Mark

There's always the aftermarket...

I haven't bought a CD in maybe a year or so, but then again I haven't poked around on eBay since about May. My car doesn't have a CD player, so my CDs (and some vinyl) get ripped to a zip drive for the car. I've still got a mess of them to do...when the cold weather comes...

What an old kit sells for on eBay has no bearing on potential demand (or lack of same) for a new kit of the same subject. It only means that a handful of people are willing to outspend one another for an old kit.

That AMT '73 kit is a phantom...no SS that year, replaced by the LT...

They know what they are doing...there were more Pro Stock Vegas, and there are more people who want to build a model of one, than there is interest in the small handful of Baldwin-Motion Vegas that were built.

The one pictured is a copy. If I remember right, there is a Rodders' Journal article that explains what happened to the original. Note that Barris' name is not on the side panels as on the original.

The remainder of the "new" Vega kits (chassis, interior, basic engine) will be carried over from the old kit. The older pro stock kits were compromised due to the bodies and other parts being shared with stock kits. The chassis in all of them were compromised but overall the assembled model did look the part.

I guess the Monza S body still exists, but I wouldn't bet on seeing it again. You'll probably see a bunch of those on eBay soon, as the hoarders attempt to dump theirs once the new versions become common knowledge...

The market is extremely small for conversion or detail upgrade items, for a kit that is not a current production item. That might change a bit with the advent of 3D printing, where an item can be made on an as-ordered basis. But still, to get one that way, someone has to want the first one badly enough to create it.

Initial plans are to release the early Vega as a Jenkins car. He had two of that style, the second of which eventually was updated to the '74 style. His third/final Vega was a '74 from the start. The '74 will first be issued as Bruce Larson's USA-1. He had two Vegas, the first was the early style (later updated). He later acquired another '74 to replace the first car. No doubt if these go over well, both will be issued as other drivers' cars.

Two Vega bodies have been tooled: '71-'73, and '74-'75. '76-'77 (NOT being reissued) has a slightly different grille area and taillights. Nobody really ran the '76-'77 style in Pro Stock: bucks-up teams switched to the Monza body, the rest stayed with the '74-'75 style Vega. So no real need for the '76-'77 style body.

That's correct. The bodies are improved over the originals in that they are now "dedicated" drag versions (no windshield wipers or scripts) and the rear wheel flares have been reworked to a more correct shape. The smaller parts are for the most part straight-up copies of the original parts.

These are not "printed" prototypes, they are test shots from tooling that has been cut, and is being fine-tuned. The early grille/bumper will be one piece as seen here.

According to John from Round 2, the Camaro body will be partially new, not all new. The original tooling was not designed with both versions in mind (a real bonehead play considering that it was done after Revell's '69 kits). The sections that form the front of the body had to be changed, but the original tooling had the outer side of the roof, and possibly the deck lid, incorporated with the area they needed to change. So, to do this version while still maintaining the ability to reissue the original versions, they had to take more time with it than originally planned.

The photos of all of these different versions might help explain why a model car kit retailed for $2 back then, and $30 now. In 1969, AMT used one tool (with different inserts, granted, but still basically one tool) to produce promos, toy store assembled models, and kits (sometimes as both hardtop and convertible). MPC did the same, sometimes fitting in a funny car using the promo model body. They don't get that same degree of use out of one tool anymore, and aren't producing the kits in the same numbers as in the days of old. That's where you get a lot of the price per unit increase...

I bought an MPC '70 last year, I believe it's tied with one of my '63 Fairlanes for the highest price I ever paid for a kit. No regrets, in fact, if the new kit drives some of the originals onto swap meet tables, I might pick up another one provided it's in the right condition and the price is right.

There were pace car promos for both '67 and '69. I bought a '69 a couple of weeks ago, in a "parts box" purchase, that turned out to be in great shape.

Nit-picky stuff, but this one is a toy-store assembled model as opposed to a promo. Some collectors prefer promos, which typically come in different boxes (no cellophane window) and are in "stock" colors while the toy-store version sometimes are in non-stock colors. Like I said, nit-picky and getting more so with each passing day, as collectors will now usually take whatever they can find in good condition. For a long time, many collectors preferred the "promo" with the associated box and shunned the "toy store" version. My logic would cause me to think that the toy store versions would be rarer, with a much lower survival rate than the promo versions...

I've got a couple of AMT '70 builtups in pretty similar shape. For a long while, those didn't seem to be too tough to find in built form. AMT marketed the '70 kit through '71, in the same box. MPC got the promo model rights for '71. Chevrolet apparently wanted the RS split-bumper version for '71, as MPC converted their full-width bumper version to the split version for '71-'73. Now, finding the MPC full-width bumper version is another matter entirely...

Both funny cars have the enlarged rear wheel openings. They're way bigger than needed for the first version. The Funny Hugger II body also has the front wheel openings relocated forward from the stock position, due to the longer chassis which was also used in three other kits. That change likely killed off any possibility of the '69 ever being reissued in stock form. The "unblocked" plated tree in the Model King issue also includes the front motor mount from the first Funny Hugger kit.

I started a collection of Revell parts packs in the mid-Seventies when a bunch of them turned up at a local flea market. I had to dig through the whole pile to come up with some of the better ones. My older brother, who did build models when the packs were "current", told me I'd never find a couple of the cycles, particularly the Harley. That one was in fact the last one I found, several years later. The dragster and roadster accessory packs (the ones with the axles and radius rods) were used on everything from early funny cars, to gassers, to scratchbuilt balsa bodied dragsters. So it's no surprise that you can still turn up the chassis but the accessory packs are tough to find. If whoever now has the tooling for the remaining (not cannibalized for othet kits) parts packs is thinking about reissuing them, my advice would be to forget the custom parts and recently reissued engines, and focus on the chassis accessories, display accessories, bodies, and maybe a shorter run on the bare chassis. Maybe package them in twos or threes, like a chassis and a chassis accessories pack together. No fancy package needed, those buying these will know what they are getting.

When originally issued, the parts packs were not "failures". Thumb through issues of any of the period model car magazines, and you'll see them in use on many of the models pictured, be they in contest coverage, articles, or reader submitted models. Revell would not have issued new packs into 1965 had they been "failures". Some individual packs were not successful and could be found cheaply many years later. The custom parts fell victim to quickly changing tastes, and the availability of customizing parts in nearly every kit out there. The dragster chassis were pretty much obsolete when they hit the shelves, that's why you can find bare chassis but not the accessory packs. But overall, Revell moved a lot of the parts packs over the three and a half or four years they were available.

Anyone who is convinced that a company would "sell a million" of (insert item here), should contact them, find out what their minimum order is, then place the order. You can't lose, you said so! You'll have people breaking down your door once they find out you've got them...

Just look at the catalogs and the kits that were/weren't made. Prior to 1965, if something was made as a promotional model, it was also offered as a kit. That started changing in '65: the big Pontiac, Buick, and Oldsmobile were made as promos but not kits. Later promos like the '69 and '70 Chevelle, and '70 Impala didn't get made as annual kits (the '69 Chevelle convertible kit did get made several years later, but not as an annual kit). Someone at AMT must have looked at sales numbers and decided they didn't need to offer everything as both hardtop and convertible.

That is the best chassis for the original car (fullsize mid-Sixties Mopar). Way better than the Jo-Han chassis of that era. If you aren't concerned about a "more detailed" chassis being from a similar car, then you could use anything that fits.