Richard Bartrop

I was faked out by that too. I was hunting through Japanese cars until the hint set me on the right track

You mean, there are people who don't know Round 2 is in the collectibles business? If they want a media connection, then I guess we just need to convince them that there's an army of Banacek fans out there with a burning need to own a model of his Packard convertible.

I can see it around the greenhouse mostly. It's safe to say that a few people were working similar themes. A quick check of Google didn't find anything, though there were some diecasts available. Maybe something to ask the folks at Revell Germany about?

Yes, that right there. I think half of Europe built some sort of Corvair knockoff, including BMW. Nobody creates in a vacuum. Everyone borrows from everyone else.

Yes, and not really seeing a problem. It's still the best looking of the later 'Birds. And it's not like the Germans didn't do a little borrowing themselves.

For me, three leap out at me. '65 Riviera, given the same sort of upgrade as their '66 Riviera. '35 Auburn Speedster. & Lincoln Continental. Ideally, I'd love to see these brought up to the level of even the Monogram classics, but even some less horrible wheels would go a long way towards improving them.

I figure the people who actually make the cars probably have a good idea about what to call them.

The original caption called it a customized E type, but the hood looks like it's from a T-Bird, and the proportions look like it might have started out as a Cadillac. There a fins from a Chrysler, portholes from a Buick, and they tried to make the sides look like the Pontiac Club de Mer. I suppose the kindest thing you can say about it is that it must have taken a lot of work to make it look this way.

Looking great so far. If you want a realistic looking way to support all that weight, I suppose you do what the museums do and put it on a set of stands.

I can see people wanting to keep a consistent scale across their collection, though I do think the 1/25 vs 1/24 fuss is a little ridiculous. However, for the longest time I bought and built 1/32, because that is where the subjects I wanted were. I went to larger scales because the kits were nicer, but that, and the ICM Packard look pretty nice. The multi piece bodies and near microscopic parts may require some care, but it's nothing insurmountable. Car builders are used to plated parts and vinyl tires, but there are any number of ways to get that shiny metal finish now, and let's face it, painting whitewalls on vinyl is a pain. The Clipper is beautiful, and they used that same style for 1942 through 1947. There are some other car kits in 1/35 that look pretty nice, so I guess you just have to ask yourself, how wedded are you to 1/24-25?

So the solution is not just never never offer new kits, but to never offer any kits at all. Sounds like if anything, the opinions of the people who come here to snark are even less relevant.

I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I'd certainly take it over the painfully boring malaisewagens that some people keep trying to convince us are what "the market" wants.

From what I've been able to find out, they changed the rear suspension in 1912. I know that added more leaves to the springs on the armoured car chassis.

Though what is feasable? That's something for people with actual marketing experience, and to honest, this is a pretty insular group when it comes to figuring out what that market actually is. Not to mention, we've seen a number of kits of subjects over the years that all the self appointed experts assured us were hopeless speculation. People probably don't know the market as well as they think, but they do know what they want. The people who actually do this for a living are probably quite capable of figuring out which of those wants is actually feasible.

You're doing great, and I'm not even sure it's all that bad if you do a few that have been done before. Not everyone is going to scroll through every single quiz entry, and I've had the search tool here skip posts that I knew were there.

I'm actually encouraged that they're doing stuff like Godzilla and the Phantom again.

That seems to be the problem with going retro. It's a fun exercise, but a lot of what made those old cars look so good worked in the context of the time, and it doesn't always work in a different context. Funny thing about the Jordan Playboy is that the original was pretty unspectacular, especially compared to the other cars in that series. It was a pretty standard design, running a flathead 6 and assembled from parts from a variety of suppliers, It's main clame to fame was the advertising.

That has so many possibilities.

That is beautiful.

Very true, and just making a decent CGI car takes some work.

If they want to bring back any of those Ertl tractor kits, they're going to need a license to till.

And here's GM's own take on a plastic two seater Cadillac:

I'd buy them both.

It looks like someone stuck a '68 Riveriera front on a Corvette. I can't help thinking that Bill Mitchell would look at that and tell them to try again.

Yet, we have some Hudson kits, even if they're not that exact year, so maybe it's not an entirely pointless to let people know what you want?