CapSat 6

I know Chrysler offered several seating options in those years. here is how I understand them: Bench - one large front seat (sometimes with a folding armrest in the middle), two tracks near each of the doors. Bucket - two individual front seats, two tracks each, near each of the doors, and inboard toward the transmission tunnel. Buckets with "buddy seat"- essentially two buckets (two tracks each), with a mini seat (and folding upper, to use as an armrest) that bolts to the transmission tunnel roughly where the console would bolt in. You see lots of buddy seats for sale at all of the Mopar swaps. Bench with bucket uppers - once-piece bench lower, two tracks, with bucket upper sections and a folding armrest. The only cars I have ever owned were factory equipped wither with a regular bench, buckets with console, or in one case, buckets/ no console/no buddy seat (but it had the cassette deck on the floor). I was never 100% sure if the seat in the AMT '71 Charger was supposed to represent the buckets with buddy seat, or bench with bucket uppers. Technically, the '71 R/T was not available with a bench seat of any kind, so this should be bucket seat combo with a buddy seat- but it's molded like a bench seat, so I'm not sure. Also, Chrysler was well known for breaking their own rules back then- for instance, I do know of at least one 1970 GTX that was built with a bench and column shifted automatic- even though bench seats were technically not available for 1970 GTX's- I spoke to the original owner, who still had the car as of a few years ago, and he ordered it that way. He gave me "TMI" as to why he ordered it like that .

I had thought I saw one in resin for the Revell '68 Charger (could conceivably be adapted to other '68-'69 B Bodies) on eBay, but I can't seem to find the listing. If you are looking for something for a '70-'74 B or E body, you might be able to start with the bench seat from the AMT '71 Charger and cut the center section out.

More like a "Pirates of the Caribbean" vibe... "Old Ironsides" is VERY impressive!!!

Oh- and I saw the USS Constitution back in 1986...also worth the visit, what a great piece of history!!!

I second Hobby Emporium- I was able to stop in there last year on a short trip. Nice selection of new kits, some supplies, and I had a nice conversation with the owner, who is a plastic car modeler. I do remember shopper's traffic was a bit rough on the late Saturday afternoon when I was there, but it also looked like there were some nice options for shopping and restaurants right in that area. I thought it was worth the visit.

Oh- here you go… https://rmrmodels.com/products/1970s-dodge-tradesman-shorty-van

I know somebody was casting up a shorty 77-ish at some point. I think I saw them on eBay. I wish I could tell you who. I’m not sure if it’s current production, but I seem to remember seeing them occasionally a few years ago. Round 2 could probably do worse than re-engineer a ‘77-‘78 kit. If they wanted to save some development costs, they could make it a curbside. They could juice it by tooling up a window van (never done as a ‘77 or ‘78), and offer a Cannonball Run Transcom Medivac. They could get multiple versions out of one tool with different side body slides and an extra few pieces of clear. The original MPC vans, while they did have a manual transmission small block Mopar engine (an available- although uncommon choice) never had opening or removable hoods, so having a detailed engine was sort of unnecessary.

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...