Dave Darby

It was turned into the Scorpion, a mid engined dragster

Looks great. You did your friend proud.

Like I said in my earlier post, the current 2015 (actually came out in 2014) kit is the one to get. Nice white plastic, miss-shapen front fender issues corrected, both engines, and nice decals. Only way to do better (shy of a bunch of kit bashing) is to spend the bucks for an annual.

First off, very nice build. It looks pretty sharp. All in all, I think that old MPC body is pretty accurate, Better than the newer Duster kit in that regard. If you were to kit-bash the two you'd have an excellent representation of the real thing. Anyway, I just had to chuckle at the above quote about rusting out in a couple of years. In the background of the photo below (that's a young me in the pic) you can see my brother's then TWO year old 72 Demon 340 with some pretty good rust issue developing at the bottom of the rear quarters. The similar vintage "Brand X" in the foreground looks pretty solid.... That said, I also had a 72 Demon (318) and I loved that car. Wish I had it back.

No photos right now, but this is one of the better re-issues of this kit. It appears that Round2 did some clean-up on the body mold as well. All of the previous Ertl issues I own have oddly distorted fender tops, sort of like sink marks and low spots on the front fender peaks. You can also see an odd seam on the insides of the front fenders (not a real issue), The new kit has none of these problems. I may have to pick up another one. The custom panel painted decals are pretty cool too.

My AMT/Ertl re-ssues have the skirts. I had the Street Rods series issue when I was a teen, but I don't remember whether or not it had the skirts. Might have to watch eBay and look at the photos next time someone lists one showing the box contents.

Yeah, it's waaaay out of proportion;

This one...

I think the issue that set folks off (and I'm sorry, I realize this is an old thread). is when you started accusing Round2 of trying to rip people off. The model car industry is not the big corporations with large budgets it was 55 years ago. You may be surprised to learn that most of them have well fewer than 50 employees, In fact I believe Round2 has fewer than 10. It costs northerly of 200,000 dollars to cut a new tool, plus create box art, and new instructions. And you know what? Chances are, if someone did do a new Cougar, the body probably wouldn't be as nice as the kit you were complaining so loudly about. Round2 puts an awful lot of effort into its re-issues, Nobody there is getting rich, but they are making a lot of historic model kits available to us, at the lowest price point they can afford to sell them for. If all of the big box stores were still buying cases of model kits, the prices would be lower, but they aren't. That is why kits cost as much as they do today. It's not gouging. It's survival. So before you come in with guns blazing about the latest rip-off old tool model kit being "foisted on us" take a deep breath, and do a little research. Remember, tone is everything. BTW, I built a copy of that Cougar for AMT about 22 years ago, and I thought it was a really nice looking kit. (You can see it below.)

Other than aforementioned and the decals, the rest of the kit is essentially unchanged.

Love this build. Absolutely awesome. Bump!

I never thought of the 53-55s as ugly. That's a nice clean build. Monogram?

Fender skirts are in all issues. BTW, that collectors Series issue still has the Moon disks and chromed headers in it. The two kits that had the skirts deleted at some point were the 36 Fords and 40 Ford Coupes.

People will probably start stoning me for this, but while I think the new Revell 29 is a great kit, the body, to me is "Notso-hotso" The moldings are heavy handed, and I don't care for the raised rear wheel wells. If I was going to build a highboy, I'd sub the AMT body. To me it looks more like the real one.

Bob, you are right on the money except for the 34 Ford, it's a 390 T Bird engine. A 312 is a Y Block, the 390 is a big block FE series motor. The 25 T also has a motor that uses those mounting pins, a fictional big block Lincoln. I think the Moon disks went away in the mid '60s. That is when the neat chromed headers that exit behind the front wheels went away too.

The one in your photo is the most recent issue, (2005) albeit in a retro - 1970's style box. Like the previous post says, they are common enough that you can probably pick one up for less than today's retail. One caveat; While this kit will build a pretty decent 1940 Ford, it has the wrong wiper location (above the windshield on a 1939), dash, bumpers, wheels, etc to build an accurate 1939 Ford.

You are probably right. The main thing I meant to say was that the 67 kit isn't based off of the Monogram 1965 kit, and is 1/25th, not 1/24th scale.

The 1967 Revell kit is not former Monogram, It was an all new tool by Revell. The 1965 kit is former Monogram. That one is 1/24th scale. The only hitch with using a 1967 chassis under a 1963 is that in 1965, they redesigned the front cross member to accommodate the big block engine. Most people probably wouldn't notice this, but... Another donor would be the old MPC 64-67 Corvette chassis. The 65-67 annuals have working coil spring front suspension, all have steerable wheels and separate rear suspension, The re-issues of the 1967 (Streaker Vette, StingRay, and Night Stalker) returned to the 1964 chassis front clip, which only has the posable steering. The exhaust has also been removed. And for some reason, (maybe they modified the 1967 interior for the Cosma Ray?) these re-issued kits have the 1964 style interior, which is probably pretty close to the 1963. This gives you separate bucket seats as well. This kit also has a very nice 327 and 4 speed that is definitely nicer than the one in the AMT kit. The Revell kit has the big block 427. I realize this is long after the fact, but still good information for those wanting to add detail to an AMT 1963-67 Corvette. MPC 1984 Corvette chassis. Re-issued 1967s are similar, minus the molded in exhaust system.

I know that some of the folks that love the old tool 57 Chevy are complaining, but the new tool 57 is far superior to the old one. The side trim on the old tool 57 is way too high on the body. The only way I would want to see it return would be if they'd open the gates to all of the old styline custom parts that I know are still in there. (See the ghost portion of the rear extension on the upper left...) I asked John Greczula about opening the gates a few years ago, and he told me that it likely never be re-issued because the tool is just flat worn out.

I did a little digging in the collection today and pulled out some of my vintage 1929 Model A kits. Better than that, I took a few photos.... Here is an original Ala Kart Chrome tree (One of two included per kit. Here is the a chrome tree from the Street Rods Issue Model A (Bottom), with the corresponding tree from the2002 issue on top. Note: the Street Rod tree is slightly incomplete. The headers, rocker covers, oil pan, timing cover, and one of the headlight buckets are missing here. There might be a couple of other pieces missing as well Here you can see how they modified the Ala Kart Fenders for the 1973 Street Rods issue. The cut-outs (and bulges) for the side pipes are gone. 7\ The bulge to match the scoop on the hood was removed from the front of the cab, As was the pleating on the back.... The parts to the right of the wheels in the below photo are the mechanical brake linkage and the stock 29 A front axle. Why Lesney/AMT felt it necessary to move these parts to the chrome tree is beyond me. That was done for the below issue, which was reissued twice by Ertl/AMT in maroon, then again in 2002 with a bunch of gates opened up. All of the gray parts in this post are from the 2002 issue. The below parts are MIA from the 2002 issue. Here is the rest of the 2002 release,

I like this copy paste method!

I am an old hand at posting photos on message boards, but ever since the MCM message board changed configurations, I cannot post. I click on "Insert Other Media", and choose "Insert image from URL"/ Then I paste in the image URL, click "Insert into post and....Nothing. spinning donuts, I've tried it in IE 11, Chrome, and Firefox, all with the same results.

Judging by the last issue of the 1929 Model kit, the Ala Kart fenders (though modified) are in there. However, the Ala Kart front axle, and a few other key pieces were cut out during the Lesney era to allow the stock 29 A front axle and brake linkage to be on the chrome tree for the A Venger issue. I think the quad headlamps are likely also long gone. Might have to go down to my stash and compare some trees. if I do, I'll shoot some pics.

Close, but not quite. The issue just before the Street Rods version is the one on the bottom right. The one with the Yellow Mod Rod on it. That was also the last issue you could still build an Ala Kart from.