Mark

Most people wanting to build the kit will be okay with the reissues. Collectors will still want the originals, but they had better be in mint condition from here on out. The reissues will deflate the value of all of the started/partial/project kits that are sure to clog eBay over the next few months...

Your kit is from 1967, it's the second issue. The parts are exactly the same as the first issue, as are the decals. There was an Elegance Series issue after it, molded in yellow, but did not have the chopped top glass. It did have the Keystone wheels though. The Elegance Series kits could only be built as they were pictured on the boxes. All of the other parts were blocked off in the tool and not included in the kits. Then there was another Gasser issue, in a different box and with a cardboard dragstrip starting line display base included. That one had the custom wheel covers put back in, and the Keystone wheels removed. Alongside that (they're both shown in the 1969 catalog) was the first Pepper Shaker issue. The box art is different from the currently available one, it had a green car with a black roof. Same parts as the Gasser issues, but different decals and no display base. The second Pepper Shaker issue (turquoise car on the box, 1971 if I remember right) had the more elaborate custom parts removed, including the chopped top glass. None of those parts ever got put back into the kit again. A few years later, the cut lines on the underside of the roof were eliminated. The lines on the inside of the roof pillars might still be there though.

Walmartians...

There's at least one other AMT/Ertl issue, probably early Nineties, with a red truck on the box. There's also a repop of the Double Flip issue from around 2005.

It'd be ironic if one of them were a submarine kit...

But again, how much for the figures alone, compared to the one with the car included?

Yeah, but how much is that "way better detailed" figure, compared to the resin one which also includes a car kit?

I'm pretty sure the Revell "parts pack" based doubles were out in '66. I've got a '66 catalog, should dig it out and take another look. The individual packs were phased out during '65, I'm certain none are in the '66 catalog. Some of the parts were altered for the double kits (the Fiat body has a hole in the hood as I recall). The double kit bodies are molded in white instead of the "fiberglass gray" used for the parts packs.

Revell blew out some of the Parts Packs by putting them into assortments. I've got one of those, can't recall offhand when they were sold but I'd bet they were done before the double kits, with unsold leftover packs. Aurora did that too; I've got a pack that includes one each of their three packs (Ford engine, custom wheels, and custom grilles). The grilles are interesting; they molded fairly big rectangular pieces with different grille patterns, and you were supposed to cut them to the needed size/shape.

Those Revell double kits compiled from the Parts Packs were a pretty good deal too, even though some of the parts trees were silver plastic instead of plated (and the dragster chassis were obsolete by then). I'm pretty sure the AMT/Heller doubles with the European cars were $3. Those were out around 1970 if I remember right. Those didn't go over too well, you could still find them a couple of years later.

The AMT T-buckets, Double Dragster, Ala Kart/'29 Ford, and XR-6/'27 Ford retailed for $2. Back then, some AMT single car kits were $1.49, others (like the Styline kits) $2. So the double kits were a pretty good deal at the time. The racing teams were usually $3, but many of those had a tow car based on a Craftsman Series kit which sold for $1 separately. The altered wheelbase cars were $1.70 apiece at the time, so for $3 you got $2.70 worth of car kits and a trailer.

You've probably just got the skirts mocked up, but on the final installation the top of the skirt should follow the side trim.

A correct conversion will require a lot more than a hood and grille. All four fenders are different also.

I have this kit. I believe it is exactly the same as the AMT-boxed, Jo-Han-produced '68 kit. It has the 1968 style door cards as posted by Bill Geary above, and low-back seats without headrests (seats are molded as part of the interior, as with all of these kits). This kit also has the "turbocast" wheel covers, same as the '68 kit. Those are included in other Jo-Han 1966-69 AMC kits also. The 1968-69 annual AMX bodies lack the thin B-pillar that 1970 bodies (and all reissue 1969 bodies) have. I also have a '69 AMX friction, which has the '68-'69 interior but with headrests added to (molded as part of) the seats. The body does not have the thin B-pillars. It has Magnum 500 style wheels. This is a friction, which is an original 1969 piece because the frictions weren't reproduced. I've also got at least one loose kit interior with the headrests. I don't know when the change was made. I'd suspect Jo-Han ran some '69 promos, did a run of kits for AMT, then did the headrest update for another run of promotional models for AMC. It would appear there was also a second production run of kits for AMT after the headrests were added. Jo-Han did not sell any stock two-seater AMX kits during 1968-70. All three years were sold by AMT, in AMT packaging. The '68 kit was sold in one box, '69 and '70 were sold in two different boxes for each year with different stock numbers for each. The '70 kits had correct 1970 interior and exterior updates but still used the 1966 first-generation V8 engine tooled for the 1966 Marlin kit. Jo-Han eventually tooled some updated external parts but never tooled a correct second-generation block. The first two-seater AMX sold in Jo-Han packaging was the original issue 1969 Shirley Shahan super stock, in 1971. The body was backdated to 1969 trim but the front fender side markers and the rocker panel moldings were left off (some of the SS cars had them, some didn't). The B-pillar was left from the '70 kits. The interior bucket was left alone with the '70 high-back bucket seats and 1970 style door cards. The bumpers did not have license plate detail (the plate recess was smoothed over on the front bumper). There are a couple other little things that differentiate the original Shahan kit from the Eighties reissue. All kits up to this point have wire axles also. The USA Oldies issue replaced the drag parts (chassis and engine parts) with stock parts. The engine was back to the stock 1966 unit. The interior was still the 1970 bucket with the early instrument panel. Every one of the USA Oldies kits I have seen has Hurst mag wheels and not stock wheels. The floor shifter in the Oldies kits is different from the one in the annual kits, I'm pretty sure it is the one from the later Javelin-AMX snap kit. USA Oldies AMX kits have plastic rod axles.

I'd like to see the chassis...how'd he get that much engine setback? Did he ditch the stock X-frame? Boyd Coddington did one of his builds ('59 Chevy) with about that much setback; the engine/transmission got raised a bit so everything cleared the "X". He'd already chopped off the frame ahead of the firewall, and behind the front seat, leaving me wondering why he didn't just lose the rest of the frame and start over. The car looks neat. As for the front end treatment, it works as-is but would look better with a chrome bumper. But then again, the whole thing "works" just the way it is.

No. That's the newer kit, which can only be built as the Ala Kart (though with a choice of intake setups).

The issue with the display base is probably the toughest one to find. It's a decent enough kit (not Tamiya level quality, but not Tamiya level price either!) but, being 1/25 scale, it's the odd man out. European subject matter is almost always 1/24 scale and seldom 1/25. That, combined with the fact that AMT never put correct tires into this kit, is what does it in with most collectors.

The AMX was a Jo-Han deal. All of the Jo-Han chassis shared a lot of parts (mainly suspension) and some engine parts like the blower. There were several sets of side rails, two sets of wheels, and different engine mounts for AMC, Mopar, Olds, and Ford. The Jo-Han version of the Logghe Brothers chassis is still the best in my opinion. The Jo-Han chassis stayed with Jo-Han, it was last used under a '74 (!) Hornet body in the late Seventies. I never checked the parts against one another, but supposedly the AMT Vega chassis (used under the Gremlin and Pinto also) is based on the '69 chassis from the first Funny Hugger Camaro (also used under the AMT '69 Cougar, '70 Mustang, and '69 Longnose Mustang with longer side rails). The subcompacts aren't really accurate as funny cars (not many of those ran the stock wheelbase, those that did had a hard time going straight!) but they're cool kits nevertheless. I let go of a Vega at NNL East earlier this year (got another, built one on the pile, don't need two of them) and snagged a Pinto not long afterward.

If you have, or can check out, an original-issue Revell chopped coupe kit, the assembled "prototype model" pictured on the box (a red car) has a Monogram 1/24 scale body, with the Buttera chassis pieced in! Revell did a lot of that back then; several of their 1/25 scale funny car kit boxes use photos of assembled 1/16 scale kits with the wiring left off. The wheels and front tires usually give those away. If you shorten the Buttera chassis (and fender unit) and do some slicing and dicing on the coupe body, you could maybe get a semi-acceptable Model Y coupe (with widened fenders) out of it. It'd probably be a phantom body style, as I'm pretty certain all of the coupes were of the five-window style, some having a "sport coupe" top covering that blocked out the quarter windows. The Y actually predated our '33-'34 styling; it's been said that the Y fender/grille/hood styling was enlarged for the North American '33 Fords.

There's the Revell snap kit (chopped '34 three-window), and the ZZ Top Eliminator which is a '33 three-window.

Nope, the Old Pro was the first. In fact, I can't think of an issue that doesn't have those decals in it. It'll sell. I can't recall seeing many references to the reissued '63 Corvette fastback, and it has been around for several years...someone out there is buying them...

I've snagged a couple of those Torino kits, even a started one or two, when I saw them cheap, for the 429 engine. It's the only one out there; other kits claiming to have it only have warmed-over FE-series engines. Unless you specifically need the corrected body and bucket seats, the early issue kits are as good as the corrected ones for these parts. The GT kits have some optional engine parts: headers, Ford Motorsport valve covers and air cleaner. The underbody slips under the MPC '70-'71 Cyclone: annual kits, resin copies, or the reissued stock car body. You'd have to track down interior parts, bumpers, and a hood for the latter to build a showroom stock version, but I've seen one done. There are lots of other good parts too: separate door handles, 9" rear axle, and other stuff.

No worse than some (most, actually) of the first-draft GM workups for 1959 (the ones based on the 1958 bodies, before a realignment brought an all-new one for '59).

That's a mid-Seventies kit, the "budget series" that I described earlier. It's the first one without the side glass, fog lamp lenses, and other clear parts. A number of other optional parts were eliminated also, and a bunch of engine parts that were plated in other issues are not in that one. Those kits came in narrower boxes, like the ones some of the Trophy Series kits came in in the Sixties. AMT issued a number of kits in that series: the Opel GT (stock only), the '40 Willys (individual coupe and pickup kits as opposed to both versions in one box), a few of the altered-wheelbase funny cars (with "street" parts like radiators, passenger seats, and side pipes added) and the Watson Indy roadster and Ford/Lotus Indy car. The '32 Ford roadster was issued in this series also.

There has to be more than five TD kit tools in China. I've got a Badman kit that was molded there. The Jinx Express reissue was molded here, though.