Robberbaron

AMT '41 Plymouth

I can certainly respect your viewpoint and opinion on this. I myself have some concerns about the latest Moebius releases, based on other's experiences with warpage, and some of the fidelity issues with the Ford pickups. Neither the '65 Plymouth or the Ford trucks particularly interest me, so I'm probably not going to have to deal with those issues for those specific kits. I am looking forward to the '61 Pontiacs and the '65 Comet, though, so I'm really hoping they get any packaging/warping issues resolved with their manufacturing plant before those are released. I will say that the previous Chrysler and Hudson kits I've bought all seemed very well packaged and organized. A step beyond what I'm used to from traditional "U.S. branded" kits. I will say that since I got back into the hobby a couple years ago, what I buy is about a 50/50 mix between Revell and Round2. I haven't had to return a kit from any manufacturer due to defects, which was not the case back in the 80s/90s when I was first building. As far as the pricing issue goes, as long as a Moebius kit isn't warped, etc., I feel they are much more justified in their pricing compared to some of the Round 2 releases within the last year. At least the Moebius kits are modernly designed, well detailed kits, even if there may be some inaccuracies. The problem is many of the Round 2 reissues are listing for about the same cost from many retailers. The latest example of this is the '79 Trans Am kit which is pushing $30 MSRP. From the discussion in that kit review thread, pretty much everyone agrees that that is a vast overreach, since the only real difference/improvement in the latest release is the decal sheet. Many of these old AMT/MPC kits have glaring inaccuracies that would result in 30 pages of discussion if they were newly tooled kits (sectioned '32 Vicky body, anyone?). The difference is that most of these issues have been known for years, so the typical member of this forum would go into a purchase of one of these kits with the full knowledge of what they were getting. As discussed in the '79 T/A thread, the Round 2 reissues seem very hit or miss. As a consumer, it is much easier for me to justify some "premium" pricing if there has been some significant restoration of original parts to the tooling, such as the recent '36 Ford kit. A kit like the '79 T/A, however, seems to be pretty much a straight repop of a kit that was issued not too long ago under RC2 ownership. And if I can buy the brand new Revell '29 A roadster kit for about $5.00 less than that, it's not going to be a very hard decision on my part.

Stopped at the Merrillville Hobby Lobby after work yesterday. Finally had lots of new stuff in stock. First time in a while that I had a tough time deciding what to get. Revell '57 Ford Del Rio, AMT '41 Plymouth, and MPC Cyclone stock cars were all new arrivals I wanted. Decided to go with the Del Rio, since I've been waiting for that one for a while.

After only being released for a couple of years, my local HL finally began stocking the Revell '70 Cuda kit, so I used my 40% coupon on that. Had been hoping they'd have the Del Rio kit, but no go. I swear I have no idea how they determine what they are going to stock, or when...

A.C., thanks for the heads up on those stripes. Whenever I would eventually get around to building this one, I had been planning on either black or silver to go with those red stripes. At least now I know that won't work, as opposed to when I'd be placing the first stripe!

The reissues that I bought within the last year of the AMT '63 Corvette and '36 Ford, as well as the MPC Pacer were all molded in that off-white plastic. Think my Ohio George Ranchero might have been, too. They've been using it a lot recently. PS: Gotta get used to this new quote system! Not sure what I did, but turned out pretty funky. Gotta read the owner's manual...

OK, hope I don't get blasted too bad for this one: Had to stop at Wal-Mart to get this and that. Took a stroll down the toy car/diecast aisle like I always do. Almost walked right past these things, then took a closer look. Anyone seen these before? "Adventure Wheels" seems to be a Wal-Mart brand, but the chassis in each of these indicates that they're actually manufactured by "Kidztech Toys". These are actually plastic bodied pullback toys, with flashing LED headlights and sound effects. Windows are totally opaque black plastic, and chassis detail is very shallow, and not prototypically correct. BUT.....to my eyes at least, the bodies are actually very well done as far as proportions and details. Even have clear headlights, driving lights, and clear red taillights. Haven't bothered to scale them, but the Charger sure looks close to 1/25th scale. Silverado seems like it might be 1/24th-ish, maybe even 1/23? Still close enough to be in my ballpark. Aside from the windows and lack of chassis detail, the Silverado has incorrect 8-lug wheels, but they do have a very nice Chevy bowtie tampo on the center, and decent looking rubber tires. Could look nice swapped onto something more appropriate. If I ever do anything with this one, probably would be a rim swap and drop it all the way to the ground to hide the chassis. Paint is a must to hide the awful metallic red plastic it's molded in. The Charger immediately looks 100% better after you peel off the awful police stickers. The spoiler and oversized push bar are rubbery plastic, and will need to go, too. The grille element sticks out too far, but it looks like a separate piece that just needs to be recessed in a little further. I'm picturing ditching the junk lightbar and giving it an all black repaint for that unmarked look. Just try to think of them as slammers. I believe there's a Motormax diecast of the 2011-2014 Charger, but I'm thinking this is the only thing in plastic. Don't think there's any other version of the 2007-2013 Silverado out there. Hey, they're far from perfect, but they're frickin' toys! What do you expect for $4.97 each?

As we learned from Eugene Levy in "Vacation", the actual official name for this color is "Metallic Pea". "You think that you hate it now, but wait till you drive it!"

Normally don't bother posting pics of my latest, since it's usually just new stuff, but I'm pretty excited about my latest find. Stopped in at one of the local antique stores. One seller there usually has a couple promos for sale in their booth. Almost always '90s Camaros, Corvettes, etc. Never anything of interest to me, and nothing pre-1980. Imagine my surprise when I walked up to his display case and came face to face with one of my holy grails: a '68 Impala SS427 hardtop promo. Body has a couple scuffs, and the bumpers need to be rechromed. Also has swapped out wheels and tires (wouldn't be surprised if the originals had the dreaded MPC tire melt). Main thing for me is that the body is straight and intact. I can live with the imperfections since it was only $50! Been on the lookout for one of these for more than half my life (our family car was a '68 Impala, so I've got a soft spot for them). Funny thing is that I was running errands and almost didn't stop in, plus I only had $55 on me. P.S. My apologies for the lousy pics from my tablet.

Picked up the AMT '32 Vicky at my LHS.

Revell 1968 Vette, marked down to $10.00 at Michael's the other day. Also stopped at Hobby Lobby, hoping they'd have something new like theMonogram Del Rio or the AMT '32 Vicky. No such like, but lots of stuff marked down. Hadn't planned to get one, but looked at the box side pictures of the Revell '54 Chevy sedan delivery (the one with the awful "drill sergeant" decals/box art), and saw that it also includes the '53 grille. My other version from the early 90s only has the '54 grille, so decided to get this one since it was marked down, too.

The Dart body got hacked to be used in the Revellion funny car kit. Check it out: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/?showtopic=88319 Actually, aside from the big old hole cut into the trunk lid, they didn't bother doing much else to the body, it appears. Seems like the side trim and even the front fender badge remained. Still had all the door seams, too. (Unlike the AMT Nova wagon body, which was smoothed to create the similar "Boss Nova" funny car.) I'd say there's no chance of them bothering to return the Dart to stock. Wouldn't be surprised if they still have the tool for the body and reissue the Revellion at some point, though. Don't know of them butchering any of the other Mopar '62 annual tools.

That was also my rationale for voting for those two, at least there would be some potential to do something "non-Foose" with those. Don't get me wrong, he's a talented guy and that FD-100 is actually gorgeous. Just not too keen on the one-off show cars. I guess I get a little satisfaction from having voted for the two winners, but frankly I'm not sure if I'll buy either kit.

Had that happen to me in the nineties. Bought a Ford 3-pack (57 T-bird, 57 Fairlane, 63 Galaxie), the roof for the 57 Fairlane was totally folded up, obviously packed when it was still hot. Wrote them a letter and ended up receiving a whole separate 57 Fairlane kit. Figured they sent the whole kit because they needed that size box just to send the body anyway. RC2 was Racing Champions, they're out of the picture now. Round 2 is a different company (although with a confusingly similar name).

That would be the best encouragement for Revell to tool up some more longroofs. Wouldn't it be sweet if they decided to cook up another variation of their tri-five Chevy tooling with a 150 Handyman wagon? I can picture one of those being a nice seller, too...

That would be the best encouragement for Revell to tool up some more longroofs. Wouldn't it be sweet if they decided to cook up another variation of their tri-five Chevy tooling with a 150 Handyman wagon? I can picture one of those being a nice seller, too...

That would be the best encouragement for Revell to tool up some more longroofs. Wouldn't it be sweet if they decided to cook up another variation of their tri-five Chevy tooling with a 150 Handyman wagon? I can picture one of those being a nice seller, too...

Nice job! A childhood friend down the street had one in this exact same color that he destroyed when we were kids. Every time I came over to play, another piece would be busted off of it. Even at that age I felt bad about seeing that. Probably was the fate of most promos back in the day...

As I said, I can look past the rear bumper issue and still get this kit. Still, gotta admit that the more I think about it, the more I'm scratching my head: instead of the incorrect sedan rear bumper (with guards) that they had on the build-up test shot that they displayed, they went through the trouble to tool up a new rear bumper THAT'S INCORRECT IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAY? That's the kind of thing that amazes me. If you're going to go through the trouble of changing it, how can you still get it wrong? As I stated, Google image search: 10 seconds of your time will show you what a factory stock wagon rear bumper should look like.

Ahhh, forgot about the plate lights! Thanks for the confirmation, Mike.

OK, maybe I was being a bit presumptuous when I stated that they included an "appropriate rear bumper". But, do you know for a fact that their removal of the rear bumper guards was incorrect? Back in the fifties bumper guards were optional on most cars, and often the rear guards were a separate option from the fronts. This isn't a rhetorical question - I'm actually asking if anyone knows for a fact whether or not this is correct. I'm not familiar enough with '57 Fords to know, so I need to plead ignorance on this one. Also need to keep in mind that this model depicts the higher line Del Rio trim level. Were bumper guards possibly standard on those, even if they were optional on the low line Ranch Wagon? I will say this: after doing a quick Google image search for "1957 Ford Wagon", easily 90% of the cars pictured DO have rear bumper guards, and almost all the ones I spotted without seemed to be customized. So, in order to build a "typical" factory stock '57 wagon, it seems like guards should be included. One final thought: I don't see that anyone has posted pictures of their kit contents yet, much less a complete review. Even if the bumper itself is plain, is there any chance that the correct guards are included, as separate pieces? That's what AMT did on their Trophy Series '56 Ford, so it is conceivable. Can anyone with the kit in hand confirm? Gotta admit, I personally plan to get one of these puppies, regardless of the rear bumper.

Lots of grief gets dished out to Revell on a lot of issues, but gotta give them credit for supplying an appropriate bumper on this one. Who knows if they planned it all along, or if they actually took some constructive criticism to heart. At least now we won't have holes punched in our 1/25th tailgates

Actually, they've done retro boxes on several MPC kits the last couple years. A lot of them have been racing subjects, like the Pepsi Laguna stock car, but they've also done some with retro annual box art, like the 1975 Dodge Dart Sport. Not sure if they've done any from the '60s era, though. That would be pretty cool, since this is one of the earliest MPC kits that still exists, I believe.

If Round 2 has any sense, they'll do retro box art for the 67 Charger , and maybe throw in either a set of their redlines or white letter tires. At least that would give them some kind of selling point for that kit vs. the modern Revell tool.

Good news on the 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo, 1950 Ford Convertible, and 1958 Chevy Impala, all quality kits that haven't been out for a while. If the 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Vanishing Point is the same old convertible kit with the separate top, they really need to stop trying to market that kit as a hardtop, as the separate top has no resemblance to the 1:1 hardtop roofs. Round 2 does have one other Challenger kit in their possession: the old Lindberg 72ish hardtop, which I believe is really a former Palmer kit. From what I'm told it is also pretty much the only Palmer kit ever created with a decent body, which was supposedly copied from the then current MPC kit. From what I understand, the rest of that kit is pretty useless. Theoretically, Round 2 could backdate that body to a 1970 and combine it with the guts of the AMT kit to get a decent actual hardtop kit. But I doubt that would ever happen. This is probably just a straight reissue of the convertible tooling, aimed at the movie memorabilia collectors, like the Beverly Hills Cop Nova and the Jack Reacher Chevelle.