Dave Van

I am working on art for both now. I lost my screen printer this year when they retired....so as soon as I can get back into the decal biz I may offer them for sale.

My only business dealings with the big 2 soft drink companies was through my buddy and his small chain of Pizza places he owned. When he opened he had the two big suppliers come in and bid. Pepsi under bid by a HUGE amount. So even though he was a Coke drinker business said Pepsi. That lasted less than a year. The Pepsi fountain machines broke down all the time....and took weeks to fix. Supplies were spotty at best. After a year of this he called Coke. They came in with all new machines, lines everything. And Coke came in twice a month and tested and calibrated to make sure it was right. They made and gave him signs for his store....with COKE logo but FREE! This lasted the next ten years until he sold the chian to an investment group. Best pizza ever and I miss it.

How many are showing up at IndyCar races??? 32-36 max. So it's not a NASCAR only issue. SCCA Trans Am may have the best fields considering they still have teams run from peoples home garages.

I bought two kits....NYPD and Yellow Cab NYC......

Reminds me, Coke collectors, of those weird-o-s that collect boxes of plastic model cars!!! ?

From what I understand Entex was a marketer of kits and did no original tooling. Their kits were various Japanese kit makers. So they just sold what was on the market.

Those 70's era ENTEX kits are always a gamble. When they were sold in Woolco stores for $2 the gamble was not as bad but I got burnt many times. Many of the kits said 1/25 but were 1/28!!!! Others are bodies with a power chassis like yours....good as it can look!!

The Porsche 935 kit sold under the AMT brand had a mixed past. Tooled by Nitto, then owned by Aoshima and then to ESCI. When ERTL got the tooling they made some changes to the tool to eliminate the electric motor mounts and switches that were on the chassis bottom. I have yet to buy the Italeri version but I bet it is the same as it was under AMT. Boxes.....I also have a yellow box w/o paint and glue.

In doing some research into what happened tot he ESCI tooling that ERTL owned at one time we found that the ESCI tooling was most likely sold to Italeri a good while before ERTL was sold/leased to R2. (this was during the time AMT was doing private issue kits) We found that ESCI Porsche 935 kit was run in the USA for the first release, then a few years later another run was made. The second run was done in the USA but late in the run the kit showed up with stickers on it saying 'Made in Italy' and inside the box the entire kit was in a single bag with a sticker also stating 'Made in Italy' while the box and decals were USA and packaged here. So ERTL must not have seen much value in the tooling....which is to bad as I wished they'd kept the Escorts and some of the exotics.

Now that you say that...I remember. The Lincoln body was a way to get more mileage from the Thunderbird kit. Thanks

A better way to get a new tool kit from R2 is buy the Supernatural 67 Chevy. This kit is the first major tooling, not counting the promo based kits paid for by manufactures, for R2 and if it sells then the marketing guys can go to the bean counters and show a good ROI. (we are talking auto based tooling....not SciFi) THAT will get more new tooling....not a licensing deal which COSTS R2 to do.

Wasn't the Lincoln LSC Pro Street kit based off this too??? I remember Bob Johnson, who did the kit design, said he wanted to do a stock Lincoln LSC but could not get the OK....but did get the PS version by.....

I went to Peterson Museum years ago and they had a display of American Graffiti movie cars. Somehow Barris had convinced the museum that he had built all the cars for the movie.......and we all know different. I was a little disappointed in both the museum and Barris.

You are making that kit look good!!!!! I have all the original kits.....yet to try one!!!

Paint is super!!!! I love these little Hondas.......I had a 2009 Fit that my son drives now. Close as you can get to the Honda market mini cars.

IIRC that error came about because MPC announced the DoH police car it showed a 2 door body like Force 440. But they got flack and decided to tool a new body.......but the box art just added a door. Thus a body that did not match inside the box.

Ira Dahm did a lot of builds back in the day.....a number of them I tried to build. MS-1 was one I did finish and at the time I liked it. Sadly it was destroyed when a model shelf fell and I lost a bunch of build ups!!! I no longer have an original Moodscope kit but have all the different versions that followed! This will be interesting! What's left of MS-1

Got mine the other day. All good on mine. A real international kit!!! Plastic - USA Box - Poland Decals - Italy Tires - China assembled(boxed) - USA Mine was taped and not shrink wrapped?

RIP..........loosing a lot of the greats. Will not see their like again...not allowed.

Great work!!

RIGHT! MPC announced the kit as a Lennie Pond #54 Pepsi Chevy kit. But Pepsi and Pond split ways short after that so the kit was changed to a fantasy race car.

See Oleg Cassini Matador......yes...I owned one! I don't care if they sell kits with Platex living bra branding if it sells a lot of kits!!!

Nice work!

I read that Coca Cola is the number one collector brand. And if R2 signed a blanket license you get as much use as you can. I like it as much fun we make of it.....but he different era Coke vending machines and bottles in cases with labels for different eras are GREAT! PS: buyers for retail chains like it too!

My mom drove a MG Midget the last few years of her life.....and my mother in law had a MGB GT so I'll need one!