Mark

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.

I believe the "special edition" box was originally done for Auto World as an online/mail order deal. I have seen them being sold by a couple of show vendors also, maybe those are unsold ones from the original offer.

Maybe cut one wheel, modify it as desired, then cast copies? I too have a few sets of turned aluminum rims similar to those pictured, and also have a lathe (but no experience operating it, though I intend to change that this coming winter). I'll likely just make up, and cast, some centers for the rims that I have, then hopefully do some new parts for other things.

That's going to be tough, even on the correct lathe, for anyone who hasn't got expertise with it. The wheel can be held in a four-jaw chuck. With a reversible chuck, the jaws can be inverted and might be able to hold the wheel from inside the center hole as opposed to holding it from around its perimeter. Getting it concentric is the tough part, except for someone expert with the right feel for their lathe. A couple thousands of an inch off center, and the part will be turned into junk. For someone starting out with their lathe, it would be easier to start with raw material, and cut a new rim with the desired changes. Then, the trick will be in making three more that match!

It's a wood lathe...no provisions for mounting cutting tools in any sort of fixed position for precision work...

I didn't make it clear, I was referring to the AMT fastback, which has been the altered wheelbase version since about 1967.

The bodies in the Monogram early Mustang kits are too "stiff", they don't capture the subject as well as the AMT kits. Throw in the 4x4 stance, shallow headlamps, and non-stock exhaust system, plus the wrong scale, and I'll take the AMT kits any day. It's only too bad that they haven't seen fit to return the fastback to stock forn.

If you have an El Camino or wagon kit, try those bumpers before buying another kit. All three kits (wagon, El Camino, and hardtop) are different tooling but the bumpers interchange. The Modified Stocker grille has engraved headlight covers that the other two do not have.

The Mustang tool was probably marked "1965" because that's what it started out as. Someone may have assumed that it wasn't updated to '66 spec. On the other hand, in the "desert racer" series that was available at the same time, the '61 Ranchero was called a '62. It was never anything but a '61 pre-Round 2. The recently available '66 Mustang coupe combines the body, interior, and trim pieces from the Flower Series kit with the chassis and engine from the original annual kit.

Says '65 on the box, pure, unadulterated '66 inside. Half of the kits in that series ('61 Galaxie, '62 Buick, and the Mustang) can be had reasonably, I've given thought to sticking one together like that...

I reply with two words; one verb, one pronoun...

If the chassis is needed for a station wagon, the El Camino piece should work. All of the wagons, regardless of trim level, were on the short wheelbase. On the passenger cars, the wheelbase difference was at the rear. Had it been in front of the firewall, then the wagons would likely have been built on two wheelbases also.

The body in the latest reissue is relatively new, created for the Fast & Furious issue. The original body was, in order: '68 annual, '69 annual, Dickie Harrell funny car body, Jeg's dirt track car body, the Eighties "black hardtop" issue, then was permanently changed into the convertible a few years after that. Apparently the convertible alteration could not be reversed, so the new body was tooled.

Looks like it might be from the MPC "Bottoms Up" Jeep. The Cammer engine was in the back, as the Jeep was a wheelstander.

ALL of the stock '68-'70 AMX annual kits were sold in AMT boxes. There was one '68, two '69s, and two '70s. The two '69 kits had the same parts and decals, just different boxes and different stock numbers (same for 1970). The first two-seater AMX sold in Jo-Han packaging was the original issue of the Shirley Shahan Super Stocker, in 1971. The only street version they sold was the USA Oldies issue, and that one didn't have stock wheels.