pack rat

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.

You think they're just sitting around and not looking for this stuff? If so....you are mistaken

You can see the cat/kitten in the '62 Galaxie convertible on the Drastic Plastic site. The vast majority of the small stuffed animals appeared in AMT kits issued in 62-63.

The AMT '62 Galaxie convertible came with a small cat (not sure about the hardtop). The AMT '63 F100 pickup came with a small "kat"...aka The Kat From AMT as in my avatar.

Slightly off-topic here.....I was at the same show, Adam. Your Gold Rush van inspired a couple of us to discuss digging out the gaudiest-looking old MPC kit we have and going to town on it. Keep up the good work!

I believe the "-06" suffix refers to the case quantity for a particular kit. I've seen their 1/25 scale kits numbered with a "-12" suffix on Round2 paperwork.. Molded-color variations typically have sequential part numbers The aqua '65 Grand Prix is AMT991 and the white is AMT990. (cases would be AMT991-12 and AMT990-2) It doesn't answer your question re a supplier listing the two numbers with different prices though.

Thanks, Bill. A major compliment coming from Mr Obsessive!

That jumped out at me too, Bill. In a nutshell, as you and Chuck have noted, this is a 1982-era MPC kit. Promo-like accuracy, but still buildable to the kids MPC was selling these to in 1982. And it does have a rear seatback as this pic shows

Agreed. If I were building this one for myself I also would have tinted the windows as I did with the T-tops. I think the lack of tint also contributes to the "empty" look Bill describes. The monotone carpet/upholstery doesn't help either; the 1:1 references I had pretty much confirmed the color similarity. I did my best (in a short amount of time) by giving the carpeting a flatter texture, but the pics don't show it. Generally speaking, window tinting of any kind is avoided on box art stuff as it obscures interior detail.

What you see is what you get

Yes, it has opening doors, along with folding seat backs

The stock "bowling ball" wheels will be in the kit. The "diamond spoke" wheels shown on the box art are one of the custom building options carried over from the original '82 release. The enclosed pic is from a test shot. The custom wheels were chosen for the box art simply because Round2 preferred the look over the stock wheels.

Christian...my post wasn't a jab at you. I was just contributing to the topic for anyone who might be confused as to the two similar-appearing Mako II's.

FYI....these are two different cars. There were two Mako Shark II's. The first one (your first pic) was a non-running display piece with the finned side exhausts, and later a second fully-functional version was built without the side exhausts (among other changes). The second one was the version kitted by MPC and later modified into the Manta Ray (your second pic).

Thanks again. Yes... a twin turbo of sorts Note that AMT didn't include the characteristic Corvair back/forth/up/down serpentine belt; the cooling fan just sits there.. If you Google the AMT Piranha kit, chances are you'll see pics of the beautiful built-up by Nick Whitlow. Nick is THE Piranha expert; I believe he owns (or owned) the UNCLE car. Nick built his version using a four-carb engine from the oft-issued '69 annual...probably what I'll do if I ever get around to building one for myself

Thank You too Tim.

Thanks, Snake. If you plan on tackling one of these, be prepared. The door/window/roof assembly requires patience.....

Here's the built-up Round2 display kit. Re the spy car color...when this was being built Gene Winfield was asked what color he used on the original. He could only recall that it was a "1966 Impala color". After studying various pics of the car I decided on 1966 Mist Blue Poly. Nassau Blue had been rumored as the color used, but it just didn't look like a match. (Nassau Blue was a Corvette-only shade in '66, not available on the Impala). The road race version pictured in the above posts looks like it might be Nassau Blue, I'm not aware of a straight out-of-the-can shade that would match. On this one, I decanted Testors (now discontinued) Silver Blue and GTS Blue Pearl lacquers and mixed them at approximately 60/40. (polishing wasn't an option...it was molded in white). Yes...I know it looks a little off in my pics. The drag version?? Pearl clear over yellow maybe???

Here ya go

Don't know about the wheels, but the slicks were found in a few AMT kits in the 1969-70 era. As soon as you mentioned the record-like tread I knew the ones you're referring too. The only kits that I'm 100% certain contain those slicks are the '69 Camaro annual/Indy pace car and the "ACellerator" Corvette. I think the original Allison Thunderland kit had them too.

I too have an extensive stash of AMT/MPC C2 Vettes, but I've always felt the stock 396 version of the Monogram '65 never got the respect it deserved. The only thing that bothers me about the Monogram kit is the dip at the top windshield opening (probably related to Snake's flat roof comment); it looks like someone leaned on the body after it popped out of the mold. One thing Snake didn't mention....the stock 396 version contains a beautiful set of '63-66 knock-off wheels that would probably look great on all of those old AMT annuals.