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AMT & Revell Parts Packs Engines


Daf57

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There were double kits of, say, the Tony Nancy cars available in the '80s, but I'm pretty sure none of the so-called Parts Packs cars--Fiat, T, Bantam--were.

The parts pack-based double kits were probably a "one run, and done" thing.  The parts packs themselves ended in '65; that year, the last couple of them were introduced, but all were broomed out of the catalog at the end of that year.  My '66 Revell catalog doesn't include any parts packs, or any of the double kits based on them.  (I've got two different '63 catalogs, both of which include parts packs.)  The double kits not going over big in 1965 is understandable; some of the dragster chassis were obsolete when they first appeared in 1962; by '65 or '66 they were downright Stone Age.  To a lesser extent, the Fiat/Bantam/T-bucket type altereds were taking a back seat to gassers and F/X cars by then too, at least with model builders.  Slot racing was at its high point around that time too.

The Tony Nancy double kit was reclaimed in the Eighties (one chassis was used under the Revellion Dart in the meantime) for the HOT ROD Magazine branded series.  One of Nancy's Seventies dragsters was added to make it a triple kit.  It was reissued as an SSP item in original-style packaging at least once; maybe as many as three or four times in the last twenty years. 

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In the 80's there was a Hobby Shop/Stamp collectors shop in the Arco Towers in downtown Los Angeles, they had a slew of the Double Parts Pack dragster  kits at regular kit prices. I figured they were a re issue! Didn't buy any ( pointing gun to head), thinking they'd be around. Don't know what the deal was, this store didn't sell any "vintage' or collectors kits, just new stuff. Maybe NOS???

DEFINITELY the parts pack kits! I know them, had several in the 60's!

Another mystery from space and time.  :huh:

Edited by GaryR
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NOS, maybe left there by previous owner of the shop?  Those may have been around in certain areas in the Eighties.  I went to a couple of Cleveland area toy shows in the early Eighties; one vendor there had cartons of sealed, untouched late Sixties MPC kits.  There was no massive selection, but there were several cartons each of what were presumably slow sellers.  I don't remember what many of them were, but I think I bought a few including a first-issue '69 Trans-Am which came out in late '69 after the normal annual kits.  That one wouldn't have gone for much more than a new current kit at the time, because MPC had a reissue of that same kit out not long before then.  He had a pile of those MPC 1/20 scale snowmobile/dragster kits too; I passed on that one.  I'd imagine some kits sold better in one area than another, especially if the store doing the selling was in an out-of-the-way place, or charged full retail.  

I put together most of my collection of Revell parts packs in the mid/late Seventies.  That whole thing started when some guy had a booth at one of the local flea markets (which folded a few years ago after a long decline).  All he had was Revell parts packs.  No kits, no other stuff.  If you bought enough of them, they were ten for a buck.  He didn't differentiate on them either, to him a parts pack was a parts pack.  Who knows, maybe he found them in the trash or cleaned out an old hobby shop and got them for free.  I went through that stand pack by pack over a couple of Sundays (should have packed a lunch) and dug out all the different ones I could find, including most of the engines and all but one of the motorcycles.  (I didn't find a Harley-Davidson, not one, in all that stuff.  My older brother told me I'd never find that one anywhere...it was about ten more years before I did find an original one.)  At the time, I didn't have a listing or any other information to determine how many I had or didn't have.  I eventually figured that out (some item numbers went unused), I'd found all but four or five of them.  The guy with the parts packs only set up there for a few weeks...never brought any other stuff there that I can recall.     

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My local hobby shop still had a couple Parts Pack Mooneyes dragster frames in the early-to-mid 1980s. They were original price (69 cents???) and I remember looking at them more than once and not buying since I had no idea where I'd find the rest of the stuff to build a car. This was before I drove or had any idea something like a model-car swap meet even existed. 

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Hmmm, I guess so. I know that a unnamed Orange County shop had a bunch of chassis kits in the early 2000's, wanted stupid money for them, WAY more than the usual asking price, The Roadster Speed Parts and the Dragster Speed Parts are my Holy Grails., not easy to find, and WAY too much when you do. Norm at Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland USED to resin cast them, I don't think he offers them anymore.

 I'd like to have the Bantam and Fiat bodies, but not vital.I LOVE the speed decals, got them and an Auto World sheet for very cheap, plus the upholstery pack.

Chuck at Altered States ( THE BEST ) cast me a BUNCH of seats, the Mooneyes one and the Attempt 1 versions for my Dragmaster chassis packs. I've used the Tony  Nancy double kits for the Kent Fuller chassis packs ( they are 90 % Fuller chassis, though not named as such. I like the Dragster pack axles much better though. I bought a TON of 60's parts for practically nothing and one bag had THREE 327's! I even hate to use them, I feel like they are irreplaceable!.  I'm probably wrong, but I don't think the Ivo Buicks are from the packs, but the Nancy one is. I think the early 60's engines are THE finest, most detailed motors ever done!

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  • 9 months later...

Looking into the parts packs, I'm trying to re-create the "Fumin' Fiat"

I need Chassis parts from the C1127 and C1132 parts packs. It's going to be a long, long search...

But this thread has answered almost all of my questions about Parts Packs.

I wish Jim Keeler would tell more of his story about them.

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The chassis accessory packs (axles and running gear) are tougher to find than the chassis themselves.  The dragster chassis were borderline obsolete when first introduced, while the running gear fit those chassis, other manufacturers' kits, and scratchbuilt chassis also.  Same goes for the engines; those fit anything if you had a saw or a hot knife!  The motorcycles were the extreme cases, being complete kits in and of themselves.  Those (particularly the Harley) were the toughest to find.  My older brother told me that when the hobby shop got parts packs, it was always in an assortment.  Of course the most popular ones sold first, and as the non-sellers piled up the shop owner would be reluctant to order more figuring only a handful would sell right away.

I'm thinking several parts packs were produced at one time on a molding machine, instead of one kit.  Unless Revell had the ability to switch individual parts pack tools to put the most popular ones in the same production run, they probably got stuck producing at least a couple of slow sellers along with three or four good ones.  I'm guessing that the latter was the case.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 5/14/2014 at 11:29 PM, Jim Keeler said:

I could write an interesting story about the planned later release which would have provided model car builders with an amazing concept, which I believe would be successful now.

Did this ever happen?

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