CapSat 6

Funny you mention the Grand National. I remember when that car was out, there was no model of it for some time while the 1:1 car was being built. For awhile it was really one of those "why don't they do a model of one?" cars, much like the Hellcat is today. IIRC, Revell-Monogram came out with their GN kit about a year or so after 1:1 GN production stopped. Then again, it only took Revell about 25 years to do a Mustang LX 5.0, which was the "Saturday Night Special" (i.e.- cheap, effective and plentiful!) of American performance cars back then...

There seem to be some shots of 1:1 '69-'70 K&K Chargers out there...if you're looking for info on what colors to paint the various components, you could probably use pics of the undersides of the earlier cars as a guide.

Agree with all of the above! And- the argument has been made in the past when this comes up that without newer subject matter (meaning: more modern, or representing a decent selection of currently available cars in 1:1), the potential to engage newer modelers is reduced. The occasional Corvette or Mustang just won't do it.

Testors/ Lindberg did a Gen 1 (2006-2010) Dodge Charger kit that was truly excellent. It was priced a little higher than competing products at the time. I'm not sure of the actual sales for those kits, but my impression was that they weren't exactly hopping off of the shelves. Now there seems to be some slight demand for them, although I haven't really been looking lately. First, a standard Charger R/T and a Daytona were offered...then the tool was revised into an SRT 8 Super Bee...then a REALLY nice Police version (complete with accurate multiple wheel & lightbar options, and police gear for the interior). Round 2 could always elect to run a few more of these, but I get the impression that the first runs for these took awhile to sell through. I do think we should get a full detail kit of the new Hellcat Challengers, if only to rob of their powertrains. Revell has a good start there with their SRT 8 Challenger. Multiple versions could be offered which could make it worthwhile for a kit manufacturer: Hellcat Demon, Widebody, Scat Pack, etc. Given the popularity of these cars in 1:1, I'm a little surprised that nobody has done a Hellcat in plastic, but then again, while the Revell Challeger SRT 8's, AMT R/T's and SRT 8's and Revell 2013 SRT's seem to be widely available, they also do not seem to hop off the shelves.

Call me crazy, but I would like to see a 1/12 Mopar of some kind. Ideally, it would be a '68-'70 Charger, based on their excellent 1/25 kits of the same. Right now, Mopars are just about the hottest thing going in the U.S. and elsewhere, so I could see where this could be a good seller. I built their '69 Camaro and really enjoyed it. I had their '67 Corvette and see where that kit has a lot of potential as well. Still- they were no Mopars...

There is a caster on eBay that does the '80's trucks...he posts here too occasionally. Robert Burns. He had Ramcharger and Crew Cab kits. Designed by 3D and cast in resin, they look very nice. He had some listed a few weeks ago, you need to keep looking, he posts new auctions just every few weeks or months. They're a little pricy for just bodies and grille/ bumper parts, but they are nice quality. I would have pulled the trigger on a Ramcharger, but I got one of his '70 Polaras instead (it's on the way). I'll probably try to get one of those Ramchargers next. I did get one of his '71 Polaras - the quality is very good, and it looks very accurate. I'm very happy with it.

My vote is for the Street Spyder. That and the Super Spyder are the most "period" of them all...they would probably fit in better with your "collection" of '70's builds. The Longshot is essentially the same as the Street Spyder, except for side pipes and fatter tires in the back. I had a few of those Longshots. Red plastic, plus the 80's graphics applied to the optional '70's parts don't really appeal to me. A hobby shop local to me had the Pontiac version (Sunbird?) of the Revell Super Spyder sitting on their shelf for YEARS. When I finally got interested in it, it was gone, of course. If you want to build the '76 or Black Max, you have to go full drag version, of course! The Black max would be a bit more accurate as it has Keystone mags instead of Pontiac Honeycombs (which might fit in better with the ISMA flares, perhaps). While the chassis on the MPC kits are simplified (rear axle integrated with the floor), the engine details in those MPC kits are VERY nice, especially the optional headers & carbs.

Most of them, at some point or another!

NICE!

MYSTERY MEN!!!

WOW. That looks the biz!!!

This one has artwork that is way, way cool though!!!

I have an Ed Roth T Shirt that came in a box styled after a model box. I still have the shirt and box untouched. I'll have to post pics when I get home.

New-ish Corvettes and Challengers, too. No promo contracts lately, though.

Pictures of the custom parts and instructions.

What Rob said The annuals were produced for 1977 and 1978. Promos were offered as well (I think in silver, dark blue, dark red metallic and green metallic). The "Force 440" kit used the same basic car, but instead of custom parts, police parts and super wide steel wheels, NASCAR tires, and dog dish hubcaps were added. Force 440 bodies had small holes in the roof for mounting the light bar. The light bar was a very nice Twinsonic, which only appeared in the Force 440. All of the later 4 door Monacos got a vastly inferior lightbar, but it looks like the Twinsonic is making a comeback in the upcoming CHP Monaco. All of the other police parts (push bar, gun rack with guns, radio, spotlights, computer) have carried over to the 4 door kits. Before these kits, the same tool was used for the annual 1975 Plymouth Road Runner (which was based on the 2 door Plymouth Fury that year). The 1975 kit came with optional skis, roof rack, snow tires, and very nice Cragar mags. Another Fury-based Road Runner was offered in 1976, although Plymouth did not base the 1976 Road Runner on the Fury that year. It was essentially a carry over kit but instead of optional ski parts, it came with a six pack manifold, hood scoop, slicks, and some other custom parts. The Monacos varied a little in custom parts from 1977 to 1978. The cars themselves were unchanged. One year (I think the '78) came with a custom wraparound "motorboat" windshield. One or both years came with a mini bike (with carrier mounts for the rear bumper), much like the one that recently came in the Dodge Pickup kit. Cragars were the optional wheels both years. Both years came with custom scoops for the c pillars and fenders. The ones for the fenders looked a lot like the stock ones used on the '77-'78 Firebird Trans Am. I think these were the same ones that came in the MPC Monza kits. Custom front and rear pans were supplied to replace the bumpers. Racing bucket seats were carried over from the '76 "Road Runner" kit. The chassis is more or less a carry over from the '71-'74 Road Runner kits, except that it was revised for single exhaust & catalytic converter. It's the same big block engine that came in the older Road Runners, except that a crossover pipe was supplied to make the exhaust manifolds connect to the single exhaust. Appliques were supplied for the opera windows- they look like the stock ones for one of the higher trim Monaco models from those years. These only came in the annual kits, the Force 440's did not have these parts.

The story I heard was that Pontiac developed it as a "Commuter" car rather than a "sports" car. Yeah- right. Pontiac really wanted a sports car as they considered themselves a Performance brand, but the only way they could get it into GM's production plan was to represent it as an advanced (steel space frame with plastic panels- an ancestor of the Saturn, if you will) economy car. They had had this go-round with Chevy before, first with the Banshee, then with the Firebird (which fortunately, was allowed to live begrudgingly). Somehow, Pontiac pulled it off this time. It was likely pressure from Chevrolet (as it would be competition for the Corvette that would undercut it in price, and, if left unchecked, performance), that kept it an economy car for the first few years. Even the literature and ads for the car mostly referenced it's economical virtues. "We drive excitement!" came a little later. The first ones were striking for the time, although slightly plain. I knew a guy with a first year Fiero, neat little car. It did almost seem like "3/4's of a Hot Rod" back then. Every year after, once they were in production, and too late for anybody in Corporate to do anything about it (for awhile, anyway) Fieros seemed to get more and more souped and scooped up ("further developing the product", wink, wink), until, as everybody knows, they hit their performance peak, and no doubt, re-attracted the attention of the Chevy division, who probably at that point said: "enough is enough"! Just imagine if they hung in there long enough to get the Grand National engine!

Well...the original Cuda's and Challengers had fake scoops in their twin scoop hoods, too... I had a '74 Cuda with one of those hoods. The previous owners made those scoops real (meaning: they cut them out). The only "real" benefits those "real" scoops had were: 1) they let copious amounts of water into the engine bay. 2) once, we were having a tuning session, and briefly ran the car without an air cleaner. We had a backfire out of the carb, which, hand to heart- shot flames out of the scoops. That was one of maybe the 3 coolest things I have ever seen in my entire life!!!

How has the early 60's Chrysler "Toilet Seat" trunk lid not yet come up in this discussion??? My Dad used to tell me he actually added one to a '59 Fury that he had, while it seems that most people were ditching them (or wanting to) at the time.

Or what he said!

As I put the notion of an absolute beginner modeler in my head, I'm thinking it couldn't hurt to have your friend work on a few other things before he tackles this one. This kit is well engineered, but a beginner might have a little difficulty joining the body/chassis/interior, as it's all engineered to fit pretty precisely. Practice on a few simpler subjects might help. If it were my friend, I'd have them try out a few snap kits to lean the basics of painting and assembly first, then maybe a few simpler glue kits (maybe the Revell '70 Chevelle, or '70 Challenger T/A or '70 Road Runner kits), where they're engineered fairly well, but not to go together as precisely as newer tools. Those kits were engineered originally in the early 80's. They benefit from having a good level of detail, while still being relatively simple.

The easiest solution is to replace the whole engine with the one from Revell’s ‘68 and ‘69 Dodge Darts. It’s a 383 but could stand in for a 400 or 440, and it comes with a really nice Torqueflite auto trans. The exhaust manifolds on the Dart engine are A-body only, but if they bug you, you could use the ones from the Monaco kit, or from the AMT ‘71 Charger. If one would go to that trouble, though, they would probably want to do the whole chassis and engine swap with the Charger kit anyway. I think that engine, when painted the proper blue, would be a great improvement over the MPC kit engine as-is.

The problem is: I have something like 7 of these Monacos already. Can I really justify getting another one??? Hmmm... ... ...yes. Yes, I can.

The caps... ...my guess is that they'll throw in the new ones from the Dodge Pickup. They're a little better than the ones in the Monaco kit, not fantastic...but... ...the box seems to show the Cop Car (ventilated) caps. I wonder if we're getting those, or if we'll be getting decals for the caps representing the vents...

Aww man! I'm too late- I was going to get all cryptic!...