CapSat 6

This is a tough one for me. The Revell kit definitely has better details, as the base tooling was created 20+ years after the AMT kit. The chassis and engine are definitely better. The GT350R version is really nice...the parts created for that (racing front valance, exhaust, etc.) are really, really right. The Revell body on the other hand bugs me a little. It's not bad to my eyes, but it does seem a little slab sided, and just a smidge off in how the cab relates to the lower body. it doesn't bug me to the point of offense, but it still does bug me a little. The AMT kit has what I consider a better body, but almost everything else is worse than the Revell kit. The engine is sort of underscale and basic. The interior is VERY basic. The chassis was decent-to-good for 1966, but very meh now. I have both kits. I don't want to build both. Don't make me choose! I think I want to raid the GT350R for some of the good stuff, and get an AMT '67 Mustang for the chassis and engine. Not a great solution. That's costly, and I'm not sure the results will be fantastic, but I have them, so I think that's what I'm going to do with them.

It’s MPC for me…those were the biz for me, growing up in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

If you Google “1969 Buick Riviera Promo”, the image searches show promos with painted vinyl tops (mostly silver with a black top). By 1969, many American cars came with vinyl tops, as they were inexpensive for the manufacturers, they cut down on costs as far as painting and finishing car roofs, they “spiffed up” the stock a bit, and put some more money in the manufacturers’ and dealers’ pockets. AMT might have added that engraving to the ‘69 to juice the promo a bit, and then decided by the Countdown days that the engraved vinyl roof was either outdated by then-current standards, or perhaps it limited building options. It doesn’t make sense that these efforts were made, but the efforts seem to have been made. I only ever had the Buyer’s Choice Countdown repop, molded in gray, which did not have a vinyl top.

I’m not sure the wheels differ from the Pink box release. That one came with Magnum 500’s, looks like this new one does, too.

What gets me is that Hot Wheels does have a Cougar like this in their 1:64 die cast mainline line up, but the paint scheme depicted on the box is some sort of made-up thing. I think this is a potential missed opportunity…why would they not design decals that are copies of one of the paint schemes the 1:64 car was offered with? Some of Hot Wheels’ graphic treatments are actually very cool. Also, offering optional big wheels and rubber band tires (like from that Resto Rods series, from which AMT offered this very model), that might mimic the Hot Wheels stance would perhaps make it a more interesting offering. Oh yeah- forgot…lazy…

The first issue Superbird in the '70's had stock and NASCAR building options. It had a semi-"cartoon" box, with colorful illustrations. I think what's pictured above is the first issue of the SM car, which would probably also have been early '70s. The later (and much more common) '80's issues of both the NASCAR/ Petty and drag/ Sox cars seemed to be the same as the originals, except for different boxes, and thick plastic axles instead of thin metal wire axles. The '80's Sox kit seemed to be more or less a stock Superbird in the box, but instead of the stock wheels and "stock" Goodyear tires that the Petty kits got, the SM cars got Keystone mags and tires and Goodyear/ Firestone slicks (one design on each side). The same tires came in their Pro Stock kits. The 80's NASCAR kits were molded in a variety of colors (I have seen gray/blue, teal, green, red, white, and I think a dark blue and a sky blue), while the SM kits always seemed to come in white. The Petty NASCAR kits seemed to be much more widely available in the 80's, or at least, that's how it seemed to me where I grew up. They might have done alternating runs of these kits, perhaps one was available for a time, and then another took over.

You could do it the way Dodge did it- use a grille from the new ‘68 Coronet kit. Scrape the “R/T” emblem off as best you can, and fit it to the ‘68/ ‘69 Charger grille opening. I have a 1:1 ‘68 Coronet grille somewhere in the basement. I got it super cheap at a swap meet about 25 years ago. I figured if I ever lucked into a ‘69 Charger, it would go on it, or at worst, it would make good wall art. Round 2’s new grille has been rendered more accurately than the old MPC piece, but I haven’t checked it for fit. The MPC Charger 500 grille (tooled around 1987, for the old General Lee kit) seems to have been created to fit that kit specifically. It looks just a little off to me as a result. My understanding is that the 1:1 ‘68 Coronet grille is a direct fit for the Charger 500. Lastly, Harts Parts does a resin repop of the old MPC ‘68 Coronet kit grille. I think it’s $5 on their website. It is different from the new Round 2 piece. When you compare them, the new one does look nicer, but if you like this one better, it might be the way to go. MPC 68 Coronet Grill – Harts Parts Resin You might need to compare them and test fit them. I’ll get some pics up comparing them tonight if I can. I’m using a Harts’ piece for a Charger street machine build I’m doing to recreate a model I built in the early 80’s. I took a General Lee, which at the time had a 500 body, and added a John Heyer resin cast ‘68 Coronet grille to make it into a 500. This was before MPC’s 500 kit was available. It was easier than modifying the back window, and back then, it wasn’t unheard of for rare muscle cars to get the street machine treatment. Rare muscle cars such as these were still cars to those who had them (although valued and revered), not insanely priced, and absolutely mythical to teens like me in the 80's! My build was Testors yellow, with a black painted Daytona stripe, jacked up in the back, with fat rear tires, and ‘70 Challenger bucket seats, Centerline wheels, a 440 Six Pack, and side exhausts, in other words: 80’s I stupidly ripped it down for parts several years later.

Here is a good pic showing the 500 trim...

I think the '68 500 trim would be very similar to the R/T. It would be different from the base Coronet and Super Bee grille and tail that's being discussed. You would probably use the tail as it is from the R/T kit, remove the "R/T" emblem, and replace it with a "500" emblem. The 500 grille would be much like the R/T grille, but you would need to remove the R/T emblem, and add a center post/ applique to the middle. The 500 grille would be a good thing for somebody to sketch up, although I don't know if there would be any real demand for it. The real trick to doing a '68 Coronet 500 would be the chrome trim that appears in the side scoops. I think they were 500 2 door only. Note the side scoops in the pics below were custom, for the TV car only, but the grille and tail were more or less stock '68 Coronet 500. I'm trying to work up a Coronet 500 Convertible from the new kit, to look like the Mission Impossible car..

Justin’s comments above are certainly on point. Good business people take their business, and their customers seriously. They don’t take them for granted. It’s certainly a tough business. Treat your customers with basic common courtesy, and it does wonders. There is a LHS near me that I won’t visit any more because the owner has such a sour attitude. I tried to give him a chance quite a few times, and spent some money there, but I just can’t find it in me to go there any more. They actually stock things I’m interested in, but I just really don’t enjoy going there. Even if he is talking to another customer, I can’t stand listening to it. I can only take so much of “life’s tough, and so am I”, and “customers suck”. Right. You run a hobby shop. Try police work, or working at a McDonald’s, then I might sympathize… This year, I did a lot of traveling in my region. Several times, I made it a point to get away and visit a local hobby shop if I had a few hours to kill, if they were somewhat easily accessible, and if they were open when I could get there. The shops I found were really great. It was nice to see. I got to shops in Rochester NY, Cranberry Township PA, Nashua NH, Magnolia NJ and Rockville MD, and I enjoyed the visits to every one of them. The staff were great at all stops. Maybe I need to get away from my big city. ;( I definitely want to go back to all of them. i made it a point to buy something at each store, even if I wasn’t looking for something - even if it was paint or Evergreen plastic. I wanted to show my support. There is another store local to me that I try to get to once in awhile. He doesn’t do much by way of modeling (it’s mostly trains), but they are friendly, and they seem to have the right attitude. I do try to grab any supplies I can use there to help him out.

Aaargh- my eyes! Please no Tron Grids!

I didn’t even get my brain to why Round 2’s kits are generally more expensive. And yes- the argument can be made that the more expensive product itself often isn’t of clearly better quality overall in many cases. Their new state of the art tools compete for sure, but in many cases, their older tools definitely fall short (as is the nature of the beast, if you are putting out product that was originally designed 50+ years ago). Then again, very few commercially sold new item markets work the same way. Most other types of items are either retooled completely at some point, or older tools aren’t so heavily relied upon. The only parallel I can think of are joke store items, like whoopee cushions, snapping gum, etc. That stuff doesn’t seem to have changed in 60 years, and yet, you can find a lot of those old novelty items in stores today. Truly, Round 2 deals in nostalgia. There is a line of action figures that I see in stores like Target and Game Stop sometimes- from a company called “ReAction”. They are about the same or slightly less quality that the old original Star Wars 3-3/4” figures, except that they do new versions of retro subjects. It’s as if they did figures and packaging for certain movie and TV properties back in the 80’s, even though they are just doing them now. I just don’t get it. To me, they look terrible. I guess that’s how some of these older model tools seem to some people. The only thing I can figure is that perhaps the other companies realize some kind of advantage to what they spend for kit development. It does seem like Round 2 spends more on their packaging and extras than the prior ownership from 20+ year ago. Back then, box art was at best, “phone it in”, decals were just repops of the weak original offerings (if included at all), and tires were also just straight repops. To me, the new box art/decals/ pad printed tires really do juice the old offerings considerably, and I think it’s that kind of buyer/ collector (not necessarily builder) that Round 2 really markets to. That’s not a knock, just an observation.

I’m wrestling with the current concept of “new tooling”. There are what I would call “state of the art” tools. An example of this would be the new Round 2 2021 Charger. There are what I would call “simplified” or “retro” tools. Examples would be the MPC ‘68 Coronet or ‘71 Demon/ ‘72 Duster. Lastly, there is a “promo style” tool, like the AMT 2008/ 2009/ 2010 Challengers. All of these are what I would call “new” tooling. I would imagine the design gets less costly in order from the top. The steel tools probably cost about the same, or perhaps with fewer parts, the cost of the steel tools comes down a bit, but my guess is that the steel tool is much of the cost. As an aside, many of the new 3D “tools” that I’m seeing seem to fall somewhere in detail between the retro tool and the promo tool, except that in many cases, the 3D tools have details (suspension, interior and engine) that are less correct than what we see with Round 2’s efforts. Undoubtedly, 3D tools will get more common, and better. I have been reading what’s being said about Jo Han’s current revivals, and I think we are only going to see more of that kind of thing. I’m amazed at what we have seen so far, and how quickly it has gotten here. I don’t know what the actual economics really are between the 3 options. I would imagine that doing a simplified/ retro tool lessens development costs a bit, making certain projects more feasible. It does seem that Round 2 is leaning into the simplified/ retro option, which is in turn bringing a few more projects than we would normally see (which I am fine with). The ‘74 Charger would be fine as a “simplified/ retro/ level 2” tool if the original tool is no longer viable. If the original tool is still there, then maybe it would be worth it to fix the wheel arches, or just tool up a few bodies for it (I don’t know for sure what this would cost). Regarding late B Bodies, perhaps the “promo” style tool would work. That might be a way to get these body styles without a heavy investment from the manufacturer. As many as 4 or 5 bodies (all using the same clear windows, I think) and 2 or 3 wheel sets could be developed that would use the same chassis plate and much of the interior. Maybe throw a hood scoop, rear spoiler, stock and custom decals, and a set of custom wheels into the box to make them a little more interesting. Instead of fussing with positive locators for the hood scoop, maybe a few piece of double sided tape could be thrown into the box. Basic modelers would not be left with no good way to attach the hood scoop, and better modelers wouldn’t need it anyway. This could also work for several Mopar C body kits (my call for those would be: ‘70 Chrysler Hurst 300, ‘69 Dodge Polara police car, 70 Sport Fury), or, a simplified / “level 2” tool for the C Bodies could be done. The promo style tool was more or less what we got from Revell with the ‘77 Monte Carlo (basically a promo tool with adjustable suspension). I think many modelers who want late B bodies would be fine with a promo style tool, as long as the body details were accurate. Even I would say that the dirty bits of those cars are largely uninteresting, and I would just kitbash my way into a better chassis and engine if given the chance.

Crossrams. Too much is never enough, unless it’s just right.

You did a great job with that!!! To be fair, the tooling was originally designed in 1967 (and updated through 1972 and beyond). It’s complex and a bit fiddly, but it does have a lot of detail. It was basically nearly state of the art for its time.