Mark

Those items were included in the AMT/Ertl Customizing Series kits from the late Eighties. There was a '50 Ford convertible, '49 Mercury, '66 Buick Wildcat, and '66 Thunderbird. Also included was some two-part putty in two ("A" and "B") packets. The two things on either side of the tweezers was a sanding stick. The two pieces snap together, you're supposed to cut a piece of sandpaper to wrap around the larger stick and then snap the smaller piece on to hold it in place.

The 429 version of the kit was done long before the 302. The towers must be correct for the 429, otherwise the engine wouldn't fit. The 302 is the incorrect kit, using the 429 kit's body unchanged in that respect.

Those aren't old tires. They are from a pre-Round 2 tooling that has probably worn out, as R2 has retooled that tire which looks a little bit different now. AMT introduced that tire with the '64 annual kits, and used them into the Seventies. Early ones didn't have wide whitewalls as auto manufacturers phased those out prior to then. AMT (the original company) never made those with wide whitewalls.

Not '57 Ford.

Gotta be Round 2, most likely a Fifties car. I'll guess '57 Ford, but I won't be able to check for a few hours. The original AMT company did print both sides on rare occasions, but always narrow stripes. I have had a set or two with narrow white stripes on both sides. Most often they were red on one side, white or blue stripe on the other side. But the one pictured is definitely more recent.

The promos often had updated chassis compared with the kits. The '69 and '70 GTX promos have correct underbody detail while the GTX and RR kits have a slightly changed '64 B-body piece. The Ambassador and Rebel kits all use a modified '66 Marlin underbody while the promos are more correct. Same goes for the AMC engines; all are based on the Marlin block, ironically that was the only kit for which the underbody and engine were 100% correct. AMC phased in a new V8 during '66, for '67 the earlier engine was gone. But to an extent, AMT and MPC tended to update chassis, interiors, and engines less often than the car bodies. Both were cranking out big-block Corvettes through 1977, and MPC's Barracuda and Challenger kits had Hemi engines right to the ('74) bitter end.

The '71 annual kit included the Air Grabber and louver inserts as separate parts. MPC probably just left both in the '72 kit not knowing about the change, or not wanting to spend the money to make the change.

Maybe it was repossessed?

Nobody has brought it up yet...the engine/transmission and underbody parts in the '71-'74 annual kits are carried over from the '68-'70 Coronet. Same short Torqueflite with the tailshaft molded as part of the exhaust/rear suspension piece, same headers, and so on. Alterations were made to fit it under the Charger body. The custom station wagon roof pieces are a pretty good fit on the new-tool '71 Charger. I was going to go that route, but lucked into a built '73 that had already been converted. The wagon roof was missing, as was the hood, but I did turn up replacements for both.

All of that older stuff getting scrapped was long before Round 2, or even Ertl, entered the picture. Ertl got pretty active as far as unearthing old tooling, and Round 2 is picking up where Ertl left off. They aren't going to say what is there or not there. That way, if something were to be found but later discovered to be not usable, they don't end up with a bunch of people mad at them for not bringing it out.

Tooling still in their possession had to be assigned a value. If, at the time, they didn't see any potential use for it in the future, they'd declare it to be worthless and "write it off".

Check the kit's parts against the instruction sheet. Moebius kits sometimes have open space on a parts tree or two that give the appearance of missing parts when there are none.

If you can't open them by hand, turn them over and flow a couple of drops of lacquer thinner between the cap and bottle. Let it sit for a bit, then try opening. Pliers or channel-locks are tools of last resort. Make sure you have a replacement cap. I keep caps from used-up bottles. The electric paint shakers are okay, but the first mix after sitting a long time must be manual. I just did this with a bunch of older paint, I used a stainless steel mixing tool. Easily cleaned with a thinner soaked rag after each use. Add a few drops of enamel thinner if needed, then into the paint shaker it goes.

Those two 1969 reissue series ("Wild Flower" and "desert racers") were the last roundup for most of those kits. A few have survived but some were modified later. The Fifties cars were likely thought to be obsolete, as by 1969 the only place you saw many of the 1:1 cars was at a demolition derby. Too, the tooling for those was probably worn slap out, as they had been promotional models, annual kits, then Craftsman series kits, all of which sold in way bigger numbers than anything sells today. Interesting to note...no Chevrolets in either of those series. The earliest ones were probably worn out long before that. I've got a '59 Impala convertible Craftsman kit that never got built because one of the chrome parts was molded incompletely (the broken end of the part is plated over). The tool probably got pulled and scrapped once that was discovered. A hardtop Craftsman Impala was announced but I don't think it ever got produced for just that reason.

"The bigger the skull and crossbones on the container, the better it works!"

The "shock tower" Fords are related but not exactly the same. Not a lot of parts interchange between them. They are similar only in that they could be built on the same assembly line, provided the guys putting the parts on were given the correct ones. Even among the early Falcons, a lot changed once the V8 was offered. The small-block Windsor Ford engine into a pre-1963 Falcon is NOT a bolt-together deal, nor was it easy to get five-lug wheels on the front of those cars prior to disc brake conversions being readily available. Same goes for a 1970 Maverick (six-cylinder only that year; V8 option came in for '71) and a '74 Mustang II. There's a lot that changed under the surface after the first year. Ford really wasn't good at planning ahead with some of those cars, and had to scramble when they wanted to offer V8 engines in them later.

The Jo-Han Maverick kits did not include shock tower detail. The cast piece was apparently offered to correct that.

The Leal kit is the only one with that body/engine combo so far. There will be others (my bet would be on a Shirley Shahan version next) but right now, there isn't a choice.

I might be misinformed, but my understanding is that the Golden Commandos versions were commissioned by members of that group, so they could sell them (and autograph them) at various gatherings. They did allow Moebius to sell X number of each version through their regular channels however. The Melrose Missile was a Model King deal and was thus easier to get. Not sure about the California Flash version.

It's a safe bet that the Super Stock version will resurface at some point, but it will probably have decals representing someone else's car.

The AMT Meyers Manx kit includes a top like that. Baja Bug is a whole different thing; that term generally refers to a Beetle with truncated front and rear ends, exposed engine, and vestigal fenders.

Went to a local flea market "garage sale" (first Sunday of the month; they're trying to stretch it to twice a month but it's not flying). Camaro kit is complete, parts bag sealed. Got it for the average retail price of a current car kit. Not bad for a 47 year old kit. The Dremel is a single speed model which I don't think they make anymore. I had an eye open for one, as I have a Dremel separate speed control unit. The Dremel tools with built-in speed control operate at a minimum of 5,000 rpm. With the separate control, this one can be reduced to 1 rpm. The tag said "Sixties" but the paperwork with it is all dated 1995. I didn't think these were made as recently as then. Only one bit (a sanding drum) but it does have all three chucks as well as the wrench. Works great. Not bad for eight bucks.

Those decals must be for a later car. I don't remember him running a Dodge, unless he had one of the '68 Hemi Darts. Leal took a year off from drag racing around that time to try his hand at pro golf, so I'm not positive about him having had a Dart.

The Revell versions are still relevant for enough people because they are the only kits representing those body styles in those years. If you can live with a '51 delivery instead of '53/'54, Jimmy Flintstone might still have that available. But, like some other kits that aren't up to scratch, these still sell because a lot of people built them in the past, and want to take another swing at them later.

Another couple of issues with the Revell '53/'54: -Panel lines are shallow and on the shaky side. Early issue instructions mention that the doors and trunk lid (rear door on the delivery) can be cut open and made operable. The hinges are still there, molded as part of the door panels. The doors droop when opened, just like the '55-'57 kits. On one of the bodies (don't remember which) the hood just sits on top of the fender, not in a recessed area like pretty much every other kit with a separate hood. Another hood thing: the hood slopes down towards the front when you view the car from the side. That gives an optical illusion, like the fender is rising towards the front. Lots of work needed to get it all right.