Mark

The Monogram Hot Shot (slot and shelf versions) both used 1/32 scale slot car tires. The shelf version had plastic wheels, the slot car had aluminum ones. Not having the slot version, I'd guess that it used a 1/32 scale slot chassis, or possibly a special one made to fit the body. The front tires are tough to find. With a built kit, often the plastic front axle breaks with the broken-off section disappearing and taking a tire and wheel with it.

2004 reissue would have been an SSP item. The box art would closely resemble that of the original issue, which didn't exactly stick out.

No '63 coupe or '64 convertible kits. The '64 coupe was also offered as a slot car body kit (molded in white; the snap kit was yellow).

I have seen it on the H.A.M.B.

If Revell is reissuing the lowrider version of the S-10, that should mean that they found (or retooled) the 2WD front suspension setup. The most recent issue was 4WD, it looked as though it was a GMC Syclone with the S-10 grille.

More mixing would be the next thing to try. I wouldn't even try to cast any parts; just mix a small amount, observe what happens, and test the results. Resin is cheap compared to mold material. Losing/"wasting" some of it is preferable to wasting one or more uses of a mold in my opinion.

The '27 touring from the double kit is definitely the basis of MMTC. Besides the aforementioned parts, the rear window area of the raised top was changed (with a new part, I believe). The earlier XR-6 double kit went over like passing gas in church (the linoleum gray box art didn't help) so the TV car served as a means of salvaging something out of the double kit. The T touring was then revised further for post-MMTC reissues. The Chevrolet Brothers (Frontenac) engine goodies were restored from the double kit, along with the slotted rear wheels. The custom rear window top piece was probably the only part from MMTC that was retained. The other optional parts were (then) newly tooled.

Four things: -Are the two parts meant to be mixed in equal portions? If so, the bottles should be the same size. Everything else being "right", you shouldn't need to alter the mix. Just make sure the two parts are properly measured. -Don't allow utensils or containers used for "A" to come into contact with "B". -How old is the stuff? It does have a shelf life, which drops off drastically once opened. -Make sure "A" and "B" are each mixed individually prior to combining them.

The battery ones I have seen spin pretty fast too. If you slow it down by putting in mostly-used batteries, it won't have enough muscle to do any polishing. A single speed tool with an external speed control unit will let the tool speed drop to near zero. You can't use the external speed control with a tool that already has one built in, so you'd need a single speed tool. I don't think Dremel makes a single-speed tool anymore, but Harbor Freight might still have one. I believe they offer the external control unit also.

Atlantis ought to be making sure buyers know they are getting the Revell parts packs. I have heard that some potential buyers are passing on these kits because they don't know what's in the box. Too, they need to run those suspension parts through the plating chamber...

The Round 2 issue is desirable in that it includes a copy of the display background that came in the original issue kit. The Millennium issue didn't have that.

Someone could have come up with a wiring harness to plug a cheaper alternator into a Yugo. No telling if they would have sold enough of them to make it worth the effort, though. If someone did think of it, they obviously never followed through on the idea.

I'd bet it hit the anticipated sales target. It's aimed primarily at the TV/movie model crowd, the car guys wanted it too but that's really a secondary market for this kit. And, like the Batmobile kits, there will be follow-up versions with added items like display bases and collector tins. It's a shame it took so long to get a 1/25 scale kit, but it's still an iconic car. Not quite up there with the Batmobiles or 007 Aston Martin, but very close.

A guy I worked with bought an X1/9 new in '79. He initially wanted a Mazda RX-7, but that was a hot item at the time, and the Fiat dealer talked him into the X1/9. I rode to work in it every other week for much of two summers (and in the winter every so often), and even got to drive it once. Fun car. I tested a Pontiac Fiero when those hit the market, and it wasn't nearly as lively. I believe his X1/9 was a carburetor car, if it had FI he probably would have had problems with that. Everyone bags on Fiats being unreliable. That one never, never left him stranded. But, there were never, NEVER two weeks straight where everything worked on that car. More than likely it needed electrical attention: A/C went out often, and the gauges (which, I remember, swept from right to left) were intermittent on occasion. It got worse after the car hit a deer on the way to work. After that, the headlights had to be raised manually. After a while, he just left them up. The dealer that sold the car folded, he found the other area dealer. Even for incidental repairs, that guy couldn't count to numbers less than $100. That car fought that poor guy right to the end. He sold it in the mid/late Eighties for $1,200. He handed the title over before trying to cash the (rubber) check.

Imperials were not Unibody until 1967. The BB is a '65 or '66, that generation actually goes back to 1957 underneath. Revell's Imperial kit has incorrect Unibody chassis detail. There were styling studies and clays done for a proposed '62 Unibody Imperial, but Chrysler had to drastically revise its '62 plans due to their financial situation. Neither the Imperial nor the Chrysler got a new body for '62, and the Chrysler got a hasty restyle using new quarter panels and some Dodge panels, to get rid of the fins from '60-'61.

I don't know about Europe, but over here there are probably fewer people waiting for this, than were waiting for Alfa Romeo to make a comeback here.

Drag racers didn't understand aero in the Sixties or early Seventies. The streamlined dragster bodies were mostly teardrop shaped but were then going down the track backwards. The "canard" funny car spoilers and dragster front wheel "pants" were disasters waiting to happen.

1972 sounds way early for the demise of the Gas classes. I believe they were in place through the end of the Seventies. Most of the Js built for Gas ran in the early/mid Sixties, they weren't the greatest choice (decent engine setback put the engine partway under the dashboard). But, being an orphan car, they were cheap because they had no resale value back then. None of them ever won any high-profile meet, but there were a bunch of them running at the local and regional levels. There was one high-dollar, show-quality J in the early Seventies, I'm not sure if it was a Gasser or Altered. I don't recall it having a spoiler. NHRA was on the arbitrary side in some ways back then. George Montgomery wanted to run a front air dam on his Willys after testing it in a wind tunnel, NHRA wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't allow laying the windshield back on a top chop saying it would be "streamlining", disregarding the fact that the chop in and of itself was "streamlining".

Some dealers called those fiberglass shells "hats". The installer would just drill holes in the roof to attach it, to give the padded roof an attachment point. Cadillac dealers would sell cars with "a hat, a (fake Continental) spare, and a spear" (hood ornament). But when they started leasing more cars, they wouldn't let lessees put that junk on because it dragged the resale value of the returned car down to near nothing.

AMT knew they were on to something, as kids were customizing those early promo models. They took it a step further with the customizing kit, a '55 or '56 Thunderbird that included clay to do the "restyling". Molding the whole car in styrene (ditching the metal chassis, pot metal bumpers, and cellophane windows), adding an interior, plating the trim pieces, and adding a few optional parts got them the rest of the way there.

Just as I thought...a few items hit the shelf right after the Valentine's Day themed coupon expired. Kenworth mixer, 1/16 scale '57 Thunderbird, Falcon drag team, and Sandkat dragster. I grabbed one each of the latter two. Still wish they'd get some Duplicolor sprays in, though...

There's no real way of knowing if/when it will be reissued again. Each issue is produced in batches of a particular number (say 5,000 at a time). The last few hundred are where the profit is. If the most recent production run was slow to sell out, they would be reluctant to issue it again so soon afterwards. But only Round 2 has the info regarding sales of each item.

Yes, the GTX did have that hood. It, and the grille, were pretty much the differences between it and that year's Roadrunner kit.

That's a first issue kit, it doesn't have the cut line engraved on the underside of the hood for the supercharger option. The chassis screws may be in a subsequent issue or two, the separate taillight lenses went away in the mid-Seventies as did the "1965" on the bumpers. I'm not positive on the promo, but the kit always had bucket seats. It's not an SS though. El Caminos could be had with the bucket seats and (later) the 396 engine. But they weren't available as an SS until '68. The wagon and El Camino are different tooling from one another, though parts do interchange. The engines are a bit different here and there, as are the chassis. The little parts tree with the supercharger parts is the same, and floats back and forth between the two kits.

Those fake convertible tops look even better with a sunroof. I have seen a couple of them...