CapSat 6

To me, ideally, the ‘73-‘74 Charger wouldn’t be 100% a clone of the original annual kits, or the Super Charger. I would like to see them do a stock Charger Rallye (with domed hood and stock decal options) with custom parts that are perhaps a mix of the original annual parts (like the Wagon parts and custom front end), headers, the Max Wedge intake, stock and custom wheels (perhaps the Cragar SST’s from the Super Charger). Another release could be a Charger SE body, which has never been done as a kit. That could also come with the custom parts. The ‘71 and ‘72 Road Runners could use a little fine tuning to certain things, like a stronger windshield area, as the A pillars on many of these bodies are warped or bent, the front bumper and grille set up never looked like it was shaped quite right, and there was never any lower grille detail on them. Finally, the inner front fenders were never really shaped right, and separate exhausts would be nice. Otherwise, the custom parts that the Road Runners (and ‘71 GTX) came with would probably work pretty well.

Very nice so far- glad we could inspire you to finish this one. Really looking forward to seeing the finished product!

That’s gonna be nice!!! Definitely check back in with that one!!!

Yes! The whole Round 2 nine yards!

So…in summation: I think this would be worth it to repop, if they have the tooling. For all we know, it might be on the list. I’m sure lots of people would open their wallets for this one. It’s been 40 years after all. This car has “movie car good looks” (much like a person can have “movie star good looks”). I could see a lot of builds of this one if it ever comes back. If Round 2 does bring it back: - they should open up all of the gates and see what’s there (of course they will!). The wagon parts would be really, really great to have, if they are still there. -they should shoot it in white plastic. -they should create new decals: at least one factory body side stripe option, but a comprehensive sheet with black, white, and the yellow/red fade style would be fantastic. The new decals they have been including in their kits have been a real motivator for me to buy some of the kits that I already have. if the tooling for this is not viable, then it might be worth it to them to recreate it much like the ‘68 Coronet and ‘71 Demon/ ‘72 Duster. ‘71-‘74 B Bodies can share a common drivetrain and chassis, and this would allow at least 3 or 4 good spinoffs they can bake in. My suggestions for the spinoffs: ‘74 Charger SE (never done as a kit; these were always a little weird to me, but they have grown on me), ‘74 Rallye, ‘71 Road Runner, ‘72 Road Runner. Perhaps a ‘72 Rallye would work as well. A new tool with it’s variants might generate more sales of their ‘71 Charger, both as a companion piece, and as kitbash material. Dont take this as a rant, it’s just friendly, shameless propaganda. At the very least, I hope you have all enjoyed my presentation.

And here is the spoiler that Tim mentioned above, which came in the ‘71, ‘72 Annuals and Hawaiian Funny Car…

Comparison shot between the Super Charger 440 engine and an original MPC 1969 Coronet R/T engine.

In the weeds! Yup, that’s where I’m going!!! Let’s turn this into a full-on review: Notice the box art build has a NASCAR body, and a Hemi (!).

That Plymouth has the best pre-‘69 big block air cleaner ever kitted! I wish Round 2 would have cribbed this for an upgrade to the engine in their ‘68 Coronet! It looks great on any 383-440 big block.

I really like hearing these "back in the day" stories about factory unicorns. By the time I came along, all that seemed to be left were 318 cars

I probably mixed it up in my haste...the more we noodle with this, the more I'm moving from "shoot some plastic into that Super Charger" to "new project for '71-'74 B Bodies like the Coronet/ Demon". Did I mention I'm having lots of fun?

Nice! You could start with the AMT ‘71 Charger…side marker turn signals from Few Sprues Loose on eBay…I have been wondering how to do a Ball Stud engine for a long time though…maybe one of the 3D guys will do one eventually. If you ever need one of those “proposed for ‘71” spoilers for the project, hit me up- I have a few of those. They came in the ‘71 and ‘72 annuals, as well as the Hawaiian Funny car. I always thought that spoiler was a missed opportunity.

That could definitely be a way to go. The original MPC ‘71-‘74 Road Runners used a different chassis tool, but the 1:1 cars would have used the same stuff. That approach would solve many problems: the wire front axle of the Charger, the poor appearance and molded in exhaust of the chassis in the Road Runner, and also, multiple bodies and interiors could be developed- for instance- ‘72 Charger Rallye, ‘74 Charger SE and Rallye, ‘71 Road Runner & GTX, ‘72 Road Runner…all using the same basic tool. EDIT: Satellites used a 115” wheelbase those years, which Chargers used a 117” wb. This probably would not a huge problem if the kits were developed at the same time.

Thank you Mark! I’m glad you are enjoying this. I certainly am!

That's a beauty! You really nailed the little custom touches with that one. Yes- we need this kit

The '72 kit did come with the Air Grabber and Louvre inserts. Those hoods might have still been in Dodge's production plan early on, but by the time the promos came around, the '72 Promos had the correct domed/ plain hood. I think 1:1 '72's were initially available with the Air Grabber, but from what I have heard, they made maybe 10 or so cars with that hood (and even fewer with the 440 Six Pack engine). They went to the domed hood for '72, probably because muscle model sales were dropping significantly, and it simplified production, as it was just a stamping without any kind of insert. I had read somewhere that by 1973, most dealers wouldn't order 440 cars unless they were paid for up front or with a huge deposit, since insurance and fuel became big questions for many potential buyers during that era. Chrysler read the tea leaves- the Charger went from "Muscle Hero" to "Luxobarge" in just a few short years.

Thank you! I noticed some of this stuff only after shooting the pics and studying them. I guess they had to chop somewhere!

More hoods. The white one on the left is from an original annual ‘72 Charger. It has the optional louvred insert glued in. It’s more or less the same as the one from the ‘71 annual. Notice there are no vents on the back edge. It looks like the 71 and 72 promos did have the louvres. The purple one in the middle had been cut from a Hawaiian funny car body. Notice the louvres. It’s the closest thing to correct for a ‘72- no scoop or insert, just a plain dome, and vents on the back edge, although there should be a small divider in the vents for a ‘72 hood. The vents are the early production ‘71 style. The gray hood is from the “new” AMT ‘71 Charger R/T kit. It has a better look all around, and the early ‘71 style vents at the back edge.

Excellent work! Using most of the kit, you made it look really nice.

From the other thread I was hijacking... And yeah- those engines are exactly the same between the '68-'70 Coronets and '71-'74 Chargers...maybe they thought the chassis and drivetrain were missing when they revived the '70 Coronet in the early 90's, or knew the chassis had been altered? The ‘68 Coronet got a new chassis tool that year- it went under the ‘69, then the ‘70 Super Bee, and then the chassis and drivetrain went right under the ‘71 Charger tool. It stayed with the ‘74 Charger tool. When they found the ‘70 Super Bee body and interior, perhaps they thought it was missing, but really, it was with the ‘74. It might still be with the ‘74 Charger if they still have it. Pics are better than words. Here is a mint, original MPC ‘68 Coronet annual chassis (in white) compared to a used ‘72 Charger chassis (painted black and red). I’m sure the ‘74 is the same as the ‘72 except that screw holes have been blocked. It looks like they extended the front pan area, cut down the rear pan area, and took some length out of the wheelbase (correctly) when it went to the Charger in ‘71. EDIT: Now that I REALLY look at these pics, it looks like the Coronet chassis is also a smidge wider. They still seem to have a lot of the same markings and details though. Either MPC modified the chassis tool, or cloned it heavily. It does seem like a lot of their kits reused certain design elements (wheels, engines, chassis), so maybe they somehow copied it and modified it to suit.

Thanks, Tim! This started with me goofing around with some old '72-'74's last week. I started looking at the hoods and noticed some things :). More to come, as they say... The wheel openings aren't a deal breaker for me. The body shapes and details left over from the Petty modifications aren't terrible, although the wheel openings are a shame. One could always try to add a "molding" to each with corner round or very small tubing, I guess, or at worst, use some from the '71 AMT kit (along with the chassis and drivetrain...in for a penny...). I have seen a few builds using this as a base for sone nice resto mods. I always liked these cars, and MPC kits were always my favorites, warts and all. The question would be: "if Round 2 still has this, would it be worth it for them to run it as-is"? Or: "would it merit new simplified tooling". I'm going to press on with more pics and info tonight, and sum up my essay...

Thanks! I’m a big fan of both cars & kits. It’s been rumored that the ‘71 Road Runner is either lost or incomplete. I don’t think anything has been heard about the ‘74 Charger tool. I guess it would depend on what’s available and viable.

Custom parts from the ‘73 and ‘74 annuals. Most of these (tow hitch, station wagon pieces) did not come with the Super Charger, but it would be great if these were ever found / unblocked for a future release. The stock bumpers are shown. The front bumper is the same as what comes in the Super Charger. The rear bumper in the Super Charger does not have bumper guards like the annual ‘73 and ‘74 rear bumper does.

More… The blue hood is the Petty/ Baker late hood. The red one is the hood used in the Super Charger, which would presumably still be in the tool. The annual kits did not come with domed Rallye hoods.

The annual kits and promos all came with flat hoods- making the kit a standard Charger hardtop. Here are some hoods. The red one with callouts is one from the Baker ‘72 Charger kit. The blue one is from an early Petty kit, and almost identical to the ones in the ‘73 and ‘74 annuals. Note that there are no vents on the rear edge of the red one. These vents changed almost every year on real Chargers. You had a full strip of vents for early ‘71, a divider in the middle of the vents for late ‘71 and ‘72, and gradually smaller groups of vents for ‘73 and ‘74. The blue hood probably would be more correct for a ‘72 or ‘72 Charger.