pack rat

The face mask should be there on the runner of clear parts. It was present on the Model King issue. I don't think the flippers were ever included in the '70 Bonneville kit. The original '69 annual had the scuba parts, and it also contained a few custom interior parts molded in soft white vinyl, along with flippers molded in the same material. I believe the soft vinyl parts were all missing from the '70 annual, even though the flippers were included on the box art.

I also recall a lot of Lindberg stuff ending up at Big Lots maybe 10(?) years ago. Chances are hobby wholesalers and buyers might remember that too, making the Lindberg label a tough sell. Applying the AMT label to Lindberg kits was initiated with the Lawman Plymouth which came after the SS396 and the 442.

Good point. The '71 RR was refurbished and reissued by Ertl. Between then and now RC2 had their hands on the tooling. Anything could have happened under their watch.

When Round ran test shots of the Daisy Duke kit, it contained a chassis pan with a single exhaust and catalytic converter and a dashboard from the mid-70's Road Runner/Monaco/Police Car' If you compare the '71-72 Road Runner to the later Road Runner/GTX/Monaco/Police car B-body kits right into the late-70's you'll see that the plastic all comes from the same tooling. John G once told me that one of the challenges in searching for older MPC tooling in particular was their use of (and searching for). various inserts, or small sections of tooling that were added or subtracted to a tool. This may be a clue to the long absence of the '71 RR.

Now THAT'S nice! Great save!

Snake; have you considered modifying the trim on the '62 body instead of the cutting/splicing? Here's one I did years ago. It's an original-issue "Sock It To Me" '62 combined with a '61 promo interior bucket, and a trunklid and headlight bezels from an original 61/62 annual. The only tedious part of the conversion was the removal of the vertical grille-like moldings in the coves the '62 body. The rest of the conversion was basically adding evergreen strip styrene (although that extreme curve at the rear of the coves was tough). It's not a show piece, but I was sick of trying to find a decent '61 at the time, and had an abundance of '62's.

1-Tamiya primer 2-Tamiya lacquer 3-Testors clear lacquer 4-polishing kit and some luck

A couple of pics of the stock version on the box. Color is Tamiya TS-8 over grey primer, interior is Tamiya TS-68. Round2 chose the color (cause red really pops on the box), but I really like Jack's metallic grey with the period-correct red interior.

Re the Maisto Harleys; I too hadn't seen any in many years, but just this past summer the individual bikes appeared again in Canadian Walmarts. It wouldn't hurt to check your local Wally's if you're so inclined...I recently picked up this '80 Wide Glide (always liked the flamed tank). Likewise, if anyone is interested in the Hallmark series, pictured are the two bikes that are available currently; the '15 Road Glide, and the '80 Sturgis that was released just last week. The Sturgis is definitely one of their better efforts...it even has a very faint suggestion of tire treads, unlike previous efforts as Tim mentioned. Finally...to stray off-topic just a bit....although they don't produce any H-D's (due to licensing I assume) IXO out of Europe has produced a very nice line of 1/24 scale diecast bikes for years. Most of their subject matter is current GP-type stuff, but a few years ago they produced a really nice series of 24 bikes in a "Museum Series". Ebay would probably be your only source for these (I got lucky and found them locally). They are definitely a cut above the other bikes mentioned (some have photo-etched brake rotors etc) Shown below are two from that line...a '48 Indian Chief and a '70 Honda CB750.

I suspect that might be the same Harley Davidson produced in Japan and marketed in the early-mid 70's by Entex. Google Entex Big Bike Series and you'll find a pic or two; see if it looks like your kit. Like Bill said, the Revell Parts Pack/Grease 2 chopper is tough to find, and bring money. I was lucky; mine (the Grease 2 issue) came from a hobby shop in about 1986....it had been gathering dust on their shelf for a couple of years (pic-the handle bars on mine aren't "stock", they broke at some point). Although they're not kits, Franklin Mint did a series of 1/24 H-D's, and Hallmark has been producing a continuing series of H-D Keepsake ornaments for a few years now that are close to 1/24 scale (pic). Maybe not the greatest replicas, but they display OK.

I can't be the only guy asking this question.....what is this supposed to represent?

Sorry, I should have clarified. The 66-67 no-skirt Craftsman was only available in light blue (if someone has a skirtless body in any other color I stand corrected). The Jr Trophy with skirts was molded in several colors including a lighter blue than the blue/turquoise one in my pic (note-I have never seen one up close and don't know if it's the same or a similar color as the Craftsman) My post may have implied that all light blue Birds were the later issue; that wasn't the intention.

Both series were released in 1969 or so as I recall; this was back when AMT was hurting and scrambling to make something marketable from every tool they could find. I recall seeing the Desert series on the shelves before I saw the Flower Power series, but that was loong ago; they could have appeared at the same time. There was a Buick in the Flower Power series, but it was the '62. I only have two Desert Racer kits (the Galaxie and the '63 T-Bird) and one Flower Power kit (the '60 Mercury). Like your Desert Race kits, all of mine are molded in white, and yes, the Galaxie was based on the annual but contained just the stock parts with little, if any optional parts. The "Tequila Mockingbird" Desert Racer T-Bird is a reissue of a somewhat inaccurate promo. Amt issued two versions of the T-Bird hardtop promo in '63; one with rear fender skirts, and a second version with no skirts and incorrect Sports Roadster emblems on the front fenders; the Tequila Mockingbird is an unassembled repop of the second version (pic). Yea, I know; it's not officially a Craftsman, but it is one in everything but name

I believe the skirts were removed from the Junior Trophy in about 1965 when AMT used the body in their slot car line. After that, I think there was only one subsequent reissue (the light blue version in 66-67, now in the Craftsman line) still without the skirts. Jr Trophy (darker blue) and Craftsman (light blue) and slot car pics below.

Nice save on that '62, Ron! That was pretty rough.

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I really wanted to avoid the in-your-face look of most '71 Cudas, hence the black paint. E-bodies look best without all of the add-on stuff. I also wanted to go with a color that was available (and looked good with) with an argent-colored grille surround (I much prefer it over the body-colored surround). For comparison, here's a Monogram Cuda with the full gingerbread treatment....I know which look I prefer. (of course, the Mono version is handicapped with proportion issues, but we won't get into that)

The AMT '66 Mustangs followed a somewhat convoluted path. The original hardtop/convertible kit eventually became the Sonny & Cher kit, then seemingly disappeared. Portions of the fastback kit were used for two subsequent kits; the Mach 1/Super Stang/Iron Horse (chassis, engine etc) and the funny car (body). AMT later came up with the Countdown hardtop by combining the Mach 1/Iron Horse mechanical bits with the promo '66 hardtop body pieces that had never been previously used in kit form. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it all means that maybe, just maybe the Sonny & Cher kit is still out there (if anyone cares).

Yes, that '59 Lincoln that survived after the '60 was produced is a bit of a head-scratcher. The '63 and '64 Comets share the same chassis and nothing else. The interior buckets look close at first glance until you inspect them side-by-side....they don't match. The weird part; the '64 has a convertible-style interior as often found in AMT hardtops back then...ever seen a '64 Comet convertible promo? If such a thing exists, I stand corrected. I agree, John's thread on the Craftsman Bird was very informative. At the time I had a friend selling a Craftsman '57 at a pretty decent price; I didn't really need another one but John's comments prompted me to go for it.

Yup...I can see the burn on that one; the plastic has that chalky look left on the surface after you strip it. They applied nice thick coats too; looks like the paint ran down the sides and puddled up just above the rockers. Looks savable, though. I have a built-up '62 Fairlane, but the chrome on mine is really clean...I think every '62 AMT kit I have has pretty decent chrome, except my Galaxie hardtop (it's the 1969-ish reissue so it doesn't count).

Thanks, Snake. Speaking of Skylarks (and lacquer bombs!).....here's whats waiting on my bench right now if I ever get around to it (building stuff for other folks,,,that's another story); This Skylark looked decent enough when I bought it, but that thick, sloppy Testors yellow paint job hid a surprise; a coat of dull green lacquer etched into the body so bad it looked like it was molded in the same color plastic as the Craftsman kit (you can see traces of the green in the door openings). . Unfortunately, this one is a disappointment...traces of the etched plastic are still showing under the new paint. (sorry for the murky "after" pic) Not sure how I'll fix it, but that's months away.

Along with glue bombs, we also have what I like to call lacquer bombs. This thing had a thick coat of (I think) Vitamin C/Go Mango lacquer on it....it got worse as the layers of paint came of. The pics don't really show how badly etched it was. I ended up having to apply a thin coat of putty to the entire body to smooth things out.

Open it up, man! Seriously, I don't think I could buy ANY vintage kit and leave it sealed on the shelf; I admire your restraint.

I'm pretty certain the Skylark annual and the Craftsman shared tooling. The rear screw posts are in the same location on mine, and my Craftsman has firewall mounting points engraved on the body. The '60 Merc mentioned was in the so-called "Flower Power" series, along with a few other oldies such as the '60 Bonneville. Both series can be somewhat confusing as they both contained a mix of older annual (de-contented 62 Galaxie) and promo (63 T-Bird) tools.......(I wonder where those two went?...show of hands for a 62 Galaxie!) As most people realize, Round2 does look for old "lost" tooling, otherwise we wouldn't have kits like the Manx, Piranha, Daytona Transporter, All Star kits etc etc, but for every old tool they find they have to perform a mental balancing act; how much $$ needs to be invested to make it production-ready, and will it sell in sufficient numbers.

Sorry, no can do.