Robberbaron

I seem to recall hearing that Goodyear was becoming more of a pain to deal with. But as stated, some of their kits still include Goodyear branded tires. The bigger issue is that, for whatever reason, they can't get the licensing for the "Polyglas" name, which is pretty much mandatory for an accurate muscle-car era white letter Goodyear tire. That's the reason the '68 Camaro kits started out with 2 complete sets of properly printed Polyglas GT tires, but more recent runs deleted the "Polyglas GT" lettering and only have "Goodyear". Looks kind of strange to me, since pretty much any Goodyear white letter tire I've seen has the tire model name (?) in white 180° apart from the Goodyear branding. Makes them look unbalanced. I think that's the main reason for switching to Firestone: they can put both the brand and the model name so that they appear correct. I've been getting a chuckle from some of the rivet counters complaining that Firestone Wide Ovals didn't come from the factory for XYZ muscle car. Considering how fast those tires got smoked when those cars were new, within a couple months they could have been rolling on anything else.

Looks like it's straight out of the pages of Sport Truck, circa 1993. My brother's 1:1 had a similar burgundy interior.

Everything looks so right on this, incredible job.

Really, more power to Round 2 - not faulting them at all. Every space they can claim on the HL shelves means one less Revell competitor. But that's also one less purchasing option for the consumer. (And for the record, I like the AMT '53 F100 as much as the next guy) Just gotta wonder about who's making the purchasing/stocking decisions at the HL corporate level. The three '53 F100's is the silliest example. But just in the above photo, there are also multiple boxings of the '67 GTO and '67 Shelby GT350. Since my LHS went extinct, HL is my only brick and mortar source for kits now. So it's annoying to see them doing stuff like this repeatedly.

More info straight from the horse's mouth in this thread (Erik Solie works for Moebius):

This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts: HL is getting fewer and fewer new releases as time goes on, yet they are taking up shelf space with THREE different versions of the AMT '53 Ford pickup!

That's been my working theory: Tom Daniel did his design with the expectation that Monogram would tool up a BBC for it. After he did his part, it was out of his hands as far as how well they followed through on his concept. It's kind of hard to fault them considering how well these sold, despite the cut corners.

Really nice job! The 3D printed grill looks like a kit part, and the whole build just looks "right".

In a different thread, someone else pointed out that the red car depicted in the factory stock box art is a "standard" Nova hardtop, with different side trim than the SS. Again, I have to assume that this is a mistake and it will have the SS side trim as shown on the blue Resto Mod box art...

At first glance they look quite similar, but there are actually a lot of changes on the '65s. Most obvious is the different grill and headlight bezels. Turn signals also got relocated to the front bumper, so that's different too. (Note that the '65 Resto Mod box art does NOT show the correct bumper, but I'm assuming the correct one will be included in the kit) Side trim and emblem design/location are different on the '65, so different side inserts are needed for the tooling. Taillights/backup lights are also different. In the interior, the '65 had a different console. I think upholstery patterns also changed for '65. Probably other differences I'm not listing.

Huh, surprised to hear that since I seem to recall seeing a lot of them in the Chicago area back when they were new. Maybe it varied by region?

Official announcement from Erik with Moebius in this thread:

Around that same time the MPC Pinto wagon "Pony Express" and Nova "Squad Rod" also came and went rather quickly. I don't think I saw any of those at Hobby Lobby, only my LHS. So that may also correspond to a smaller production run. The Nova just got reissued (without the police components), so I wouldn't be surprised to see another run of the Pacer within the next couple years.

Correct that the tail panel is different, though I wouldn't characterize it as a slight difference. The standard SS trim is completely different vs. the Z16, including "Chevrolet" lettering and ribbed trim running above/below. Even the Z16 taillights are different, since they are from the lower line "base" Chevelles, not the Malibu. In addition to the tail panel, the side "Malibu SS" badges are in a different location on the Z16. So you have quite a task ahead of you to convert the Revell kit to a "standard" Super Sport. I've seen it done a handful of times, but it's not for the faint-hearted. Add to that the fact that the Revell kit has front/rear bumper guards. While not incorrect for a standard SS, many people would prefer to not have them on their model (the Lindberg 66 Chevelle also has that issue). Finally, Revell managed to botch the side window shape on their '65. Where the 1:1 upper molding/rain gutter should have a slight gentle arch, the Revell kit is arrow straight.

At the time the Revell Crown Vic was being released, the story was that it was a partially developed project that had been mothballed years before, for whatever reason. Then when Revell was looking for low buck options to bring out new product, it was dusted off and development was comp!eted. Who knows if it's true, but I tend to believe it. It's the one explanation that makes sense vs. bringing out a 1998+ version. Still think it's crazy that no one ever produced a styrene version of that one, since it's the quintessential American cop car from the last 25 years. Heck there are STILL some of those things in service!

I didn't even know PL did an update on that GTO. Did the update have improved headlights vs. the 2004? I seem to remember those were sorely lacking on the original.

Stopped at the Merrillville, IN HL after work today. They had one Demon and one '60 Ford PU on the shelf. They're not there anymore...?

Last time was probably about 3 years ago. Don't recall getting a ship notification, but every time I've received my shipments fast. My last order was decent size, and he even included a free bonus body. I'd have zero hesitation ordering from him again.

To my eyes, the main sin of the '56 is the headlights that mount too low, so they always look perpetually surprised: There's something funky about the roof profile in back too, especially near the base of the back window. P.S. NEVER buy the Revell Hot Rod version of the '56 shown above. Nearly 100% of the bodies are hopelessly warped. The last years of Venice-based Revell had zero QC.

Any idea who manufactured the Cyclone? I got one several years ago at a local swap meet, but there was no manufacturer's info, and the seller didn't know anything about it either.

Yes it's separate, and non-factory. The Landau option for 1979 and 1980 Monte Carlos was a 3/4 length canopy-style top ahead of the C-pillars.

I admit I LOL'd when I saw the X'ed out wagon. Got out the popcorn for the reactions...

Glad to see this one finally "dragged across the finishing line", been seeing you post it for years. And yes, I think Snake would be proud!

The mind races!

I seem to recall when these were announced we were told that the sedan would be Hemi-powered (A-990). I don't remember hearing that there would be 2 versions of the sedan, so that's a pleasant surpise. Should we assume the "standard" sedan kit (blue car box art) is wedge-powered (Similar to the Belvedere sedan)? That would be a big plus in my book. Would love to know all the differnces between the two sedan versions.