Mark

I remember that car being in the Guinness Book of World Records for a few years, as the car with the largest displacement power plant(s). They probably yanked it upon discovering that it never moved under its own power. I do remember the disassembled car being for sale at either Carlisle or Hershey (probably the former). The engines became valuable; first to builders of pulling tractors, later to people restoring vintage aircraft. The reassembled car has engines that are damaged beyond repair.

I too bought a carton of the Rambler kits...as I remember the total came to under $40, on my doorstep. Sold three or four a couple of years later for about $20 apiece, leaving eight free Rambler kits.

The custom skirts would have been way outdated by 1966. Similar parts were deleted from other Trophy Series kits around that time. The piece that interests me is that "scoop" set towards the back of the hood; I recall a similar piece in the Styline kit that went further forward, ahead of the hood. The stock scoop, a separate piece in the Styline issue, would appear to still be separate in the 1966 issue. I believe it was engraved into the hood for the Elegance Series issue.

This was a long time ago, but one local hobby shop owner once told me he could never get as many of those '64 Impala kits as he wanted. He'd order twice as many as he really wanted, he'd still get half as many as he wanted. He'd put those out, and they'd be sold in two or three days. He knew some builders bought another one every year or two. Another guy who sets up at local toy and train shows used to buy a lot of collections. Pretty much every collection had at least one built Impala, as well as one of the Monogram flip-front '66 Chevelles.

Wasn't Okey selling police cars, 442s, and a handful of pro stock Comet kits around 2006? Those weren't new production, just pieced together from stock. All of those were in Jo-Han boxes.

I don't think Testors had any of those Jo-Han kits in 2006. That directory has a bunch of errors in it (not unexpected for such an ambitious project) and that's one of them. SeVille shut down Jo-Han around 1999. The building was even gone by 2006. I went through Detroit in '06, was going to check out the area but I kind of stuck out in that neighborhood...

One of the kits that I have, box side panel info includes "manufactured for Testors by SeVille Enterprises". Like the earlier AMT-boxed Jo-Han kits, the Testors ones were manufactured at the Jo-Han facility. Testors never manufactured kits, they bought bagged kits from other companies and added their own decals and instruction sheets.

Yes, that's the one. I have the box (can't recall how I got it) but not the contents or instruction sheet. There aren't many items I'm looking for anymore, but if a mint one of those were to turn up, I'd be all over it. It would be interesting to see if any other alterations were made.

The more recent issues if the Revell Seventies cars have a (then) newly tooled one-piece chassis (with separate roll cage) where the earlier ones had the roll cage as part of the chassis but the whole thing was split down the center. The newer one is easier to square up. The tires were changed also, from two-piece to one. The front axle in those kits is thin and weak, that has not been addressed.

Taillights are different, I believe the rear bumpers in the kits may be different (they aren't on the actual cars, but might be in the kits for some reason). Jo-Han did the promos back in the day, '71 and '72 interiors were the same in those so I'm guessing changes were minimal. The 1:1 '72 midsized GM cars were holdovers; what appeared for '73 were originally set to be the '72s but a strike at GM pushed them back.

Wouldn't be a stretch to swap parts between '71 coupe and '72 convertible kits, to end up with a '71 convertible and '72 coupe.

#2357, from 1966. Second issue. Not simply a reboot of the first issue, like many other Trophy Series kits from around that time. The hardtop was added, and the optional wheels changed from the "1962 Styline spoke wheels" to the chromed/reversed style with the inner wheels serving as the inner portion.

But the Revell kit is a Z-16, only 201 of those were built. Different trim and taillight panel from the more common Malibu, and the frame is slightly different (Z-16 used the convertible frame). Revell would have been wiser to have done a run-of-the-mill Malibu. The interior might be usable if it fits the AMT body.

The ambulances, hearses, and limousines were based on the commercial "chassis" which was wider than that of the passenger cars.

I thought that stretchers were carried, while gurneys have wheels. Could be wrong, though.

They aren't all the same when you take the earliest issues into consideration. When you are talking post-1974 issues, they are for the most part very similar. First issue includes a ton of styling parts, and came in two boxes: small (T-57) and large (T-2257). Same artwork on the outside, same content inside. Second issue added a stock hardtop and changed the custom wheels, but still has the styling parts. Third issue was the Elegance Series in a larger flat box, with a little can of pearlescent spray paint (smaller than the cans AMT sold separately). Molded in red with blue tinted clear parts including headlight lenses. The parts included were only what was needed to build the car as shown on the box, a mildly customized version. Most of these will be missing the can of spray paint. Some eBay liars will claim that their kit doesn't have the paint because "it was sold in California and they didn't allow the paint to be included"...BS. Someone swiped it back in the day to use on something else. Here Comes the Judge was next, the only issue with the drag version and SOHC engine. Next up was the Modern Classic, with only the stock version plus new custom wheels and a set of C3 Corvette side exhausts. Stock engine was not plated as in earlier issues. Molded in either white or black (no way to tell which on a sealed kit). Red taillight lenses were eliminated with this issue. The Vegas TV issue added the continental kit, Ertl later put back the custom roof from the early issues and started plating the engine again, but for the most part the Modern Classic and newer issues are pretty much alike.

Back one of those fastbacks off of the truck for me...

Bumpers are styrene. Acetate bumpers would probably have warped/shrunk during the vacuum medallions (plating) process, as heat is involved. Monogram did plate acetate trim parts for its '55-'56 Cadillac kits. All of those that I have seen were more of a dull silver than bright chrome.

The issue with acetate promos is not that they warp. It's that they warp and shrink, and don't do either uniformly. 999 times out of 1,000, trying to straighten one is a fool's errand. And that 1,000th one is best handled by someone with experience in doing so. And that person will probably suggest that you leave it alone if it is otherwise in good shape.

Silver is tough to get a good match on. You might have to experiment with a couple of different silvers, with different clears over them.

In most cases the same tooling was used to produce promos and kits. There are exceptions, but those were just that, exceptions. Those were probably dictated by larger than usual promo orders, or anticipated demand for kits. It's all guesswork sixty years after the fact. AMT/SMP promos started getting away from warpage prone acetate during the 1961 model year. I don't bother with the acetate promos, so I can't say which ones were produced in what material, or if any were produced in both acetate and Cycolac (styrene promos weren't made until later). I do have a '61 Impala four-door hardtop promo, and I know that one isn't acetate.

I don't have the Mongoose '57 Chevy, but the chassis under that is mid-Eighties Monogram tooling. Unless it's worn out, it should be a pretty easy build out of the box. The ex-Revell kits like the Jungle Jim Camaro are another thing altogether. That one wasn't considered to be very good even when it was new. Some of these things need to be looked at strictly as what they are, nostalgia items and nothing more. As strictly that, they fulfill their purpose and probably 90% of those who bought them are cool with that.

AMT started out in Birmingham, Michigan, and later moved to Troy. The Troy facility was sold to Stanley (tool/garage door hardware company) in 1978 when property values started going up. Everything got moved to a smaller facility they already had in Baltimore, where they had been producing truck kits up until then. Lesney bought AMT around that time. The Troy building was later used by Ford, the first generation "retro" Ford GTs were at least partly assembled there. Not sure who is there now, or even if it still standing.

AMT was heavily tied in with Ford, the kits were AMT. SMP was a separate company but with some investment from AMT. SMP was set up to try to get promo model business from Chevrolet and Chrysler, and had success doing so. Of the 11 1958 "AMT" annual kits, three were SMP (Chevrolet Impala convertible and hardtop, and Imperial which was only sold as a convertible in kit form). The remaining eight (Ford, Edsel, Pontiac, and Buick, all offered as both hardtop and convertible) were AMT. AMT formally bought out SMP in August 1961. A handful of '62 Imperial convertible kits, and a number of '62 Valiant Styline kits, were produced with SMP boxes. '62 Impala kits have license plates with SMP lettering on the plated trees.

And yet I placed an order with Spotlight a week ago today, and it was at my house on Monday. It's hard to wrap your head around how they can do a great job half of the time, and a lousy job the rest of the time.