Mark

The MPC annual wasn't very good, but the AMT annual kit body was nearly as good (if not just as good) as the Revell which was tooled 25 years later. It was a shame AMT hacked that kit up to use the body in a funny car rather than hang on to it for a reissue down the road. But maybe the annuals hadn't sold well enough to make anyone think about that.

No way to tell...they weren't in the '71 annual, and when that one was restored by Ertl in the late Eighties, they chose to put the '71 optional parts back in. The '72 parts weren't exactly like the show car. Someone who really wants that version can probably work it up on their own.

Jo-Han included a similar grille in their '70 Road Runner kit, and MPC included a version in their '72 kit that resembled the red car. Nobody is going to tool new parts for existing kits, to build fifty year old auto show cars that are pretty much forgotten to anyone other than hardcore Mopar fans.

Pretty sure the Fonzie version had part of the raised top removed (didn't go all the way forward to the windshield). Change for the sake of change.

He should list it on websites catering to '56 Ford owners. Someone who owns a few 1:1 '56 Fords is going to really, really want that.

Mustang was issued four times: Mach I concept (molded in red) 1967 Autolite Hi-Per Special (molded in metallic blue) 1968 Superstang Gasser (molded in yellow) 1969 Iron Horse (molded in white) 1974 Chassis and engine will be reissued in the coming stock '66 fastback.

I never did figure out "soft rock"...

Looks warped to me.

A guy I used to know was big into Oldsmobiles, and probably did a couple dozen of these conversions. There might be some interference from the underside of the interior bucket, where the shifter fits in from below. Other than that and making sure the tailpipes line up with the molded-in extensions, you should be set. Engines changed little between '69 and '70, use the one that goes with the chassis. I'm pretty sure the 350 engines were gold, the 400 and 455 were metallic blue. Someone else will know better and can clear that part of it up.

If you can't weld good... ...weld a lot...

Most Jo-Han taillights had mounting pins on the back, or mounting tabs, because all but a handful of their kits had their origins in promotional models. AMT Seventies kits usually had no red lenses, the instructions directed builders to paint the taillights. They eliminated separate red lenses from some reissues of earlier kits. Hard to figure this one out...

Still can't help, but that "flat" sprue would seem to point to a kit that was tooled in the Seventies or later.

No idea right now, but something to indicate their size would help.

AMT '62 Catalina?

Look at the pictures of the mockup...it's an R/T badged convertible, same as the original kit. Those who want a 500 or other variation can turn to the aftermarket for whatever they need in conversion parts.

The Cad engine would work. George Montgomery used one in his '33 Willys up until '63 or so. The instructions suggest using the four-speed transmission from the Ford engine pack; however, there is an in/out box on the Cad engine parts tree. Back to the Man-A-Fre discussion: they apparently didn't make an intake for the Cadillac engine. Even if they had, the one in the engine pack doesn't resemble one. The Man-A-Fre design appears to position one carburetor over each of four pairs of intake ports, similar to a fuel injection setup.

It's amazing Subaru survived the Malcolm Bricklin era. They imported cars but nowhere near enough parts. Cars under warranty sat on dealers' lots, sometimes for months, waiting for parts. One of my brothers managed a muffler shop near a Subaru dealer, he got a fair amount of business bending exhaust pipes for them because there weren't enough manufactured ones to go around. That was before those fancy computerized pipe benders, too...he did them manually.

The '28 sedan has both upper hinge tabs intact! I've got an unbuilt one with one broken off. The "brass" car is a small plastic toy painted gold. It's marked "Peugeot" underneath. The other small one is metal, but it's generic. It does have a pencil sharpener built in, though.

Went to a small outdoor swap meet this morning after seeing info about it. Not a lot of vendors, but one guy was giving stuff away. Probably the first and last time I'll run into that. Yes, that's an AMT '28 Ford sedan at the right. There's an MPC '28 pickup behind it, which is based on the sedan. The yellow cabriolet is Monogram. The smaller car is a Pyro '34 Ford Victoria, one of the more desirable cars from that series. All of these have bad chrome and are dusty (may have sat on a shelf before being boxed up later) but they're pretty well assembled. The doors open and close on the sedan, there are some loose parts but everything is there. The guy who built them managed to make all of the parts stay with them without overdoing the glue.

Cadillac engines were used in the late Fifties and early Sixties. The Ford would be borderline for this particular car, as the chassis design would have been going out as the Ford engine came in. There is one error on the Ford engine, the rear mounting position for the magneto with the supercharged version. The chassis looks like it would be a super light weight piece if assembled with the straight tube front axle and hairpin radius rods, and either the spoke or magnesium front wheels. That would beg for a high-revving, lightweight small-block Chevy. Atlantis already put one in the Mooneyes dragster kit, they probably didn't want to put too many of the same parts in the first two kits based on parts packs. That engine has a crank drive blower anyway. The other parts pack Chevy engine is in the Atlantis '57 Chevy kit, and includes the conventional top mount blower setup. Since all the Revell Chevy engines from back then interchange with one another, one of those with the blower setup would be right for the Fiat. If you really want a Chrysler, the Studebaker funny car kit has the one that used to be in a parts pack.

The Atlantis Fiat is definitely not a "shake the box and it assembles itself" kit. But I figured that going in. I never had any of the original Revell double kits, but I'd guess they were the same way. The parts packs are compatible, but they weren't necessarily designed to fall together. The instruction sheet is vague in a few areas, and doesn't describe the many alternate parts. Again, I'd figured on that. With this kit, the assembly sequence should probably be: -assemble the chassis and get it on four wheels but without the floor or roll bar. If you intend to use the belly pan, you'll have to work out how to attach that, and how the body attaches to it. -fit engine/transmission, then fit the floor if desired. You'll probably have to cut the floor to fit around the bell housing or transmission. Once all that is in, then the roll bar and steering setup can go on. -Fit the body, trim the hole in the hood/nose. Inner rear wheel houses are included, but will need trimming to fit the chassis. Once body fit is established, it and the belly pan can be painted. Firewall needs to be fitted also. -Fit small items like fuel tank, headers, etc.

Krispy Kreme only lasted a year or so here. They had that one donut that was good, the rest were so-so. Strange they didn't catch on here, as the "good" donut was supposedly cribbed from one that originated here...

The convertible has pretty much all of the optional stuff that the hardtop kit had. Anyone finding one of those now will probably build it stock anyway.

Haven't heard much about this kit here. I'd never own a 1:1 Porsche, but I like the looks of the 356 and early versions of the 911. After getting this one, I saw the European box Targa version for about the same price and bought it. European and North American versions, left and right hand drive. Instruction booklet is amazing, paint directions for all parts including mixing proportions for some of the colors and tones needed. Engine is slightly simplified compared to Fujimi Enthusiast Series, but in the car you won't notice that. The rest of the kit is comparable and looks like it will be easier to build. I'd say it's easily 90% of the Fujimi kits, at the price of a current Revell or Round 2 offering. Someone who knows more about the car might find something to nitpick, but I doubt it.

I've got a Dunkin' Donuts at the corner of the street I live on. Haven't been there in more than five years. Coffee isn't anywhere near as good as Tim Horton's, and the donuts aren't as good either, be it the quality or selection. There are a couple of two-or-three shop local places that are better, though. DD opened a bunch of stores in my area about ten years ago. One of my brothers knew one of the guys who was behind the move...guy was bragging that they were going to "knock Tim Horton's out of the box". Didn't happen, DD shuttered about half of the local locations pre-Covid. The guy didn't account for the many Canadians that cross the bridge and shop here, also that the first Tim's outside of Canada opened here, and is still in the same location nearly fifty years later.