Round 2 August 2017 Product Spotlight

[Rob Hall]

OK............now I see! Those were MPC versions of those kits I've been seeing! Either which way, now my curiosity is up and I'll have to get the AMT '83 as I've never bought that one in all these years!  

The AMT is one I had forgotten about until the 1st reissue back in the early '00s.   Never had one until then.  It is a decent kit. 

[Dodge Driver]

The ones with the T-Tops are MPC-origin kits.   After the ERTL acquisition of MPC, the MPC annual Camaro was rebranded as an AMT for 89-92 annual releases.   The AMT '83 was essentially a one-off from '83 (there was a race car version also). 

Thanks for the info Rob. I'm going to have to pick up that '83 when it comes out.

I prefer solid-roof cars myself. However, I'm grudgingly come to accept t-tops in the 1:1 world in order to advance my Firebird project.

[Motor City]

I agree completely . The 1971-1976 Firebird / Trans Am ( Hello ? Super Duty ? Do you accept the charges ? ) are often overshadowed by the ( yucky ) 1977-1981 models . *Blech* .

The 1973-1977 Colonnade A-bods are beautiful ! Maybe because I grew up when they were new , but I have a sentimental , soft spot for them . The Oldsmobile Cutlass , Buick Skylark / Century , and Pontiac Grand Am are the best of the litter , with the Chevelle / Malibu being right there ( especially the 1973 SS , and the 1974-1975 Laguna S-3 ) . When the (dreaded) square headlights found their way into the mix , only the Olds Cutlass maintained its classy appearance . 

Well , it looks like the 1959 El Camino is getting the nod this time . Now I can add another one to my "To Do" stack ; this time I can modify to my heart's content !

John,

I agree that the '73-'77 GM 'A' body is really underappreciated.  I think the best of the round headlights is the '73 442 and '73 Cutlass Supreme.  The '76-'77 Century coupe and Custom coupe (with the Regal roofline) are very sharp with the slanted front header and grille.  The '76 Regal coupe is also very attractive, but they ruined the grille on the '77 Regal (changed just for the sake of change).  The '74 Laguna S-3 has a great front end, then the '75-'76 Laguna S-3 had the sloped grille.  I'd like to see any of the following: '73 442, '73 Grand Am, '74 GS, '74 Laguna S-3,'75 Century Indy Pace Car, '75 Laguna S-3, '76 Century Indy Pace Car, '77 Can Am.  We'll be lucky to see any of them. 

The '77 Monte Carlo that was done several years ago is rather crude.  The '73 Cutlass S is nice, but was only a promo, the '74 Cutlass S has the 442 grille but the wrong emblems and hood, and the '75 Cutlass S has the wrong grille.  We're definitely due for some!      

 

[MrObsessive]

GM did some interesting styling tricks to their Colonnade cars in the '70's. For example take the 1976-77 Buick Regal and Century. Buick made the four door sedans with the stacked square headlights for that style, but the coupes came with the more conventional side-by-side headlights. The coupes came with either the "sloped" front end (Century), or the more upright front end for the Regal. 

Then there's the rooflines........for the coupes you had your choice of either the large window "sloped" roofline with thin pillars, or the more "formal" roofline that was offered only on the Regal. Century's offered either roofline. The other roofline was the sloped one with the small window, but I don't remember seeing Buicks offered with that although they may have been.

Personally, I like the '76-'77 Regals the best, especially if they were offered in that beautiful metallic red that they came in back then. In fact, that particular car is on my "dream builds" list, along with other Colonnade cars------the '73 Grand Am, 1976-77 Olds Cutlass, 1975-76 Chevy Laguna. BTW, I'm seeing more and more of these cars at shows.........they may be underrated now, but I see their values only going up in the years to come.

[Dave Van]

AMT and MPC both had that 82-83 gen Camaro kits....so I am not sure how we know which unless R2 says so or someone buys one. I had a 82 Z28....only Chevy I owned....but might build a model of it. 

[Luc Janssens]

AMT and MPC both had that 82-83 gen Camaro kits....so I am not sure how we know which unless R2 says so or someone buys one. I had a 82 Z28....only Chevy I owned....but might build a model of it. 

I don't see them sinking money into the backdating of the Mpc kit, which IIRC was last seen as the Amt Heritage edition Camaro Z-28...

when they have an '83 tool on the shelf

 

[Motor City]

GM did some interesting styling tricks to their Colonnade cars in the '70's. For example take the 1976-77 Buick Regal and Century. Buick made the four door sedans with the stacked square headlights for that style, but the coupes came with the more conventional side-by-side headlights. The coupes came with either the "sloped" front end (Century), or the more upright front end for the Regal. 

Then there's the rooflines........for the coupes you had your choice of either the large window "sloped" roofline with thin pillars, or the more "formal" roofline that was offered only on the Regal. Century's offered either roofline. The other roofline was the sloped one with the small window, but I don't remember seeing Buicks offered with that although they may have been.

Personally, I like the '76-'77 Regals the best, especially if they were offered in that beautiful metallic red that they came in back then. In fact, that particular car is on my "dream builds" list, along with other Colonnade cars------the '73 Grand Am, 1976-77 Olds Cutlass, 1975-76 Chevy Laguna. BTW, I'm seeing more and more of these cars at shows.........they may be underrated now, but I see their values only going up in the years to come.

Bill,

My Dad ordered a '76 Regal Landau coupe in Continental Blue (a beautiful medium blue) with a white landau top.  I couldn't convince him to order the S/R package or sunroof, but it was a loaded car.  It basically had everything but positraction, 8-track tape player, and bucket seats.  It even had the sport suspension, chrome rally wheels, sport mirrors, and automatic level control.  I ended up with it when he ordered an '89 Riviera (which I now have).  The car was never in an accident, but was rusting out badly in the cowl area, floors, and a few odd places.  I hated to get rid of it as it was a nice looking car.  Even the factory white vinyl pin striping on the sides and trunk area were still beautiful.  I agree that these Buicks were the best of the '73-'77 A bodies.  The flattened out sheetmetal on the sides, the front end, and the slim taillights really look great.  I'd like to have another one.

I have extra doors and passenger front fender if anyone is restoring one of these.   

 

[1st 700 Quad]

I know this is models but....doofus.....the Ecto1-A is NOT an Eldorado. An Eldorado is a front wheel drive coupe and the only front wheel drive hearses started in the 1990s.......sheesh.

[Richard Bartrop]

I know this is models but....doofus.....the Ecto1-A is NOT an Eldorado. An Eldorado is a front wheel drive coupe and the only front wheel drive hearses started in the 1990s.......sheesh.

There were Eldorados before the front-drivers, but as far as I know, no they were never made into hearses, or ambulances.

[Richard Bartrop]

And here's a 1983 Eldorado hearse.

[Deano]

 

I know this is models but....doofus.....the Ecto1-A is NOT an Eldorado. An Eldorado is a front wheel drive coupe and the only front wheel drive hearses started in the 1990s.......sheesh.

Best I can tell the FWD Eldorado came about in 1967.  From 1953 (?) til 1966, it was an upscale trim level ... Sheesh!

 

[Robberbaron]

GM did some interesting styling tricks to their Colonnade cars in the '70's. For example take the 1976-77 Buick Regal and Century. Buick made the four door sedans with the stacked square headlights for that style, but the coupes came with the more conventional side-by-side headlights. The coupes came with either the "sloped" front end (Century), or the more upright front end for the Regal. 

Then there's the rooflines........for the coupes you had your choice of either the large window "sloped" roofline with thin pillars, or the more "formal" roofline that was offered only on the Regal. Century's offered either roofline. The other roofline was the sloped one with the small window, but I don't remember seeing Buicks offered with that although they may have been.

Personally, I like the '76-'77 Regals the best, especially if they were offered in that beautiful metallic red that they came in back then. In fact, that particular car is on my "dream builds" list, along with other Colonnade cars------the '73 Grand Am, 1976-77 Olds Cutlass, 1975-76 Chevy Laguna. BTW, I'm seeing more and more of these cars at shows.........they may be underrated now, but I see their values only going up in the years to come.

Chalk me up as another fan of all the various 73-77 A-bodies.  Lots of interesting variations and changes between model years for all the different divisions.

Buick actually did offer the small "opera-style" quarter windows with the semi fastback roofline, on the Century Special Landau coupe.  Interesting factoid is that it seems like it was a last-minute variation.  Buick rough-welded plugs in the large quarter window openings to convert these cars to the small windows, then just covered them with the Landau vinyl half top.  The interior also used the plastic surround for the large quarter windows, with a separate vinyl filler to convert it to the small window style.  Here's a pic of a junked one with the top peeled, showing the rough body work:

:

This also happens to be the exact same method Chevy used when they first offered the small quarter windows on the 1974 Malibu Classic and Laguna Type S-3.  Full vinyl top was mandatory until midyear, to cover up the rough body work on the window plugs.

I agree that the Regals were quite striking in that metallic red.  A kid in my school inherited his grandpa's Regal Landau coupe, red with a white half top, Buick 350, and road wheels, absolutely mint condition, which you just didn't see anymore in the Chicago area by the early 1990s.  Of course, he daily drove it through the winters like any other car, so you can imagine what it looked like after a few years.

I personally think these Regals looked the best with the S/R package and T-tops like this one:

These cars  still used the same console and horseshoe shifter from the 1970 - 1972 Skylark GS.  You could also still get the same 3-spoke sport steering wheel from the earlier generation cars, so even though the performance was gone by 1977, the interior still had some direct ties to the earlier Buick muscle cars.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Robberbaron

[peteski]

And here's a 1983 Eldorado hearse.

I own a 1985 Eldorado, and all I can say is that this thing us UGLY!

 

Here is a 1960 Eldorado Hearse.

And a 1959 Eldorado Ambulance.

 

Edited August 14, 2017 by peteski

[Robberbaron]

Here is a 1960 Eldorado Hearse.

And a 1959 Eldorado Ambulance.

 

Nope, those are both based on the Cadillac commercial chassis, which Caddy offered specifically for companies that would be converting them to ambulances, hearses, flower cars, etc.

As previously stated, the Eldorado was a separate model, specifically the top trim level of the 2-door hardtop and convertible (Seville and Biarritz, can't remember for sure which was which).  Main visual difference was different side trim.  Google 1959 and 1960 Eldorado and you should be able to see the obvious differences.  This brings us full circle to the first comment on this issue: the Ecto-1A ambulance diecast in the video is incorrectly labeled as an Eldorado on the card.  And yes,  I realize that 99% of the diecast collectors who will be buying it won't care...

Edited August 14, 2017 by Robberbaron

[1972coronet]

I agree that the Colonnade-based Regal looks great with the T-Tops . I typically don't care for T-Tops , but they looks really nice in this application .

[Motor City]

Chalk me up as another fan of all the various 73-77 A-bodies.  Lots of interesting variations and changes between model years for all the different divisions.

Buick actually did offer the small "opera-style" quarter windows with the semi fastback roofline, on the Century Special Landau coupe.  Interesting factoid is that it seems like it was a last-minute variation.  Buick rough-welded plugs in the large quarter window openings to convert these cars to the small windows, then just covered them with the Landau vinyl half top.  The interior also used the plastic surround for the large quarter windows, with a separate vinyl filler to convert it to the small window style.  Here's a pic of a junked one with the top peeled, showing the rough body work:

:

This also happens to be the exact same method Chevy used when they first offered the small quarter windows on the 1974 Malibu Classic and Laguna Type S-3.  Full vinyl top was mandatory until midyear, to cover up the rough body work on the window plugs.

I agree that the Regals were quite striking in that metallic red.  A kid in my school inherited his grandpa's Regal Landau coupe, red with a white half top, Buick 350, and road wheels, absolutely mint condition, which you just didn't see anymore in the Chicago area by the early 1990s.  Of course, he daily drove it through the winters like any other car, so you can imagine what it looked like after a few years.

I personally think these Regals looked the best with the S/R package and T-tops like this one:

These cars  still used the same console and horseshoe shifter from the 1970 - 1972 Skylark GS.  You could also still get the same 3-spoke sport steering wheel from the earlier generation cars, so even though the performance was gone by 1977, the interior still had some direct ties to the earlier Buick muscle cars.

The car pictured is a '77 Regal, which looks identical to the '76 except for the grille.  To answer the Eldorado question, the '53-'55 was a convertible-only model.  For '56, a hardtop was now also available and came standard with a vinyl top.  The hardtop was called the Seville, while the convertible was now called the Biarritz.  From 1961-1966, the convertible was the only Eldorado, and it was still called a Biarritz.  The front-wheel drive Eldorado was introduced for 1967.  I own a '68 Eldorado and  a '77 Eldorado Biarritz.  The Biarritz was re-introduced as a 1976 model, converted by American Sunroof Corporation, which added a padded vinyl landau top and smaller backlite, opera lamps, brushed side and hood trim, and color-keyed emblems.  The '77 and '78 came with tufted pillow leather seats, while the '76 did not.  Starting with the smaller 1979 model, the Biarritz had a brushed stainless steel top insert.        

[peteski]

Nope, those are both based on the Cadillac commercial chassis, which Caddy offered specifically for companies that would be converting them to ambulances, hearses, flower cars, etc.

As previously stated, the Eldorado was a separate model, specifically the top trim level of the 2-door hardtop and convertible (Seville and Biarritz, can't remember for sure which was which).  Main visual difference was different side trim.  Google 1959 and 1960 Eldorado and you should be able to see the obvious differences.  This brings us full circle to the first comment on this issue: the Ecto-1A ambulance diecast in the video is incorrectly labeled as an Eldorado on the card.  And yes,  I realize that 99% of the diecast collectors who will be buying it won't care...

Point taken.