Mark

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...

The Mustang and Chevelle were completed pre-Hobbico bankruptcy. Already tooled, ready to go, all the new company had to do was produce them. What '71 Mustang? One brief mention on FB, quickly deleted. Until there is an official announcement and release date...it doesn't exist.

Zocchi never built a car or even had a shop that I'm aware of, but he did have one or two cars done a year, going back to the early Sixties. He could be considered a patron of the customizing art.

I've got a name for it, sort of rhymes with "Gas Monkey"...

They're E&J (Edmund & Jones). Not trying to be picky on the name, but having the correct one can rope more information in during a search.

Looks like a savvy move to me...who will know more about putting kits together from the Parts Packs than one of the guys who helped create them?

...the Great Unloading has begun!

It's too bad Revell changed owners, maybe they'd have done something along the lines of the Foose kits with other designer/builders like Martin Brothers or Kindigit. A couple of all-new tools like the Ford pickup and Cadillac, then some wheels and other parts to add to existing kits.

Isn't the ex-Monogram Camaro kit a '78? There were some changes to that kit over the years (stock wheels, for one). The "new" kit might be an old Revell custom-only deal. The '69 Camaro might be interesting, maybe a new variation. The old Monogram kit was 1/24 scale, and every version I'm aware of had a small-block engine. The '66 flip-front kit should do well for them. I know a guy who bought a lot of collections, rarely did he ever get a collection that didn't have at least one of those among the haul.

I had one of the Charlie Allen Dart kits back in the day, and bought another, sealed, around 1984. Someone showed up at a toy show in the Cleveland area, he/they had several tables and had cartons of late Sixties MPC kits. A couple of years later, I thought about moving the front wheel openings back to the stock location and casting the body. I never got around to either, having chosen to do a '67 4-4-2 body instead. The Charlie Allen and Ramchargers Dart bodies have the front wheel openings moved forward from stock, while the L.A. Dart and subsequent reissues have the wheel openings a bit further back from stock, to fit the slightly shorter wheelbase of the castoff Hemi Under Glass floorpan.

There is a 1:1 wheel, but I don't know who made them. I haven't seen many of these, but all of them were wider than the Corvette wheels. All were used as rear wheels on dragsters or funny cars, and the spoke areas were gold. The gold would lead me to believe these are magnesium wheels, as many of those received treatments that resulted in the gold color. The AMT '71 Thunderbird kit has similar wheels also.

I never had an original Californian kit, but I don't think the Super Spider wheels were in it. Those wheels may have turned up in an MPC early Eighties Firebird reissue, but I'm not positive about that.

The Charlie Allen '69 Dart has Saddleback Dodge sponsorship. The body from that kit was then converted to '70 spec for the phantom Ramchargers car. In '71 the body was altered again (trunk lid removed, rear wheel openings enlarged, front wheel openings moved back) and combined with parts of the Hemi Under Glass (chassis, interior) to create the LA Dart kit. Those are the only three versions of the MPC Dart, the Hemi Hunter is a straight reissue of the LA Dart.

The original Ramchargers Challenger funny car kit was all wrong. The Ramchargers were one of the first teams to adopt the Mickey Thompson (Pat Foster) narrow "digger" chassis. MPC's kit had the old Logghe chassis. It also had a stock promo style body, but I doubt any of us would mind seeing that now. The kit will likely have the digger style chassis and smoothed over body, same as the Soapy Sales and Model King issues. The MPC '70 Dart funny was just another chance to use the '69 Charlie Allen kit tooling. I believe the chassis was newly tooled for that kit, something MPC seldom did. They often chopped and reworked existing chassis to fit bodies they wanted to use. The Ramchargers never had a '70 Dart, only the '67. The body didn't tilt up on the '67, it was narrowed several inches to ease maintenance.

Too, some of the Foose kits are getting hard to find. I wanted a '68 Firebird a while back, couldn't find one to save my life.

It's a matter of personal opinion and taste. I'm not familiar with the shop you mentioned, but I'd let Foose rework my car over most of the other "flames and skulls" guys out there.