Robberbaron

I'm normally not too into the first gen Chargers, but this one is done the right way - has that "all business" street racer vibe to it. Very nice!

Wholeheartedly endorse this! Definitely a 180 degree departure from the original intent of a Volvo wagon. There is an inordinate amount of 1:1 Volvos that get converted to American V8 power, for some reason (usually Chevy 350s). Never seen one taken to this level, though (that is a compliment).

I think you have the stance/wheels/tires nailed down perfectly, wouldn't mess with it at all. Impressed with the cage you put together, too.

Looks great! The white bumper/mirrors/wheels really help create the look, along with converting to the round headlights. Really gives it that barebones "all business" look.

Awe-inspiring work! After seeing your Clark Station and Photo Booth, I already know how incredible this is going to be!

Absolutely gorgeous! Everything you post is a standout!

Impressive work, Bob. You really seem to have the dimensions nailed down on this one. Are you planning to do the original 74 front end, or duplicate the 77 nose that you installed? Really would love to see the 77 front end done. I own a 1:1 77 Malibu Classic, and one of my to-do's is to convert either the AMT or the MPC stocker into a duplicate of my 1:1. Bill, I agree with you from personal experience: the 73-77 A-bodies get very little respect, but I love 'em all: Chevelles, El Caminos, Montes, plus all the B-O-P versions. Definitely going to be keeping an eye on this build. From your 60 El Camino build, I've seen what you're capable of. I'm assuming you will be starting out with an interior from the Revell 77 Monte, since that has the dash you will need? Can't tell from your pic of your Elco had swivel buckets or a bench seat, but the 77 Monte has the buckets if you need them, too.

Chuck, gotta agree with you on all the points you make regarding the 67 - 72 GM trucks. If planned out correctly, there are so many possible variations off the basic platform, as you described. If Moebius' bumpside Fords turn out to be hits, (and looking at the current 33 page discussion thread in the truck section, I think they will be) I'm crossing my fingers that this could be their next light truck subject.

I picked one of these up at Hobby Lobby last week, and was also struck by how crisp the engraving is on both the plated tail panel and the grille/headlight assembly. Fortunately, the chrome on mine is fine as well. The only place it looks a little wonky is on the Hemi valve covers, but it looks like those might actually have some engraved texture beneath the plating.

Had to look that one up - now I can say I learned something today! ? And here I thought we were all speechifying instead ? Harry, that's the reason I admitted in my original post that I had some reservations about starting this thread. I'm resigned to the fact that some folks just aren't going to get the gist of what we're trying to discuss, and you then get the resultant posts like "I drove an '84 Plymouth Reliant in High School, they really should make a kit of that". But it seems like at least half the guys posting in this thread "get it". It's not necessarily a personal wish list, it's more a matter of looking at how much interest there is in certain 1:1 vehicles, and wondering why there's not a decent kit of that vehicle in 1/25. Model interests and trends tend to follow the 1:1 car world. I think there is some information of real value, specifically the certain subjects that are being discussed repeatedly, especially the concept of a new Model A coupe. I really believe several of us have made a very good argument on why it would make sense to tool one of these up. I'm not conceited enough to think that any manufacturer is going to make that decision because of this thread. But we do know that several people "in the industry" browse this forum. So if they read this thread, at least some of these ideas have a better chance of getting at least a little bit of consideration.

With that wide fiberglass grille opening beneath the protruding headlights, I've always thought the 58 Packard Hawk would win the prize for the car that looks most like a catfish. Totally destroyed the elegant design of the Studebakers. I've got to admit, there is a "so ugly it's cool" factor to these, which is helped by their rarity. But there's a reason the 1:1s didn't sell ( actually several reasons), and as a styrene kit I think there's zero chance. I think a case could be made for the actual Studebaker Hawks, and if that happened, a resin caster could step in with a Packard version.

Kinda disagree with this, depending on your definition of "kids". Plenty of young guys are in the "rat rod" movement (hate that terminology), which has been going on for about 15 years now, and fortunately a lot of these guys have transitioned into building more traditional, period correct rods vs. the "buncha junk thrown together to look radical" method (even though there's still too much of that going on). Most magazine sections in the local stores around here have just as many various "rod" magazines as the import/tuner magazines. If you've surfed around much on the H.A.M.B., you'll also see that there are plenty of younger guys involved in the traditional rod movement. So the "traditional" rod engines have dual appeal to both the graybeards and the new generations of guys who have an appreciation for tradition. Automotive interests are just like so many other elements of today's society: fragmented. For every guy that wants to build a stanced Honda, there's another that would rather build a pro-touring 69 Camaro, and another guy who wants to build a chopped and channeled "A". One of my co-workers bought a 51 Merc coupe when he was 28, another guy at our company had restored several 442s with his dad over the years. When he worked at our company, he had recently bought a 69 W-30 from the original owner in Canada, and he was only 24 at the time. You can't use too broad of a brush to paint an entire generation as "they just don't care" about this or that. Speaking of "A" coupes, it is kind of amazing that a car that is so popular in the 1:1 car world is pretty much MIA in the current model world. I believe the Monogram 1/24 is the only styrene version ever made, and when was the last time they cranked that one out? I believe the only other option is resin right now. Kinda amazing that they never produced a coupe variation of the 1/25 Revell kit.

Trying to make SRT a separate brand seemed dopey from the start. Same goes for splitting Ram off as its own brand, no point to it, IMHO. Always thought the 300 SRT8s were cool, so too bad those are going bye bye, though I suspect they mainly cannibalized sales from the Charger SRT8s.

Gorgeous! Love the color combo, too. Wouldn't change a thing.

You took all the lines that I was going to quote!

Sorry to hear about more Chicago area hobby shops closing. I didn't even know until recently that there even was a shop in Valpo, never had a chance to go there (don't get over that way much). Do they have much of a selection for car kits? I normally go to G&G in Griffith. They still carry a great car kit selection (almost the whole east wall of the shop. Parklane in Dyer is still going, but barely has anything except train stuff anymore. Ownership has changed a few times, and the last time I stopped in afew weeks ago, they had maybe only about 2 dozen car/truck kits...

C'mon: it's a new factory-built 427 Camaro that'll run rings around almost anything else that costs twice as much, and it's available to the general public (albeit in limited numbers and that $75,000 tag). This car is the most concrete proof that GM is definitely no longer "government motors"!

Lots of great ideas here. Tim, Luc: I totally agree on the GTOs: the closest thing we have right now is the MPC 72 GTO, which is a real pig. I think the last time the MPC 70 was available was the late 80s, and it's a challenge to build a decent shelf model out of that one, too. I personally would love a 78 to 81 Malibu, I like the clean styling of these and they make great street machines and drag cars. One of the drawbacks from a marketing perspective is that there was never a factory performance version of these cars, and I'm not sure if they would have enough appeal to the general public. I've also owned 1:1 versions of the 77-79 Caprice coupes and 73-77 Chevelles, so I would personally probably buy a case of each if they released a kit, but unfortunately these cars don't seem to be on the radar of the general public very much. Even many "car guys" don't have much appreciation for these. The 2nd car I owned was a 77 Monte Carlo, so I was overjoyed years ago when Revell brought out their snap kit of that one, but it seems like the days of those type of new releases is long gone.

Well said, Tom. My original thought process was focused on kit subjects that currently aren't available at all, but so many people mentioned a modern, full-detail 1/25 first generation Mustang. That got me thinking of some of the other cars that are currently available, but only as sub-par kits. First and foremost in my mind is the lousy selection of 2nd generation (68 to 72) Chevelle kits. For the 1970 Chevelle, what many people consider one of the apex 1:1 muscle cars, we have the old 1/24 Monogram with the "something's not quite right here" front end, the backdated 1/25 AMT kit which is 44 years old, and the fairly new Revell 1/25 snap kit, which I'm told is actually quite accurate proportionally, but a lot of folks have no interest in it since it's a curbside snapper. For other year 2nd generation Chevelles, we also have the inbred-looking 72 Chevelle that RC2 created based off their 1970 Chevelle, which itself was backdated from the original (decent looking) 72 annual. Rounding out the mix is the old pair of AMT 69 Chevelles, both the hardtop and the convertible. Again we're talking about 45 year-old tooling, but these are even worse than the 70, since there's a laundry list of accuracy problems with the bodies of these kits, especially the butchered, asymmetrical taillights. (I support a lot of what Round 2 has been doing with their recent releases, but they should be ashamed for trotting out that 69 convertible without fixing that bumper/taillight assembly). We haven't seen a styrene 68 or 71 Chevelle available since the 1:1 cars were new. Imagine having a new, modern, full detail 70 Chevelle LS-6. I think that would rank right up there with the new Revell 70 Cuda. Mechanically and chassis-wise, all the 68 to 72 Chevelles are pretty much identical appearance-wise (a 454 block looks the same as a 402, which looks the same as a 396). I believe the interior remained pretty much unchanged from 70 through 72. So it would be possible to field a whole roster of Chevelles with just body/wheel changes, plus new interiors for the 68 and 69. If you really want to run with this idea, you could even use the basic chassis for B-O-P variations (new 70 GTO Judge anyone?)

My apologies if I'm rehashing a topic that's already been covered. Well, I know it's KIND OF been covered before, but I don't recall the emphasis on "practicality", if you will. If that was Luc's angle, we'll just say that great minds think alike!

OK, I've kicked around starting this topic a few times, but I've hesitated because of what I fear it could degenerate into. Nevertheless, this issue came up again in the car kit news & review section regarding the new Moebius kit announcements. The issue is the fact that most new kit subjects are selected so that multiple variations can be created from the same basic tooling platform: a factory stock car may be followed by either a NASCAR variation (i.e. Revell '57 Ford) or a drag variation (i.e. Revell '70 Cuda). As others have said, this isn't a bad thing: we are getting some great new kits, and the manufacturers need to function this way to be profitable. With that in mind, can you think of some possible new kit subjects that would not only have enough mainstream appeal to sell well initially, but could also generate multiple "spin-offs"? I'm hoping for everyone to resist the urge to throw out the fantasy wish list: I'd love to be able to build the family cars from my childhood, but let's be honest: nobody in a million years is going to tool up a 68 Impala 4-door sedan with a straight 6 or an 84 LTD station wagon. However I do have a short list of possible model subjects that I keep thinking: they could really sell a lot of kits of a _______ if only they'd make it. A couple examples: I think a first generation 67/68 Cougar kit has a lot of sales potential. I believe the original (MPC?) annual got turned into a funny car kit, so I don't think a factory stock plastic kit has been available for over 40 years. The same body could probably be used for both 67 and 68 versions, and there are a huge variety of different factory trim levels that could be offered: base cougar, XR7, XR7G, GT, GT-E, probably some others I'm not thinking of. These cougars had a huge presence in Trans Am, so a Bud Moore racing version would be a no-brainer. I'm sure there could be a drag car variation, too. Another one I keep wondering why it hasn't been done yet: 81 to 88 Cutlass Supreme (RWD). I realize there are rumors that this one is in the works now, and there was a stillborn diecast offshoot that was shown years ago, but never released. As of right now: nothing in our hands. These cars were the best selling cars in America for several years, so there's automatically some built-in interest from so many former owners. In addition to the basic Cutlass Supremes, there could be 83/84 Hurst Olds variations and 442 variations. The basic body was pretty much unchanged throughout the run, so the only differences between years is taillights, grilles, and the 87/88 had a different nose with the aero headlights. A lot of these have been turned into drag cars, so there's interest there too. These cars are hugely popular in both the low rider and Donk movements, so those are also possible offshoots. Anyone else have some similar examples? Pretend you're a model company decision maker, and your job depends on whether or not the subjects that you select could turn a profit.

Dave, thank you for sharing your insider information with us on the board here. It's a pleasant surprise to have someone in your position not only actively participating on a forum like this, but giving candid responses to people's questions whenever possible. Although not all of Moebius' upcoming releases interest me personally (such as the Ford pickups), I can see from others' posts on this forum that there is strong demand for these kits, and Moebius is obviously doing their research to confirm what kind of market there is for these upcoming releases. I have recently purchased the Chrysler and Hudson kits, and was very pleased by the quality, so I'm looking forward to these new releases.

Wanted to support my LHS so I stopped in there today on my lunch. Wanted to support Moebius, so I finally got a 52 Hudson kit.

Yikes! That thing is going to be sinister!

Nice job!