Robberbaron

Most of the '80s Escorts around here self-destructed before they could rust away. The 4-banger that Ford used was an interference design, and good luck getting the owners to do preventative maintenance on the cheapest car that Ford made at the time. The American public in general wasn't too familiar with timing belts to begin with. When the timing belt inevitably snapped, if you were lucky it just bent a couple valves. More often the entire head was trashed, and the cost to get it professionally replaced was more then the car was worth. Had a friend in high school who got a free mint condition Escort wagon after their neighbor snapped the belt. Him and his dad pulled the head and were lucky and just had to do a valve job. This was one of the early American Escorts without the aero headlights (probably about an '83?), and you already didn't see many of those on the road anymore by that time. It was a low mileage grandma car, which is probably why it lasted as long as it did.

And who promised this to whom? Was it a definitive "promise", or a statement that they would simply take it into consideration?

Don't forget the hideously warped Ramcharger bodies that many people were getting in the most recent reissue (molded in 'Merica, no less). Even if the molding plant eats the cost of producing the replacement bodies, I suspect Revell/Hobbico must still be on the hook for at least some of the other ancillary costs, such as the customer service staff time and shipping.

Funny you should mention this, the last promos I bought about a year ago at a show were a 1978 Monza and a 1978 Monte Carlo, $20 for the pair, both mint. Great price for the Monte, still fair for the Monza - seen them before for that amount, though. I've been taking a renewed interest in these Monzas, since they're kind of forgotten little cars, but a lot of them came with factory V8s. With a little hopping up, they could be turned into little terrors on the streets. Seems like the promos still sell dirt cheap, and the way I see it, you can get them for a fraction of the cost of the new AMT reissued kit, or what an equivalent MPC kit reissue would cost. If I ever get ambitious enough, I would like to turn one into a Town Coupe, which is just about the ultimate 1:1 Chevy sleeper. Dropping a stout small block in one of those results in a "so wrong it's right" flyweight street machine.

Wow, that really is pretty straight! And the color seems pretty passable as a factory color, kind of surprising that it got painted that color in the '80s (seems like back then especially, there was very little appreciation for many of the 1:1 muscle cars that were originally painted green). I'm also surprised to see that this kit appears to have the correct, stock grill and front bumper guards. The awful MPC box art always led me to believe the grille pattern was incorrect and the bumper guards were still MIA. Guess it's the opposite of most '80s MPC box art - the contents are actually better than the box art indicates. Makes me really regret passing on one of these back in the early '90s. This is another one that it seems like Round 2 SHOULD be able to repop without too much drama...

I've said it before and I'll say it again the "old" Round 2 site was just about perfect. Well laid out, the newest releases at the top, working your way down all the way back to their very first releases from about 2008. And PDF instructions for almost everything. Their "new" site is pretty much a flashy, non-functional pile of excrement. Didn't need to fix what wasn't broken...

Would be nice to have a set of those in scale again. At least I don't think there's a currently available kit with that style - correct me if I'm wrong. Always nice to have one more alternative to Torq-Thrusts and Cragars.

Foresight Ventures made the Indy 500, along with a couple other similar styles. Stolen from the H.A.M.B.:

I believe the currently available "Revell" 1/24 Ramcharger kit was molded in the USA. Of course, with the monumental body warpage problems with that one, it didn't help make the case for American quality control...

I always thought the Monogram 1970 Buick GSX kit had very well done headlights, complete with the T3 triangle in the center. Of course, being a 1/24 kit, they might not be adaptable for most 1/25 kits. Plus technically I believe they're only appropriate for GM vehicles through 1972.

That's because it's an AMT kit:

Actually, that body is correct for the '78 Monza S, which really was nothing more than the Vega hatchback body with the nose from the new Monza wagon installed. Turns out that the 1978 Monza S was a pretty rare bird in 1:1, most estimates guess that there were only about 2,000 made. The common theory is that Chevy had left over Vega hatchback bodies after the 1977 model year was through, and didn't want to scrap them. They'd already decided to kill the Vega nameplate, so they decided to slap the new front end on the old Vega bodies and christened it the Monza S. The Vega wagons sold well enough that Chevy decided to continue producing them after killing off the Vega name. They designed a new nose that was similar to the standard Monza (non 2+2 Sport) front end, but would mate up to the old Vega fenders and hood. I believe (based on eyeballing) that the front bumper, the grill, and the headlight bezels are all the same as the standard Monza coupes, but the wagon header panel drops lower between the headlights compared with the standard Monza piece, in order to match the contours of the old Vega hood. The leading edge of the fenders on a Vega (and Monza wagons) is at an angle, whereas the fenders on "true" Monzas have a completely vertical leading edge. Chevy did a very good job of facelifting these wagons in '78. At a glance it looks like the front end from a Monza wagon (or the '78 Monza S) would bolt on to one of the standard Monza coupes, but they are in fact quite different. I realized this after kicking around the idea of grafting the nose from a "Twister Vega" kit (actually the Monza S, of course) onto an MPC Monza 2+2 Sport body to make a standard Monza 2+2. The more I researched it, the more I realized it would be much more involved than I first thought. Besides having to tweak the nose to look right, standard (non Sport) Monzas also have a unique hood that's different from the Sport models (has a hood bulge somewhat similar to the Vega, but not the same)

Really nice all around - clean build, great colors, nice subtle wheel choice.

Yeah, I have one of the '68 Camaro Street Machines (molded in dark blue, custom only) that I bought at a swap meet that has the molded-in mirror. That was before the reissues were available, so at the time I was happy to get it, despite that quirk. Yes the currently available Crew Chief Blazer has mismatched 5 and 6-lug wheels. I didn't notice it at first, but someone else pointed out that AMT also never added the turn signals to the front bumper after they updated the grill for 1971. So out of the box, that kit has no front turn signals. See how long you can drive a 1:1 on the street that way...

I have bought 6 Moebius automotive kits so far. Only problem I've ever had was that one of them was missing a decal sheet. I emailed their customer service explaining the situation, and they quickly responded. 5 days after they told me they sent it, it was in my mailbox (Florida to Indiana). Doesn't get much better than that. Absolutely no complaints here.

I'll admit I was a bit gunshy about getting the Belvedere kit after hearing about lots of people.having warp issues. Shortly before Christmas my LHS had a 10% off sale, and I couldn't resist and picked one up. Happy to see that my body is arrow straight. I'll admit the panel lines are very light, but I knew that going in, will just need to rescribe them.

I also like the snapper better! Nice job. I think Round 2 is missing the bus by not reissuing some of those Snap Fast Plus kits that they did in the '90s. Supposedly, the Revell snappers are money making machines for them. Round 2 could follow the same page using these Vettes, the snap '66 Fairlane, etc. Might even get more of their stuff on the shelves at places like Meijer (ones around here currently carry Revell almost exclusively, except the Polar Lights Ecto 1).

REALLY nice! It all works together.

Great that they are letting people know where they're at in the process. I believe I placed my order right after they opened the site back up in May, so I might be getting mine soon. Trying to not get too giddy.

While Jesse didn't specifically say, when most people refer to an "AMC 6 cylinder", it's understood to be the AMC-designed straight 6 family of engines that debuted in the mid-sixties, and continued in production for certain Jeeps until about 10 years ago, I believe. This is an inline (straight) 6 design, totally different than the Buick V6. Kaiser-Jeep did buy the rights to the Buick V6, but when AMC bought the Jeep brand, they switched over to the AMC I-6. In fact, I'm not sure if AMC actually bought the rights to the Buick V6. Kaiser Corporation may have retained ownership after they spun Jeep off to AMC. Since Jesse stated that he wants to build a 6 cylinder Gremlin, were definitely talking about the AMC I-6. I agree that the recently reissued MPC Pacer is probably the best choice. The AMT Pacer wagon also has an I-6 (also just reissued), but it doesn't seem quite as nice.

Try this link: http://www.collectormodel.com/amt/3431-amt-model-kits-1964-dodge-330-color-me-gone/#sthash.c2VVnnLd.dpbs Interesting that they're throwing in most of the newly tooled parts from the Lawman Plymouth. Strange thing is that almost all of these parts were already tooled previously by Lindberg for all their different variations of the '64 Dodge. I'm no Mopar expert, but I believe those Plymouth dog dish hubcaps aren't correct for a '64 Dodge. Ironically, I believe the original street stock Lindberg '64 Dodge (the one with the slant 6 option) does have the correct factory hubcaps.

Hardest thing for me to get past on these Monogram Chevelles is the wacky front grille. The whole appearance is way off from a factory stock '66 Chevelle, especially the raised center area between the headlights. Worse yet, the grille bars in the center section aren't even horizontal! You can even see it on the "Street Rat" box art above, with the red car. Think someone had one too many lunch beers the day they cut the tooling for that grille! Interesting thing is that the black box art car above seems to have a better looking grille, much closer to stock. Wonder if the original 197x issues had a better grille, and at some point the tooling was poorly repaired/reengraved? I can say definitively that the Malibu SS version (molded in black, tunnel ram, Super Trick wheels) that I bought around 1992 has the lousy grille shown on the red car above. I suppose you could argue that it represents a custom tube grille (it's a '70s street machine, after all). Otherwise, blacking out the grille bars would probably help hide a lot of the sins. My original plan was to build something "closer to stock" out of it, but once the Lindberg '66 came out, there was no point in doing that anymore..

Also patiently waiting for my order from May. I'm one of those guys that always thought of ordering from them, but never got around to it until it was "now or never" time. Like many others, I've since thought of several additional items I should have ordered before the final window closed. I'll still be happy to get what I have in the queue, when it's my turn.

My older brother also started building glue kits around that time. He built several of the Countdown and Cruisin' USA cars, as well. I remember thinking how cool some of those subjects were, so I was pretty excited when Ertl began reissuing most of them.

One additional comment, a 7 to 8 year gap between reissues doesn't seem too unusual, historically speaking. Many of the classic AMT kits that Ertl began to reissue in the mid 1980s were previously available probably about 8 years before in the Countdown and Cruisin' USA series. I remember being happy back then when they reissued the '65 Riviera, I couldn't have cared less that it had been available in the late '70s. Wasn't too happy with the bright yellow plastic, though..