Rob Hall

60s and overcast here in Phoenix today. When I lived in Denver, we occasionally got huge snowfalls..those were work from home days...

They all have 'em for preorder. I've preordered a couple myself from my favorite online vendor.

Been there, done that...about 14 winters in E/NE Ohio, 3 in Michigan, 12 in Colorado before the last 2 in AZ... plus 6 in S. Florida mixed in there..

Sunny and 73 here in PHX.

So I heard...someone on one of the other boards mentioned finding one at Hobby Depot in Tempe...I almost went there after work, but after going to Target and Petsmart, I was tired and drove on home. Oh well, I have two on preorder from Evers Toy Store..hope to get them by the end of the month.

I've only been summoned for jury duty 3 times. 1st time I was at college, away from hometown, so I had a reason that I couldn't be there. 2nd time, I showed up, but was excused after an hour, they had found their jurors; 3rd time---I got a notice, filed it away, forgot about it...found it..a year later. Since I'm an hourly contractor (software engineer) now, it would be painful to do jury duty more than a couple days--would lose too much money.

I just wish Bernie were gone. Truly despicable man.

2010 is definitely going to be interesting...

Mostly online. My favorites are: 1. Evers Toy Store www.everstoystore.com --great for current and new Revell, Revell of Germany, and Lindberg releases, great customer service 2. Model Express www.modelexpress.net -- current and new AMT (Round 2), Model King, Revell, etc. Plenty of older releases from the 80s to today also. 3. Hobby Link Japan www.hlj.com My source for Aoshma, Fujimi, Tamiya, etc eBay is my source for old kits, and occasionally some newer or recent issues I can't find at the above venues. And I buy from plenty of other online vendors for resin and other aftermarket parts. For LHSes, In the Denver area, my favorite is Colpar's Hobbies in Aurora. In the Phoenix area, I like Hobby Depot in Tempe.

The original factory Goodyear Wranglers on my Grand Cherokee were good in snow overall...went through 2 sets of those. I now have a set of Goodyear Fortera Triple Tread tires on it now, very good in snow and nasty weather. In the past, it was fantastic in driving in heavy snow...in 4 wheel low or high (depending the speed and depth of snow). I store away my RWD fun cars for winter. Not such a necessity in AZ, but I'll always have a 4wd SUV when I'm living in the land of snow and ice.

It's all in the tires. My '87 GT was twitchy in rain or leaf-covered roads w/ the original Goodyear Eagle GTs, but w/ a set of Firestone Firehawks, it was quite driveable in rain. I have a set of Michelin Pilots on it now. In 22+ years, I've only had it in snow twice when I got caught out by accident. Otherwise, it's garaged in winter.

Nothing concrete on the driver front yet, but one name I've seen as a possible driver is Argentinean Jose Maria Lopez. I follow about a dozen or so F1 news Twitterers and not much on USGP lately.

Long ago, I drove an '86 Mustang LX for 6 winters in Ohio. Put snow tires on all 4 wheels, 2 bags of Quikcrete in the trunk for weight, and a snow shovel. Got around just fine. Since '94, I've always had 4x4 SUVs for dailydrivers, much better.

I've sat in both and test driven a 2wd CTS...I find both quite appealing. Love the interiors. Even thought about going old school and getting a Town Car, though I'm probably too young for one (my Dad was a serial Lincoln driver for 20+ years). If I stayed in AZ, I'd get a convertible for a winter car.

I've had 3 main winter daily drivers vehicles in the last 20 years. '86 Ford Mustang LX 2.3. My humble college car from '88-94, ...had snow tires on all 4 corners (on black steel wheels) w/ a couple 25lb bags of concrete mix in the trunk. Got around just fine in the nasty NE Ohio winters. Was totalled in June '94, two weeks after I moved to Ann Arbor, MI. Having this car allowed me to keep my '87 Mustang GT in storage in the winter. At times, I also drove an '84 Ford Escort diesel, great traction, but hard to start in really cold weather. Drove my Dad's '79 Dodge Power Wagon 4x4 occasionally also. '88 Ford Bronco II XLT 4x4. It replaced the Mustang in '94, was quite good in snow.. a bit tall and narrow and sensitive to cross winds. Had it for 6 years, traded it in '00 on the Jeep.. Drove it in Michigan and Colorado winters. '00 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4x4. This has been my daily driver since '00, been great in deep snow...plenty of traction. Drove through winters in Colorado Springs and Denver. The last two winters here in Phoenix haven't really needed the 4 wheel drive. By next winter, I should be out of AZ and either back in Denver or quite likely Pittsburgh, so I'll need 4x4 capabilities again. Most likely, I'll keep the Jeep for winter and get a car for a daily driver...thinking an AWD car would be good-- maybe a Cadillac CTS-4 or Lincoln MKS, or get a new SUV--the next gen '11 Grand Cherokee.

That one is marked October, IIRC. I found it at the LHS a couple weeks ago--first MCM issue I've seen since April '08 when I moved. Going to have to subscribe and order the back issues I missed!

My first glue kit (after a couple years of snap kits) was the Revell '56 Chevy 2dr sedan 'Bad Dream' kit in 1978. Still have it, in all it's overglued, brush painted glory.

Goal for 2010 is to finish something....bought maybe 75 kits this year, didn't finish one.

A Prius kit would be cool, esp. a full detail w/ the gas engine and electric motor and battery pack. It also would be cool to retrofit the drivetrain and battery pack into a '32 Ford kit to freak out the traditionalist rodders!

Or with the Revell '72 Olds. With this new kit coming, I wonder if we will see other new 1:25th '68-72 A-bodies from Revell in the coming decade?

It's a closely held secret, probably had mulitiple Stigs over the years. Some in the UK press have suggested various retired F1 drivers or F1 test drivers. Michael Shumacher posed as the Stig for one episode. And of course, there are his 'cousins'--Big Stig in the US, Rig Stig the truck driver, and African Stig in Mozambique, IIRC. The original Stig wore a black race suit and helmet, he was 'killed' off at the end of one season..drove a Jaguar off an aircraft carrier deck IIRC, was replaced by the white suited Stig.

Sharp build...when that kit first came out, I built one in a similar color w/ red interior and used the kit hubcaps. Alas, there aren't any kits out there that I could use to replicate my Mom's current cars ('96 Lincoln Town Car, '05 Navigator). Though I've built a kit like one of her older cars ('67 Cougar).

No prob....IIRC, SA(E) named the '32 Ford Kit of the Decade for the '90s.

Heh-heh...I have a few Chargers for parts..plan to use the chassis, etc under an MPC '71 RR and now I'm thinking about doing a phantom '78 Monaco 4dr R/T 440 six pack, using the Charger innards under the recent DOH Monaco reissue. For some reason, I can never have too many Mopies.

In 1:25th, The MPC '71 GTX and '72 RR had that hood, IIRC. I've seen them offered at a couple resin casters as well. I have the MPC '71 GTX and a couple '71 RRs, and '72 RR to restore, as well as a couple of the yellow late '80s reissue of the '71 RR..I'd like to see that one reissued. AMT announced it a couple times but never reissued it.