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Revell Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen Rail Dragster


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The wheels look good, too bad they're 2 piece..I think we'll cope though! There's an extra set of front tires on the tree as well

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The Frame clean and solid

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As for the parts trees..they look pretty good...no flash that I can see anywhere. Complete surprise

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The chrome looks good as well....well done and nicely plated

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This is what surprised me the most. wired distributer, plumbed fuel and oil lines with attached hardware. I thought this was new..but read somehwere that this was actually in the origional kit. Why they stopped doing this I'd like to know. It's a great starting point for the basics as far as I'm concerned. I sure could have used something like this the first time I did one of these kits.

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The parts arent named on the diagrams, but they're listed and numbered at the front of the instruction book

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and last but not least, the decals

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I can tell you why they quit doing it.....when originally issued superglue wasn't commonly available. Expoxy was also difficult to find. With the adhesives that were available (1975 or so) getting those parts to stick where you wanted them was pretty much impossible. Those wonderful pre wired distrubutors and fuel lines ended up never used.

Kit truly looks like a direct repop of the '75 kit without the decals. That doesn't really bother me as the car wasn't ran much or if at all in the Carefree markings (it was first issued in a red-orange with main markings from Carefree gum). I do wish they'd re-did it as the Hot Wheels Blue McEwen dragster.

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I can tell you why they quit doing it.....when originally issued superglue wasn't commonly available. Expoxy was also difficult to find. With the adhesives that were available (1975 or so) getting those parts to stick where you wanted them was pretty much impossible. Those wonderful pre wired distrubutors and fuel lines ended up never used.

Now I know! Thanks! :)

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The rear Slicks in this kit are the ones from the funny car, pro stock and pro mod kits from 1984 forward, not the Nostalgia funny car kits , the Goodyear lettering was removed due to licensing in this reissue, heck you even get the funny car front tires in this kit.The funny thing about these slicks is what they went on to become in other kits.., in the original issue of this kit (the Care Free Snake and Mongoose) the original tire molds were after these kits were done running modified and widened from the Goodyear blue streak special lettering on the sidewalls and replaced with Goodyear Eagles lettering and these reworked molds went on to be used in the Monogram and Revell pro stock funny car and pro mod kits for many years, so they have come full circle. these rear slicks are too wide for to be correct for this time period on this dragster.

They couldn't do the Care Free car again due to Licensing issues and Tom liked this car much better, I supplied the reference for the kit for Tom McEwen.and to answer the gentleman who said the Care Free car wasn't run much or if at all, the car ran both the NHRA and AHRA circuits plus match racing and was repainted in these markings for 1974. The chassis in this kit replicates a Garlits chassis which Tom was one of the few to run. I wish they had Molded the Vinyl fuel and plug lines in Silver like the original or white instead of black.

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I'm out to get a couple today.

Thanks

Bob

I'm pretty sure that the aftermarket will do the original decals for this. At least the Mongose stuff. The Snake is notorious for not licensing things with ease. Hopefully some enterprising underground decal maker will take care of those.

Edited by Dragline
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The rear Slicks in this kit are the ones from the funny car, pro stock and pro mod kits from 1984 forward, not the Nostalgia funny car kits

Just for clarification, are you saying the tires included with this newTom McEwen T/F dragster kit are the same as the Goodyear slicks and Frontrunner tires included with the 1/24 scale Monogram (and later packaged as Revell) Pro Stock and F/C kits?

these reworked molds went on to be used in the Monogram and Revell pro stock funny car and pro mod kits for many years, so they have come full circle. these rear slicks are too wide for to be correct for this time period on this dragster.

IIRC, the Revell 1/25 scale Pro Mod and Por Sportsman kits are all 1/25 scale and use slightly smaller tires (and wheels) compared to the 1/24 Monogram-based tires.

Also, are there two "Christmas trees" included?

Interesting on the distributor (magneto) cap and wires. Not sure how effective that would be when all of the wires are bent into position...

Edited by Casey
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the slicks are from the Early Pro-Stock (Camaros, T Birds)& Funny cars, with the lettering removed. not the later Olds cars, 1 christmas tree just it the older style with lights on both sides of the tree. The wires and lines in my kit are molded in gray. (rivet counter moment..... the firing order is wrong)

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I'm out to get a couple today.

Thanks

Bob

I'm pretty sure that the aftermarket will do the original decals for this. At least the Mongose stuff. The Snake is notorious for not licensing things with ease. Hopefully some enterprising underground decal maker will take care of those.

Decals are already in the works for both original versions.

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Ok guys here is everthing about this kit

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this is a direct repop of the orginal Snake and Mongoose kits from 1973 hence the copyright on the box. The tires are from the original series of funny cars and prostocks less the raised letters...I just checked some kits.

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here the original box arts. The decals for the carefree cars for both dragsters are done and available through Chuck Boener. I gave him my set to redo them

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I plan on recasting the rear tires so you will be able to build the car like the original. and finally the kit as issued depicts a car that never ran .......the Fly Navy dragster never ran a front wing

thanks Chuck

Edited by ratnasty
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Here's copy of the original Mongoose handout that I sent to Ed Sexton with other pictures to make the Kit, Chuck is right this car never ran a front wing in the navy version but did in the Hot Wheels and Care Free versions Tom ran the same car for about 3 years updating and changing the paint.This the Navy version had a front axle cover type spoiler.I have some more pictures if you want me to post them for model reference, Believe it or not Tom has very few pictures of this car.Also Tom wore a Firemask driving this car not the full face helmet in the kit, Snake wore a full face helmet in his rear engine car.

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Edited by kitswapper
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the tires from the 80's Monogram pro stock kits are the same as the re-issued pro sportsman kits with the lettering removed. they are also the same as the ones pictured above and included with this kit.

not sure why Revell has included that size slick with this kit, it's way too big for that era dragster

Are the tires in the original kit the same size that was in the re-issue Mongoose II Front Engine Dragster. If so why not use those.

tb

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