CapSat 6

Oh- and I mean it about the Megaball thing. I have no interest in learning casting, but keeping the Modelhaus going would be great. Maybe even expand it into 3D masters and/ or injection molding. Wish me luck!!! ?

Thank you, Snake! I try my best! ?

I'm finding this discussion very interesting. It goes without saying that Don and Carol have carved out a very special, very specific place in the universe with the Modelhaus, and of course, it will be irreplaceable. Best of luck to them in their retirement. They were more than fair and they tried to plan a smooth transition. I hope it ends up going well for them. Moral stances aside on the possible profiteering angle, I'm not so sure that stockpiling for future sale would be a smart strategy. How would anybody know what their best sellers have been, unless Don or Carol told them? What kits would you order if you wanted to flip them and make piles of cash? Or parts? The best strategy I can think up is "bet it all on Jo Han (parts)". I would imagine parts for their Caddys, Javelins, GTX's and the like will become like gold- everything else? Not so sure about that. I myself ended up finding one of their discontinued car kits on the Auction Place very recently, and it was something I have wanted for a long time. It has not been listed in their catalog for many years. I was prepared to throw down for it, but I ended up winning it for about 1/2 the price of most of their complete kits. I had been letting the hype get to me, but it turns out that it just didn't pan out. I'm very happy I got it and I'm gonna build it. Maybe there is simply no demand for at least a small part of their stuff- who knows? Also- like Mark, my belief is that somebody, or perhaps several parties, might end up with at least some of their complete kits' molds. There are several categories of cars in which they offer a nice selection of unique kits. If they're not offering them anymore, I'm sure they would see the reason in selling some of those molds & masters, if they got the right offers. The entire business, the parts business on the other hand- I don't think there is anybody on Earth who would be willing or able to take over the whole thing. Valued the way you would value a functioning business, I'm sure the cost would be way too prohibitive. It would have to be run as a full time concern, and with masters, molds, and supplies alone, you could probably buy a nice house in many parts of the country for what it would be worth. Not to mention the work ethic and talent you would have to bring to it. I'm playing the Megaball tonight...if I hit it big, I'd be willing to buy the shooting works and set somebody up with a nice salary to run it. That would be me giving back to the Modeling community. ?

This is coming together really nicely, Dave!!!

Thanks, Greg. It's necessary, because if I don't have any on hand, then they start asking about MY models...?

And they also do the new Ford GT...

My daughter built this one with absolutely minimal help when she had just turned 5. This series of kits are really good for the new builder. They also do an Audi sports car, a Jeep Wrangler, and a Ford Police Interceptor.

Here's my stash, waiting at the ready for when the girls want to build...

Here are a few that my daughters built, with a little help from me. The great things about these new snappers, over the snappers I grew up with during the '70's are: - you don't have to glue anything due to bad design. The windows and wheels attach securely. - they stay together after a little bit of play.

Pretty much craft stores like Michael's, A.C. Moore, Hobby Lobby. I have seen a scant few at Toys R Us- snap Hunmer, the new Camaro & Challenger, a few other things.

The Bison should be fine to start with...I remember building one of those Monogram 1/32 Trucks (it might have been the Bison, but I can't remember which) back when I was about 11 and I remember it being a pretty easy one to get together design-wise. The trick would be to be able to complete something with him. Once that happens, then hopefully, the idea will take hold that he can do it, and he'll want to achieve more. From there, if I were you, I would get some of the current Revell snaps. They're all well thought out modern tools that should not be difficult to build, with a wide range of subjects. If at some point he wants to graduate to cars with engines, then I would recommend the Revell '90's Dodge Vipers. Why? Because these tools were originally designed to be snap kits. They practically snap together. This would only be the first generation Viper kits. This would be after he gets a few of the Revell Snap Togehter kits under his belt. The trick to all of this is to find kits that don't present assembly problems. I have built quite a few of the revell snaps with my girls (8 year old triplets and a 6 year old). Like many kids these days, they like their electronics, so their attention spans are a little limited, but they do like doing things with their hands, and building cars like me. I always have to keep some of these kits around because they do twist my arms to build once in awhile.

Here are mine, to heck with commercial viability: 1) Bluesmobile 2) Aston Martin V-8 3) Jensen Interceptor 4) 80's Dodge pickup and Ramcharger 5) a new tool vintage Mopar station wagon. I would take almost any one they do, as long as it's reasonably stock (no Alter-Nomad style thing here). My preference would be either a '69-'70 Chrysler Wagon, or a 1971 Dodge Coronet (can you say: "Rod Shop Dodge"?). Sorry, but I just think the Fuselage Mopar wagons were much nicer looking than their predecessors. All we Mopar people have in plastic right now is the Jo Han '60 Plymouth, they are just getting too scarce. The Chevy & Ford guys at least have one or two options here... 6) 1978-79 Dodge Magnum. First, I'll have to go back in time, influence some big Hollywood production to use this car as their hero car, and then...oh never mind...

Here's how I see it: 1) If Ed Sexton says it's going to be from a new tool, then I think he knows what he's talking about. Personally, I'm hoping that it's at least derived from the '68-'69 tool, as that one was pretty good, and coming from an "all new" tool could allow the opportunity for mistakes. Also, if the parts from the "old" tool interchange with this new tool, then use the hood from the '69 Daytona for a stock build- that hood should be the same as the stock '70 hood, as on the 1:1 cars, it was a production pull-forward. Hood problem solved! 2) if it is derived from the diecast, then all is not lost- the Revell Charger diecasts were pretty good in my estimation. I think they did share some design with the glue '68 and '69's, and while some diecast kits Revell did in the past were slab-sided, the Chargers were not- they simply made the body castings REALLY thick in the areas where the curvature occurred. Built up, they look fine. 3) Judging by the box art and built model they have had on display, I think this one is not derived from the diecast. My reasoning? Look at the seats and the grille. The DC kit had a racing seat, the built sample appears to have stock '70 seats. The DC has a grille which nicely represents the stock grille with the headlight doors open- the box art build shows a stock grille with headlight doors down. I doubt they would make these changes to the Diecast tool; I think this one is being designed as a F'nF car first, with a stock version to come after based on what I see here. 4) I'm sure Revell is watching Jada Toys sell TONS of their Toretto Chargers and figuring that they can get some of that action. You can't blame them for wanting to sell kits and make money- that's what gets us our '57 Fords, after all. I'm hoping that they decide to take a look at their '70 Cuda, tool up some AAR pieces, and offer Letty's Cuda, too...

This is all looking really, really good Dave!

Here's the interior (shot from the side doors) of one for sale that was less than mint. Vintage interior here!

This one was for sale, in pretty decent shape:

Since we're in the mood...here are some pics I was able to get at Chryslers @ Carlisle. A few custom vans are showing up there every year lately. This beauty seems to be a recently restored one...no murals, but check the interior:

I read the title of your post and thought to myself: "oh no he didn't...". Then I opened the post, and thought "oh yes he did!!!". Loved the review. The subject reminds me of those radically-customized vans you used to see in the old "World of Wheels" show magazines. There were some custom vans made back in the day that weren't too far off from this one. I always had a soft spot for MPC kits...as I was born in the '70's, and MPC in the late '70's always seemed to be on the leading edge of automotive tastes for the time...Muscle Cars were almost mythical by 1979 (you'd usually see "real" Muscle Cars parked on the street or in a yard in Philly where I grew up...rarely driven even by then). More often, you would see new Trans Ams, El Caminos, and...custom vans. "Mushroom Man"'s new model Econoline was one of them, with porthole windows and wooden bumpers (with -you guessed it- " Mushroom Man" burnt into them). Not all that controversial, when you consider we had a real live head shop in our neighborhood as well. Also, there was Daryl, the Philadelphia Fireman, who had a mostly stock '79 Dodge Van, with airbrushed murals down both entire sides of the van, of cartoon firemen fighting a fire in an Old West town, one with a damsel in distress over his shoulder. That Van ran around Roxborough for about 15 years, and I never once thought of shooting a picture of it, although I kick myself now thinking about that. Good times!!!

Revell has also been known to do some Landy kits recently, a 2nd variant (after stock Super Bee) being Mike Landy's Coronet would be nice.

I could see Revell using the 1/10 master for their '69 Super Bee (if they still have it), scale it down to 1/25th, convert the body and interior details to '68 Super Bee configuration, mix in some of the chassis and engine details from their '68 and '69 Charger kits...and there you go! I think the overall proportions & details of their '69 Super Bee are pretty decent...much better chance of this happening than Round 2 finding the old MPC '68 Coronet body tool (as nice as that would be).

OK...take a deep breath! Here's what you need to do... 1) Turn the body upside down, rest it on it's roof on the table. 2) Take the chassis & interior assembly, and insert it rear first into the back portion of the body. 3) From here, you'll have to stretch the body sides around the areas where it won't fit (rear wheelhouses, firewall, etc. The body will flex to some extent. Do it carefully. 4) You'll then have to work the front of the chassis into place it will hang up around where the radiator is. You'll just have to work slowly and carefully...these are not designed to drop on, the body kind of encapsulates the chassis. It will hang up in various places (interior, engine, radiator, rear wheelhouses). This process might take you 30-45 minutes. These Revell kits are kind of tight in these areas (which of course gives you a more accurate build in the end). If you can master one of these kits at this stage, you can probably handle almost any other car kit you try. Good luck!

They sure look like the same mags as in the '67 Charger to me. I like these much better than the ones that came in the original '69 Cuda annual kit, so in my eyes, this was a good move rather than spending the money to reconstitute the old ones.

Oh- and to be clear, this is coffee grounds before they have been used- pre-used coffee grounds...

I HATE it when I get something from EBay like that...I have used coffee or charcoal pretty successfully. Put the offenders in a box (with the kit opened up & spread out) with a couple of cupfulls of fresh coffee or charcoal. Don't use the coffee to drink afterwards, as it absorbs the smell. The items end up smelling like coffee, but that's not nearly as bad as cigarette ash!

Re: the chassis: the '67 through '69 annuals had single exhaust (slant-6 for the stock building option, remember?), the drag and street machines thru the '70's and early '80's had no exhausts molded in (at least- the Killer Cuda and Avenger Cudas I had showed no exhausts, I would imagine this began with the Miss Mighty Mopar or Great Street Machine, whichever came first), and from the late '80's to present- it had dual exhausts to match the 383. Keith Marks used to do the Cuda 440 graphics. I haven't looked at his site in quite some time, but I got a set from him some time ago. Here is a pic of my Avenger. It has the '68 style marker lights for both front and rear. I did come across a swap meet body that was molded in white that had marker lenses just for the rear. The plot thickens... One pic also shows the Hemi from the Avenger (very similar to the one in the original '69), and the 383 from more recent issues.