Mark

eBay could (if they wanted to) cut out a lot of the nonsense by charging a minimum amount for re-listings. Even at ten cents per re-listing, you wouldn't see the dreamer-priced single parts listed over and over into infinity. But what they're doing now is working for them, so I wouldn't count on seeing any sort of change anytime soon.

How many of them can you get for $516.32?

King T was first altered into the Carl Casper Paddy Wagon, later the fender unit was modified and added to the Switchers T to create another version from that kit. Those fenders aren't in the Switchers reissues. King T chassis is under the Chuck Miller Fire Truck.

Diamond Duster is one of those Lindberg 1/12 scale motorized kits. Chassis was shared with the Fiat altered coupe, and when first released in the mid-Sixties the chassis was sold by itself.

Round 2 is doing some stuff here. I bought the Lindberg Dodge Fever A-100 kit the other day...made in USA except for the decals. I didn't buy one, but I think the MPC 1/20 scale Ford van was made here too. It probably boils down to where the tool is, and if any work is needed to rehab it. If it's "over there" already or needs significant rework, it gets produced "over there". That said, I have encountered a bunch of cheapskates lately. Some of us car guys are tough..."I'd buy a case of those" and "I've been waiting for this one for XX years" often translates to "I'll buy one when I see them at the closeout store"...

Don't let anyone see it in a no parquet-ing zone.

To make upgrades like new chassis or interiors workable, they'd have to make enough additional sales on an item to justify the cost. They've probably got a good idea of how many of an item can be sold before it goes into production; in fact the projected sales numbers probably figure into whether or not the thing even gets made. I can't see them doubling sales on anything by making changes like that. Just my opinion, they shouldn't do it anyway. I'd liken it to colorizing a black-and-white film. All-new items should represent the absolute best effort that can be made (no flat-spotted roofs, unintentionally chopped tops, or incorrect proportions) but the older stuff is what it is. Not to say that there's no room for upgrades, but tacking a few alterations onto an older kit won't satisfy too many people anyway.

There's only one Skylark. The recent issues of the Modified Stocker have extra parts not in the original one. These include the stock wheels from the snap-together issues, as well as some custom and optional parts from the annual kit. As for the '57 Thunderbird, there were actually several tools used for the promotional and friction models alone. There are numerous variations among those: interiors with and without driveline tunnel, bodies with and without vent doors on the front fenders, different scripts, things like that. I've read that AMT produced over a million of those for Ford, Parts of one or more of those tools may have been used for the Craftsman kits. The Nova wagon is another one that has been disputed. There's only one. Promotional model first, then annual kit, then Craftsman kit (pretty much the promo model with the red taillight lenses eliminated), then a reissue on the customizing kit (with the one-piece taillights carried over from the Craftsman kit), then the Boss Nova butcher job. In all but a handful of cases, with annual kits back then the tool was created to produce promotional models first. AMT (and MPC, and Jo-Han) were then allowed to use the tooling to produce kits. Some kits differ in level of detail from the promo models (different chassis and interiors on occasion). But the body tooling is way more complicated and costly to create than anything else, so bodies got reused whenever possible. That's why we got things like '68-'70 Dodge Coronet and '70-'71 Mercury Cyclone funny cars, which never existed in the 1:1 world. That's also why we got most of the funny car and Pro Stock bodies with full exterior trim and windshield wipers when the 1:1 cars didn't have any of that.

Ollie's is a closeout store, so everything there is either overstock or discontinued items. They get what they get, there's no waiting for a particular item to come in.

Are those zip ties holding the headlights in place? Wood eye do something like this? Nope, it'd go against my grain seeing that car-pentry lumbering down the street. Some may think he nailed it, though others wood knot find it unpalletable. But it might leave some flake board with the whole idea.

There are two '64 Galaxies. The annual/glue kit is now the Modified Stocker, the snapper started out as a promotional model. It didn't happen often, but on occasion there would be two tools of the same subject.

Those were made by Polar Lights. Apparently they weren't very popular, because they weren't available for long.

You don't get everything you want whenever you want, but sometimes it makes your day to turn up a great deal or two. I had to piece one of those Chargers together from two finds, but I did sell off the leftover body to get some money back. The other day, I spent $5 at the Three Rivers show for a Jo-Han Maverick body and interior in a bag. Doesn't sound like much, but the body has perfect windshield pillars which will end up grafted into a promo model body. The front pan will probably go to fix yet another body, and the rest will contribute something to a four-door body (I know there are resin ones, but I like cutting stuff up). At the same show, $10 bought an AMT '75 Corvette coupe annual kit in a sealed box. Not as good a deal as a CMG Charger or a Jo-Han Plymouth, but it'll do. A Revell Fiat coupe (half of one of those double kits) for another ten spot wasn't bad either, and I found a bunch of decent decal sheets and parts there too...

The rear end isn't a quickchange, it's a Ford closed-drive unit, from around 1940. Transmission is late Thirties/early Forties Ford, adapted to the Chevy engine. The frame is a (way) cut-down '32 piece. The engine is a late Fifties small-block ('58-up) with provisions for side mounts, and a bolt-on oil filter which was used through about '66. The kit was tooled in the early Sixties. The 1:1 car was not built by Roth, but he did finish the engine swap (original build had a flathead) and he added some other touches to it. The Tweedy Pie II kit isn't fully restored back to what the 1:1 car ever was. Revell has issued the kit again, this time with more restored and new parts to match the 1:1. Any issue of that kit (and there are a lot of them) have the same basic engine and chassis parts.

I'm slowly learning to get rid of stuff. A couple of years ago, I started selling off kits that I hadn't thought about since buying them. Still have a long way to go, though. With things like tools, if they are damaged, out they go! With clothes, if they don't fit (or if I haven't worn them in a couple of years) they get donated (if they're in good shape, of course). Glasses can be donated also. I don't know if anything can be done with the acrylic lenses if they are scratched, but the people asking for them don't specify one way or the other. That reminds me...I really should get an appointment with the optometrist and get going on a new pair of glasses.

I only went to the NNL event once during my time doing the Toledo shows, but I didn't have a problem with the separate admission. I had it figured pretty much as Art says, that the club hosting the NNL had to recover the cost of the room. Lately, I've cut most of the "antique toy shows" out of my schedule. I only set up at a few things a year now: a local 1:1 automotive swap on Super Bowl Sunday, the annual local IPMS event, NNL East, and the Three Rivers show just outside of Pittsburgh. I've missed another local show the last couple of years (my employer does a fundraiser the same day) but this year they don't conflict with one another...so I'll add that one back in this year.

The last couple of Racing Champions issues of the '57 Ford were a mixed bag. One had a box that was a copy of the early Eighties AMT/Ertl box, but the parts inside were basically still from the 1993 revised version. The instructions and decals were from the early Eighties issue, and other than the stock version the parts didn't match up with the instructions. The original plated tree-and-a-half from the early issues was split up, with things like the rear axle and injector tubes left unplated. The Round 2 issue will no doubt match up the parts in the box to what is shown on the box.

Nope, the injector tubes are set up as they would be on a small-block Chevy. Y-block guys know the pairs of tubes need to be "clocked" 90 degrees from the way they are on most other engines, to line up with the Y-block's peculiar intake port arrangement.

I set up at Toledo for about five years (first went there to check it out in early '88, set up at at least two shows a year through '93). I remember that first show; it was huge, bigger than anything like that I'd ever seen. When my brother and I got to the other end of the building, we noticed people walking in from that end. Holy cow, there's another whole room! John Carlisle was always good to deal with. He's from near where I live, and for some reason he hasn't been able to keep a show going around here. For a long time, every couple of years he'd try again, and just not get enough traction to keep going. I've been to other shows of his (not recently, though) in Pennsylvania and Ohio in addition to a few in New York. I've never been disappointed. The Beanie Baby/NASCAR diecast/new Hot Wheels vendors helped do in a couple of other shows around here too. But it's partly the show promoter's fault. All of a sudden, those new vendors swell the waiting list for tables at a meet, then the promoter gets an inflated ego and starts throwing in new/arbitrary rules and demands, thinking he/she has a bunch of other people to sell a table to if you don't bow and kiss their ring. After those vendors dry up and fall out of the picture, the original ones have moved on and don't come back. The promoter then starts letting in other vendors that water the thing down even further. One guy putting shows on around here used to send out "toy show" flyers. His shows were pretty lame to begin with, but this one was practically within walking distance so I went. I'm standing in line holding a flyer that says "toy show", the guy behind me has one for a "comic book show", the people behind him have one that says "movie memorabilia show", someone else's flyer says "record show"...all the same show! Probably should have left before handing over the five bucks to get in... It's similar to the 1:1 automotive swap meets letting in the chainsaw carvings, wind catchers, cheap tools, and craft vendors. Before long, what was a decent automotive swap meet becomes a rusty lawn mower bazaar.

Then don't ever take a tour of a water treatment plant! I worked construction (as a clerical worker) for twenty years, the first ten for what was the biggest contractor in my area at that time. They were building a lot of treatment plants the first few years. You wouldn't want to see the solids they pull out of the water...let's just say that every Monday morning, the "latex navy" pulled into port. That said, it's nothing short of miraculous how plain old water comes out of the faucet, clean and safe in the vast majority of places. Like Snake says, a lot of the bottled water out there is just that: out of the tap and into the bottle. I was glad to have that a couple of months ago though, when a water main broke and we were out for a day or so. As for the disposal, how about straining out the solid stuff and disposing of it separately? Or maybe dump some sawdust into it to absorb everything, then toss that as a solid? Around here, to get rid of unused house paint, we're told to open the can and let it dry out (for small quantities), then toss the can. There's a product you can buy and mix into a more full can to dry it out for disposal. As for unused meds, a lot of towns have places where you can take those. Even the pharmacies should be able to help, or at least steer you in the right direction. There's no excuse to just dump stuff down the drain.

hey hey, it's the Fonz' dream rod... The half-top probably changed the car enough for MPC to not have to give anyone a royalty on it, other than the Happy Days folks...

Customizing parts were the more basic ones: front/rear pans, skirts, scoops, things like that. Those were usually designed as glue-on items, though molding some of them in would be desirable. Sometimes, the bumpers would be designed to overlap where the pan attached to the body, to reduce/eliminate the need for putty. Stylizing/Advanced Customizing parts were the ones that really had to be molded in to look decent. Kits with those parts introduced in '61 and '62 were called "Styline" or "Stylizing", starting in '63 they were "Advanced Custom". The Advanced Custom stuff hung on through '65, though on occasion parts like that would turn up in annual kits after that.

Recent issues of the '50 Ford have a lot more than half of the Stylizing parts. Only a few are missing: skirts, fins, a rear bumper piece, and the Victoria roof. The Carson top was altered to create the half-top that has been in the kit since the second issue. The Round 2 issue had the drag version parts that, until now, were only in the second issue.

The 1:1 wasn't too different from the Little Red Wagon. There's a magazine article on the Dodge Fever truck in a magazine from back in the day. I think the headers were different, but that wouldn't be a deal breaker.

Yes...it's in the Meyers Manx kit also. Both used the same chassis, as did the recently issued Teevee dune buggy. The wheels and tires shown are MPC pieces, those weren't in any of those kits.