Mark

MPC's late Seventies/early Eighties annual kits were often very well done: Datsun and Dodge D-50 pickups, Chevy Cavalier, Ford EXP, Dodge Daytona, etc. Even the later (Ertl) Ford Taurus SHO, Probe, and Explorer kits are quite nice. It's just that the subject matter doesn't do it for too many of us...

Everyone has the occasional bad day...

The 91% rubbing alcohol makes short work of the paint on AMT and Polar Lights prepainted kits, should do the same with the promo as well.

That's where I have gotten casting materials in the past. I've got a "sample pack" of Renshape material, not sure if I got it there though.

I've never seen it available at any hobby or craft store.

I test drove a Fiero when they were first available. Pretty decent to drive, but the price tag was pretty steep considering it had a cast iron engine, throttle body fuel injection, no overhead cam, and you couldn't even get a five-speed in '84...

Jo-Han and AMT (the latter sold all of the annual two-seater AMX kits) called them 1/25, but the AMC promo boxes (not the toy store friction car boxes with the cellophane window) all say 1/24. The ones I put a ruler to measure out as 1/24 scale in the areas I checked (usually wheelbase or overall length). Some of the Cadillacs are likely cheated up in that the lower bodies look stubby compared to the roof. I'm thinking of the '61-'62 mainly. That may have been done to fit the box, or to make the car look more to scale with existing tires. Jo-Han used the same tire on the Cadillacs and Studebaker Larks...something's got to give, both can't look right with the same tire! Other kits with no promo model connection are undersize also...let's just say "1/25 scale" in regard to car kits is a "fluid" concept.

Those arent '86s if I remember right, they are the '87 and '88 kits. I haven't got either of them to check, but the copyright date on the box should be the year before the model year of the kit.

Nobody will be willing to pay full value, simply because nobody will want absolutely everything. A dealer will want to make a bunch of money, a collector will want to recoup the cost while keeping some items for himself. I never bought any big collections, but used the latter approach the few times I did buy a smaller one. You're entitled to a return on investment: you're tying up some money for a while, you're tying up storage space, and you'll spend a lot of time reselling, whether listing online or traveling to shows. I overheard one guy at the final Toledo show saying he wasn't buying collections anymore, as the stuff from the last couple of buys wasn't moving as quickly as he was used to seeing...

The later kits are a bit off in suspension detail, being based on the '84 kit. The early Fiero was built out of GM's parts bin: Chevette front suspension, X-car front drive unit in the back. GM later developed a new suspension for the later Fiero, but killed the car off not long afterward.

The V8 trikes share a lot of parts, and the Honda trikes use a common chassis, engine, and other parts. Add to that, that they were issued in pairs, one V8 trike and one Honda. I'd bet that two trikes are molded in one shot: one V8, one Honda.

All Jo-Han AMC promos (and the resulting kits) tooled from 1961 on are 1/24 scale. I don't bother with promos molded in acetate, but someone once told me that the '62 Classic wagon was based on the '59 wagon (and thus 1/25 scale) while the '62 Classic sedan (the one reissued as the snap taxi kit) is 1/24, meaning things like bumpers don't interchange. The Jo-Han '62 Larks are bigger yet, something like 1/23. Larks aren't big cars. And even the "big" mid-Sixties Ramblers are the same size as Big Three intermediates.

No Indy Pace Car sheets available...I'm glad I got them when I did.

I wonder if the inspector has a list of "recommended" contractors...

If it's shaped so as to fit in the same space as a gas engine and transmission, to avoid hacking on the car to fit it in, maybe it's not so dumb. Shape the battery pack (or a portion of it) to take the place of the gas tank, whatever is needed to make the swap with as little cutting as possible. Fake exhaust pipes...now that would be dumb...

But is there a "half off" sale every week?

Lettering on that '55 has "Photoshop" written all over it...

My annual '66 convertible, and a Seventies reissue kit, both have the interior with the different pattern on the lower cushion (the one in the car). A built '64 I checked has the pattern like the other interior.

Those wheel/axle units are from a promo. The kit pieces (both inner and outer wheels) appear to be still on the parts trees. The very early ('58, maybe '59) annual kits used those thick axles. '60 AMT and SMP kits started getting engines, so they went to the smaller diameter wire axle. The wire axles were probably cheaper than those heavy promo/friction axles, which needed several manufacturing processes to get all those serrations on them, which weren't needed for a shelf model.

The Ertl kit is an unassembled diecast. The Jo-Han AMX is also 1/24 scale (the promo boxes say so, and the ones I put a ruler to measure out to 1/24) so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

I passed that Firebird wagon kit over when it was first issued...well, because it was a Lindberg item. The Scale Auto article which combined it with the Monogram '77 kit brought it to my attention. Later, I found one Firebird and one Camaro at a clearance store for half a buck apiece. Some cracked clear parts, but between the two I was able to piece together a Firebird. The plastic tires are copies of Monogram Goodyear GT Radials, and not bad, so I saved the extra set of those too. The wagon might be cooler combined with the Monogram '70 kit, and that is out again...

The Camaro wagon kit isn't nearly as good as the Firebird because both use the Firebird body, with round Firebird wheel openings and Firebird doors. The Bird is pretty good, the parts are 1/24 scale and mix pretty well with Monogram Firebird kits.

Strange...AMT did do a Mercedes 300SL, and they didn't put drag slicks in it...

Looks like they are (again probably Toronado, as well as the extra interior).

Everything I see there looks like MPC '67 Toronado. Not the same kit as the Jo-Han one, which for '67 was sold by AMT in AMT packaging. MPC made the promotional model for '67, so their '67 is the more accurate of the two.