1/8 Revell '79 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

[Rob Hall]

I notice this is in Revell Germany style box art..is it getting a US style boxing also? 

[Oldcarfan27]

5 hours ago, Casey said:

 

• Various chrome parts, including rims, exhaust pipes and carburetors
• Decal for three versions known from feature films

Interesting.

CarburetorS? Chrome exhaust PIPES? The kit I built only had one carburetor and the only chrome exhaust it had was the tips!

Me thinks there may be a loss in the translation. 

Goes to reason, what do they mean by "Decal for three versions from feature films"? I can think of Rocky 2 and Smokey and the Bandit 2 (wait, that was a Turbo T/A, which this kit is not). What other films used a 1979 or 80 T/A? "The Hunter" with Steve McQueen? Not so famous. Joe Dirt? Tenth Anniversary, but it had turbine wheels, which this kit also doesn't have.

I'm having a tough time figuring out what THREE feature films they're talking about. Any clues?

[stitchdup]

4 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Interesting.

CarburetorS? Chrome exhaust PIPES? The kit I built only had one carburetor and the only chrome exhaust it had was the tips!

Me thinks there may be a loss in the translation. 

Goes to reason, what do they mean by "Decal for three versions from feature films"? I can think of Rocky 2 and Smokey and the Bandit 2 (wait, that was a Turbo T/A, which this kit is not). What other films used a 1979 or 80 T/A? "The Hunter" with Steve McQueen? Not so famous. Joe Dirt? Tenth Anniversary, but it had turbine wheels, which this kit also doesn't have.

I'm having a tough time figuring out what THREE feature films they're talking about. Any clues?

that other burt movie, with the red trans am about a stuntman. the name is slipping me just now.

[Rob Hall]

7 minutes ago, stitchdup said:

that other burt movie, with the red trans am about a stuntman. the name is slipping me just now.

Hooper. Though that one was a '78 IIRC.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Rob Hall

[iamsuperdan]

Cleaned some things up. If you feel the need to snipe at others, just keep it to yourselves.

 

[niteowl7710]

11 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

I notice this is in Revell Germany style box art..is it getting a US style boxing also? 

Nothing I've seen anywhere has shown any sort of US SKU for the Firebird, so I believe it will be a German boxing only.

[Oldcarfan27]

3 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

Hooper. Though that one was a '78 IIRC.

True, which is why I didn't include it. Same with the first Smokey movie. 

[The Creative Explorer]

4 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

Nothing I've seen anywhere has shown any sort of US SKU for the Firebird, so I believe it will be a German boxing only.

As far as I have seen in Europe, with the larger kits, Revell doesn't use their regular enveloppe type boxes, but the american top-and-bottom kind of boxes.

[niteowl7710]

5 hours ago, The Creative Explorer said:

As far as I have seen in Europe, with the larger kits, Revell doesn't use their regular enveloppe type boxes, but the american top-and-bottom kind of boxes.

True but some of (all of?) the large scale kits were done much the way the U.S. Trucks were in the early 80s. Designed in Venice, California but tooled and ran in Europe. Which is why RevellAG has always been in possession of them, and the reissues eminate from their side of the company. Neither the Pete or KW reissues of the 80s 300+ kits or the most recent 1/8 Jag reissue were offered here in U.S. boxes and I don't expect that would change for this kit either.

[Fantom]

40 minutes ago, niteowl7710 said:

True but some of (all of?) the large scale kits were done much the way the U.S. Trucks were in the early 80s. Designed in Venice, California but tooled and ran in Europe. Which is why RevellAG has always been in possession of them, and the reissues eminate from their side of the company. Neither the Pete or KW reissues of the 80s 300+ kits or the most recent 1/8 Jag reissue were offered here in U.S. boxes and I don't expect that would change for this kit either.

I’ll order mine from Mars if I have to🤣

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Three decal schemes?

Awesome!

All we need now is for that glass to be clear...

[Jordan White]

I’m curious if they mean decal schemes as in factory and non-factory decals, or just as in the factory color options.

[The Creative Explorer]

On 4/6/2022 at 1:52 AM, niteowl7710 said:

True but some of (all of?) the large scale kits were done much the way the U.S. Trucks were in the early 80s. Designed in Venice, California but tooled and ran in Europe. Which is why RevellAG has always been in possession of them, and the reissues eminate from their side of the company. Neither the Pete or KW reissues of the 80s 300+ kits or the most recent 1/8 Jag reissue were offered here in U.S. boxes and I don't expect that would change for this kit either.

I might not completely understand what you mean here with U.S. Boxes. For me, a US box is a 2 part box, consisting of a bottom-box and a lid-box. and the Revell Europe type box would be a one-piece enveloppe style box.

 

Or are you referring to the box-art? (genuine question here, no critisicm whatsoever).

I have almost all of the Jaguar E-type releases, and they are all in the US-boxes, including the latest releases, consisting of a 2-part box. I expect nothing else for the Trans-am to be honest.

 

I just pre-ordered my Trans-am for 135 euro's 🙂

[Fantom]

1 hour ago, The Creative Explorer said:

I might not completely understand what you mean here with U.S. Boxes. For me, a US box is a 2 part box, consisting of a bottom-box and a lid-box. and the Revell Europe type box would be a one-piece enveloppe style box.

 

Or are you referring to the box-art? (genuine question here, no critisicm whatsoever).

I have almost all of the Jaguar E-type releases, and they are all in the US-boxes, including the latest releases, consisting of a 2-part box. I expect nothing else for the Trans-am to be honest.

 

I just pre-ordered my Trans-am for 135 euro's 🙂

Where is it available as a preorder?

[niteowl7710]

16 hours ago, The Creative Explorer said:

I might not completely understand what you mean here with U.S. Boxes. For me, a US box is a 2 part box, consisting of a bottom-box and a lid-box. and the Revell Europe type box would be a one-piece enveloppe style box.

 

Or are you referring to the box-art? (genuine question here, no critisicm whatsoever).

I have almost all of the Jaguar E-type releases, and they are all in the US-boxes, including the latest releases, consisting of a 2-part box. I expect nothing else for the Trans-am to be honest.

 

I just pre-ordered my Trans-am for 135 euro's 🙂

No no...there are just some RevellAG kits that we get reboxed here with our two part boxes and Revell US specific box art, logos, copyrights, addressing, our style instructions et al that we talk about here as a "U.S. Rebox", it usually has a lower price point than the European boxing as well. Certain things we never get reboxed...usually the Cabrio version of a kit. We got U.S. reboxes of the Mk 1 Golf (as a Rabbit), '68 Beetle, and E-Type Jag, but if you want to buy the Cabrio of any of those, you can only get them here in the German boxings, the Targa 911 being one of the sole exceptions.

One thing I have noticed is that in the years since the great Blitz buyout they've taken to continue to rebox stuff for the North American market - but now they just include the German instructions, we're not getting a redrawn set in U.S. "specs".

[Hawk312]

Just posting some inspiration.  Also, where are you guys seeing this available for pre-order, and do we have any on shipping costs?

[Rob Hall]

That red one is gorgeous, love the modern sized honeycomb wheels.

[keyser]

Really huge difference in design old vs. new. 
 

[Oldmopars]

This is one of the few 1/8 scale I don't have. I will be getting this. Imagine, new 1/8th scale and not paying Ebay prices. Excited.

[Vic Arcudi]

Here's a few pics of my original issue turbo T/A. Definitely gonna get a new issue Bandit! 

[Jordan White]

I'm curious, does anyone know Monogram's reasoning for going to 1/8 scale instead of say 1/12 scale? I am going to assume it is because they wanted a large scale kit to stand out, and since they were already working on the 1/16 scale kit, they were easily able to just double all the dimensions.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Well, Jordan, this is actually a 37-year-old revision of a 42-year-old kit, from an era when 1/8 scale all-plastic kits were still cost-effective enough for Monogram to develop them.

The 1/8 2nd-gen '80 Turbo pictured directly above (nice, btw!) was actually current for the year the kit was released.  In '87 it was modified to bring us the '79 version Revell is now reissuing.  After some Tom Daniel frippery in the late '60s/early '70s, Monogram only ever made a serious foray into 1/12 from 1986 with their '57 Chevy, and then the Corvette, Camaro, and Ferraris that followed after.  After a couple decades, they gave it one more shot with the 2010 Shelby GT500.  They didn't do a lot in 1/16 passenger cars, certainly not from the '80s on - only MPC offered a 1/16 2nd-gen Firebird.  Monogram's notable 1/16 vehicles were the Peterbilt and Kenworth big rigs by that point.

If you're talking about the 1/16 '87 Firebird Revell is also reissuing, this is the 3rd-gen car. It was first released in 1982 by Revell, then modified to an '87 GTA just as Revell and Monogram were merging.  You can see the Monogram influence in its vinyl Eagle VR gatorback tires.

I'd say the reason Revell is reissuing the 1/8 '79 kit now is that the tooling is there and long amortized, but also because the typical $400-500 online auction price for an original indicates some demand and sales potential.

[Jordan White]

Haha sorry, I should have specified more. I do know that this was originally released back when the car was new, though I forgot that the 1/16 '79/'80 kits were MPC and not Monogram. I guess I'm more wondering why create a 1/8 kit at all in the first place since the large size is very display unfriendly for most people.

I will say though that I am only 33, and so I didn't grow up with the much larger market of new release kits like back in the day, and so I suppose the popularity of kits in general meant that they were more inclined to explore larger sizes without having to worry about cost as much.

[Luc Janssens]

23 minutes ago, Jordan White said:

Haha sorry, I should have specified more. I do know that this was originally released back when the car was new, though I forgot that the 1/16 '79/'80 kits were MPC and not Monogram. I guess I'm more wondering why create a 1/8 kit at all in the first place since the large size is very display unfriendly for most people.

I will say though that I am only 33, and so I didn't grow up with the much larger market of new release kits like back in the day, and so I suppose the popularity of kits in general meant that they were more inclined to explore larger sizes without having to worry about cost as much.

I could be mistaken, but weren't these conceived as end of year gifts, lets buy something big for little Johnny?

[Chuck Kourouklis]

When Monogram started with the 1/8 kits in the early '60s, that may have been the scheduling.  I also seem to recall the '80 Trans Am and the '85 Corvette hitting late in the year (it was actually Fall of '84 when Monogram released the '85).  Got a pretty distinct recollection of the '82 Collector's Edition 'Vette and the all-new '82 Z-28 landing in July and August, though, and I have an impression of summer break scheduling for some of the older reissues too.

For the bigger kids more entrenched in biscale kits, perhaps with quite a few of them, these 3-times-as-big models certainly present some space issues.  But even the more intricate early ones - the Big T, Big Deuce and E-Type Jag, before the more simplified '65 Corvette established the m o for all that followed in Monogram 1/8 - were builder-friendly enough for pre-teens to tackle, and what a WOW factor they had.