Mark

I'm glad I bought my stuff when I did. I didn't pay "too much", I only paid it "too soon".

Looks like an annual based on the wheel covers. The Countdown series kits had the wheels (inner and outer) reworked to add a slight outer lip, to trap those awful hollow tires that AMT started using back then.

Methinks that's from an AMT mid-Nineties S-Blazer.

Even if they are "out", they'll still be issuing already-finished or too-close-to-production-to-ignore variations on the Ford pickups and '65 Plymouth for a couple of years...

My older brother had a '62 Tempest that he shoved a 455/4-speed/9" Ford rear axle into. Before the original stuff went across the scale at the scrap yard, I looked over the transaxle...it had "Powerglide" lettering on the main casting, plain as day. It's an early Corvair unit. The Revell Road Agent should have one, as Ace says. Some accounts (Roth included) stated that the Agent had the transaxle turned upside down, to give three forward speeds with the engine/trans reversed from the Corvair positioning. More likely the ring gear was installed on the opposite side of the pinion: it would accomplish the same thing without having to turn the thing upside down and re-adapt it to the engine. Not having a kit in front of me, I'd make sure it is installed correctly in the Tempest.

All of the reissued '66 kits have the same parts, except maybe tires. None have the side glass that the annual kit had, and none have the original custom wheels either.

The Revell Foose pickup kit has an FE series engine, not a Cleveland.

It is similar to the Olds setup pictured, but that blower is a Supercharger Company of Turin (S.C.O.T.) unit and not a Latham.

The Cougar kit (originally MPC) has two engines, a 428 and a Boss 429. Never had a 351 of any kind.

Sometimes people just don't look closely enough. At NNL East, late in the day, I spotted one of those MPC Pontiac convertibles built as the pickup version. This was after the Model King issue but before the Round 2 one. It was cleanly built but cheap. It was the 1969 version, not the reissued '70. Someone wanting a '69 convertible could pretty easily stub in the cutout deck lid from a '70 body. But apparently nobody else took the time to look at it.

Nothing new...K-Mart used to be the same way. When I worked out of town, or went to the Toledo show, if I needed something I'd hit the nearest K-Mart. X number of aisles in, so many off to the left, there's the snacks. Toy & Hobby was usually near the middle of the store, later on it was further to the back. When they got away from that and went "upscale" (or tried to), they handed that market over to the folks from Bentonville on a silver platter...

He didn't win, but as I remember he did better than expected in what everyone thought was (at best) a long shot.

They'd have to get Levi's licensing too. They didn't for the Gremlin kits, the box only mentioned a "denim" interior.

Compare the MPC chassis with AMT's. On the MPC (shown) you can see the seam on the oil pan where the engine is halved in the AMT kit. If I remember right, the top of the MPC chassis has some of the engraved trunk mat detail from the AMT kit, even though the MPC kit doesn't have an opening trunk.

The MPC snap Mercury is cribbed from the AMT kit. It is called a '49 but has '50 side trim (and a '49 grille).

With those sellers, often the only items that aren't complete are those they haven't checked. It's a Festivus miracle!

That's from the very first issue, the only one with stock side trim, stock interior, and stock engine.

For some guys, the fun IS in the research, the rivet counting. For others, it's in tweaking contours and trim until they are a perfect match to the 1:1 to their eyes. For others, it's the perfect paint job. Some just want something no one else has. Whichever it is for you, if it's not fun, it's work.

I'd say if the Jo-Han boxes are the thinner cardboard, then they were shrink-wrapped. Thick cardboard boxes with printed paper glued to it were likely taped.

MPC shrink-wrapped their kits from day one (1964). AMT started with the '67 annual kits in late '66 and phased in Trophy Series kits as they were reboxed after that. I know '67 Jo-Han annuals were sealed, not sure about '66 but I don't think they were. Revell was off and on, the '62 Mopar kits were wrapped but I don't think the Metalflake reissues were. Some early parts packs weren't boxed, they were shrink-wrapped to a piece of cardboard.

Sealed annual kits from that era are probably tougher to find than mint condition, not-messed-with promotional models now.

Sure is possible; in early issue Revell Tri-five Chevy kits, it's inevitable. That's how they are. I've also got a first-issue '56 Ford pickup kit, and I'm certain that it doesn't have any black plastic parts.

I've got a '55 kit that has a 1971 copyright, it has all the parts molded in white. I built another of the very same issue, in 1972 at the latest (we moved that year, and were still in the city). That one had black chassis and engine parts like the first issue, and it also had the slicks and mag wheels that aren't in the one I have now. So even though both had the same box art, running changes were made. I'm not sure when the red taillight lenses were removed, but my "later 1971" issue doesn't have them.

IF Round 2 brought the kit back, it would almost certainly have the '69 body. The original MPC '68 and '69 (there wasn't a '67 version) used the concurrent promo model (closed hood) version of the Barracuda body.

Those hood vents are '61 only, AMT put those in a number of annual kits. I've lost count of the number of little pieces of plastic that I filed to shape, to plug holes cut in hoods for them. As for the '55 Chevy, I remember building one in '71 or '72 that had a black chassis. It wasn't an original issue. I've got another of that issue, will check that one but it has other differences to the one I built long ago.