Motor City

My ophthalmologist bought the real thing in blue. I think they start at $136,000 something. I just saw it yesterday.

I was hoping for a REO Speedwagon from the 30s ...

ONE '65 SS396 convertible was built. I recall reading that Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame had one of the SS396 cars, but don't recall if his was the convertible. I don't know if anyone has come forward as the current owner of it.

I bought some plastic shelving units at Home Depot, 18" deep, 36" wide, 5-6 shelves per unit for about $40.00 each. You can put 3-4 boxes high depending on if they are kits, promos, or a combination of the two.

count me in, Tom!

I had a few 1/24th models, but got rid of them since the rest of my kits and all of my promos were 1/25th. As I couldn't get an '88 Reatta or Regal, or '78 El Camino Black Knight in 1/25th, I realized the scale wasn't that important. I started re-purchasing the ones I had sold. National Products promos from the late 40s were around 1/28th scale, and the '51-'52 Pontiac probably were, too. With the variety of scales available, why not display all of the 1/20th models on one shelf, 1/24th on another, 1/28th on another, and the 1/25th on other shelves. If you go back to the 1920s, some cast iron models are often around 1/20th-1/22nd scale. You can have a more interesting display by grouping like-scale models together.

The Model Encyclopedia link doesn't list Cruver, National Products, or Product Miniature Corporation (PMC),

thank you very much, Ron

Who sells the photo-etched emblems? Thanks.

Since we already have the '53 sedan and '52 convertible, and will soon have '54s, I hope a Hollywood hardtop is in the works - but not from '55-'57.

From what I read, they ran their woolen mill into the ground, and kept buying cars to feed their collection. Meanwhile, the employees of the mill lost their jobs. That was their right to run the business into the ground, but don't feel sorry for the Schlumpfs.

Steven, You missed my point. The models I mentioned were in the last year of their design for that generation or, as is the case of the Cutlass, a '65 model was never produced from the '64 mold. Therefore, those molds (if they still exist) should be unaltered from the models/years I mentioned.

I wonder why ERTL, and then Round 2, have re-issued so many of the same AMT models over and over again. Where are the models that should need no modification to the tooling such as the 1964 Bonneville, Grand Prix, Cutlass, and Wildcat, 1961 Bonneville and Invicta? The same goes for MPC models such as the 1965 Coronet 500, the 1966 Bonneville, Polara, and Monaco. Is it that the tooling is missing, in poor condition, or they don't think there is demand for these? I would like to see a lot of the promos from the 50s re-issued in styrene. Even cars without interiors would be cool to add to our collections.

silver '32 pickup or the '34 black w/red interior

My '55 has metal bumpers and wheel covers, so it's not a re-issue.

As far as I know, only the '56, '59, and '60 were re-issued.

The Indy Pace Car would be nice. Also, it would be cool to see a '48 Pontiac Streamliner or Torpedo 2-door fastback (GM called it a sedan-coupe).

Art and Tom, Any idea why my '55 DeSoto has no warp and the original-issue '56 Desoto warp quite a bit?

It doesn't come with emblems molded into the body, but has the decals instead. I guess I'll have to create emblems from a '65 GTO kit.

Thanks for the replies, John and Steve. I didn't know Jo-Han made kits prior to 1960. I saw a '63 Starfire kit with severe warp, so assumed that the switch to styrene occurred sometime that year since I have a couple of non-warped '63 kits. Maybe the Starfire was left in an attic. The '61 Fury has great detail. I notice there is a dip in the roof at the top center of the windshield, so maybe that was stored in a hot area at some point in its life..

Steve, So that is a kit molded in yellow and not a promo? I thought all of the '56-'62 Jo-Han models warped badly. I have a '63 deVille kit that has no warp, but the promos apparently still used the old plastic that warped.

Steve, Why would you want to do it over? It looks like a rare, non-warped model. My grandparents had a '59 Super 88 2-door hardtop in two-tone green. He traded in a black '55 Special 2-door hardtop for it and then traded the S88 in for a '63 Wildcat 4-door hardtop. All three were cool cars.

It looks like it has a built-in sidecar. The original was sharp, this is just weird.

about as exciting as a Chevette or Yugo ... oh, wait, the new Golf is the 2015 North American Car of the Year

Any suggestions on how to convert this kit to produce a stock 1952 Victoria?