Mark

I've spent $150 once or twice (one being an AMT Grand Prix racing team; '53 Ford pickup, trailer, and AC Cobra). I haven't got any of the drag team kits; I'd like one, but won't pull the trigger because every one I've seen close up has been messed with in one way or another. The same goes for promo models now; most of the ones I see at shows have been doctored up (repaints, Future applied over scuffed original metallic finish, replacement plated parts but dull original wheels, things like that). I was fortunate enough to get the good ones I do have when they were only a few years old, before the prices went through the roof. I did get a couple of AMT '58 (and Jo-Han '59) annual kits in below the $150 mark, but that was a while back. I'm down to looking for a handful of kits now; anything else I buy usually gets resold at some point. I almost spent $280 for an AMT Nova Crew Wagon kit (last issue before the Boss Nova). It was described as (and guaranteed to be) complete, but was somewhat less than that upon arrival. The seller didn't want to take it back, and offered to knock it down to $100. I took the offer, as I had the missing parts. I didn't need another builder, but I did want the mint condition box. I can still sell another builder kit and bring the cost of that one down a bit.

Haven't built the Revell Deuce highboy roadster yet, but when I do I think I'll stick a 350/350 in it. Red highboy, small-block Chevy, 9" Ford rear axle, four-bar suspension front and rear, maybe a set of steelies...can't get much more generic than that.

The Eliminator kit has the Pontiac V8 that was in earlier issues of Monogram's '34 Ford. The Eliminator was a decent enough curbside kit, but most of the chassis was wrong for it. The later Thom Taylor cabriolet kit (further alteration to the Eliminator) has the chassis cleaned up (molded-in exhaust cleaned off, 9" Ford rear end). Right off the top of my head, though, I can't recall if they changed the engine for that version.

Some swaps are done because the chosen engine fits better than others. The small-block Chevy fits early Fords better than most Ford engines. The Chevy has the oil pan sump at the rear, starter on the passenger side, distributor at the back where it lines up with the firewall recess for the Ford fuel pump. Early Buick engines were also used; same configuration as the Chevy except for the starter being on the drivers' side. The engine-to-transmission adapter would move the starter to the other side, and get it away from the steering box. A lot of these early swaps were done with little or no welding, so reversing the sump on an oil pan was a big deal back then. If you look through the old Rod & Custom or Street Rodder magazines, you'll find the occasional Forties Mopar or Chevy running a small-block Ford engine. The Ford is narrower/longer than a small-block Chevy, so it was used in situations where an inline six was being replaced. I was looking at one of those old Petersen Publishing Chrysler books the other day. Nearly all of the Mopar street rods were running Chevy engines! This was before Mopar Performance got aggressive with advertising to the street rod crowd (anyone remember the "Bored with Ford?" ad campaign?). It seemed like, after that, more rodders started using same-make engines in their builds. Some guys still don't care what name is on the engine though...they go with what they like.

Not the original King (red) or Queen (green) Daytona. Big Willie had several of these cars, this one supposedly has a few parts from the King. The red King Daytona is said to still exist as a shell (it was acid-dipped but not properly neutralized). The green Queen Daytona was wrecked years ago.

There was also the "Novacaine" funny car, which used the stock Nova body but with different front fenders. On those, the wheel openings are so far forward the front edges are off the fender...

Most post-1980 NASCAR stuff doesn't sell. Nobody cares who won what race in 1993, they only care about who won last week. Even if you are in the small group that wants to catch up on some of the "forgotten" stuff, you can pick up individual kits for as little as $2 each. A while back, I decided I should pick up a couple of the early Monogram kits. I found one of the Mountain Dew Buick Regals (one of the first group of cars issued), sealed, for $3. I know where I can get one of the Thunderbirds, but it's priced over $10. I know I can find one of those kits in single digits. The AMT NASCAR kits, being 1/25 scale, have a lot of decent parts in them if you aren't into NASCAR. The Fords (both the cars and trucks) have Cleveland engines that, while not 100% accurate for some other applications, have a bunch more detail than any of the ones in earlier kits.

I was referring to the "civilian" cars...haven't seen the movie, and wouldn't watch it at gunpoint! Still, you'd think they'd have gotten the little details right...

I've got a bunch of color chip books and pages, that I found for cheap at swap meets. I'll look over the chips for a particular car, and check them against Duplicolor ,Testors, or Tamiya sprays. Sometimes you can luck out and get a close match. The websites are okay to see what colors were offered, but I don't think I'd try to do a match strictly on that alone.

Looks like Revell made a boo-boo with the shaker decals. Those should read "TA 6.6". The "6.6 Litre" designation was used on cars equipped with the 403 Oldsmobile (er, "GM Corporate") engine. I think some of the many issues of the ex-MPC Blackbird have the same error.

That's probably the one he's thinking of. The original Sizzler kit had a setup just like that. If you want a Man-A-Fre type intake in 1/25 scale, check out the stock fuel injection intake in the old-tool Revell '57 Chevy kits (hardtop and Nomad). The four pads that the stock FI plenum rests on are aligned with the intake ports on the heads, and they resemble mounting pads for carburetors. You might have to scratch a set of pads to add to the manifold to raise the carbs a bit, but that is no big deal. I'm working on a model of a drag car that ran locally back in the day, the pics I have of the intake on it are pretty similar to the Revell unit. The local car's intake wasn't a Man-A-Fre, but again all of these four-carb setups were pretty much alike with one carb feeding two intake ports (and each pair of ports isolated from the others). The only four-carb SBC intake I know of in a kit (AMT '67/'68 Camaro annual kits) looks similar to the Revell FI intake also.

The Coronet's body and interior are vintage MPC; the windows were tooled in the mid-Nineties for the Road Runner and GTX but happen to fit into the Coronet body (except for the trimming needed to get the interior to fit)

No idea! To me, it looks like a Victoria with the bustle at the rear replaced by the rolled-under lower section from a sedan. And all of the beltline trim removed. I was going to cut the thing every which way until it was small enough to be an American Bantam. Then I saw that Jimmy Flintstone made an American Bantam body in 1/25 scale, so I grabbed that.

Of the people in the demographic Revell caters to, I'd put my money on more of them NOT being on Facebook. I'd also take the bet that most will never be there. They'd be foolish to think that their entire customer base will ever go on board with that fad...

RC2 reissued the MPC '60 a few years ago. It was available only for a short time. The reissue lacks the working front suspension, but the steering feature is still included. Most, if not all, of the original 7-in-1 issue's optional parts are in the reissue. Be advised that all of the various issues of the MPC '60 (7-in-1, and drag version with tilt front end) have the interior bucket from the MPC 1956/57 kit. The '60 has a correct '60 instrument panel though.

I never paid much attention to these, but I'm pretty certain the Super Zingers were issued. Someone I know who does collect these things once told me that the figure in the CB Freak was modified from the Stroker McGurk figure in one of the early MPC kits...

The 1967 Auto World catalog mentions the MPC Miller "91", as well as the MPC "Stilleto", a show car commissioned by Bob Larivee and built by Ron Gerstner. The same catalog also mentions an AMT Porsche 911 in 1/25 scale. The 1969 Auto World catalog lists a Jo-Han 1969 Roadrunner convertible kit, but it never appeared. Years ago, I was dealing with a collector in the Midwest, who was selling kits for someone else. The guy who had the kits (a two-car garage full, stacked from floor to rafters) gave the seller an inventory list. On that list was a Jo-Han '69 RR convertible kit. Both guys tore the garage apart looking for it (the seller was a Mopar fanatic and wanted that kit) but no such kit was in there. AMT announced several 1970 annual kits that never appeared, including an El Camino, Mercury Cougar (MPC made both hardtop and convertible, but AMT stopped after '69), Falcon, Corvair (in this case, Chevrolet stopped after '69), Cadillac Eldorado (likely a re-boxed Jo-Han kit), and Galaxie XL fastback. Other 1970 AMT kits that did appear differed from the announced versions (LTD four-door and Buick Wildcat were originally $2.00 customizing kits but appeared as $1.00 unassembled promos, the Chevelle was an SS396 instead of the 454 that was issued). AMT announced a 1977 Gremlin annual kit. The 1:1 '77 Gremlin had new front end sheetmetal, and the V8 option was dropped during '76 (fewer than 500 '76 V8 Gremlins were sold) so AMT would have had to make a lot of changes to keep the kit correct...so they quit after '76.

The Shaker version was issued only once, and MPC didn't use that feature in any other kits...so in all likelihood it didn't go over well. The basic 'Vette kit is quite good. It was reported in the old CAR MODEL magazine that the MPC kit is patterned after the Monogram 1/8 scale '65 Corvette. The parts breakdown of the two are fairly similar. Not too many more parts than a 1/25 scale kit (less than some), not too tough to assemble. The first issue (prior to the Shaker) was supposed to have a pre-painted body (it's described in the catalog that way) but that feature didn't make it into the kit.

The MPC T-based buggy was not 1/20 scale. I've got that same catalog; the kit is listed as 1/25 scale, with a retail price of $2.25 (same as most other 1/25 scale MPC kits at that time). And, it was produced; MPC called it the "V-Rod". For reasons known only to someone at MPC, the "V-Rod" kit included a Corvair engine, and not the VW unit shown in the catalog...

From 1982: the ultimate conversion kit. Factory-built. Available in four versions: Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Pontiac...

They're still around...only now they try to make a new Challenger look like a Barracuda, or make a new Camaro into a GTO Judge or a '69 Trans-Am. Great idea...spend thirty grand on a new car, then tack a bunch of fiberglass parts on it. And if any of them get damaged, you're locked in to one source for replacement parts, so you pay their price...if they are still around later. A while back, there was a conversion that was supposed to make an S-10 look like a '39 Studebaker pickup. But when you have to paint "39 Studebaker" on the front of the thing to tell people that's what it's supposed to be, then maybe the conversion isn't too convincing. There was one with a Deuce grille shell, that went on a VW Beetle. The '40 Ford nose is passable (a Chrysler Airflow would have been more so IMO) but a '32 Ford don't look anything like a VW. I've actually got one of those '49 Ford/Thunderbirds pretty far along, with a Revell '90 or '91 kit. At first, it was pretty close to the way the 1:1 conversion was done, but the '49-'51 hood rises up too much at the center to look right on the T-bird body. I did flatten the hood out, it looks better, but right now it's back in the box awaiting further inspiration. The T-Bird only cost me three bucks...

I can't take it seriously, if Comic Sans Font is involved in any way...

I don't think the surfer figures were around long originally. It would be interesting to know if a reissue on that one would be possible...

The surfer is simplified; it's a three piece figure. The only separate parts are the arms. With those, you get one surfer, and two boards, two pieces each (surfboard fin is separate).

Only the original annual kits (hardtop and convertible) and the 1968 reissue Daytona Sportsman include an engine and an opening hood. The Daytona Sportsman reissue can be built stock or custom. It was not altered from the annual except for the deletion of the working lights feature. The clear "light transfer" parts were still included. With the addition of two small bulbs and a battery box, the working light feature could be put back in. The 1971 issue Modified Stocker is based on the annual/Daytona Sportsman. The alterations made to create the Modified Stocker are extensive and most likely irreversible. The 1964 promotional models were produced from different tooling than was used for the kits, though many parts will interchange. The promotional model interior is simpler however, not having a separate rear seat like the full detail kits. The promo model was issued in unassembled form around 1967 as a Craftsman Series kit. The Blueprinter, Pro Shop, Millennium Series, and Model King '64 Galaxie kits are all based on the promo model. Being based on a promotional, it has no engine, opening hood, or optional parts. After the Blueprinter issue but before the Pro Shop issue, the Galaxie was issued as a pre-assembled "retro promo". A number of changes were made, and several parts were retooled, most notably the wheel covers. Model King commissioned reissues of both '64 Galaxies: the stock-only ex-promotional, and the Modified Stocker. The Modified Stocker has a number of parts "unblocked" in the tooling that were not included in its first issue (because the Modified Stocker did not need them). These include the stock air cleaner, stock oil pan, and stock wheel covers. The Modified Stocker reissue has the molded-in stock dual exhaust restored to the chassis also. This was done when AMT/Ertl first reissued the '63 Galaxie in the mid-Eighties (apparently the '63 and '64 used the same piece, and the exhaust was needed for the stock '63). If you want chassis and engine detail that is like that in the annual kits, the Modified Stocker reissue has all of the parts plus the stock wheel covers from the annual kit. If you want upgraded detail, you may want to go with the chassis and engine from the newer '60 Starliner kit and make the changes needed to correct the differences between '60 and '64.