Stef

Wow wow wow this is wicked awesome. So much cool stuff, plus one of my grails: the 1/16 GRAND AM FUNNY CAR! Finally! Thank you, model Gods!

Oh me oh my, looks like my wishes will be coming true for a 1/16 Grand Am!

Eagerly awaiting what Atlantis brings out next. Me personally, really hoping they have the Grand Am body to slap onto their 1/16 funny car chassis. As much as I'd like to build the Green Elephant Vega, I'm truly holding out for a Grand Am.

Hello, @Fabrux, it's an honour top meet you. I've read several of your other articles, and enjoyed them very much, thank you!

Thanks everyone, for clearing up the mystery over the infamous hanger shot. Been a long time since I'd seen it myself, so now I'm even more excited that Round 2 can and will rerelease this bad boy. Me personally, thinking I'd like to equip the drag engine with the dual Judson blowers, and use the Dean Jeffries custom grille and taillight panel with the new factory stock bumpers.

Thank you, @stavanzer, though it seems I may have made a couple errors/oversights: 1) It looks like the wheelstanding thingies hanging below the rear bumper are actually non-chromed pieces. In the open-box pic in the lower-right, they appear to be in the bottom-center, between the roll bar and tires. These parts seem to be specific to the Streaker. I just rechecked HPI Guys' Nova and Falcon AWB videos, and did not see these parts included in either kit. 2) I just realized drag-specific wheels are not included in either Olds kit, so likely, a separate sprue of suitable wheels would need to be included. Hope this helps, thanks!

Right you are, @stavanzer. There are at least a couple slightly different AWB chassis featured on many of these kits, covered elsewhere in these forums. Some of these kits include the Mercury Cyclone funny car, 65 Rat Packer Nova Chevy II, 64/65 Falcon, Mustang, 63 Tempest, 65 Chevelle, 58 Edsel, and a few others, IIRC. HPI Guy has built the Falcon, Nova, and Cyclone, and at one point I catalogued them with screencaps to show similarities and differences. I found it, here: Here are screencaps of HPI Guy's coverage of the 64 Olds convertible and 64 Olds 442 hardtop, along with box top, an opened kit for sale on EvilBay™, and a couple buildup shots. TL;DR: convertible kit only includes tonneau cover, windshield, roll bar thingie. 442 kit only includes rear deck spoiler, roll bar, and what appears to be four tie-down strap thingies. Both kits appear to include the same louvered/domed custom hood and chrome trees (which seems to include those wheelie thingies that hang down beneath the rear bumper). All other drag parts should come with a chassis/interior/tires/engine. All we need is an altered wheelbase 64 Olds (convertible?) body. Hope this helps, thanks!

While I've never seen an actual Streaker Olds, pretty sure I've identified all or most of the Streaker-specific parts in the two HPI Guy 64 Olds reviews. IIRC, each version has some, though not all, of them. Gimme some time, I'll rewatch them and screencap the parts in question.

Wow, so much awesome stuff. Want everything, especially the Bronco, Black Beauty, and 65 Chevy AWB. I liked the part where Jamie said "...plenty of opportunities to explore in the future with different makes and models on a shortened wheelbase racing format". It's only a matter of time before they whip up an altered wheelbase body for their 64 Olds to bring back the Streaker. Seems like pretty much all the other parts are already in the convertible and/or 442 kits.

True, things are a bit off. Back in 1991, I bashed an MPC 71/73 Mustang with an MPC 73 Cougar to replicate a friend's real-life 72 Mustang Grande. Was the best I could do at the time. I started with the Cougar body, replaced the entire front clip, hood and front fenders with the Mustang pieces, and sliced the rear ends off to line things up. Finally, added strips on the doors to replicate that character line. If I were to ever do it again, I'd prolly just swap the entire greenhouse. Really looking forward to this amazing Mustang kit, and I do have a spare Cougar body kicking around. A much better Grande conversion could be on my horizon.

Good eye, @Can-Con. I've not seen a Super Charger since about 1985-86, though judging from the box art alone, wheel openings confirmed. In fact, I now see there are three little racing strap clip thingies along the top edge of the windshield, though I don't remember whether they were present on the actual body. Lastly, the box art does NOT show the front bumperette thingies, though I'd swear the actual kit does have them molded in with the grille. Can anyone confirm? Me personally, I don't mind any of these anomalies; I'd happily give both kidneys for a sealed original, or a contemporary clone/copy, warts and all. So sorry about the derail! Looking forward to HPI Guy's 68 Coronet build; apparently it's coming out tomorrow (Wednesday). Gonna buy a case of these things.

Agree 128%, @stavanzer, and thank you for your kind words! Like you, I also have a mega soft spot for old box art, particularly early 80s MPC stuff, and I am OVERJOYED each time to purchase retro MPC box art: Bad Company, Mount N Goat, the upcoming Sod Buster and Bronco reissues, and squillions more. As for Supercharger, Round 2 has quite a few options for how to bring it back: Craftsman Plus style, and/or leveraging underpinnings from their new 68 Coronet, or existing 71 Charger. Nostalgia is alive and well, and thank you Steve, Chad, and everyone at Round 2 for giving us a new golden age of modelling! Could not be happier, thanks.

I agree, we need to make this kit a reality. One as a wing car. One as a drag racer. One as a grocery getter. One as a NASCAR. One as a pro touring. One as a pro street. And one as a post-apocalyptic war machine.

Nice, @drksd4848, glad to remind you of its awesomeness. Imma buy a case of 'em when Round 2 no doubt brings this one back to life. My understanding is its chassis and engine originally date back to the 68 Coronet, so we're now closer than ever to seeing this one again. Thank you Round2 for making some really big power moves; keep 'em coming, and we'll keep signing over our estates.

MOPAR MADNESS: Would love to see the 71/72 RR/GTX return Also please bring back the 74 Super Charger! And 74 Cuda Pro Street!

Wow, and thank you, @Tabbysdaddy! I never built the wrecker or any of it's variants either. Thanks to you, now I WANT THEM ALL!

I've never built this kit, and am looking forward to having some post-apocalyptic fun with it. Hopefully they'll update the two-piece tires like they did with their recent 76 Chevy van reissue, featuring gorgeous "Firestone Firehawk" tampo printing. Also, are those side view mirrors molded-in?

I've always felt the same, and learned the hard way to ALWAYS wait for the hardtop: - Revellogram 59 Caddy, 55 Chevy, 59 Chevy, 65 Chevy, AMT 64 Olds Cutlass, and no doubt squillions of others over the years.

Yes, right you both are! That image has been posted here numerous times over the years, and it was still so fresh in my mind. Thank you again both!

Yes yes yes! Wow, thank you, @Rodent! Wow, you're awesome! Wow. You just won the internet. What can I ever do to repay you?

Hello everyone Not sure where to post this; I need to find an image I've seen a dozen times, but can't find it in image search. It should be some sort of marketing/promo shot of an early 60s Ford convertible, shot at about a 3/4-ish rear angle, with I believe one or two women inside, looking back and upwards, at a floating hardtop, hovering a few feet above the car. Can see it in my mind, but don't remember the make or model. My model club is having a TOPLESS theme to our annual model contest, I'll be pitching an illustration for the poster, and I was hoping to riff off this image. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much!

Nothing beats real chrome bezels, so me personally, imma hog 'em out and replace 'em with chrome units from the parts box. No worries there. As for keeping costs down, here's hoping some of that budget goes towards packaging; it would be a shame if those A-pillars got Oldsmobile'd.

Looking very nice overall, though surprised and crestfallen about the headlight buckets not being separate chromed pieces.

I had this version back in 1988, and it included satin-chrome parts, including wheels, side view mirror lenses, the TPI setup, alternator, and valve covers, IIRC.

MPC really was kicking into high gear in the early/mid 80s; their EXP, Cavalier, C4, Camaro, Firebird, Fiero, Celica, Mustang, Daytona, Omni/Charger, and others were light years beyond most of their earlier kits. Almost like this brief era of MPC was some kind of quasi-ERTL partnership, transitioning through the 69 Olds and Beretta, to the AMT Taurus and Probe.