Mark

1/25 scale...must be based on the newer '70 kit...

Uh, the recall wheels are on the left side of the plated tree. The white decal stripes are there, right below the black ones...

The side panel of the Corvair and Valiant boxes lists an El Camino (presumably the '60) as being available...but it never appeared in this series.

The AMT '69 annual kit body was apparently reworked into the longnose funny car. The longnose body does use the '69 kit plated parts. The '69 chassis was unique to that kit, not carried over from '68. The AMT '67-'68 annual was converted to the Shelby GT500 which still exists. The AMT '70 was all new. The body got used in another funny car, the '70 chassis was reworked and reused in the AMT '71-'73 kits. The AMT '73 still exists as the Warren Tope Trans-Am racing version. The recent AMT '69 Mustang is based on the undersize MPC kit. The chassis started out under the MPC '66 fastback, and is used in the MPC '73 kit also.

The last '72 reissue has a built MPC kit on the box, but the AMT kit is inside. But the grille/bumper aren't very good. When Ertl backdated the kit to '70 spec, apparently they tossed the original tooling for the bumpers. The "new" '72 has newly tooled pieces that are terrible. So you'd want to find a '72 kit that was made before the backdate job. An MPC kit might work too, but all of the reissues have bug-eyed headlamps, because the original detail was ground away for a NASCAR issue, then re-engraved back to stock after that.

The engine is very well done, however it is a '56-'66 engine (tooled for the Marlin kit). AMC introduced a new engine series during '66 in the compacts, and put it in the bigger cars in '67. The old engines have the distributor at the back, the newer ones in front. The SC/Rambler kit has the newer style cylinder heads, valve covers, oil pan, front cover, water pump, and intake. The coke-bottle Javelin/AMX kits have some of those parts too, but still have the old style cylinder heads. Jo-Han never did a later block or exhaust manifolds. The AMT Gremlin and Matador kits have some good newer V8 parts, and they interchange fairly well with the Jo-Han stuff even though Jo-Han's post-1960 AMC kits are 1/24 scale and AMT's are 1/25. I'm working on building a composite of the best engine parts to cast, if only I wouldn't set it aside every time I see something shiny. Some of the annual kits (Marlin, Ambassadors) have a Man-A-Fre type four-carb intake as an option, as well as chrome valve covers and oil pan (still for the '56-'66 engine). It would make a neat rod engine, in something with an open engine compartment. The reissue AMX kits have a 1970 interior bucket with the high-back seats, also the shifter is from a later kit. But the instrument panel is the right one. Yes, those Oldies series kits are cobbed together from various years' parts...but I'd still grab more of them if they ever came back, and still pick them up from time to time when the price is right...

If you want a rod version, there are other ways to go. The MPC '28 Woody and roadster pickup kits (reissued once as AMT/Ertl) include a rod version with a nearly all-chrome flathead engine. MPC also did a one-time-only issue of the roadster pickup with a small-block Chevy and a Corvette rear suspension. All of those are based on the '28 sedan fender/chassis so the parts will swap pretty easily. The Chevy engine sits in the roadster pickup at a pretty steep angle so you'll want to tweak that anyway. The Dodge Red Ram engine from the AMT '29 roadster double kit would slip into the sedan pretty nicely, too.

Not the same exact piece: one is AMT, the other MPC. The AMT Merc engine is adapted to a Ford/Merc stick transmission (which would probably last about five seconds behind that engine). MPC's engine has an automatic transmission, either a PowerFlite or early TorqueFlite. The block resembles those in the AMT Imperial kits more than anything. As for options, look at later Mopar kits with the "B" series engine.

The dark blue trailer might be from the AMT '60-'61 Ford pickup kits. The Chevy pickup trailer had four wheels and was long to fit full-size cars, while the Ford trailer had two wheels and was sized to fit Trophy Series cars like the T-bucket, dragster, or '32 Fords. The Chevy pickup trailer was sold separately also. The four-wheel trailer in some of the racing team kits is based on the Chevy pickup trailer.

I can't think of an MPC kit with those hubcaps. Besides the AMT Chevy vans, one of the early Sixties SMP/AMT Chevy pickups had caps like that. I'm thinking of the '62, maybe the '61: '60 had a different style cap, '63 had a cap like these but it was molded as a unit with the outer wheel.

#3 might be from the AMT '66-'67 Fairlanes. #5 is from the Revell '55 Chevy (the opening-doors one). #6 look like the custom version ones from the Beverly Hillbillies truck.

Starbird did build the Futurista. It was built for a particular show but got beat that year by Bill Cushenbery's Silhouette. The 1:1 Futurista was pearl white, not yellow as in the kit. The Eldon kits were all credited to Bob Reisner (who built the dual-engine Invader) but he didn't build all of them. Monogram only did one Barris car: the Bathtub Buggy. Revell didn't do any Barris stuff until the Seventies; the VW with the Rolls-Royce grille might have been the first. Revell did all of Roth's stuff except the Mail Box Chopper which was an MPC kit (that is way different from the 1:1).

Ray Farhner built the Boot Hill Express (actually, there are two of them). That kit came after the Darryl Starbird era at Monogram ended, but before Daniel came in.

If more houses had had electricity at the turn of the century, electric cars could have come out on top. Instead, most houses outside of major cities were then lit by kerosene lamps. Refining crude oil to get kerosene resulted in large quantities of waste by-products, including gasoline. Some gasoline was sold as cleaning fluid, but not much. Cars running on gasoline created a market for something that was, at the time, largely being dumped back into the ground. By the time the need for massive amounts of kerosene for lamps was eliminated, gasoline was entrenched as automotive fuel. Alcohol was in the running as an anti-knock additive in the Thirties...tetraethyl lead got the nod mainly because it could be patented as an additive, while alcohol couldn't. Ethyl Corporation = General Motors + Standard Oil.

The Tree was in both the Charger and GTO, '71 and '72 MPC annual kits. Not sure if it is in the most recent reissue of the '72 GTO.

That's from either a '69/'70 Wildcat, or a '66 Wildcat reissue kit. '65 and '66 annual kits were longer at the back, shaped to fit the rear bumper, but the '69 and '70 bumpers were straighter so the piece was trimmed.

That trailer came in the Mako Shark kit also, so those wheels may be the original ones.

No, I believe both versions retailed for $2.00. The $2.25 pricing was phased in during 1970, with existing kits remaining at $2. By the time the 1971 catalog came out, I'm 99% certain all of the kits in this series were discontinued or repackaged.

I picked up a bottle yesterday, and tried it on some sprue. It does appear to be "all that", it's stronger in shear than super glue. I tried it on some round aluminum rod, so far that is holding too. I dropped the aluminum rod on the floor and it didn't break, with super glue it probably would have. I'll break it later today to see what its limits are. This stuff seems to be better than super glue, and better than Bondic. The bond does seem to be better after an hour or so, than immediately after joining the pieces. One other thing: the screw-on cap is great. Provided you wipe the nozzle before recapping the bottle, this product should last longer than most super glues.

Do you mean the double kit as opposed to the Willys coupe/pickup? I've seen both, in person and on eBay, and have saved auction pics of the double kit. The one I have is the coupe/pickup. I would say the vast majority of them are the coupe/pickup.

The Molotow "chrome" is ink. I don't think it will last any length of time in outdoor use, regardless of what you apply over it.

Since eBay started dishing out free listings, to inflate the number of available items... Earlier is better. I've got a recent issue kit; the body tooling is showing wear in some areas...

HOT ROD Magazine featured the Maverick in a 1971 issue. The kit decals are definitely way off, and now that I think of it, the slicks are way too tall. Rear wheels are different too...

Multi-Maverick (1971) was first. MPC bankrolled the construction of the 1:1 car for George Montgomery, in exchange for the rights to make the kit. The kit is off in a couple of places: hood scoop is wrong, also the rear wheel openings are incorrect. The 1:1 was finished after the kit and deviated from the original design. That happened to AMT earlier, with the XR-6 and the Deora. Both 1:1 vehicles differ from the kits in various details. George Montgomery tested the Maverick a couple of times but never raced it. He stayed with the red '69 Mustang for NHRA events, and on occasion pulled out the blue '67 Mustang for match races. The '33 Willys coupe had been sold by then. The Jolly Roger was issued in '73. The body is clearly the Multi-Maverick piece, but has a flat hood with no scoop. It does have the separate front fender pieces, but only one set to match the wheelbase of the chassis. The windows are different: the Multi-Maverick has a one-piece unit with windshield, side glass, and rear window. The Jolly Roger has separate windshield (with cutout for blower scoop) and rear glass, no side windows. The Jolly Roger body trim pieces (bumpers, taillights) are not plated. The chassis is the one-piece 1970 Logghe Brothers unit that was used in a number of early Seventies MPC funny car kits. I never checked, but the basic engine (block, heads, transmission) might be the same in both Maverick kits. The engine is called a 429 "semi-hemi" but the Boss Nine is a true hemi-head engine. The kit was probably produced into '74. There were at least two production runs. I've got a gluebomb Jolly Roger with a yellow body, my unbuilt one has a white body. Both have red chassis/engine parts. I'll probably cut the front section from the gluebomb to correct the hood on a Multi-Maverick (rest of the body is junk). I bought a set of replacement decals for the Jolly Roger, was promised them in gold foil but instead got them in the same washed-out "gold" that MPC used on the original sheet.

I don't think the "car guys" latched onto sheet styrene that early. Don Emmons was still using file card stock on his builds into the late Sixties. I've got all of the Auto World catalogs, and if I remember right they didn't offer it until the late Sixties. AMT actually tooled small pieces of sheet plastic into the '61 flat-box Styline series kits (Ranchero, Galaxie, etc.) My mom cleaned the prototype shop when she worked at Fisher-Price Toys in the late Seventies, and got permission to bring home some stuff they were tossing out. She brought me some sheet styrene, thanks Mom! This was in the late Seventies. Prior to that, all I could get at the local hobby shops was that dark gray Plastruct sheet stock, which might have been ABS and not styrene. It wasn't until another local store opened in the mid-Eighties, that I'd heard of Evergreen products, and they were selling white styrene sheet, oh boy!