RickRollerLT1

Tower Hobbies shows a September release for the long awaited MPC Celica repop https://www.towerhobbies.com/product/125-1983-toyota-celica-supra/MPC891.html Day one for these! Time those Evilbay scalpers on the originals get ######!

Here's the thing with Tamiya spray cans and Super Clean/Purple Power: If you use their Grey/White primer underneath the SC/PP will not make it budge, especially so when using Tamiya base coats on top. Even if you use other brands enamels or acrylics on top of a Tamiya primer base, it will take the former two off with ease but not even touch the primer. The same goes for the Duplicolor sprays. I hear the best methods in these instances would be 91% rubbing alcohol, Easy Off, ELO, or a combination of the three. However, if you have cheap Enamel Lacquer bases underneath Tamiya sprays, the PP easily attacks the former and also causes the unaffected Tamiya layer to slide off with it in sheets. An example is a body I painted with True Value Grey Enamel/Lacquer primer, followed by cheap Home Depot Flat Black, Rustoluem Silver, and then a Tamiya Metallic color over that like Blue/Green/Red/Orange. For faster results, scrape or scuff the paint to show the bare plastic or primer coat. Another fun fact: the Testors One Coat Lacquers are actually Enamel Lacquers like the Rustoluem lines. Those from past experience come off real easy with the Purple Pond.

Built from the recent Round 2 reissue of a crica 2003 AMT kit (originally in the Fast and Furious line). Built mostly OOB with the exception of reworking the kit's blob motor to look semi decent. Unlike the Supra, this one had major problems with bad fitment, warpage, and a "motor" looked to have been blueprinted by someone who never saw an engine before. It had a 4 cyl NA header on the back and some weird looking thing with a turbo up front. A custom front header was added while reusing the kit's turbo and doing a whole new plumbing/piping setup. Interior is Tamiya TS-53 Deep Metalic Blue, and the exterior is Tamiya TS-52 Candy Lime Green cleared with Pledge.

Built from the recent Round 2 reissue of a crica 2003 AMT kit (originally in the Fast and Furious line). Built 98% OOB with the exception of an added aluminum exhaust tip from a Revell import kit of unknown origin (the AMT's exhaust tip was short shoted). Leftover decals from the recently reissues AMT 1995 Mitsubshi Eclipse were used to mimic the graphics scheme of the F&F car. Exterior and interior is Tamiya TS-97 Pearl Yellow lightly misted over Rustoluem Orange to replicate the Pearl Orange of the F&F car. All of this is cleared with Pledge.

MoparFans, geeeet out whillee youuuu stiiillllll caaaannnnnnnnnnn!!!! 15yr old gluebomb resurrection with tons of replacement parts and a major drivetrain swap. Rear spolier was lifted from a '70 Mustang Boss, and suspension was lifted from a parts Revell '69 Charger. The kit's exhaust was rebuilt using sprue and modified tailpipes from a AMT Silhouette. Grille covers are pieces from the MPC '69 Charger slightly trimmed to fit around the '71 grille. Engine is a Toyota 5M-GE I6 from a heavily gluebombed parts MPC '83 Celica Supra. Modifications are a custom supercharger setup and a resin big turbo with custom plumbing and a parts box raditator. Wheels are from a Revell 2010 Shelby GT500, with front tires from a AMT '95 Supra and rears from the custom wheels belonging to a Motor City Muscle '70 Mustang. Interior is Rustoluem Flat Dark Brown, and exterior is TS-73 Clear Orange over Rustoluem Silver, all cleared with Pledge.

Yes, another GTX from the recent Dom's Fast and Furious GTX kit. 440 was swapped out with a Tamiya Nissan 300ZX V6, featuring a heavily modified Ford GT Supercharger and Twin Turbocharged setup with resin turbos. Custom intercooler setup made from plastic sprue and a parts box radiator. Wheels and tires are the custom units from the Revell '70 Cuda with disc brakes from a 99 Mustang Cobra. Blasphemous to Mopar fans, yes. Unique and uncommon, you bet! Exterior is Tamiya TS-97 Pearl Yellow over Rustoluem Yellow, all cleared with Pledge.

Built from this 2001 issue of the AMT '71 Charger: Had the shaker hood and Hemi parts which AFAIK aren't on any later issues of this kit. One thing you'll notice is those wheels and fugly ride height, which were remedied to in this build. Mostly OOB with the exception of using wheels, tires, and brakes from the Revell Dom's Fast and Furious '71 GTX kit. Interior is Rustoluem Flat Dark Brown, and exterior is Tamiya TS-52 Candy Lime Green cleared with Pledge.

Built from the recent Dom's Fast and Furious GTX kit. Mostly OOB using the kit's custom wheels+suspension. Only modifications were swapping out the Road Runner hood with a GTX grabber hood, and using a 426 Hemi from a Monogrma '71 Cuda with the air cleaner and intake from the GTX's 440. Interior is Rustoluem Flat Mocha, and exterior is Tamiya TS-53 Deep Metalic Blue cleared with Pledge.

One i'd like to see back out is the MPC 83 Supra Celica. That one hasn't been reissued since the last 1984 boxing, and i'm sure they have it in the pipeline for 2021 since the '95 Supra just got reissued.

On some older white molded kits kits I bought sealed in the past, they would be severely yellowed or almost entirely tan. What's even weirder is I've gotten opened kits with parts out of their baggies (and some complete/started kits in ziploc baggies) that were still pure white inside. I heard this phenomenon primarily occurs with certain styrene/ABS materials that were left outside or in warm temperatures out of their packaging, but then I've seen it in sealed stuff too. Google-fu can't get me a real clear answer due to all the variables and factors, but just curious on your experiences and opinions.

Newest stock the two HLs in LI have are the Revellogram '76 Chevy pickup, '70 Firebird 2-in-1, Dom's ' 71 GTX, '60 Chevy Truck w/Go Cart, reboxed ROG Range Rover, Supernatural '67 Chevy Impala 4-door, '64 Plymouth Belvedere, and believe it or not the '71 Duster (odd HL would stock that one again at full price nonetheless when the two stores cleared them out at $5 a clip about a year ago). Wake me when they have the AMT Mitsubishi Eclipse, Toyota Supra, Nissan 350z, and the Revellogram Chevy S-10 in stock. I was lucky enough to find two LHS's that had the Eclipse and Supra as every retailer online were sold out. HL had the Supernatural Impy and Dom's 71 GTX shortly after they came out before any LHS did (it's usually the opposite). No LHS has the 350z or the S-10, though I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up at HL first again before the LHS's get them.

Had that happen to me on a old SnapTite AMT F-150 (molded in Blue or Green?) once. Snapped the interior tub under the body and the whole body snapped in two like a jigsaw act.

I wouldn't be surprised if those AMT kits made under the 2004-2007 Tomy/RC2 helm were largely based on die cast toolings used for Ertl/Johnny Lightning 1/18th and 1/24th equivalents.

The MPC 71-73 Mustangs aren't very good due to all being based on a 1960s era Mustang promo turned kit update. The AMT 73 (last issued in a flat box as a racer about 5 years ago) is a much better kit. The 350z dates back to the Toyko Drift tooling and has odd proportions, especially the low chop top like roof. It can be made into a nice custom if one swaps out janky wheels with something else and thinks outside the box with a possible motor swap (LS1, Coyote moto, endless possibilities). The decals in the TD issue were jaw-droppingly awful as they would shrivel and wrinkle up into nothing, so any new decals R2 does as they did the Supra (which also had equally lousy decals in it's initial F&F issues) will be an improvement.

Well then, sign me up for at least 6 of the Supras!! Be nice if we had dates, but I imagine by late summer or so. Wonder if it will be the first version with the Bomex body kit, or the Veilside body that was co-designed by Aoshima for their JP boxing. One of the better kits out of the F&F line considering it's shortcomings, and it's a goldmine for parts motor suspension and seats. Only a matter of time till R2 decides to reissue this MPC 80s Celica Supra to go with it https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mpc-1-0841-toyota-celica-supra--950596 The 350z is a decent kit, wheels/tires are jaw droppingly awful and the roof looks kinda chopped. Be nice to have that one out too, and no more dealing with evil bay prices for these!

Built from Fast and Furious Dom's Charger kit. Kit's parts like the motor+ blower and wheels/tires were raided for other projects, but as I had most of the essential parts present I was customizing anyway. Mods as followed: Hood scoop from Revell '68 Charger drag option placed on '70 hood. 7.0 litre Dodge Viper motor from scrap Revell Viper ACR build, with a custom made vortech style super charger setup using a resin turbo, exhaust and sprue pieces. Styrene scrap trees bent as intake tubes and oil filters turned into air filters as the original pieces were missing. Electronic fan/radiator comes from an unknown source. Custom built side exhaust. Seats from Dodge Viper ACR. Wheels are Radio Shack X-mods, with front tires sourced from an AMT Fast and Furious Supra and rear tires from Revell C5 Corvette. Disc brakes were also sourced from the Viper ACR. Various decals were used from the 68 charger, and the red tail stripe is from the stock '70 Charger. Exterior is Walmart Color Place Gloss Black, cleared with Pledge.

Built from 1989 issue Prestige kit. Several parts had extremely poor placement and fit on top of being warped. The opening doors and trunk were the worst offenders, so those were glued shut and rescribed. Also, some parts were missing due to rattling in a battered holey box for 30 years. Nonetheless, I was customizing anyway with mods as followed: Twin Supercharged Ford V8 swap comes from Mathew and Debbie Heys T-Bird Pro Street, with a custom made intake as the original munti-piece chrome unit kept hitting the Mercedes hood. Styrene scrap trees bent as intake tubes and oil filters turned into air filters as the original pieces were missing. Electronic fan/radiator comes was also sourced from a Revell Acura Integra. T-Bird Pro Street's side exhaust was used with heavy modifications to exit at the rear Steering wheels comes from AMT Silhouette Mesh screening was used in lieu of kit's vent piece, which was an ill fitting heap when it hit's the inner fenders Front and rear bumpers were omitted to created cleaner look, bumper pins were used to cover up mounting holes. Badging and such were shaved and smoothed. Custom wheels form unknown Revell source, with front tires being Toyos from Revell Honda Civic and rear tires from Revell C5 Corvette. Disc brakes were used from a Revell Corvette Sting Ray III Interior paint is Rustoluem Advanced Formula Flat Brown. Exterior is Tamiya TS-72 Clear Blue over Rustoluem Silver cleared with Pledge

So R2 indeed doesn't have the F&F licence, and are re-popping this as a generic tuner. The AMT Eclipse was based on the movie car, which was built on an RS being FWD and had a turboed up SOHC 4G37 I4. Revell's F&F Eclipse started out life as two Super Street die-cast kits with different wheels and body kit each, followed by a die-cast version of Bryan's Eclipse with new bumpers/wing/wheels/hood, and then with parts from all 3 versions (sans F&F decals) combined as a 3 in 1 in a 2005 issued styrene kit and the 2015 F&F issue with Universal's licencing. The die casts modeled on the Super Street photo cars were ones based on customized GSX's, which had 4WD and the DOHC turbo 4G63T I4. Revell based their version of Bryan's Eclipse on the Super Street cars, which is wrong for the F&F movie car, but technically correct for the show car Universal made for exhibition that was also built on a 4WD GSX. Unlike their horrible Lancer, AMT's Eclipse can be built up into something decent or mined for parts. I imagine the Supra will be next to follow, as a generic tuner obviously. The Supras are good sources for customizing goodies, and if R2 also sees fit to repop the MPC '82 Celica then that would make for epic swaps and so forth.

Monogram Exotics Series 1/24th scale kit. I had originally built one of these, in a failed attempt with a baldy warped frame/interior shell and horrible glass, back in 2008. I had acquired a parts kit cheap at an auction back in 2016 that was missing the body shell and it's pieces along with some other small parts, which inspired me to find the pieces of the original one I had built back in '08. Since then, I had located the body w/ rear bumper glued on, the rear deck with it's spoiler, and whatever remained of the DOHC 4 cyl it had. I always customize my BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH and wasn't going with a 4 banger set-up for the new build. I found a chrome molded Chevy 350 block (which could be from a AMT ZR1 since they had chrome engines and had provisions for a separate transmission) and used the DOHC heads and valve covers from the mint Lotus motor and the built one to make a wild DOHC V8 combination that would look dayumm in the Lotus! I located a front cam/fan belt assembly piece from a Ferrari V8 that fit on the 350 block and mated up nicely with the Lotus heads. I also went with a roots supercharger setup with a custom intake to drive the wild factor to 11. I also added a NOS bottle and headers from some unknown source that fit on the Lotus heads, and made a custom exhaust system using parts from a Revelle Corvett Sting Ray III. From the box I saw issues with the front ride height sitting too high making it ride like a 4x4, so I lowered the front spindles and made adjustments to the rear to fix the truck like stance it had. I also went with wheels and tires from a Revell ACR Viper since the kit's pieces were just tripe. I had to trim around the rear hatch to fit the tip of the motor and intake for the Supercharger, and decided to use the hatch's glass as a molded body piece that also acts as a hood scoop for the motor. Spoiler fit is a bit weird, don't know if it's lazy engineering by Monogram Interior or what, but I think it needed something ether way. Interior is Rustoluem Advanced Formula Flat Brown, and exterior is Tamiya TS-73 Clear Orange cleared with Pledge.

The tires in the AMT Supra are wider and thicker, while the ones in the Eclipse IIRC are thinner. Both are the same thread design though. I don't think the Revell licence for the F&F brand is exclusive to them, as they also did Die-Cast kits of the '70 Charger, Eclipse, and Civic around the same time AMT had their styrene ones out. AMT's F&F Eclipse, Supra, and others such as the 350Z and Lancer were designed off movie cars, and would be hard to sell them without the movie branding unless Round 2 will put out the '95 Eclipse and Supra as generic tuners.

Not much here grabs my attention, as I have a backlog of kits and money is also very tight for me now. Wake me when they announce reissues of the MPC '82 Celica Supra and the AMT '95 Supra, as those two are great for kitbashes and parts swapin. The 4 door Supernatural Impy is cool, but I imagine they'll show up at Hobby Lobby down the road since it's a popular licenced properly. I wait instead of plunking down $35+ at initial release then finding out they carry it months later and being cheaper with their coupons.

If I recall correctly, wasn't the AMT Mitsubishi Eclipse announced in R2's lists? I imagine the F&F 95 Supra will follow if Round 2 has the Fast and Furious licence from Universal and also the Toyota licence with the 1/64th Supras for Auto World's line.

Yeah, I reversed that tire shortly after I took the photos. Usually, I don't make that mistake but I was tired from after 2 hours of unwarping the twisted front end and an additional 45 mins of straightening out the ride height.

This is a rebuild of a failed attempt from about 12 years ago. It was so warped and bent on top of the poor hood and glass fit, that it got scrapped and recycled for other projects at some point. A few years back, I acquired a Monogram '92 ZR1 (molded in red) cheap in a club auction that not only had a horribly gluebombed body, but was also badly twisted with a broken section near the trunk area that made it unusable for anything else. However, the rest of the ZR1's contents were untouched and still on it's trees, and that inspired me to locate the body, front bumper, and glass glass of the Callaway for a possible restoration. I didn't have the Callaway's original hood, and the ZR1's warped and messy body had the hood heavily glued shut. But I recalled having a unpainted yellow molded ZR1 hood from a parts box I was given at a club meeting. I tracked that down and added trimmed side scoops from the AMT '69 Covair's custom parts as hood scoops. The Callaway's one piece glass snapped on the drivers and passengers side windows, but the rest was salvageable by making it with a windows down look. I also didn't have the Callaway's original taillights, so I made custom two piece ones cut from sheet styrene and painted transparent red over silver. Callaway's body was still warped, but I did the best I could with correcting some of it's horrible fit it as it would probably break and snap further after it's purple bath. Otherwise, the bulk of the Red '92 ZR1 filled in for the interior, motor, chassis, and suspension stuff. I also did other modifications as followed: Custom twin turbo setup using resin turbos, intercoolers from Mustang Mach II, and styrene scrap trees bent as intake tubes ZR1's exhaust was used with slight modifications to where it connects to the turbos and fabricating the rear exhaust to exit out the center of the Callaway's body NOS tank and steering wheel gagues were leftover parts from a Revell Mathew and Debby Heys Thunderbird Pro Street Mesh screening was used to replace molded rear bumper vents that were broken from storage Revell '09 ZR1 wheels, disc brakes, and rear tires were used with front tires from the AMT F&F Supra Interior paint is Rustoluem Painters Touch True Blue dullcoated with Rustoluem Matte Clear. Exterior is Tamiya TS-52 Candy Lime Green over Rustoluem Silver cleared with Pledge

Built from this kit Which also had custom parts for the George Barris hot rod version. Some of the customizing parts looked goofy or didn't fit very well, so I sourced some bits and such from the spares bins to make a modern pickup rod. Mods as followed: Independent front suspension made from Ferarri Enzo pieces and Monogram 1992 Corvette A arms Monogram 1992 Corvette also gave it's independent rear suspension + axle. Wheels and tires are from a Revell Motor City Muscle '69 Shelby GT500. Disc brakes are from a Hummer H2 Kit's custom exhaust was lengthened at the end using pieces from Revell Shelby Series one kit had a wooden style flat bed, or a bed that had seats going on it but no side pieces, which isn't street legal. An AMT 1953 Ford F150 pickup bed was used with a custom rear clear tailgate made using a Hummer H2 rear window cut down to fit Exterior paint is Tamiya TS-58 Pearl Light Blue over Rustoluem Silver, cleared with Pledge.