Rob Hall

Neat...I saw that movie about 10-12 years ago late at night..had insomnia and was watching TV around 2am...

There were still cars made into the mid '80s w/o passenger side mirrors..my first car ('84 Escort) had only a manual driver's side mirror. Everything I've had after that has had dual power mirrors... As far as models w/ outside mirrors, at least for AMT/MPC/Monogram/Revell it seems it was uncommon for stock exterior mirrors to be included on kits tooled into the '70s and '80s IIRC...

That's covered by the 'original issue' selection, I would think. I have a lot of old kits that I bought used as restorable builtups, as well as unbuilt originals.

Amazing that something with that much detail could be cast as one piece.

What jumps out at me on that dragster is the lack of a radiator. Oddly, the B&W picture of 1:1 versions don't have radiators either, which doesn't make sense to me for water cooled engines... As far as kit-specific things, one thing I see all the time are builds of the AMT '71 Duster where people forget to put the quarter windows in. They didn't roll down on the 1:1...but given that they are 40 yr old cars, many people today probably aren't familiar w/ them.

Great find..that one is on my grail list.

Found a few neat older kits at a local kit swap meet today....a Johan '70 Cutlass (already have 4 of 'em, but have ideas for another), a Testors/IMC GT-40, the MPC '69 Firebird 'White Lightning' (the reissue from around '80 w/ the t-tops--liked that one as a kid but never had one), and an AMT '88 Kmart Lola Indy Car.

Looks real...the Roundup was a '58 only model. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel_Roundup

All of the above.

Neat...I have an AMT '58 Ford 2dr ht promo in brown and gray....my older brother got it from the dealer when my Dad bought a new '58 Mercury. I was -12 at the time so don't remember that. I've read that AMT did a kit of the '58 Ford, but I've never seen one.

AMT has a convertible curbside kit coming in a month or two...I'll have to get one of those promos, as there is no indication the kit will come w/ pace car decals.

IIRC, one of the reissues of the Impala SS has the Alternomad chrome '57-ish rear bumper included.

Would be cool to see Petty switch from Ford to Dodge...a Petty Blue #43 Charger would be cool to see..

My sister's first car was a new '76 Pinto Runabout...5 winters in Ohio and a cross country trip to AZ towing a U-Haul trailer when she moved out here pretty much killed it...by '81 it was battered and worn out, replaced it with her first Datsun 280Z... I have a couple MPC Pintos ('74 coupe, '77 wagon)...never had any of the AMT ones, that Pintera kit looks interesting. My brother had a '71 Pinto briefly in the '70s, and a '74 Vega GT. My Dad had a '77 Vega sedan for a few years as a tow car for the family motorhome.

For marketing purposes, it needs to be a specific reality-based model name, I would think. I like what I've seen of the 2013 Focus and Charger race cars, more interesting than the current generic COT models.

I'd love to see more racing documentaries of this style...a movie about Gilles Villeneuve would be great...another great racing documentary I got last year is 'Jo Siffert-Live Fast, Die Young'.

Great diorama idea!

That would be nice..I like the '80-89 front and sides more than the '90-92 (which was like the Revell custom coupe kit w/ the composite headlights and heavy side trim).

Looks like 5 in the photo and 5 wheels on the parts tree. Looks like a neat kit, I've never seen a Land Cruiser kit of that vintage...

i did mountain biking on trails quite a bit in my 20s-early 30s. Haven't done it in about 10 years now, should take it up again for exercise. I couldn't really bike to work, but it would be good as an evening/weekend activity.

It's pretty cool...it always seems to be on backorder on HLJ....the wheels/tires are HUGE.

Got a bunch of packages in the mail Fri & Sat... From eBay, a sealed Johan '71 Cuda (my 6th, always have ideas for different builds of these), sealed Testors/Italeri Ferrari 250 California (been looking for one of these for years), and a Revell Torino Cobra (my 4th one, seem to be hard to find these days). And from HLJ an Aoshima Merc SL AMG Black Series and '10 Subaru WRX Sti GRB.

Again, the chart is 4 years old, doesn't have the data for the last 4 years, so it's useless...

The chart is weak, it only goes through May 08. It was around $4 here summer of '08, but definitely been under that the last 3 years...it's around $4 now. Whether it's $3/gallon or $4/gallon that's only a $20 or less difference every week to week and a half for me on a full fill up, not a big deal to me.

They will probably be back down in the fall near where they were in January...it's cyclical, just like in '08...prices spiked in the spring/summer, went down in the fall...same cycle every year, some years they spike higher than others...the general trend over time is up, but there are spikes..