Spooky Benson

Comments removed by poster.

A new '55 Nomad would be nice, but I question whether Revell would want to cross swords with the old AMT offering, which has held up extremely well.

It would be a lot less work (and probably just as cost-effective in the end) to order Model Car World's new resin conversion kit.

Comments removed by poster.

Contents removed by poster.

Done as a 2-in-1 Special Edition, stock and drag versions. You betcha!

Edited to correct ... my bad!

Here's a complete list of the subjects Revell has kitted in its "new" Tri-5 Chevy line ... '55 convertible '55 hardtop '56 Nomad '56 Del Ray '57 150 '57 Bel Air sedan '57 Bel Air convertible Other than the shared tooling, what's one thing these all have in common? The fact that with the exception of the '55 hardtop, none had previously been done as 1/25 scale plastic kits. (Minor exception for the '57 Bel Air hardtop, but, you can't really count the MPC flip-nose kit since it can't be built stock.) What that tells me is that, once again with the '55 hardtop being the exception, Revell has gone out of its way to avoid duplicating the past efforts of other manufacturers, including the "old" Revell and AMT. (And Monogram, too, although their kits are 1/24.) That wouldn't seem to bode well for either a new '57 Nomad or '56 Bel Air, since the "old" Revell did both ... A 150 Handyman, though ... hmmm ...

Much as I love the 150 kit, I am glad they went ahead and did a Bel Air sedan, too. And I really hope the forthcoming (and long-delayed) '57 ragtop isn't the end of the line for Revell's Tri-5 Chevys, as we're hearing. We really need a state-of-the-art '57 Nomad kit!

My understanding is the stock-only version was a dog sales-wise, too.

Here's where I come down on this kit ... if you're buying it as a nostalgia trip, a parts source, a test of how far your building skills have come since childhood or to add to your Roth collection, great. But, if your objective is to actually build a model of a '57 Chevy ... one that won't fight you at every step of the building process and one that accurately captures the look of the iconic 1:1 vehicle ... there are many better options available to you. Here's a few of them, listed in the order in which I would rank them ... 1. Revell's modern-tooling Bel Air Sedan and 150. Quite simply, the best '57 Chevy kits ever produced. And, while I realize neither represents a hardtop, like the Roth kit does, I would think it would be fairly simple to convert the sedan kit to that body style with a simple roof swap if that's what you're looking to build. 2. Revell's '57 Bel Air snap kit. Yeah, it's a snap kit and a curbside, but it nails the look of the 1:1 as well as any other kit on this list. 3. AMT's old-tool kit. This kit's tooling has aged MUCH better than the Revell '57 tooling, and, it was simply a better kit to begin with. About the only knocks on it are the somewhat primitive chassis detail and the fact the ribbed side trim coves are represented by decals rather than engraving. That can be used to the modeler's advantage, though ... leave the decals off and you've got yourself a 210! Or, you could use the photoetched trim pieces from the Model Car Garage set. I THINK this kit is currently available as part of Round 2's line of entry-level, molded-in-color kits. You don't want this version, though, because it has only the stock parts. The very cool speed and custom goodies from older versions have been excised. However, there are plenty of the older kits around and they can be had for cheap money. 4. AMT's new-tool kits, released in the '90s. I'm not as big a fan of these as a lot of people were because the body proportions look heavy to my eye. However, they're still miles better than the Revell kit. And, the street machine version, with its mildly tubbed chassis and big-block engine, is probably your best option if you're building a modern street stalker. 5. The MPC flip-nose gasser. This kit can't be built stock, obviously, but it's still a worthy model, and the body, which represents a two-door sedan, looks really good. This kit was last issued a few years ago by the Model King. They've gotten rather hard to find and can be pricey when you do find them. Back in the early days of Scale Auto magazine, when it was still known as Scale Auto Enthusiast, Tim Boyd did an article where he built, compared and ranked the four '57 Chevy kits that were available at that time ... old-tool AMT, Revell, MPC and Monogram. Tim's verdict was the AMT kit was best, followed by the MPC flip-nose gasser. The atrociously bad Monogram kit was a distant third and the Revell kit brought up the rear, In fact, Tim assigned it a "not acceptable" rating due to its myriad assembly issues. The fact he was able to get it together at all is a testament to Tim's skill as a modeler, IMO.

Lousy kits need love, too ...

Revell did coupe and convertible versions of the '40 Ford. The first was released under the ProModeler banner. It was a 2-in-1 convertible kit that could be built stock or as a street rod. Thay was followed by a stock-only coupe, a street-rod-only convertible and a street-rod-only coupe. The street rod coupe and convertible kits both have been reissued.

Simple, because it's a Revell kit, which repeesents the Standard and not the Deluxe.

The bottom line with this kitis that it takes a tremendous amount of work and skill to get it together, and, if you do manage to finish it, you're rewarded with a poorly proportioned model that looks less like a '57 Chevy than a caricature of one.