Mark

One of the stores here had them on the shelf. I don't recall seeing it on the last "reset list", maybe it replaced something else at the last moment.

A couple other small parts have gone missing after the first issue: the fender skirts, the fins, and another custom piece for the rear of the car. Not many though, when you compare it with changes made to some other Trophy Series kits.

The '53 Ford pickup has been available for some time now. It doesn't have a jack like this, it includes a "scissors jack" like that included with many new 1:1 cars. A similar jack to this one, plated, is in the Model King wedge hauler parts pack from about ten years ago.

Is this the "square" glass bottle? I use that, but I mix in some tube cement. It's thicker then, but not so much that you can't use the brush inside the cap. For thin liquid cement, I've got Tamiya, and probably still have some Plastruct or Tenax left, for now...

No problem here...bought three (at different times, in different places) and all are fine.

"Limited Edition" = "limited to how many they can sell". The funny car kits don't go for big money. I had four or five, bought them for around $8 each, sold all but a couple of them for double that. That paid for the ones I kept, but still that's not big money. eBay: BIG difference between what people are asking, and what they are getting. If they are NASCAR kits, you'll really have trouble selling them at all...

The Dodge cap looks like it would fit a short (6-1/2') bed without that extension at the back. Maybe some company made a 1:1 version, but I've never seen one. The MPC unit is molded entirely in clear plastic, the parts other than the windows must be painted.

Yeah, the Ertl issue of the wagon was yellow. The smaller cap for the '65 El Camino was tooled for the construction issue, along with a couple of hardhats and a "six-pack". To be really authentic, they'd have needed several of the latter, as well as a bunch of loose ones to throw into the bed...

That's about right...whether it's an office or a garage, if there are ten people employed in it and the work of ten people is getting done, boss don't care that it's one person doing the work and the other nine doing nothing...

If you have a yellow '65 El Camino, you've got that construction issue. I have one that was painted when I got it, the yellow plastic looks pretty opaque but mine had paint on it. That, and a very small nick in one rear wheel opening. Radiused wheel openings will fix that...street freak gasser time! The '77 Ford pickup cap is a Ford piece, it's pictured in their brochures. I've got one, unfortunately mine is missing all of the clear parts. That one might get shortened to 6-1/2' when I get back on my "normal" (non-Camper Special) pickup bed project...

1/25 and 1/24, though I have a number of 1/64 scale diecasts and my old HO-scale slot cars. Got a few 1/16 scale car kits too, though none have ever come close to even becoming started projects. The 1/8 scale stuff all went down the road a couple of years ago, though I could probably piece together a '32 Ford from what is left.

With so few people collecting older magazines, you'd want as many people as possible seeing the listing...

The El Camino camper first appeared in the '65 annual kit, which is pictured. Only one issue of the '59 had it, and that one was from about 1968. That camper doesn't really fit the '59. The topper with that funky/useless raised area first appeared in that '63 Ford reissue (1968) then turned up in the '69 Chevy pickup. There were two issues of that; same plastic parts and (99% certain) same decals in both. AMT did two issues of some annual kits in '69, apparently some department store chains wanted kits without the year on the box so they wouldn't end up dumping some to the clearance shelf after next years' kits came out. The topper is the same in all three kits, and it never appeared in any others after those.

The R&D independent front suspension looks like a "Mustang II" unit, the typical street rod setup having few actual Mustang II parts. This one has tubular A-arms and a fabricated crossmember. The Monogram '37 Ford kits have a very similar setup. Both the '37 and the R&D parts are called 1/24 scale, but this shouldn't be a problem.

WSF -Windshield frame. The one-shot stock sedan used the phaeton interior tub. The rear door panel detail was wiped off for the sedan, and is not present on all issues of the phaeton since then. The tooling for the bucket was likely tweaked a bit to make the tub fit into the sedan body. Ertl probably had to undo some of that work to make it fit the phaeton body again. That would explain to an extent why there was a long break between the sedan and the next phaeton issue, also why the sedan hasn't appeared again since.

The more recent Willys kits have a completely different clear parts tree, without the '32's headlight lenses. The Willys headlight lenses are crude compared to the originals, and as I recall the coupe's oval rear window piece isn't even symmetrical.

With some of the Modelhaus complete kits, the chassis is basically there to have somewhere to put the axles and wheels. The exhaust pipes terminate at the back of the cab too; that wasn't corrected either. The (topside) bed floor and inner wheel wells are changed from the '63.

The manufacturers themselves can overproduce something every so often, resulting in the overage being dumped to a closeout store. Guys like Dave, who commission these kits and commit themselves to buying the entire production run, can't afford to let that happen. For them, the profit is tied up in the last few hundred kits sold. If they fall into a slow seller, there goes the profit.

The AMT Olds Toronado kits were re-boxed Jo-Han kits. Round 2 can't reissue what they never had. There was an MPC '67-'68 Toronado, but it was butchered by MPC into a custom car. The MPC Toronado likely doesn't exist anymore, otherwise MPC or Ertl would have brought it back at some point. I'd bet you will see at least one of the Riviera kits ('65, '66, or '69) at some point soon. The '62 Buick Electra is coming soon, it was issued a few years back also. There is also a '66 Wildcat (last kit reissued prior to Round 2 coming in), those can still be found. The '70 Bonneville convertible is available now, as is a '65 Grand Prix.

The Willys clear parts were retooled at some point (not sure when; maybe when the pickup version was added?). The retooled parts aren't as crisp as the originals. The headlamps are the only real issue, as the 1:1 windows were flat glass, and you can make ones that are better than the molded parts anyway. Some of the Gasser series Willys kits include the '32 sedan also. If you have the Gasser series Willys box, you'll notice that it makes no reference to anything but the Willys coupe. My kit is a later one (with the Willys coupe/pickup) but I have seen them with the Willys coupe/'32 Ford combo inside.

They clearly used the '63 kit as a starting point, but the '64 is considerably different from the '63. The roof is different, doors are different, and the unibody style was no longer available in '64. AMT didn't update their '63, they reissued it in a '64 style box but with "1963" in the fine print.

I'd get another kit and test, test, test. Anyone I've ever talked to who tried clear coating one of these things wound up with a mess, usually the metallic base color ended up running. That was back when these first came out, but who knows if time has changed anything. It takes 91% rubbing alcohol to get the paint off of these things, and they needed super quick drying paint so they could be masked for two-tones and silver exterior trim, so it's likely that some sort of acrylic lacquer was used. Still, I wiuldn't chance anything (except maybe Future, and I'd try that on something small first).

The '34 on the box doesn't look undersize...maybe it's because the box art mockup is cobbed together from a Monogram '34! They should have done the undersize '34 as a two-door sedan, they could have called it a Model Y ('32 English Ford, that predated the '34 styling). Revell probably cheated the Buttera T engine to make a kit that the average kid could actually build. Most kits were being sold at stores like K-Mart back then. I remember when that sedan kit first came out (saw it at K-Mart, now that I think of it!) , it had photos of the actual car (but not the model) on the box. I don't think it sold well, as Revell repackaged it almost immediately with photos of a built model on the box. Revell kits had a reputation as being fiddly and difficult to assemble, my guess is they were trying to create new items that would not give that impression. The first issue sedan kit (with the photos of the 1:1 car on the box) don't often turn up at swap meets, and really never did for that matter.

1: How do you bend the styrene rod? 2: I scratched a set of headers awhile back using insulated single-strand electrical wire. I've got some aluminum floral wire, which I imagine will be easier to bend and have it hold the desired shape. (The electrical wire was passable, but I did have to "over-bend" a bit due to a small amount of "spring-back"). With the electrical wire, I epoxied four lengths together two-on-two and started from the collector end (after first trying it from the flange end). When I try the aluminum wire, I'll do it the same way. 2a: Rather than handle the long block over and over again, I drilled the exhaust ports into a piece of hardwood. I drilled both sides adjacent to each other so I could compare the left and right side headers, to get them to match up.

The car may have been rushed into service. One of the Ramchargers' cars was pieced together quickly after another one was wrecked; the book about them describes how they'd added their trademark red stripes one at a time, with spray cans. This Plymouth is probably a lot like the one already issued (Melrose Missile) in that it probably didn't exist too long in the version depicted in the kit. I'll wait for the AWB versions...