Mark

George Toteff seems to be the main guy who championed the Styline concept. Budd Anderson was on the other side of the fence; he went in for things like the chopped top piece for the '36 Ford (because when you chopped the top on one, there was basically one way it would look when finished). He didn’t care for the Styline extensions because they predetermined the styling of the front or rear. I remember reading about a bet between Anderson and Toteff regarding the '49 versus '50 Ford kits which hit store shelves at the same time. Budd won that one, but in part because the '49 coupe had a racing version and was half a buck cheaper to boot. Anyway, Toteff left AMT during '63 to start up MPC with Dick Branstner, so there probably wasn't anyone else picking up the Styline/Advanced Custom flag. AMT did do some more, heavier custom stuff anyway, including the '65 Impala annual kits which went even beyond the Styline concept (the advanced version required the front clip being cut off and replaced). Back to the Merc...hobby show coverage of the day suggested that Ertl might have been preparing to tool some new parts for the late Eighties Customizing Series issue, including maybe a front end extension. In the end, that issue was a straight reissue of the two or three previous ones, with Ertl adding a few parts in the issue after the Customizing Series one.

Are the cast items the wrong type, or not accurate enough?

X2 on keeping CA away from anything clear. I do use CA on some parts. I prefer Loctite's product, not so much for the glue as for the bottle. Its cap seals quite well, stretching the life of the glue once opened. As you use it, though, there's more air taking the space of the already used glue, accelerating the demise of the unused portion. Some guys just buy the small/cheap one-time-use CA tubes and throw away what's left at the end of a building session.

If you are going to seek out better wheels, think about searching for a set with tires included. Then you won't have to worry about saving the kit tires.

Same parts other than the red "glass" in the Mazmanian version. The SWC kit is the black one only, the blue one is of course the 1963 vintage kit with the Oldsmobile engine and opening everything. The newer kit has only one seat, illegal for NHRA Gas class. But these cars were frequently match raced, and in those instances the rule book got tossed out the window.

It'd be ironic if something STILL got crushed in there. Maybe Revell hired a package designer who previously worked for a high-end candy maker, or a cosmetics company...

"I meant to do that"...

The one pictured is '67 only, full size car. I've never seen that one in scale.

The clearance items have yellow price stickers on them. The 40% off every other week does not apply to those items.

The Torino Cobra kit may have the piece to extend the front end, but won't have the Talladega grille/bumper unit. If you had both kits to compare, you'd see that the bumper for each kit occupies the same space on the plated tree. The Talladega had a different engine from the Cobra, as well as a bench front seat and no console.

Nope, the Biarritz is 1/24 (and maybe on the large side of that) with the Brougham being 1/25.

Man, I wish that that Imex Biarritz was 1/25 scale. I'd love to piece the back end of that onto the Revell/Atlantis Eldo Brougham...

Hasbro bought out Kenner awhile back, mainly to get the Star Wars product licensing they held. With Disney's ongoing mishandling of that franchise, and Monopoly soon to enter public domain, Hasbro is now circling the drain...

A recent eBay find is one of the original Stude funny cars, built. As I suspected, the pivot point for the body is too far forward, so much on mine that the builder left the rear bumper off. No pictures right now, as both front wheels and one rear were broken off (that's how it was listed), and the original builder swapped the plastic slicks for a pair of way-too-narrow early Trophy Series units. I've got to reattach the wheels (fortunately the king pins on the front axle aren't busted off) and get a pair of wider slicks back on the thing. I've also got to cut down a set of headers from the 3-in-1 Stude and put them on (the original builder didn't get around to that). The paint job on it ain't bad, and the builder did a decent job on chopping the top with the kit-supplied parts.

The "chassis" of the shelf version of the Monogram slot car. Also, pieces of two of the easily breakable front axle of the shelf version...the main culprit in the disappearance of front tire/wheel units from this kit.

You don't, or at least shouldn't, use water to thin two-part putty. If you do, it will shrink drastically as the water evaporates. If you need to make the putty more pliable as you are applying it, just "roll" it really fast between your hands as you are blending it. The warmer it is, the more pliable it will be when you are positioning it. Water can of course be used to smooth it after it is applied, to reduce the amount of sanding needed later.

I wouldn't bet on a new '71 from Revell. They're selling the old Monogram kit, and selling enough of them that it stays in the catalog year after year.

Probably for the best as far as Round 2 is concerned...you don't want to ship someone a bunch of stuff, only to be paid pennies on the dollar in a bankruptcy...

I have two of the shelf version kits. At first, they were a "two to make one" thing, but even then I was missing a few parts like the driver and the bars that attach to the rear radius rods. Since then, I found another one that had been cut apart but had some extra/unused small parts. I now have one complete one, and another nearly so. The slot car body kit available now doesn't include the shelf version "chassis" parts or wheels. The "chassis" is not detailed, it does include a rear axle however. The front axle would be nice to have. I don't have one whole one, but have two broken ones that I can cut in half and join the two "good" halves together. I'm still looking for one front tire, and a couple other small parts for the second car.

If you are into muscle Mopars, that Charger and the '68 Hemi Dart are both must-have kits. Both are gold mines in terms of parts. And in many cases, you can lift desirable parts for a project AND still build the kit.

The kit is actually quite nice, considering it's origins lie in the mid-Sixties as the Get Smart TV car, which was built for the show by AMT's Speed and Custom division. Though badged as a Tiger (all of which had Ford V8 power) the Get Smart kit had the Alpine four cylinder engine, to make room under the hood for a small cannon that retracted under it. Lesney later converted the Tiger to stock, replacing the four with the correct V8. I remember that was one of the first new kits issued under Lesney's relatively short ownership of AMT. I could kick myself for not buying a bag of parts from the Get Smart kit that included that engine.

Michael's probably gives individual store managers some latitude in regards to what they carry. For a long stretch, the stores in my area were way down on model kits but are now bouncing back. They now have Revell and Round 2 items, with the snap kits being Airfix. The Joann stores have had Atlantis kits, but they're all going away this year (Joann stores, not Atlantis). The stores here never had much of a selection, and never stocked Testors paints as in other areas. Yes, the Hobby Lobby selection is slow to change. To get the prices that leave room for 40% off every other week, they buy in such volume that they're going to be selling the same items for a long while. Too, certain items probably sell well for them even when they don't sell elsewhere. I was in one store yesterday; they still stock the AMT Super Stones Ford pickup which is one of the early Round 2 reissues. HL alone is probably responsible for that kit still being in production.

'60 is completely different, it does not wrap around like '59.

I doubt that a dual exhaust system was avaliable on trucks in '66.

If they have anything. The stores in my area have been in disarray, more stuff sitting in boxes in the aisles than in a Dollar Tree store. A while back, someone mentioned a clearance on Testors sprays. The stores in my area never had them to start with. Location was a problem in some cases. The last Joann's I was in was in the same plaza as a Michael's store.