Rob Hall

Those Art Deco cars are pretty incredible... I saw a group of Delahayes, a Talbot Lago, a custom bodied Rolls Royce and a few others at a special exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum a few years ago... in fact, that roof w/ the split rear windows reminds me of the RR, it's a car famous for it's round doors..can't recall what the model name is, but Autoblog or Autoweek had an article on it recently...

I've bought from HLJ since 2000 or so, never had a problem...I usually preorder the hot releases from them (the new GT-Rs, Fujimi Ferraris, etc when I first hear of them)... I would assume many of items they have listed as out of stock are older, out of production kits. Also, the big 3 (Aoshima, Fujimi, Tamiya) don't seem to have released that many new kits over the last year, compared to the previous few years. I've also bought Japanese kits from Hobby Search (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/car) and Model Express (www.modelexpress.net) with no problems. I've only heard of HW-Japan recently, apparently, they are owned by Aoshima.

Yeah, they are out of production.. I think RC2 retired the Polar Lights brand 3-4 years ago.

That was 30 years ago...unless you worked for Chrysler then, how would you really know? Every 1:1 '79 Dodge truck I've seen in the past had the '80 style hood... my Dad's did.

That kind of looks like the color my Dad's '79 was..

Yeah, the '79-80 had the flat hood w/ the raised section and the ridge down the center...similar to the '81+ models, probably (since MPC didn't do the '81 and up, I don't know how similar they are..I know the taillights changed and they added creases to the fenders and a new dash). The hood with the Sebring-style indents was '72-78 only AFAIK..

I remember those also...the '80 had the black out on the grille, and was the first year they used the Ram name, IIRC. My Dad had a '79 Power Wagon 4x4 w/ the quad lights from '82 till '94...I learned to drive in that truck..was quite a turd, not much power, no steering feel or centering, would often stall on left turns. I would assume the quad light vs. single lights was a trim level thing, my Dad's '79 was a Power Wagon w/ the Adventurer and Prospector packages.

Cool.. I've thought about doing the same thing eventually...have also thought about trying to build a stock 3 window coupe (do such cars exist in 1:1?) with the Revell body and trim and AMT wheels, tires, running gear..

Yeah, those would be great...I'd love to see a '32 Woodie wagon from the Revell '32 and that funky convertible w/ the framed side glass (B-400 convertible sedan).

So the '36 Ford is probably a revised version of the old Monogram kit (like below) with some new parts (grille, etc)?

Hmm...'Hot Rod', eh? Will have to see if Netflix has that one. My favorite car flicks (more of the car chase genre) as far as the old ones go are 'Bullitt', 'Duel' and 'Vanishing Point', seen each one many times. Also like 'French Connection' and 'Seven Ups' though those are solid crime dramas that have car chases (as Bullitt is also). As far as more recent movies, I love 'Ronin' and like the 'Transporter' movies also.... I've seen all of the 'Fast and the Furious' flicks, pretty bad as far as the acting and 'story', but some neat cars..

Interesting..wonder what happened to it... and no mention of the '30 Ford A coupe (mentioned in another thread), or the mythical '87 Cutlass that keeps getting announced and cancelled.

Ya, I gave up scale bias about 25 years ago ..I'd miss out on too many interesting kits if I limited myself to one scale or the other..

Yeah, some of them in that series have custom wheels and tires, but some don't. Sometimes Revell seems haphazard in their groupings of kits in series.. I like the 'Motor City Muscle' and 'Revell Muscle' series names, but 'Streetburner' is uber-lame, IMHO.

I wonder if they've added any optional parts to the Mustang or if it's the same old, same old? The Monogram '64 conv is a nice kit...would love to see them do a hardtop version.

That looks cool..looks like it will be fun to kitbash w/ the other Revell '32s..

Isn't that one chopped though? Didn't Monogram have a 1:24th '33/34 3 window also? Seem to remember it released in black back in the '80s/90s...don't know if it was chopped. The only 3 window 33-34 kit I have is the '70s AMT issue.

I tried watching that movie once and found it unwatchable...couldn't get into it and turned off after about 20 min. Will have to give it a try again sometime.

I've never quite understood the scale debate; I have plenty of 1:25th and 1:24th kits in my collection, it's not really a big deal to me, though I generally prefer domestic subjects in 1:25th and imports in 1:24th, as that is what I'm used to, I suppose. I wouldn't even compare this new Revell '57 with the old MPC '57, the old MPC tool is pretty weak..can't be built remotely stock, which the Revell can.

Got mine today....did a quick once over of the trees and instructions...lots of parts in this one. The body and chrome look great, as do the fuelie engine parts. Some extras on the trees like 2 firewalls, 2 radiator panels..

I love those...one thing the old AMT annuals with the axles and screws in the chassis, etc had going for them was that the bodies were usually very accurate, maybe since most were derived from promos. I don't care if it's a curbside or has a chassis w/ molded in details w/ screws--if the body is accurate, and it's a subject I like.

IIRC, the recent reissue of the Revell '50 Ford pickup has Ardun heads for the street machine version. Those would be neat parts in one of the '32s. I've bought several of the Revell '32s for parts kits over the years, but always took out the Ford 302s out to use in '60s-70s cars, along with the 5-spoke wheels...probably will build them eventually w/ flatheads and vintage style wheels/tires.

Yeah, I'm thinking of doing a street Black Widow replica as I've seen in magazines, and a stock plain 150. And maybe a primered beater style street machine w/ Cragars.

Speaking of Revell Tri-Five Chevys---how about the OLD tooling Tri-Fives---what were offered in Revell's '60s tooling 1:25th scale kits? I know there was a '55 Bel Air ht, a '56 2dr sedan (a late '70s reissue of this was first 1:25th glue kit in 1978!), a '57 Bel Air ht, and a '57 Nomad...any others that I'm not familiar with? Did all of these have opening doors? No '56 ht? I remember the '55 ht and '57 Nomad were in the 'Skips Fiesta Drive In' series in the late '80s, was that the last appearance of them? I've got the new-tool Revell Tri-Fives and the various AMT ones, but have avoided the Monogram 1:24th ones--they always looked a bit off to me.

Yeah, a promo style would be fine with me....most '80s engine compartments weren't much to look at anyway, just black, silver, gray under the hood... these cars (and the similar Regals, Monte Carlos, Grand Prixs) were popular cars when I was in high school in the '80s and in college..knew several friends that had 'em back in the day.