then to try to rate the complete Lindberg catalog.

-Steve

[Harry P.]

As mentioned, the current "Lindberg Line" is comprised of kits tooled originally by Lindberg, and also a whole rat's nest of other company's tooling that wound up in Lindberg's hands...some good (IMC Little Red Wagon), and some terrible (old Pyro kits). There's no way to rate Lindberg kits other than on a kit by kit basis.

[Rick Schmidt]

I agree with whats been said. I love most Lindberg kits. I know there are some that may be bad but don't all companies have bad kits. I veiw the Snap kits that were mentioned as a statement to true Lindberg quality If they made those as nice as they did they certainly can make other good kits I hope they get runnin as big as Revell is and AMT was because I'll buy em up

[Clay]

Now I dont know as much as everyone else about any model kit, but I do know that the Lindberg kit I am working on has one maybe 2 problems, one I know of so far, is the hood doesnt close properly. Thats all the input I can give as I thought there were just amt and revell kits until I signed up on ebay and started looking there.

[SteveG]

Here's a couple of examples of my point, this is the Custom Deuce Pickup kit and it was probably issued in the early sixties and it was designed to be motorized. The chassis detail is far from accurate and this kit is nowhere near the detail level of a modern kit. If you consider it as a Curbside kit it displays very nicely.

I built this out of the box, the only detailing work is done on it is with paint. Some would consider this a bad kit because of it's simplicity.

This is the upcoming ALF 900 Fire Engine, it is also an old tool that was meant to be motorized. There is no chassis at all and it's and odd scale. The wheels, especially the rear ones are way off. Again if you look at as a Curbside kit it too displays nicely.

This is also right out of the box, just paint and foil. I'm sure there are plenty of folks that will call this a bad kit too. Personally I really enjoy building some of these old kits regardless that they are simplified. I'm sure they aren't for everyone but does that make it a bad kit?

The easiest way to tell Lindberg if you like having these vintage kits back or not is to vote with your wallet.

-Steve

[Aaronw]

Just to be clear I didn't start this post to run down Lindberg, I've been very happy with what I've seen since they came under new management.

However my perception of the company since I was a kid right or wrong has been of second rate kits. I've seen others make similar comments so I know I'm not alone in that perception. I know they have a hodgepodge of in house kits and kits they acquired from others.

I do want to support the company, which is why I posted this.

If the three I specifically mentioned, are the only current kits to watch out for that works too.

[ZIL 111V]

Lindberg made many toy looking & "motorized" simplified car kits in the 60's-70's most where definitely not top notch plastic masterpieces, but a few kits where not bad.

The 90's to today's 1/25 car kits are very nice, here's the one I recommend in 2008 catalog.

Very good

30'S Bugatti Royale....very nice classic kit! , 29' Mercedes SSK: both kits made by Lindberg (circa 1973).

64 dodges, 53 Fords, F150 4x4, Dakota PU, all recent Mopar muscle cars/Concepts, Chrysler Atlantic & Ford crown snaps, those are very nice & accurate 90's-00 kits. The BIG ones 1/8 BIg T & Exterminator drag both issued in 1965, 1/32 60's ALF pumper simple but nice looking kit....rear "front" wheels??????all those are Lindberg molds.

34 Ford PU (ex Amt).....Classic 60's Amt kit!

40 Ford Coupe (ex Palmer)...Yes Palmer's best 1/25 car kit ever!

90's Taylor/Boyd street rod '37 Fords trio, ex Testors. Really nice kits.

Red Wagon & L700 Dodges including flatbed & box trailer (former IMC molds circa 1969-70)...fitting issues but nice kits!

DO NOT TOUCH!!!!

The really poor: bad proportions, basic/innacurate details, toy like stuff:

ex Pyro 1/25 classic trio: Cord 812 (Bad, bad!) 48 Continental (bad!) 35 Auburn (patient?)

ex Palmer 1/25 '71 Mustang & '72 Challenger kits....Palmer annual toy looking kits!

Lindberg 60's hot rod kits: 25 T, 32-34 Ford PU kits, simple & not accurate like most 60's 1/25/32 Lindberg hot rod kit series.

Lindberg 1/12 Fiat Topolino, frame not bad, half body...1/12????, could someone tell me what kind of V8 engine is that???

The 1/32 30's-40's car series are former Pyro kits of the 60's, these are mostly basic detailed kits, the look is not bad but some could be better, no plated parts. The nice 32 Lincoln is slightly a bit more detailed.

...No ex IMC Ford GT40, Lola T70, Chapparal, 60'sVW Beetle, sure be nice to see those after nearly 30 years of vanishing

[samdiego]

I really dug the last go-round for the large scale stuff. The eliminator and big red rod kits are some of my favorite builds. The big red rod box model was a turn-off, but if you z the frame, channel the body and drop the suspension it really looks right. I love the 6 carb setup and the tire and wheel combo. But any doubts as to the ability of Lindberg to do good stuff will be asuaged by what is on the shelves right now. Check out the Super Bee. (but where are the red calipers?)

Edited February 16, 2008 by samdiego

[gfb]

Hi, My opinion.. the '61 Impalas both hardtops and convertibles were a pleasure to build. Sure the first issue was not completely accurate, but hay it was fun to put on my shelf beside by original issue AMT convertible. When the "new" retool of the '61 Impala hardtop came out, it too found its way to my collection. I liked those 2 kits so much that I bought and built the '61 convertible when it came out. Now I have 2 kits of each the convertible and the hardtop waiting to be built. The new Lindberg line of 1/25 kits impressed me enough the buy and build the '53 Fords. I'm in the process of building the '66 Chevelle SS 396. It is every bit as good a kit as the AMT and Revell '67 Chevelle SS 396 kits. As a matter of fact the decals are a notch above the Revell Chevelle decals. I kick myself for not buying the '64 Plymouth Belevdere kit when it was available. Lindberg and Revell-Monogram have come a long way since the late 50's. Just goes to show what competion from the likes of SMP, AMT, JoHann, and MPC can do for kit improvements. Thanks for letting me sound off. GFB

[Chuck Kourouklis]

ZIL beat it down pretty good up there. Only point of departure I have is that I dig all the working features on the Toppolino, so I'm a little more forgiving of it. I was also glad to see the old IMC Cougar and Mustang II concept kits back, too.

I'd say that what chinks exist in Lindberg's reputation are owed mostly to the Palmer and Pyro reissues - certainly not the IMC kits - and maybe to a wee bit of shakiness as they geared back up with 1/25 in 1995. There were slight issues with the Dodge 330, and the '61 Impala really came under fire for having an inaccurate cowl and a few other niggling issues in its first release (to such a degree that there's an apocryphal tale of some sniveling, spineless little punk reporting the kit to GM licensing, right when we'd all pretty much determined that the various automotive licensing departments were the bad guys).

The 330 was still arguably close enough, and how did Lindberg respond to the problems with the '61? With a massive retooling that corrected not only the cowl, but a host of other details not mentioned by the rivet-counters.

And never were these '90's kits cantankerous to build - in fact, having built and reviewed all of 'em through the '66 Chevelle, I can tell you their fit was very well worked out. The series reached its peak with the '53 Ford, which was fully the match of the best '50's offerings of the time from AMT and Revell/Monogram.

And as best I can tell, the new J Lloyd stuff has started at the same level as that '53 Ford and is escalating from there. It only remains to be seen if the new offerings will sell as well as they deserve to.

You have to acknowledge that the Pyro and Palmer stuff are disasters. But you also have to acknowledge that Lindberg acquired them after the fact, and that many of the true vintage Lindberg kits - and ALL of the new ones - are in an entirely different league.

Edited February 16, 2008 by Chuck Kourouklis

[Aaronw]

Thank you, from looking when the not so good kits listed came out I think it explains why I had the impression I had, I got started modeling as a kid in the 70's and early 80's. I was out of the hobby or most of the 90's so never saw the later kits when the quality was improving.

I really like the attitude I'm seeing from Lindberg, but still had these lingering doubts about which were the good kits and which were the bad. Sounds like most of the current line up is good stuff, I assume the 3 Pyro kits are still around since they are the only game in town for the subjects.

I am curious are these three buildable wth patience or are they examples of scratch building is easier?

[Harry P.]

If you're into the big stuff, check out this kit I'm building at the moment...Lindberg's reissue of the once motorized (now static) Exterminator dragster.

Vintage drag doesn't get much cooler than this kit!

[Junkman]

Lindberg 1/12 Fiat Topolino, frame not bad, half body...1/12????, could someone tell me what kind of V8 engine is that???

It's a 413-440 RB Chrysler.

[Jon Cole]

So you're saying the Lindberg '40 Ford Coupe is a former... Palmer kit?

I thought it was the old AMT kit, or at least a copy of it.

This kit is what's currently on my bench. Any comments on what the consensus is to it's origin is appreciated.

[Dave Van]

Lindberg is a mix of a number of companies. None of their stuff is 'Trash' like a old Palmer kit. Some are MUCH better than others.........

Lindberg 66 Chevy built as a stock car...GREAT kit...no real build issues.....

Old school Lindberg?? This is a old 'bad' kit from the early 60's...not perfect..but a fun build!

For the kit BUILDER and not someone that just glues stuff together...most of the kits are a good start....

Just IMHO only!!

[SteveG]

The '40 Ford kit the comes with the L-700 and Flatbed Trailer does have at at least some of the Street Rod and Police Car version parts if not all of them from the 3n1 kit version. Although none of the optional parts are shown on that particular instruction sheet.

FYI, I was just advised that the L-700 Truck only kit is now available, and that they cleaned up the tooling to fix the excess flash and restored the missing signal lenses.

-Steve

[Aaronw]

The '40 Ford kit the comes with the L-700 and Flatbed Trailer does have at at least some of the Street Rod and Police Car version parts if not all of them from the 3n1 kit version. Although none of the optional parts are shown on that particular instruction sheet.

FYI, I was just advised that the L-700 Truck only kit is now available, and that they cleaned up the tooling to fix the excess flash and restored the missing signal lenses.

-Steve

So this is the tractor only version? I got one with the trailer and '40 Ford but have been waiting for the tractor only, I have plans for a couple of them. Nice to hear cleaning up the molds wasn't just a rumor either, Thanks.

We got a nice tax return which should arrive any day(unfortunately not in time for the NNL West swap meet and venders ), looks like I'll be trying out several of the Lindberg kits for myself.

Edited February 28, 2008 by Aaronw

[SteveG]

So this is the tractor only version? I got one with the trailer and '40 Ford but have been waiting for the tractor only, I have plans for a couple of them. Nice to hear cleaning up the molds wasn't just a rumor either, Thanks.

We got a nice tax return which should arrive any day(unfortunately not in time for the NNL West swap meet and venders ), looks like I'll be trying out several of the Lindberg kits for myself.

Aaron,

Yes, It's the tractor only version and it's molded in the nice white plastic that they usually use and I'm 99% sure its being produced in good old Michigan, USA.

As for the turn signal lenses that were added, I don't know if they were ever in the kit or if they were lost when Lindberg got the molds. Today was the first I heard about it myself. Maybe someone more familiar with the kit or our resident MCM Truck builder and Box artist for this kit Tim Alhborn might know.

-Steve

[larrygre]

Does anyone know if the '48 Ford hardtop and convertible kits that were made by IMC I( believe ) are going to be re-issued??? I've been wanting to do both kits for a long time now and they would be good sellers but I can't seem to find any.

George, I'm sorry to say that's not likely to happen.

Testors sold many of the ex-IMC molds to Japanese company Union in the 1980s. Those molds included all the Ford GT40 kits, both 48 Fords, the Chaparral 2E, Lola T70, Volkswagen Bug, and Indy Lotus Fords. Union itself went belly up in the '90s, and nobody has been able to pinpoint what has happened to the ex-IMC molds since. Hopefully, that will not remain a mystery for the ages and those molds will once again turn up somewhere.

[ZIL 111V]

Gone forever: 48 Ford, GT40. Lola T70 & other ex IMC/Testors molds mention are lost in a warehouse in Japan?

Was told that the Union Ex IMC car kits was a run made for Union model co back in the mid 80's, a bit like Heller did with a few of their car kits with Union at the same time (the 48 Ford was still available in Testors Catalog in 1987....Union also had the same IMC kit in it's Memorial collection series, bought it, around 1985) .

Can see that a few mention ex IMC/Testors car molds are missing to the reissue call since the 90's... total vanising in the last 20+ years! When Linberg did reissue a few ex IMC kits back in early 90's tought we would see the 2:GT40, Lola T70, etc, but nothing ....long mystery indeed

[larrygre]

The Union issues were not run by Testors for Union. Union actually bought the molds from Testors at a time when Testors needed to raise cash. Same for the Heller issues - Union bought those tools from Heller when Heller was facing a cash flow crisis as well.

I hope those Heller molds are equally alive and well.

[Biscuitbuilder]

To say that the original Lindberg company (BTW, they were the oldest model kit company in continuous business in the US (started back in 1933 by Paul K. Lindberg, a noted model airplane flyer and designer). Some of the brands that wound up in Lindberg packaging over the years:

Lindberg, MARX (Yes, the toy company--tooled the two large scale Chris-Craft cabin cruisers that Lindberg altered into model kits, then provided an excellent electric drive system for), IMC, Hawk, Pyro, Testors, Palmer, plus one odd-ball outfit who tooled the 1/16 scale Stutz and Mercer racecars.

Biscuitbuilder

[larrygre]

You're welcome George. Hopefully we might see a 48 coupe from Revell in the future - or at least, a coupe body to fit the Revell kit from one of the enterprising resin casters out there.