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Mark

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Everything posted by Mark

  1. The Astro I body, as used in the Scorpion, is pretty well hacked up. Panel lines wiped off, things like that. The Astro I cockpit canopy (one big "door") and engine cover both attach to a belly pan and tilt up. Whoever came up with the idea of stuffing the Piranha chassis into the Astro I body probably thought they could do it without hacking up that belly pan. They were wrong, with the end result that the pan was hacked up and the remaining sections now attach to the body, which ends up as a single piece. I don't think the Astro I set the world on fire sales-wise, the Scorpion was probably done as a way of recouping the investment and get another product out there.
  2. The whole world once feared Caesar... but Caesar feared his wife... A few years ago, a woman (not picking on women here, but she was a woman) who had just moved into the neighborhood was trying to put together a petition to start a HOA. My only question was: "if you want something like this, why didn't you move into a neighborhood that already has one?". I didn't get an answer. I saw her and her accomplice walk to a couple other houses before giving up on the idea...
  3. A funny car was issued also, with the narrow chassis that was used under the Funny Hugger II (the '69 Camaro that Model King reissued some time back). That chassis was used under a couple other bodies also. The Nova funny car had different front fenders, with the front wheel openings shifted forward to match up with the chassis. The Ventura II had a different front clip including the cowl vent that was molded as part of the body. The rear bumper was a different piece too, with wider taillight bezels and a body color filler piece that went between the taillights. Both sets of wheels (stock and optional) were different too.
  4. Every '72 I've seen with bucket seats had the high-back Camaro/Vega style seat, not the low-back seat with the separate headrest. All of the '72 brochures I've seen show the high-back buckets also, and those are done before the cars go on sale. Even though the kit first appeared in '72, I'll say it's a '71.
  5. Government in action, or government inaction?
  6. Auto World catalogs often included photos and information gathered from various sources. The photo of the built kit is probably from a CAR MODEL Magazine article on the trade show where the kit was announced. Some of the "sell sheets" AMT sent out to wholesalers and retailers used photos of 1:1 cars (sometimes retouched or even altered with markers!), or altered artwork from earlier issues of the same kit. On top of that, some of the funny cars didn't necessarily include the decal sheet that matched up with the box art. These were $1.70 retail kits as opposed to the then-normal (for AMT) $2, so when they ran out of one sheet while packing the kits, in went another. (Jo-Han did a lot of that too.) The '65 Nova and '63 Tempest usually had the "box art" sheet because AMT had another kit out at the same time with the same sheet as each of those. I've seen most of the others with sheets other than what matched the box art, and these were otherwise not messed with so it would be tough to say that someone just swapped decals. Besides the spoiler and headlight covers, there were two short rear bumpers, to fill the holes in the body for the rear bumper. All of those parts were probably added so that AMT wouldn't have to include the Corvair kit's plated tree in addition to the Barracuda one (with the 'Cuda's bumpers blocked off).
  7. It's unlikely to drop right in. I don't have the Revell kit in front of me, but I'm pretty sure the interior assembles onto a floor that in part creates the driveline tunnel on the underbody. The MPC piece sits atop a separate chassis/underbody, so it would be shallower. If the door panels are the same, you might be able to get the Modelhaus piece, cut out the console and rear seat, and adapt them to the Revell interior.
  8. The block is different...no provisions for installing another cylinder head or the "other" four pistons. Pontiac tested the idea by building 389 V8 engines with one bank of cylinders removed. The production cylinder head was actually one of the better V8 units, however nobody bothers to save those now because there are later ones that are better.
  9. If you want the stock style sheet metal front cover and a water pump, both as separate pieces, several late Seventies/early Eighties MPC kits had them: Chevy Monzas, pickups, and El Caminos. The most common kits now would probably be the '86 El Camino SS and '84 GMC pickup (ex-Fall Guy). The '82-'92 Firebird and Camaro kits might have separate parts too, but I'm not positive.
  10. Only issued once, around 1968.
  11. Chevrolet didn't need the Corvair; they were selling thousands of conventional, cast iron pushrod engine cars every working day. They'd have been a lot smarter to bring the Chevy II out in 1960, or share the front-engine version of the compact that Pontiac, Buick, and Olds were using. Ten years later, they'd have been smart to bring out the Vega with the already tested, anvil-simple cast-iron four-cylinder engine that they were still putting into a few thousand Novas a year, as well as selling to Mercury Marine (for boats) and Kaiser Jeep (for postal vehicles). The Vega got its aluminum engine in part because GM and Reynolds Aluminum had a lot of money tied up in aluminum foundry facilities. With the Corvair gone, the investment was too big to leave idle, so the Vega got the aluminum engine.
  12. The two engines (Pontiac Tempest "half a V8" slant 4) were the same except for the size of the blowers. Mickey Thompson swapped in different engines to attack multiple class records at Bonneville in each visit. The Attempt I was a bit on the small side, so Revell probably put the second engine (and the trailer) in to get the box a bit more full.
  13. Ford offered a '37 roadster, but it was a convertible with the roll-up side windows deleted and sheetmetal caps installed to cover the window slots in the doors. Ford Australia offered roadsters through 1940.
  14. I remember a few years ago, a lady I knew owned a '99 Impala and GM couldn't supply a hanger for the exhaust system. I'm not sure if an aftermarket part was available. This was a while ago, the car was about five or six years old at the time. The manufacturers only have to supply body and trim parts for a certain length of time. My niece's '03 Cavalier was hit hard in the front when it was two or three years old. Even at that time, the choice was between a used front fascia or an aftermarket piece that didn't look exactly like the OEM piece. GM couldn't/wouldn't supply a new one. And the used one was hard to find, because most salvage yards wouldn't break up a complete front end to sell the bumper. If I remember right, they did locate a used one. If the dealer will use only GM parts, that sounds like a self-imposed rule to me. As far as I'm concerned, if they want the job they can supply the parts to do the job. Insurance companies are another matter. Someone nailed the rear bumper on my '04 Dakota when it was about two years old. Insurance company can specify used parts (in NY) if the vehicle is not the current model year, and/or has more than a few thousand miles on it. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't find a used one in good condition, so they had to spring for a new one in my case.
  15. Test it...see if it is compatible with the cement(s) and paint(s) you normally use. If it is not styrene, you may be able to use super glue to bond it to styrene. But if paint won't adhere, the plastic won't be of use to you.
  16. It's the old AMT annual kit (last issued as a '77) backdated. MPC's was updated through '81, but should still exist in that form.
  17. Bigger parts, easier for kids to handle...also, the price point would have been a bit higher. The 1/20 scale car kits retailed for $3 when most 1/25 scale kits were $2.The 1/20 scale Corvettes were pretty much like the 1/25 scale ones, just bigger. The Ford Econoline kits were beautiful, but like most other folks, I wish they'd been 1/25 scale. Looking at the one I've got now, it probably could have been done in 1/25 with most (if not all) of its working features intact.
  18. When this 'Vette kit was first released, the guy who reviewed it for CAR MODEL magazine mentioned that the parts breakdown is very similar to that of Monogram's 1/8 scale '65 Corvette. MPC's 1/20 and 1/25 scale C3 Corvette kits are pretty much alike except for their size (but not that similar to the 1/16 scale '63). Early advertising for the first issue MPC '63 mention a pre-painted body, but I've never seen one with that feature. All that said, this is a pretty decent kit.
  19. All three of the mid-year '71 MPC kits (Dodge Demon, Plymouth GTX, and Pontiac Trans-Am) were pretty tough to find, even when new. A lot of stores didn't carry them because they might sit on the shelves until the '72 kits came out. The Demon isn't that good, to be honest: the hood is too flat (underside tooling is shared with the Duster hood, which is flatter), front wheel openings are the wrong shape, and the front bumper/grille doesn't fit very well. The new kit, when it appears, will drive down the value on "projects" and less-than-perfect unbuilt kits. Mint in the box originals should hold their value, though.
  20. Not memory, just having the catalogs! I should have looked at the '71 catalog before my initial post, however. I don't have the mid-year release listing for '71, though.
  21. AMT '63 annual kit. It should have the working hidden headlamps also. Only the annual kit had the separate gas filler; the "reissue" '63 convertibles have a different body that was tooled in the Eighties.
  22. The other three ('65 Chevelle, '65 GTO, '69 Falcon) came out during '71. They aren't in the '71 catalog, but are in the '72 catalog and not listed as "new" for that year. The '66 Skylark was gone for '73, and for '74 only the two Chevies were listed. Both of those disappeared after '74. In addition, most of these weren't great sellers. I had the '66 Skylark back in the day, I picked it up on clearance. That would have been in '71 or early '72; we moved in mid-'72 and I remember having that one prior to the move. I had the Chevelle too, but that one was bought when it first came out. These kits were called "butchered" in one of the model car magazines back then. But to be fair, the issues of some of these kits prior to the conversion didn't sell well. I had pre-Modified Stocker issue '65 Olds and '65 Fairlane kits that I'd bought for cheap AFTER the Stocker issues appeared.
  23. First issued in 1971. All nine were out that year. The first one dropped was the '66 Skylark (wasn't in the '72 catalog if I remember right), by '74 only the '66 Impala and '65 Chevelle were in the catalog.
  24. I'll call BS on the Corolla. There have been periods (in North America, at least) where Toyota has sold "Corollas" on multiple platforms at the same time. Cars do evolve, but not with two or three completely different (front drive and rear drive) cars marketed with the same name at the same time. It would be like Chevrolet selling the Impala, and selling the Camaro alongside it as the "Chevrolet Impala Camaro"...
  25. I'm pretty certain there was a Highway Pioneers 1903 Ford; that one would have been approximately 1/32 scale.
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