Mark

USPS initiates tracking as soon as the shipper notifies them that the sticker with that tracking number has been applied to a package, and is ready for pickup. I'd guess the seller doesn't want to bother having them pick up packages until they have several of them ready.

This Duster is a newer kit, created in the late Nineties. There was an MPC '71 Duster kit back in '71, but through yearly changes it now exists as the '75/'76 Dart Sport.

It goes even further back...in the late Sixties there was an animated Hot Wheels show that got yanked after one year. The main characters all drove cars replicated in the Hot Wheels lineup. I've heard of one or two early Sixties childrens' shows that supposedly pushed products with tie-ins, but that's before my time.

The newer rattle-can primers are more cheaply made than before. Less solids, more thinner. What they call "filler primer" now used to be sandable primer, today's "sandable primer" is what used to be just plain old primer, and today's "primer" is basically tinted thinner in a spray can. And, the plastic isn't what it used to be either. More recycled sprues (the big ones that never made it into the kit box). Some recycled stuff is actually desirable, it makes the plastic less brittle. Too much makes it rubbery, which is what we are getting lately. Whatever you use for primer...shake, shake, shake, particularly the automotive touch-up stuff. What little solids are in the can need to be shaken into the mix and not left sitting at the bottom of the can when you hit the spray nozzle. Any newer plastic, I'm spraying the first couple of coats from a distance. I've had some luck applying one quick blast of the "sealer primer" over whatever other primer is already on. For me, anyway, this seems to prevent the color coats from potentially raising sanding scratches.

Well, I was referring to it strictly from the model kit standpoint (this isn't a "toys and games" message board, so I wasn't expecting anyone to bring those into the discussion). In the model kit arena, ITC jumped in in the Fifties along with many other companies. For whatever reason, they decided not to stay in that business. By the time that happened, they weren't considered to be a major player in model kits. So, I guess I'll stick by what I said initially.

I've heard more than once that '32 Fords had poor resale value early on, particularly the V8 cars. And that a good Model A Ford was worth more, and was easier to sell. During the Depression, those fortunate few with the ability to buy a used car usually went with a known quantity. There were a lot of myths about the V8 engine ("it used twice as much gas", "the cylinders are on a slant and will wear on the lower side"), things like that. On top of that, there were a lot of problems with the early V8 engines. So someone watching their wallet would gravitate towards something like the A, which was generally thought of as a good car.

But they were about as big in model kits, as AMT was in board games...

I built one some time ago and do not recall any issues with it. As with any car kit with an interior that has separate side panels, test fitting is a must. Some of these kits, regardless of the manufacturer, fit together quite tightly even without paint. And those are first issue early production kits. Reissues will be even tighter as the mold was likely polished before production, making the fit of the parts even tighter. If the rear axle halves are bowed, straighten them, don't remove material to make them fit. Altering one part often affects the fit of adjacent parts.

For one thing, few of the ITC/Glencoe tools were ever modified over the years. They haven't been updated to next year's version, modified from civilian to military versions (as some ship and aircraft model tools were), or butchered into something else just to follow the trends of the day (as with many car kit tools). They haven't been sold or moved as many times as other companies' stuff either, with some of it being scattered to the winds or scrapped along the way. Since ITC wasn't as big as other companies in its heyday, they probably didn't sell as many of any one item either, leaving the tools in better condition for Glencoe to put back into production. Too, I'd bet Glencoe is flying well under anyone's radar in cases where licensing is concerned, reducing costs and allowing production decisions to be made quickly.

Back when Model Ts were new, the average man weighed around 150 lbs. Since then, some "evolution" has taken place rendering a T not so comfortable for the modern man. I've noticed this with Willys coupes, both as drag cars and street rods. At first the '37-'42 cars were favored, then racers went for the smaller, lighter '33-'36 coupes. The pendulum seems to have shifted back to the later cars, as they are roomier than the early ones.

The Open Road camper isn't a slide-in unit, it replaces the stock pickup bed.

Those weren't seen very often, as the dealers that got them out of the sales bank usually dyed the tops a solid color to move them off of the lot...

The stores here do clearance/stock reset twice a year. Maybe they will skip the next one because of the long closure in many areas, and many hobby items (including model kits) selling well after the reopening...

All of them are the newer/better kit. Ertl/RC2 never did a Baldwin-Motion version of the earlier kit. I did offer the B/M hood and rear spoiler for the earlier kit, but that was long before the newer one was available.

All are the same kit. The red "box art car" looks like a 1/18 scale diecast. RC2 did that when they had the same subject in both scales. There was a '69 4-4-2 kit done that way also.

It's funny that the Big Drag kit came up. My older brother did a bunch of wheeling and dealing on eBay. At a swap meet, he bought a Big Drag kit that was absolutely mint. I remember him saying that he'd just seen one sell for $1,000 the week before. All that week, he was talking about that thousand as though he had it in his pocket already. Of course, the thousand dollar sale brought one or two others out during the week to compete against his. And with the thousand dollar buyer now no longer looking for one, his got something like $600.

The (excellent) Ramchargers book includes a partial reproduction of the "manual" used by the ambulance company that built the "factory" AWB Mopars. A lot of the privateer cars were built to the same specs. I'd like to see Moebius do a companion AWB Dodge, but I'm not holding my breath. I've got one in the works based on a Polar Lights Coronet, and have some MPC parts stashed, so I guess I won't be disappointed.

The couple of times I had packages lost but noted as "delivered", I ran into The Wall with USPS. After being frustrated with it, I chalked it up to either (a) protecting their own, and/or (b) going along to get along. On occasion I get mail for the house on the next street over (same house number); I just take it over and stick it in the right mailbox. What happens to my mail on those days I don't know, as the next street over in the other direction is a main drag with different numbering.

The article doesn't specify which Vega this is, but I'm pretty certain it is Toy IX, the first Vega. It has stock front suspension (except for a Pinto steering rack, not mentioned) and the roll cage and rear subframe is described as being tied in to the rocker panels. IX was not a full-chassis car as originally built. The underside shots are tough to come by for any Pro Stock car of that period.

What an item sells for on eBay and how well it would sell if reissued are two entirely different things. A handful of people outbidding one another for a single item does not translate to thousands of sales.

And that they may not be as interested in automotive subject matter as in the movie/TV/sci-fi stuff. They can probably release already-tooled variations on the Ford pickups, '65 Plymouth, and '65 Cyclone for the next two years, giving the impression that more "new" car kits are still in development.

Trumpeter screwed up by trying to reinvent everything. The Pontiacs have too-thin hood and trunk lid outer panels, the Novas have that gimmicky working steering (to accomodate that, they put the exhaust system on the wrong side). Then there's that goofy plating, again different from how everyone else does plating for car kits. The Falcon chassis details are a bit on the abstract side. Had they gotten the body shapes correct, skipped the gimmicks, and used conventional plating, they'd have been able to keep prices within reason and sell a lot more of each kit.

Dave isn't too wild about large scale stuff in general. A couple of years ago at NNL East, he gave me a great deal on a then-new Revell of Germany 1/16 scale VW bus kit. I don't know if he had to take it in order to get some other items, but he seemed to be on a mission to sell it.

There weren't as many AWB Cyclones as there were Mopars. We'll likely see the FX version with the 289 engine, but I wouldn't bet on any other versions.

Discrimination includes employers selecting where to post job availability information...some of them favor online and social media which they assume some older applicants won't use. But there are enough employers out there using old-school methods too, or even instead of newer media because they want an older employee that they can more safely assume will show up every day. I had to do a job search last year at 59. I knew it was coming for about a year. I didn't send any resumes out, nor did I call any agencies, until after my last day of work. I was only off six weeks, and had a job locked up before my two months' insurance at my former employer ended. Fortunately I landed the right job, as I don't particularly feel like looking for a job again under any circumstances.