Joe Spliggins

The F-100 is the first 'true' reissue of that kit, meaning it has all of the various extra parts and accessories that were included in the original small box release (and the original box art). I don't have the reissue (I have a complete original), but there may also be reprints of the original "box candy" paperwork, too. George Barris, dressed in a coat and tie, building model cars with a couple of kids. It don't get much better than that, LOL. In typical AMT fashion, they started eliminating stuff and changing (aka "updating") the custom parts beginning with the second release in about '65-6. By the the early 80s, all you got when you opened the box was the stock truck (from worn out molds) with a bare minimum of custom parts, a sheet of (completely different from the originals) decals, and the instructions (also different) - occasionally there was an advertising flyer of some sort, as well. I've got a few of the Round 2 reissues, and am pretty impressed with them overall. The plastic is sometimes a bit thin (almost translucent on some), but the new/refreshed molds are awesome. One of the best things about the reissues is the tires. Way better than the original AMT ones in several ways. A lot of the new kits have size-corrected tires in place of the tired old T-236s that virtually every AMT kit used to come with. Some have nice pad printed or molded white walls. Best of all, they supposedly won't get "hot" like what's all too often found in original 'golden era' kits.

This thread hasn't had any activity in a few years, but I just now found it and wanted to add my pair of copper coins... Some of the kits I see mentioned here are truly rare (anybody got a Greenbriar they'd swap for a semi-functional left arm? LOL!). Most of the others are what I consider, IMHO, to be "often hard to find and grossly overpriced". AMT's "desperation kits" ( ie: 34 Ford 3-Window, 32 Ford Tudor, 25 Ford Paddy Wagon, etc.) of the mid-70s being among them. There is one, however, that is not mentioned here (or seemingly anywhere else on the web) that is without a doubt "the card with Honus Wagner eating a griffon wing while riding a solid platinum unicorn". That would be a 1/25 WW2 White Halftrack, put out in the late 50s by one of the 'second tier' manufacturers (I want to say either Palmer, Premier, or Strombecker, but I honestly don't remember at this point). A late friend had one that he bought new just before graduating high school. Over the course of 12 years in the Army and 10 years of subsequent moves afterwards, many of the earliest additions to his kit collection took a first class beating. By the time he first showed me his kits in around 1983, the halftrack had been reduced to a box bottom and about 2/3 of the parts in baggies. Unfortunately, I found out about his eventual demise several months after the fact... by which time nearly everything he owned had already been sold off. I have regularly searched the web since 1997 looking for one (for sale OR show-and-tell), and/or any info about the kit, with ZERO luck. I can't even find a pic of the box art. If I hadn't actually held the remnants of one in my own hands 30-some years ago I'd swear this kit was a myth!