Motor City

MPC made them from 1971 through 1977. It was available in lime, blue, Mesa Sand (an ugly tan/yellow color) and I think the 4th color was a reddish orange. It looks like someone painted that one.

Brian, Most of the larger assembly plants were multi-story in the old days. Dodge Main in Hamtramck, was 8 stories tall and opened in 1910. A major assembly such as the body would be attached to a wooden framework or welded, then painted, paint compounded, have the interior installed, and then dropped down to the ground level where it was attached to the finished chassis and driven away. Small manufacturers typically only had 1 or 2 levels. It was later found that it was easier to expand a plant by building on a large piece of land in the first place. I think one story started to be the prevalent assembly plant in the late 1940s/early 1950s. It was torn down in 1981. I was thinking 6 stories, but it was 8 stories in part of the complex. It opened the same year as Ford's Highland Park plant, and started producing Dodge automobiles in 1914. Detroit was full of these huge factories a century ago.

I just looked at my '70 Ford Wagon brochure: LTD Country Squire (wood graining, hidden headlights) Galaxie 500 Country Sedan Custom 500 Ranch Wagon Custom Ranch Wagon

I'm guessing they weren't sure it would be popular. After all, the Nova had no promos after 1965. Also, they already had promos of the GTX and Barracuda, and probably limited money budgeted for such things. In hindsight, it would have been nice, but was rectified for '71. It has been an inconsistent, yet interesting hobby and marketing tool!

it would have been interesting to have worked at one of the model companies in the glory years and to have seen sales figures and costs for the various models; also to be in on the meetings at the car companies and model companies when it was decided what model cars would be produced

There was another thread on this topic somewhat recently. It originated as the '70 LTD 4-door hardtop and was available as a dark blue promo and Motor City Stocker Series promo-style kit. As indicated above, the conversion to a sedan police car wasn't a good one. Since Round2 did wonders with the Nova wagon and '64 Cutlass, it's time to do a '70 XL or XL GT.

I guess it's like the old kits with a combined rear suspension and exhaust. I display my models right-side up and with the hoods closed, so I don't get bent out of shape if some things aren't quite realistic. As long as the body is done properly, that's what's most important to me. Some want everything to look realistic, but it isn't going to happen at this price point.

I would have to say the original issue MPC '77 and "78 Trans Am Special Editions (Blackbird) with the poor fitting interior tub and inconsistent gold tone plating. Hopefully the reissues were of better quality. Does anyone know?

Considering that few new convertibles exist today, the novelty of convertible model cars may be appealing to younger modelers.

I'm assuming the '64 hardtop is a given, but who knows? We can have fun speculating. As I recall, this doesn't come with plated parts, and has vacuum-formed glass, so that's a deal breaker for some of us.

we can only hope, Casey, along with a Vista Cruiser; restoration of the '65 Dynamic 88 tooling to make Starfire, Jetstar 1, and/or Dynamic/Delta 88 versions would also be nice

"Edit: OK, I am seeing that there was also a rear stabilizer bar. That is easy on an A-Body. I was thinking that the '65 was the first year for that." The '64 442 also came standard with a rear stabilizer bar as part of its police package, which made the handling better than a GTO. It also had a 330 cubic inch engine rated at 310 horsepower vs. the Cutlass 290 horsepower engine. I agree that while they were tooling new parts for this kit that the unique 442 parts (rear stabilizer bar, emblems, and dual-snorkel air cleaner) should have been included. Maybe Round 2 will come out with a separate 442 kit and eventually do a '65 442 kit! By the way,, here is the first 442 ad, of which at least one 4-door sedan was built.

The MPC El Camino promos from '79-'82 are dirt cheap, so if you find one with a scratched up body, and don't care about looking at the engine, this is a good way to build one. The '80 GMC Caballero Diablo is a nice kit, and I don't believe it was ever reissued.

The Cheetah is pretty rare. I think I've only ever seen one. I doubt if many model builders under 60 even know what it is or would be inclined to build it. Us old guys probably would though!

I thought you could press the Control (Ctrl) and F keys simultaneously to bring up the search box in the upper right corner of any pdf file?

"a leading collectibles company that produces model kits, die-cast cars and slot cars" Notice that kits are listed first, whether that be model cars, Star Trek or Star Wars. I expect sci-fi models to continue doing well in sales, so more money will be invested there. If model car and truck sales do well, money will also be invested there. "the Praesidian team ... will bring significant resources as we continue to scale the business" I take that to mean Praesidia is willing to invest capital in the business to grow market share by adding more product in a shorter time frame than Round 2 has. "we also believe that there is a significant consolidation opportunity within the highly fragmented collectibles space. We will be working closely with the Round 2 team to continue to build on its already impressive list of brands.” I would expect Praesidian to purchase tooling or entire companies to be the undisputed models market leader if their expected business model pans out. I think this is great news for all of us.

Renault ...

reminds me of all the people around here who say, "I work at Ford's" or, "Dad worked at Ford's"

those are two different Packards pictured; the first has a solid roof and five large windows on each side; the green one has an open roof and four large windows per side

There are a lot of interesting ideas, but considering the cost of tooling now, it really makes sense in most cases to make something that is easy to modify into other years by changes in front grille and header panel, taillights and rear bumper, interior seating. I've only listed some intermediates as an example: '68-'71 Ranchero GT (with variations for buckets and bench seat, Squire woodgrain paneling), '72-'76 Ranchero GT, '77-'79 Ranchero GT '70-'72 El Camino SS, '73-'77 El Camino SS (and GMC Sprint versions with different emblems that can be glued on) '73-'77 Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, Regal (including S/R in '76 & '77), '75 and '76 Century Indy Pace Car '73-'77 Chevelle SS/Laguna S-3, '73 GTO, '73-'75 Grand Am, '77 Can Am, '73-'75 442 and GS, '76-'77 442 and Century '72-'73 Gran Torino Sport and Montego GT, '74-'76 Elite and Cougar, '77-'79 Thunderbird and Cougar '75-'76 Charger and Cordoba '78-'79 Magnum, '80-'82 Mirada

That's correct regarding the kits, but I was also including the promos.

I agree that the new midsize El Camino made more sense as a promo and kit than the 300 2-door wagon, and sales of the 1:1 El Camino vs. 2-door wagon bear that out. The El Camino also took some sales away from the smaller Falcon-based Ranchero. So from our perspective it was a great decision by Chevy to make promos (and eventually kits) of the '64 hardtop, 4-door wagon and El Camino. I think the various GM divisions determined that advertising was a better use of their marketing dollars than model cars over the next few years: '64 Chevelle SS ht., 4-door wagon, El Camino; LeMans hardtop, convertible, GTO hardtop; Cutlass hardtop, convertible (8) '65 Chevelle SS ht., 4-door wagon, El Camino; GTO hardtop, convertible (5) '66 GTO hardtop, convertible; Skylark GS hardtop (3) '67 GTO hardtop, convertible (2) Looking back, most of us as kids wanted the cool cars such as hardtops and convertibles. The early promos up through the mid-fifties were dominated by four-door sedans and a few wagons. Chevy went all out from '49-'54 with the best selection of body styles - never seen before or since then - with at least several models in the different series per year: 2-door coupe, 2-door sedan, 2-door fastback, 2-door hardtop (starting with the '50 Bel Air), convertible, 4-door sedan, 4-door fastback.

I learned from this forum that AMT never made a '64 Chevy II or Nova (bucket seat model) in any form. I found it odd that in '64 and '65, AMT made the 4-door wagon instead of the Nomad-like 300 2-door wagon or Malibu convertible. Evidently Chevy thought more sales potential was with the hardtop and 4-door wagon, so those promos and kits were made. It would have been interesting to hear the discussions in Chevy Marketing as to why the Nova and Chevelle models weren't made after '65 for several years.

the '58 Olds probably wins the prize for wretched excess chrome trim, followed closely by the '58 Fleetwood

Maybe they're clearing out old stock for new arrivals. Also, probably a lot were bought for Christmas gifts. Most kits are coming from China, so it's going to take some time to replenish. I went to the local one this afternoon and there was only 1 Wildcat left. I should have bought it to experiment with for building a correct interior (which it never had). They had the Revell '69 Boss 302. I couldn't recall if it's any good. I bought the 1/24 '66 Shelby and the Atlantis 1/48 Sinclair tanker truck. They also had the usual Ferrari and Lamborghini diecasts - cars I can't relate to.