Daddyfink

I wonder if Atlantis can get their hands on the Accurate Miniatures stuff and maybe bring back some of the cars and the Vettes. Tom told me that when he handed in the drawings for the instructions, the guy who did the final lay out mixed it all up, and that is why those kits are such a pain to build from the box!

Man, I sure miss Tom, he was a really cool guy. And that is the buck I actually held in my hands when I visited him once at that locale. I was trying to sweet talk him out of his 1/16th stuff, but he was saving it for his son. But, I did score a box full of 1/16 Dragster Test Shot trees! Lots of kit bashing parts! Did you by any chance score the busted mold part?

Atlantis is bringing back the Funny Cars, and maybe hopefully, these will be next! Great job on the Rattler!

As quirky as these kits are, they are still some of the best in Vintage Dragsters out there. Although, they where not that vintage when I first assembled one! LOL! This one looks really nice and it brings back great memories!

I really like Jay Leno's Survivor Gullwing. Customized back in the day with a Candy Apple Paint job that drives the Purists nuts!

I have no idea why I have Mobius on the brain. I should have correctly stated Atlantis! Thanks for the reminder, and how did the motorized part work? Ok or glitchy?

Would be awesome if Mobius had this mold.

There was a Los Angeles based hobby shop that would set up a booth at the California Hot Rod Reunion and he had the MK JJ Vegas, and for a few years I would buy one every time I attended. Needless to say, i have quite a few Vega kits! I think the lack of a larger distribution really hampered the kits sales. But then again, 1/16th is not everyone's cup of tea.

I am just using this to give an idea of what might have happened to the Aurora molds. I know from talking to Tom that he knew that at least the tire molds had survived because they where abandoned in Canada, where Aurora was having them molded, and he had part of the mold mechanism from I believe the 392 mold, that was installed incorrectly and busted up when they tried to use it. What happened to the rest, well, that remains to be seen. He had lots of prints that he did when he studied the subject for Aurora, I hope Mobius can get their hands on them. I sure hope they can salvage some of that stuff, would love to have it. I know that they could simplify the engines by eliminating the innards. Thanks for the info, Tim! And I am getting ready to read the book again! Jesse C.

This is just an article to give you a basic idea of what might have happened to those molds. And I know for a fact that the late Tom West had part of the mold for one of the Hemi engines that self destructed during production. https://culttvman.com/main/aurora-faq-6-what-is-the-story-about-the-aurora-train-wreck/ Tom West was the R&D Product Manager for the Aurora Kit line at the end of the run. He says: “The infamous train wreck (somewhere outside Albany, as I got the word) did in fact happen. Evidently it was a derailment which sent the car carrying a load of molds out into a field. Since they were so heavy, the molds were not tied down and pretty well tore up the car when they went through the car. “The loss was actually in the area of 14 1/2 molds officially (or 15 1/2, something like that). The molds were taken to Chicago to the Morton Grove facility, where the insurance company paid on the loss. Obviously, the other 1/2 mold was not particularly functional, but then the insurance company never had to produce parts from the remaining 1/2 mold. “There were some figure kits involved, a couple of aircraft molds, and the Addams family house sounds right, as mentioned on one of the other responses. I know that one of the accessory (black) parts molds for World War I aircraft was in there as well. I believe it was the Albatross CIII and two more kits that were the ones affected. Can’t remember which the others were. “Aurora molds were pretty much dismantled by Monogram beyond the ones lost in the wreck. When they got the molds, they gave their marketing group the list and told them to tell management which tools they would use in a certain period of time, like 3 years or 5 years, or something like that. Everything after that was open to the tooling guys, who, I understand, were given a bonus based on the amount of beryllium steel (cast cavities) that they were able to salvage from those molds. This material can be remelted and recast into new parts. Much of the classic oddball Aurora product was melted down in what sounded like a real feeding frenzy which eliminated the greatest part of the Aurora mold library, especially unwanted figures. Since that time I have talked to various people who would have been involved, and everyone was just following orders and nobody ever made a decision to scrap those molds. Tom Gannon, the Monogram President at the time was the only one who would take credit for the direction that set that in motion, as he felt it was good business to eliminate the stuff from the marketplace to eliminate competition. As if some of that old Aurora stuff was really going to compete with what Monogram was doing. Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.” –Tom West

Nice sharp cruiser! Great job!

Can you just tell us what it is, the link wants me to sign into Yahoo!

I think I need one. Now, if they only did the Van.....

Same basic parts with different bodies and custom parts And not even close...

I think I will end up stopping when the pile of models falls over and kills my dumb butt!

This needs to go into the Weird Models thread, because this is winning!

The only show worth watching, at least to me, is Road Kill and its various spin offs. No dumb deadlines, overhyped sponsor placement and pretty educational most of the time. No of the "We have to get it done or we are going to lose the shop!" mess. Gas Monkey became the worst at the deadline and cost overrun BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH. Monster Garage was goofy, but they actually did it for real. What happened on the show it what happened for real.

The Gold Hampton Supercharger looks slick!

Very cool! I almost painted my 510 that color!

I would assume that the whole chassis is blue, as it would save time and money in painting.

What I meant was to find another Low Rider version again, not just another Revell '57 I have several versions of it in my stash, including an original issue of the first one in mint condition.