Faust

Hey now!!! There are three of us that want a stock Vega!!! If they can give me a stock Vega, I will weep. For so, so many reasons, I will weep. Truly, despite all the Pintos, Pacers and Gremlins, EXPs and Cavaliers I have, the lack of Vega is a travesty. To make up for it, I had to resort to buying three Monzas (and had a fourth at home)!!! C'mon everyone: Chant it with me! We Want Stock! We Want Stock! No Stock, No Peace! What do we want? Stock! When do we want it? As soon as possible, thanks! (Well, I AM Canadian...) 8)

Hey Ray! Yeah, living that close to them would be great, and dangerous! Only 80? Bah... I bought more than that last year, and that was the lowest year on record in the last 10 for me!!! You're still okay! I have a modelling centre in my basement, too. It's a little oasis of styrene... love it. I can never tell when I'm going to be there, but I appreciate the invitation! Adam

Ray, Ed: You guys weren't kidding! I stopped in at Great Lakes yesterday during a business trip to Novi. I was running really late and knew I'd end up fighting traffic, but I took the detour anyway. SO worth it!! That shop is crammed! I'm going to have to go back when I have some time. I think Wheels and Wings in TO is about the only place I've seen with more kits, and there's a shop in Oakville that might be more diverse, but it's hard to say. It was certainly worth the trip, since I managed to snag one of the Takom G6 Rhinos. I'd wanted one since it came out, but it's too expensive up in Canada. However, GL had it for a great price, even with exchange! So, I bought myself an early B'day present and didn't even mind getting home later! Thanks for the tip, guys!

Jim: I was at a toy show on the weekend. You'll never guess what I found. The Escii Renault 5 police car. It's not QUITE a LeCar (has better, flush headlamps) but other than that, it's awfully close! I was pretty pumped, as you can imagine. Despite what the auto press of the day said, I still think those are horrible, ugly cars. Being in Canada, we got them a few more years than the US, and I can rememer always thinking they were just the grossest little automotive ticks I'd ever seen. True to this day. So, the loser list is getting fuller!

Wow... I thought only the Brits and Japanese had Three-Wheelers! Impressive, though! Darn.. that's a heck of a list! I have a Toyota Vitz (which is the domestic Echo/Yaris), as well as that brown Civic I did, and a couple of Kei Cars. I would LOVE a Fuego!!! I think those are cool looking. They do suck, though. Maybe there's a Burago in 1/43? I do have a Burago Renault 9 I could do as an Alliance... By Tercel, I hope you mean one of those ugly 4WD "station wagon" ones. You forgot the Fire Arrow!!! I know it's a Dodge, but it isn't... I do have a Trabant, if you're looking for Euroloser.

If I didn't have the old one already, I'd be kicking down doors to get this one! It's not the best kit, but it's miles and miles better than their mid-'70s kits, and the interior detailing is quite good too. There are issues, of course, but hey, it's a BRAT! What else do you want?

Jim, Jim, Jim... You're very close!! I would, of course, build all of those, but the Rendezvous isn't nearly horrible enough. Now, you replace that with a Renault Alliance, and the Fairmont (which is lame, but not terrible) with a Stallion Package Maverick, and we've got something going ON. My only question is: HOW DID YOU GET IN MY HEAD!!! Oh, and how are you going to get out... it's messy in there!

Hey! I love green cars. You think that's bad, though? Yeah... it can be worse. It can have a vinyl top!! WTF?? On a Pinto? But it is legit! A sad kit of a worse car. It's a true epicenter of automotive failure.

If you know me, then you know my thing is weird cars, the everyday and what I call “loser cars”. One of the most recognized, reviled and joked about loser cars of the Automotive Dark Ages was the Ford Pinto. With a reputation for blowing up like a stick of Looney Tunes dynamite and a design that was a weird mix of practical and impractically underpowered and underbuilt, the Pinto has long epitomized how low things could go. It’s no surprise then that I was beside myself with excitement when Round 2 anounced they were going to give us our SECOND Pinto reissue. First, there was the Pony Express wagon, followed now by the AMT 1977 hatchback! For Pinto-philes (even sounds gross) and loser-lovers like me, getting a chance to own the second-ugliest installment of Ford’s incendiary blighter was something that had only been hoped for. I managed to snag one a week and change ago, and I’m really surprised to see that no one else out there seems to have jumped on this one. Of course, that might be because, unlike me, they knew what to expect! Check out my out of box review for this new stain on your modelling display at the link below, and bring your fire extinguishers! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/1-25-amt-round-2-1977-pinto-runabout-oob/

Since I'm still in the middle of mine, I can tell you that kit looks exactly the same. Even the tires look identical to the original. Even though they're not pad printed (a shame), they should be good. They are a TINY bit too narrow for the rims, but I've seen way worse. That new Decal Sheet is awesome! However, that's a later striping style. I am not sure, because I've been focusing on late '70s ones, but that's more like into the '80s. I'm not sure if that's correct for this kind of BRAT or not - it's closer to the decals on the second series. Still, they're going to work better than my originals will! I hope you enjoy it, man! I'll be posting an update on mine in a couple of weeks. Things have gotten a bit stalled. Let me know if they put anything on top of the engine. There's a clear alignment rib, but nothing goes up there on mine. Fixing that would be awesome!

I figure if they're going to make me get up early, drive 2.5 hours for a meeting that's less than a half hour long, and useless (like I predicted) then I'm bloody well going to get a good lunch and a new model kit out of it! Oh man... Great Lakes is on Van Dyke? I'll definitely try to stop in there next time! Thanks for the pointer, Paul!

Yes, I did get them at Ashbrook's! Good call Paul! I see you're in MI as well - how close is Richmond to Highland? Ashbrook's was pretty neat, my brother got some Hot Wheels there too. The best part of Richmond, though, has to be Ken's Country Kitchen. That place if amazing! I've never seen so much food, so good, so cheap! I just ate there on a business trip to NOVI on Tuesday! Went about 1/2 hour out of my way, and turned down a free lunch just to go there! Oh, and I got a Ghost Rider Vette at Ashbrook's too.

At least your car is a real Camaro, not one trying to pretend to want to pretend to be pretending to be a Trans Am. As a Trans Am guy, the AHC is an insult. As a Camaro guy, I'd assume you'd feel the same... Talk about not pleasing your target audience... it's like Michael Bay directed that one!

Hobby shops, antique stores, you name it.

Man, my brother would be ALL OVER the Biarritz! It's cool that you have a real one! Nice! Well, it is a '70s AMT, so it's no surprise that it's a terrible kit. I think he's going to keep it wrapped up as collector's piece, since it's in perfect shape box wise. I think it was more for the thrill of owning something so weird (which I get) rather than building it that he bought it. It seems to be a valuable kit, so still sealed it's never going to lose its lustre. For me, I'd like to do an AHC Monza, so I'd like to have a scan of the decals to do m own thing with. Wow, you saw the real one? That's awesome!

Oh man, what a great turn of phrase that is! However, you're correct: I'm on the other side of the "unevent horizon", looking at a totally different set of physics.

There’s not much more fun than a road trip, unless it’s a road trip that also includes going to Hobby Shops along the way! A couple of weeks ago, my brother and I ended up doing some “hobby shopping” in Michigan, and it was not without considerable success! We managed to find all kinds of old, interesting and (of course!) sad car kits that begged to become part of the stash. Being kind-hearted, we of course took them in! Check out this weird mix of everything from MPC Annuals to JoHan promo-kits at the link below! Don’t forget to vote for your favourite, either! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/cross-border-car-bonanza/

Hey Curt! It'd be great to see you this month! I've been working on using Word to do some photoshopping, and I think I've gotten the decals where I need them. Being inkjet decals, they're not going to be perfect, but they looked okay on the Pinto, so I'm cautiously optimistic. Rob let me see the decals on the new kit. WOW. Big improvement! Great work Round 2!

Hey Curt! It's making solid progress. I've got the interior done, and I'm going to write it and the Chassis up together. The decals are disappointing. I'm not sure what to do to be honest. I know you don't NEED them, but I'd like to have them. AMT just got them sized so, sooo wrong. Thanks man!

I've PM'ed you about the BRAT decals. I'm hoping you can help me out. Just as a preview to everyone: the original decals DO NOT fit. they are not the right size or shape for the truck, and I'm hoping Round 2 has adjusted them to fit. If not, there's going to be a lot of "decal delete" option BRATs being built!

Rob: When you get the BRAT, can you let us know how the decals and tires look? How's the Pinto looking? I should have mine in a week or so (Canada is a bit slower to get stuff), so I'm starting to Jones pretty hard. Of course, I'm also Jonesing for Monzas, since I just picked up three old MPCs...

I'm getting pretty excited. I think my '77 Pinto is due to hit my LHS soon. I ordered two; one for me, and one for my brother. I didn't want to fight him for it! I wonder, does the reissue BRAT come with pad-printed tires? White lettering the originals is going to suck...

HOLY SH... That's one fantastic bike! It reminds me of the show bikes I used to see at the London (Ontario) Autorama back in the day (like '79 to '86)! Unreal work, my friend! Inspirational and nostalgic all at once!

I do love a good mech, and I have a particular fondness for mech shows and designs from the ‘80s. Even though I didn’t grow up with a lot of mech shows, there’s something about the animes from this time frame that others just don’t have. One thing that was nice is that there weren’t ‘rules’ yet for how a Gundam, or even a non-Gundam should “look”. Before EVA’s “Stringbean Chic” approach, mecha could be chunky and still look cool. A perfect example are the mecha from Metal Armour Dragonar. While they have some Gundam in them, they are just as much equal parts Layzner and there’s a hint of “super robot” in there too. I was very lucky when I found pretty much every Dragonar kit had been reissued a few years ago, and go my local shop to order them for me. Since there hasn’t been much new in the world of mech kits that’s grabbed my attention lately, I decided I’d bust out a classic and review it! If you want to see how a Hero Mech was done in 1987, then check out my out of box review on the classic 1/144 Dragonar 1 + Lifter, below. In some ways, we’ve come a long way, but there’s still a quaint charm about this guy! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/bandai-1-144-xd-01-dragonar-1-xdfu-01-lifter-1-oob/

Thanks, Dann! I hope I don't disappoint! Despite it's many flaws, it's so cool to have a kit of Subaru that's NOT a WRX/STi. That's why I have my Rex Combi as well! Definitely get the reissue. We've got to support Round 2 and let them know we love the weird stuff!