Mark

The Comet is a '62, it's the Stylizing kit that came in the box with a cellophane window for viewing the parts inside. Cut off the folding lid, and the box could be used as a display case. Those custom parts were in the kit. I've got a built one with some of the other custom parts on it, but always wanted to use that front end piece with the headlights under the grille.

The C-cab, and some of the others, are probably kitbashed as "let's throw this out there and see if there's enough interest" things. If they're going to take a swing at doing "partially new" kits, they'd be wiser to use the parts packs. But that's just one more opinion, which doesn't count any more than any other.

The markings on that bag tell the tale...

The car may have been owned by a dealer, or a collector who had a set of dealer/transport plates. I knew a guy who worked for a dealer, he'd borrow the dealer plates to drive his drag car to the strip instead of trailering it. The liability insurance on dealer plates is high because they can be used to transport cars that don't necessarily pass inspection, and haven't been inspected yet. Or the car just hasn't been on the road. In New York, you pay sales tax on the car when you register it. No registration, no sales tax.

The reissue of the newer Revell '56 Chevy Delray/210 has been out for a while. Atlantis might not be thinking about issuing the old Revell opening-doors '56 while the newer kit is out there. Even if they are, that bad boy needs a lot of work including new clear parts (last issue, the windows fell through the openings).

Roth's studio was definitely losing momentum prior to his having lost it. Robert Williams' ads got him in hot water with Petersen Publishing. There's supposedly a letter that Roth got from Petersen, listing all of the things deemed offensive, that couldn't be included in the ads...it's said to be pretty hilarious.

Roach, but probably done by Ed Newton. Roth lost his studio in his first divorce, Newton moved on and linked up with Roach for a few more years.

Back then, a number of outdated/no longer competitive/never were competitive drag cars, mainly dragsters and funny cars, ended up at the sand drags.

The C-cab looks like it is based on the Tweedy Pie. The altered velocity stacks are back...maybe the Tweedy Pie restoration parts were tooled overseas and not part of the deal? One of the dragsters pictured has suspension parts from the dragster chassis accessory pack. The double kits used only the roadster chassis accessories, dividing the parts between the two cars in each double kit. Hopefully, with these being issued as single kits now, the dragster accessories will find their way into some of the kits.

Bet they're the same tires. The Blue Bandito reissue included those tires as an option, with the lettering removed. One of the Testors Boyd Coddington kits included four tires that fit those Monogram wheels perfectly. I believe it was the Aluma Coupe. Jimmy Flintstone used those same tires in some of his resin kits that were sold through Testors. He sold off surplus sets of bagged tires at NNL East for a couple of years, I'm glad I snagged a couple of extra sets of those. The Malibu having "all the parts" will make it a parts gold mine, both sets of wheels are very good as are both hood scoops. The suspension parts are pretty decent also. Seeing it molded in white will be interesting too.

I'd bet those are Jim Keeler builds from back in the day. The C-cab looks like it might be based on the Revell Tweedy Pie kit.

Better, not perfect by any means. The headlamps sit a bit further back, but lack the raised trim around them. I suspect that if the Barracuda were to be reissued, the body would remain unchanged, oversize door handles and all.

For my Motown Missile 'Cuda, I adapted the MPC '72 grille and taillight panel to the Jo-Han kit. I had an MPC body that someone had butchered (radiused rear wheel openings, body sides sanded with wood sandpaper) that was perfect for such a conversion. The grille/under-bumper pan, and taillight panel both fit without much work. Initially I was going to fit the entire MPC Missile hood to the Jo-Han body, but ultimately I just swapped scoops.

No Lenco in any MPC Pro Stock kit other than the two Pintos. The Missile (and Landy Challenger) had Torqueflites even though Landy never ran one in Pro Stock, and only the first Missile ('70 Challenger) ran one. Heck, the '73 MPC Pro Stock kits still had stock exhaust system detail on the chassis! (The Sox & Martin Duster didn't have the mufflers or tailpipes because those were molded with the rear suspension in the annual kit, and were blocked off. But it did have two pipes on the chassis, on either side of the driveshaft.)

Revell has in the past issued a number of one-and-done kits...the Rick Dobbertin J-2000, Don Garlits' Swamp Rat 30, Roth's Beatnik Bandit II to name three. Not being reissued would be due to nonexistent sales on the first issue, licensing problems, or the tooling being altered to make something else.

Tim: The original '74 USA-1 kit body did not have the rounded rear wheel openings like the '73 issue Jenkins Vega. It did have elongated stock style wheel openings, though the flare detail did not match up with the stock front wheel openings.

Not sure about the Charger as I have never had one (body looks kind of funky to my eyes), but the body/chassis fit on the other kits isn't anything to write home about. The Torino's reverse curve back window forces the body to ride way high on the chassis to keep the window from hitting the roll cage, and the one-piece interior "tin" in each kit is not a great fit. The Charger body is super narrow (probably not NHRA legal in '71), the other bodies are stock width. AMT included a wider front axle in the other three kits, but with the same narrow tie rod as the Charger used! Trivia: the El Toro Torino funny car was the first 1/25 scale car kit to include Cragar Super Trick wheels...for the front only. The Novacaine box art shows stock appearing rear wheel openings, but the instructions call out radiusing them to work with the huge rear slicks.

Revell did tool up two entirely new kits based on Foose builds...when was the last time anyone did that?

The easiest to find will be in the Model King reissue '69 Camaro funny car. Same chassis, but wheels are different, engine is different tooling but it is a big-block Chevy in both kits. Two other kits used that chassis, AMT's '71 Charger funny and the El Toro '71 Torino. Again, same basic chassis, but different wheels and engines.

That worked for K-Mart for many years...nearly all of their stores were laid out identically. Someone had the brainstorm to change that, and go "upmarket"...where are they now?

There's only a stairway to Heaven, but a highway to you-know-where. That's a pretty good gauge of positive versus negative...

The hoist wasn't in the Nova wagon, only the Buick.

From the looks of it, the parts pack based car kits will be issued individually instead of as double kits. That might allow Atlantis to improve them: more plated parts (some of the plated parts packs were just molded in silver plastic for the double kits), maybe optional engines, bigger decal sheets.

"Can't", or "won't, because their markup isn't as good"? When I had my second (2004) Dakota, the genuine Mopar parts were junk. Original brakes (both pads and rotors) barely made it to 25,000 miles, and were pulsing like crazy at the end. First replacements (genuine Daimler Chrysler) lasted exactly as long. Installed Auto Zone stuff after that, they lasted twice as long as the Mopar junk. The dealer did the brakes at the 100,000 mile mark, they offered a choice between Mopar and NAPA. I chose the latter.

There's a huge difference between something being available in other countries, and a picture posted briefly on FB and then deleted...