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YOUR thoughts on Poison Pinto, Rat Vega and The Vega Mini-Van.


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Yup, kits we loved as kids.  Would buy them again for the nostalgic factor. Remember that the target audience for these and other Monogram kits like the Tom Daniel cars was kids.  They were low in parts count, built easy and quick and maybe were a bit shy in the detail or accuracy departments.  I remember being 11 or 12 and spending two evenings on the T'rantula... first evening painting, second one assembling, and being quite pleased with my end result.

Edited by Tom Geiger
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I have the Poison Pinto and the Woodie Vega...I dig them out of storage, look them over, ALMOST build them,but relent and put them away. Just too cool to build which would devalue them excessively...so if they reissued any one of these, all bets are off...I will build the reissues and keep the originals intact. Both have nice engines and wheels etc...but too valuable to part out or build at this time. Considering the cost, I know they are out there and available...but not for the price they ask. Reissues please????.

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I remember being 11 or 12 and spending two evenings on the T'rantula... first evening painting, second one assembling, and being quite pleased with my end result.

You know what? That's exactly how I want my kits to be to this day!
Sod all this detail nonsense you never see anyway. I might build maybe another handful of those models with realistic brake pipes in my life, if that many.
I leave that to John Teresi, he is so much better at that than me anyway. For me, it's primarily about shapes and colours.

Must dig up my T'rantula one of these days...
Besides, I am friendly with Tom Daniel and he is a gentleman, and a scholar. And he doesn't give a flying monkey about details or realism.

Edited by Junkman
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Besides, I am friendly with Tom Daniel and he is a gentleman, and a scholar. And he doesn't give a flying monkey about details or realism.

Tom is a great guy! Here's me with hair... even brown hair,  Bob Paeth of Revell and Tom Daniel.  Back when I was a kid building these kits little did I know I'd have a beer with Tom someday.  He patiently sat and listened to my "When I was a kid... " story.

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That Pinto doesn't do much for me. If the "Vega" were reissued at "normal" prices, I might pick one up and have some fun with it. But I wouldn't delude myself that I was using it to build an actual scale model of any kind of Chevy Vega. I'd consider it a kit car of some sort.

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He once told me that people walk up to him and thank him for a nice childhood.

Man, what an unsung hero he is.

What I said about him regarding details or realism is only half the truth though. Few people know, that Mr Daniel is an avid railway fan
and when it comes to railways, he is a rivet counter par excellence.

Edited by Junkman
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I always thought the Vega looked like an evil Opel Kadette panel. Ton of ideas, never a Vega or Pinto fan, but the Panel would be a great tow car for a DTM racer with Opel decals and a Bundespost horn decal. 

The Cal Street Vette was a real car, TD's daily driver. SS was just a re-use of the tool with changes for the worse. Cal needs to be restored to original status. 

Edited by keyser
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MVC010S-vi.jpg

Tom is a great guy! Here's me with hair... even brown hair,  Bob Paeth of Revell and Tom Daniel.  Back when I was a kid building these kits little did I know I'd have a beer with Tom someday.  He patiently sat and listened to my "When I was a kid... " story.

Cool story Tom. The Poison Pinto looks interesting.  I know the Vega's are fairly simple ( but fun none the less) and I am guessing the Pinto is similar but would be interested in first hand knowledge of this kit.  Any info is appreciated and thanks in advance.  

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I built a lot Tom Daniels' kit as a kid including the Poison Pinto, Rat Vega and the California Street Vette among others.   The molded color plastic made painting optional for the most part.

Sadly none of my old builds survived at the hands of my little brother after I went off to college. :(

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