tim boyd

The interesting thing about this kit is that if you go back and read the original Monogram magazine ads from the early 1960's (in both the full size car mags and the model mags), they list the exact specifications of the Big T/Little T kits....and the frame in the T Bucket is listed as a "Z'ed" model A frame. Which makes it the obvious choice (then and now) for many traditional hot rod projects, including those using a Model A (instead of Model T) body. Not to mention kitbashes using the resin T Turtledeck bodies and AMT/Revell T Touring bodies that are out there.... More pictures at this link.... Thanks for looking....and joining me in my scale hot rod dreamin'....TIM

I believe Missing LInk is considering offering these parts in resin....you might want to contact them for a status.....TIM

I personally liked the Phantom Vicky frame, particularly the tubular frame crossmembers which were more current in design than those in the Revell Duece frame. But IIRC it didn't have the typical '32 Ford frame "sweep" on the frame rails, And Round 2 seems quite busy with their present business model restoring and reissuing old tooled kits... Still...it would be a very cool product....TB

Wayne....thanks for the support on this. Revell would seem to be an obvious source, but I'd be happy with a kit of this subject from any of the kit makers.....as long as it's in 1/25th (or 1/24th) scale... TB

P., you are correct, AMT was struggling financially in the late 1970's. I was nearing graduation from college and wanted to go work for them full time (i had been doing commissioned projects for them for several years) . AMT's quarterly financial statements, combined with what I heard from insiders at my visits there, made for an interesting "case study" in my junior and senior Business Strategy and Financial Analysis courses. Long story short, they built a second factory in Baltimore, which was highly automated, to crank out those truck and trailer kits which had been really good sellers for them. But with the increase in raw materials costs due to the Arab Oil Embargo and its after effects, plus the natural lifecyle of new produce categories (sales drop off when the newness wears off), they had a ton of fixed costs that made for financial struggles. Then the unionized hourly work force at their Troy, MI plant (which was not as automated) went on strike, and their management decided to take a hard stand. Eventually they decided to shut the plant, move everything to Baltimore, and things went downhill quickly after that, with the sale of AMT to Lesney Matchbox not long thereafter. I had wanted to work for them after graduation, and interviewed with them including one of their top 3 executives. Fortunately for me, with the troubles on the horizon, they declined to hire me. ( I then went on to a long and successful career at Ford) . There's more to tell....maybe someday! TIM

Art....so true, so true. And that one has been (and still is) near the top of every list of new kit ideas I offer, when ever I am asked by those who are in a position to do something about it... It seems particularly timely these days given the growing interest in that body style from the 1/1 scale "Traditional" hot rod crowd....TB

Thanks CobraMan....TB

Thanks Chuck! The front wheels are from the trailer in the RC/AMT/LC issue of the old MPC '76 Caprice kit. They were also in the MPC early C3 Corvette annual kits. Thanks for noticing...I kinda snuck those in to see if anyone was watching! TIM

Christian....yeah...I see your point there. Particularly since everything I mentioned has happened in just the most recent seven or eight years....TIM

Bob...If I recall correctly, virtually the entire frame came from the MPC '57 Chevy Gasser kit (the MPC '53 Ford Pickup with the flip bed has the same chassis, you just need to align the rear suspension in the more rearward set of locators. On this one, I think I subbed the front suspension from the current generation Revell '40 Willys Gassser kits...but the MPC suspension works just fine if you don't want to go to all that trouble. Cheers...TIM PS - Wheels are various colors of Testors Metalizers with Testors DullCote on top....TB

Misha...I'm 1000% with you on that!! TIM

Well...it has changed SOME....I mean, now we get period Hudsons, Kurtis Midgets, chopped '48 Ford and '49 Merc customs...Black Widow Chevies....and one other kit idea I suggested to AMT back then....the '49/'50 Olds. Granted, these are coming from others than the successors to AMT Corporation back then....TB

I never heard a word back on it....from what I vaguely recall...AMT did get a good deal of mail from hobbyists with kit ideas and the like...but back then, AMT (and practically all the others too) still thought their biggest market was kids. So ideas from adult modelers didn't often make it through the product committee. (There were quite a number of car guys and modelers at the working level in AMT, but the senior leaders were a tough sell.) There were a few street rod themed kits that did make it to market back then...the pretty miserable '34 Ford 3W Coupe, the all-new '23 T Roadster, the '41 Plymouth Street Rod, and the '51 Chevies and '53/'55 Corvettes. But in realilty, at that point a '29 A Highboy Roadster was apparently just too specialized a topic...at least it was in their minds. TB

What Tom said x2! TB

JB....By that point in time AMT was pretty much done with the thingy/Show Rods category....but....instead they did the Thomas Flyer. So your point is taken....BTW has THAT Thomas Flyer kit EVER been reissued? Guess that one wasn't such a good idea either! Best...TB

True...but there was a great deal about kit design I did not understand when I made that proposal back then. Turns out it would have been impossible to do the way I suggested...e.g. it would have required an entirely new tool....oh well....live and learn! TIM

I finished this several years ago but I don't think I've ever posted it here. It's a chopped '48 Ford Gasser based on the Revell '48 Ford Custom kit of a few years ago. The decals are from Slixx....they were discontinued but recently were put back in the catalog from what I understand. The engine is a 289 Ford (yeah baby, Ford in Ford, no stinkin's SBC's for this Ford Gasser!) Many more pictures at the link.....Thanks for looking...TIM Many more pix.... http://public.fotki.com/funman1712/tim-boyd-on-line-mo/tim-boyd-on-line-ho-5/

Wayne...yeah... I probably have some stuff that people would like to see. Maybe I need to get a bit more serious about posting more of it on my Fotki site. Like the factory design blueprints for some of the AMT trade show announcements - kitbashes (or in a few cases, outright scratchbuilds) I did for them on commission back in the 1970's.....(anyone remember the three AMT '75 1/2 Ford Econoline theme kits.....or the 1977 "Custom Gremlin"....) TB

Well...apparently they felt the same way, as there's never been a kit of one from AMT. or for that matter, anyone else other than Norm Veber's conversion kit for the Revell '32 Ford series.... On the other hand, '29A Roadster Highboys have been, and remain, one of the most popular subjects in the 1/1 scale Hot Rod and Street Rod Community.... (Looking at your profile picture, I now realize you probably know this as well as I do...!) TIM

I posted this at another message board about a year and a half ago, but I don't recall showing it here. (Apologies if I am repeating myself...) Here's a proposal for a '29 Model A Highboy Roadster on '32 Rails that I developed and sent to my contacts at AMT back in September of 1975. Enjoy.....TIM

Jarius....great job on that box art. And the built model on the side panel looks really, really sharp. Man, it's been a long wait (sounds like about a year behind the original timeline). Let's hope the factory in Korea gets going this month. Best regards...TIM

Thanks for posting that Casey. About time, I'd say. Cool! TB

I noticed that too.....TIM

Thanks Paul for the photos and the coverage! TIM

James thanks for taking time to further explain your view of the Golden Age. Here's mine....I would characterize the First Golden Age of modeling as the period between 1959 and 1966 when model car building was on a huge growth curve, followed to a lesser extent by the period of the late 1960's, and to a lesser extent yet, the early 1970's. The ability to spinoff model car kits from promotional models during this period was a major factor, but in reading, talking to people in the industry back then, and personal observation, annual kits were but a part of the overall growth. AMT's Trophy Series kits (the first '32 Roadster, the AlaKart, the '57 Bel Air) sold in numbers that dwarfed the annual kits. Likewise the Roth series and racing kits from Revell...the Big T, Big Deuce and the like from Monogram, and later in the decade, the Monkeemobile and Tom Daniels kits, if the experts back then that I've talked to have recalled the situation correctly. Annuals were a factor, no doubt, but the hobby would have prospered (to a lesser extent) without them. . The First Golden Age of the hobby initially faded a bit with the advent of Slot Cars in the mid 1960's, and then moreso as the 1.1 scale automotive world lost its way (and not just with the OEM offerings, either) starting around 1971-72. For AMT, at least, the growth of their Semi-Tractor/Trailer product line was a Godsend, helping them to re-establish some financial health and momentum (info gleaned in part from reading their Quarterly Financial reports back then), but that too petered out by the mid 1970's. Product quality took a big step backwards,,,,we lost the two magazines covering the hobby (Car Model and Model Car Science), and by the late 1970's Revell was making due with toylike kits like the Charlies Angels Van and John Travolta Firebird. It was topped off with the liquidation of the 11 years of the MPC Model Car Championship, which had served as the underground of the then-developing adult model car hobby, after the 1979 contest season. To me (and many others I've talked with over the years), these were the dark ages. The Second Golden Age (as I think of defining it) started in the early 1980's when Scale Auto Enthusiast became successful, and with three...no make that four landmark product introductions. Each of these signaled that the model car manufacturers had finally decided that their futures lied with products targeted at the adult model car builder. This was huge, because back then, most people didn't believe there was any sort of sizable adult model car audience to speak of. Those kits were the Monogram NASCAR series, the Monogram Pro Stock series, the Fujimi Enthusiast Series, and the AMT-Ertl 1966 Nova kit. From that point on we enjoyed a glory-filled fifteen year run as many who built model kits as children and teens returned to the hobby as adults once their education, personal and family lives had settled down. The second golden age was capped off with a run of terrific AMT-Ertl kits in the late 1990's, some equally good from Revell, and even Lindberg, not to mention the continued growth of a viable and vibrant model car aftermarket. And finally, the advent of model car contests managed by model car builders, and the NNL Phenomenon of non-competitive model car meets, were huge factors as well. With the benefit off hindsight, the second golden age of model cars came to an end with the rise of affordable 1/18th scale diecasts, a viable option for hobbyists as they again became busy with their personal and family lives and had less time for modeling. RC's purchase and the subsequent mismanagement of the AMT/Ertl brand was a huge negative factor, only reversed with the Round 2 developments of recent years. The decision of WalMart to drop model cars was also a huge factor - though one I would argue was essential to set the stage for the Third Golden Age of Modeling, when the kit manufacturers would again target the serious adult hobbyist rather than the big box chains determing where the model companies spent their development budgets. . The Third Golden Age showed the first signs of emerging toward the end of the last decade, when Revell decided to start targeting the really hard-core modeling audience with kits like the Black Widow, Chopped Merc, Chopped '48 Ford, and so forth. Round 2's role has been huge. Likewise, the popularity of message boards like this one has been huge. Of equal importance, both the major model magazines kept at it, and helped to stoke the fires during the dark ages of the ealry 2000's. and hopefully now that the Third Golden Age is harkening. We've already agreed above on the generational forces feeding this wave, and that the latest wave of kit introductions globally and new or revitalized model car kit makers is critically helping to build the pace. And that brings us back to the purpose of this thread, to gloat over all the cool styrene at the IPMS Germany website. At this point i want to acknowledge that my view on this topic is hopelessly North American market oriented. While I had extensive global responsibilities (and global travel) in my full time career in the auto industry, regretably I never had the time during all of that to explore our hobby in other continents, so that is a factor that others may wish to weigh in on. Obvious from all of this is that I consider Golden Ages to be based far more on the enthusiasm of those in the hobby than the pure numbers of hobbyists and the sales of kits. We'll never return to the numbers of people or sales in the 1960's First Golden Age, nor even the Second Golden Age. But for those of us still involved, and those we can entice to revisit the hobby, plus the fresh new blood as cited in Jame's post above....I do believe we are on the cusp of a true Third Golden Age of Modeling. One more point before I sign off. I know that many who frequent this board, and the other boards out there, do not buy the model car magazines. History will show that the role of model car magazines has been, and will remain a huge factor in the success of our hobby. I would really, really encourage those of you out there who can afford it, to subscribe to Model Cars, as well as the other mainstream model car magazine. It's nothing less than an investment in the continued health and growth of this hobby we love. OK...who else has a thought on the Golden Age(s) of Modeling? I'd love to hear them as well.... Cheers to us...TIM