Ghost Kits - Shown But Never Released

[Brett Barrow]

Something must have changed re: VA beer advertising laws because I remember having all the Bill Elliot Coors and Bobby Allison Miller High Life kits as a kid growing up in Martinsville.  I was born in '77 so I would have been 1 when that truck came out.  Cigarette ads were everywhere, though. It was VA after all. 

VA has nothing on NJ/PA (where I live now) beer/liquor laws, though.  You can buy beer in a grocery store or convenience store in VA, have to go to a liquor store in NJ and in PA it's even worse, have to go to a dedicated beer/wine distributor.  Pretty much every other town is dry here in South Jersey then the next town will have a bar on every corner.  

[Cpt Tuttle]

Great idea to have everything chromeplated. Paint sticks so much better to chrome plating...not..haha
Would have been great to see those kits. I have seen a 1800 Landcrab beeing used as a daily driver around here in the summer time for several years.
Did Frog ever do that many car kits?
A quick ebay search gave me this find:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FROG-AUSTIN-1100-QUICK-FIT-KIT-/291768040987?hash=item43eebafe1b:g:9pEAAOSw74FXPYxK

 

Frog made a 1:24 Mercedes SSK, though the tooling was inherited from Sankyo, which in turn was a ripoff of the Lindberg SSK. The Lindberg kit had an engine IIRC, the Sankyo kit didn't, it was motorized and had the battery box under the hood. Frog did not include a motor or batteries though, so on the model, you can open the hood and find.....a gaping hole.

[89AKurt]

I remember seeing in a catalog, think it was Squadron, a resin kit of Boyd's Sportstar.   I put in an order, but was refunded.
http://www.rodauthority.com/news/remembering-boyd-coddington-and-the-sportstar/

[sfhess]

I remember seeing in a catalog, think it was Squadron, a resin kit of Boyd's Sportstar.   I put in an order, but was refunded.
http://www.rodauthority.com/news/remembering-boyd-coddington-and-the-sportstar/

This was issued by Testors, along with some resin kits of Jimmy Flintstone designs.  There was a custom Astro Van, chopped DIVCO milk truck, a Boattail Riviera and some others in the series.  They had photo-etch details and cast metal wheels.  All were curbside but pretty well done.

[935k3]

Something must have changed re: VA beer advertising laws because I remember having all the Bill Elliot Coors and Bobby Allison Miller High Life kits as a kid growing up in Martinsville.  I was born in '77 so I would have been 1 when that truck came out.  Cigarette ads were everywhere, though. It was VA after all. 

VA has nothing on NJ/PA (where I live now) beer/liquor laws, though.  You can buy beer in a grocery store or convenience store in VA, have to go to a liquor store in NJ and in PA it's even worse, have to go to a dedicated beer/wine distributor.  Pretty much every other town is dry here in South Jersey then the next town will have a bar on every corner.  

Thankfully our laws in PA now let grocery stores sell beer and wine.

[Casey]

[Casey]

On 4/23/2013 at 5:05 PM, Mark said:

AMT announced several 1970 annual kits that never appeared, including an El Camino, Mercury Cougar (MPC made both hardtop and convertible, but AMT stopped after '69), Falcon, Corvair (in this case, Chevrolet stopped after '69), Cadillac Eldorado (likely a re-boxed Jo-Han kit), and Galaxie XL fastback. Other 1970 AMT kits that did appear differed from the announced versions (LTD four-door and Buick Wildcat were originally $2.00 customizing kits but appeared as $1.00 unassembled promos, the Chevelle was an SS396 instead of the 454 that was issued).

[unclescott58]

On 12/13/2017 at 11:14 AM, Casey said:

What happened to these? Did any of them make it on to the dealer's shelves? I don't remember any of them. 

Edited December 16, 2017 by unclescott58

[unclescott58]

On 12/13/2017 at 12:20 PM, Casey said:

'70 Corvair? Well we know what happened there. But, they were planning on issuing a '70 Ford XL hardtop? I wonder what happened there? As much as I like the '69 XL, I'd like the '70 even more. Also, did the '70 El Camino ever make it out? If not. I wonder why not? And I don't remember AMT offering the '70 Eldorado. I'm pretty sure it only appeared in Jo-Han boxes. 

[Crankenstien]

actually mpc released 2 different ford van's pretty much the same except for them being 2 and 4 wheel drive

[Luc Janssens]

10 hours ago, Crankenstien said:

actually mpc released 2 different ford van's pretty much the same except for them being 2 and 4 wheel drive

Also the first came with round headlamps, the later ones with dual rectangular ones. I like the 4x4's with the round headlamp treatment better.

Bougth a couple of them over the years, an no...not from that ebay guy who wants between 100 and 200 greenies, cuz you can still find them for $25-30 if you're palatially waiting for the kill (-er deal

 

IMHO Round-2 would do good if they re-release the round-headlamp one with 2 motor cross motorcycles and trailer, as a sort of late '70s amateur (non-professional) motorcycle team.

If they start looking in to it right now, it could be ready for under the Christmas tree by 2018, the perfect holiday gift!

 

Edited December 16, 2017 by Luc Janssens

[Mike999]

59 minutes ago, Luc Janssens said:

IMHO Round-2 would do good if they re-release the round-headlamp one with 2 motor cross motorcycles and trailer, as a sort of late '70s amateur (non-professional) motorcycle team...

x2.  Also wish they could dig up the '75 Dodge van, with Yamaha dirt bike and the "workshop" interior.  The workshop part was pretty simplistic, with molded-on tools hanging from the pegboards.  But that can be fixed.  The side panel of the box showed how to build a garage diorama, using the workshop parts.  I think the workshop parts were also in another Dodge van kit but can't find it. 

[Casey]

14 hours ago, unclescott58 said:

Also, did the '70 El Camino ever make it out? If not. I wonder why not? And I don't remember AMT offering the '70 Eldorado. I'm pretty sure it only appeared in Jo-Han boxes. 

No 1/25 scale kit of a '70 El Camino...ever. 

AMT re-packaged the JO-HAN '70 Toronado and Cutlass 442, but the not the Eldorado. A few on the list above came out in the Motor City Stocker Series with different part numbers, so maybe AMT was a bit too optimistic about 1970.

Edited December 16, 2017 by Casey

[lordairgtar]

On 3/4/2017 at 7:09 AM, Mark said:

Liquor/beer laws, perhaps relating to advertising.  I knew a guy who lived in Virginia (he passed about twenty years ago), he once said that Virginia's liquor laws "were passed by Carrie Nation in 1912". Some counties there were still "dry" (no sales allowed at all).  There was one New York town that I used to drive through on my way to work that was "dry"; I believe they changed that only a few years ago.  Across the state, we still can't buy a beer before noon on Sundays.

Y'all need to move to Wisconsin. One can catch a beer before church.

 

[Luc Janssens]

5 hours ago, Mike999 said:

x2.  Also wish they could dig up the '75 Dodge van, with Yamaha dirt bike and the "workshop" interior.  The workshop part was pretty simplistic, with molded-on tools hanging from the pegboards.  But that can be fixed.  The side panel of the box showed how to build a garage diorama, using the workshop parts.  I think the workshop parts were also in another Dodge van kit but can't find it. 

I fully agree with you, IMHO that era Dodge Van passed both Dodge and Ford in the styling department.

Round-2 can copy the body (plus front clip ((with clear headlamps this time)) and taillights with chrome surrounds)of an vintage kit, to put on the chassis of the '80 the original tooling morphed into, show a black Van with flames on the front clip on the box-art (like in the TV movie of a maniac driving nurses off the road)

Alternate just like you mentioned, with bike and workshop, but upgraded a bit with roof-rack, Jerry cans, treadplates and tools (look at Fujimi garage tools guys) 

A it's soo nice to dream isn't it

 

[unclescott58]

My vote would be to take the MPC Dodge van all of the way back to its original Sportsman passenger van version. I'd like to see the same done with MPC's 1/20 scale Ford van too. Going back to the original Chateau Club Wagon. In the case of AMT's Chevy Van. The Open Road camper version. I like the vans with windows. It's cool to be able to see something inside these vehicles. 

[unclescott58]

Here's the Ford and Chevy van models I'd like to see come back. 

[Luc Janssens]

12 hours ago, unclescott58 said:

Here's the Ford and Chevy van models I'd like to see come back. 

Wonder how much the cost is to "downsize" the 1/20 scale Econoline to 1/25th.

About window van's in general, is it...that they didn't sell well enough, or was it the Van craze, that contributed to their demise in the model kit world?

Anyway we're sliding off topic here....or did it morphed into the ghosts of kits past

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2017 by Luc Janssens

[disabled modeler]

15 hours ago, Luc Janssens said:

I fully agree with you, IMHO that era Dodge Van passed both Dodge and Ford in the styling department.

Round-2 can copy the body (plus front clip ((with clear headlamps this time)) and taillights with chrome surrounds)of an vintage kit, to put on the chassis of the '80 the original tooling morphed into, show a black Van with flames on the front clip on the box-art (like in the TV movie of a maniac driving nurses off the road)

Alternate just like you mentioned, with bike and workshop, but upgraded a bit with roof-rack, Jerry cans, treadplates and tools (look at Fujimi garage tools guys) 

A it's soo nice to dream isn't it

 

I need to find one of these vans to make a replica of one I once owned....my dad had the Sportsman window van kit buildup in his collection Id like to be able to restore.  Id love to see all these older Dodge vans make a comeback...you know they would sell well.

[Luc Janssens]

2 hours ago, disabled modeler said:

I need to find one of these vans to make a replica of one I once owned....my dad had the Sportsman window van kit buildup in his collection Id like to be able to restore.  Id love to see all these older Dodge vans make a comeback...you know they would sell well.

I'm glad I picked up a bunch of them on ebay, back then, when prices were reasonable.

Edited December 17, 2017 by Luc Janssens

[unclescott58]

4 hours ago, Luc Janssens said:

Wonder how much the cost is to "downsize" the 1/20 scale Econoline to 1/25th.

About window van's in general, is it...that they didn't sell well enough, or was it the Van craze, that contributed to their demise in the model kit world?

Anyway we're sliding off topic here....or did it morphed into the ghosts of kits past

 

 

 

I'm sure the trends of the times lead to the demise of the window vans in kit form. Shortly after the muscle car era died, the custom vans took over. And they were not vans with factory side windows or seating arrangements in them. I don't recall too many custom vans before 1973 or so. I'm sure they were out there. But, not like they were by 1975, '76. Trends moved fast back in those days. And model companies moved as quickly as they could to stay up with them. 

How did we get on to discussion of older van kits here? I don't know who started it? But, I had to go with it. Hopefully we'll get back to the original theme of this thread. 

[Casey]

On 12/15/2017 at 7:48 PM, unclescott58 said:

What happened to these? Did any of them make it on to the dealer's shelves? I don't remember any of them. 

No, not a one.

[Casey]

Don't think anyone is too upset about missing out on this one, AMT 860:

[paul alflen]

CASEY, I BELIEVE THE FLYER WITH THE 1970 ANNUAL  KITS ON IT WAS AT THE TIME AMT HAD A STRIKE AT THE PLANT. THAT MIGHT BE THE REASON THEY NEVER CAME OUT.  TIM BOYD, ART ANDERSON OR MARK BUDNIEWSKI, HELP ME OUT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited July 18, 2018 by paul alflen
SPELLING AND GRAMMER

[SfanGoch]

AMT wouldn't "86" those kits because of a strike. It was`settled and production resumed. Management probably decided those kits wouldn't be big sellers.