Tom Geiger

When AMT originally went outside the USA to Mexico, quality suffered. Molding was poor, wrong parts in boxes etc. Then they moved manufacturing to China and things improved drastically even over the USA produced models. Sprues individually in clear plastic bags, even things like convertible windshields reinforced with cardboard and taped to protect them. Definitely a lot more labor involved, at lower wages. Still prices have crept up. But can you imagine what the prices would be if production was still in the USA?

We love to see the NNL East swag on display in folks hobby rooms!

Cool! When opening doors one needs to calculate the depth of the interior vs the door. Especially on old Johans! I remember cutting open VW Rabbit doors for a friend (he just had the body at a club meeting where I was demonstrating cutting open panels). He got home only to discover that the floor was higher than the door bottoms!

Very nice work! I rode in one as a Taxi when I was in Paris back around 1971. As a kid I was impressed with the single spoke on the steering wheel!

and worth every penny! Jeff opened the hood and added a modern engine bay. Fit a full detail chassis under it too. There's a lot of work into this and a bunch of parts that were cast. Resin casters cannot work for free.

fur on it

Here's the Aurora kit, issued back in 1968. It doesn't mention a scale anywhere on box or instruction sheet. I was fortunate to find this started glue bomb at a Toledo show a dozen or more years ago for $10. It was only missing the gas cap. It does look big! Here it is sitting next to a Monogram 1/24 scale Model A. It could be as large as 1/20 or could just represent a very large touring car in 1/24 scale. I doubt Aurora was very concerned about scale with this issue. Here's the tire comparison.

Ah the funny part is going to be watching people going nuts trying to figure out what the wagon is going to be! ?

Bummer! My wife was snooping around Facebook, checking for old friends. She discovered that my high school friend Brian had died in 2018. Last I saw him was about 10 years ago when he came to my mother's wake. We had vowed to keep up then, but neither of us did. I'm sad that he died so young.

That's a very cool replica and one that I own myself. As a stamp collector and postal historian I just had to have it! This is the Missing Link Resin US Mail Jeep. This is the later model AM General Jeep. It is a complete kit including an AMC 6 cylinder!

People seem to forget that 15-20 years ago Chicken Little was predicting the demise of our hobby. Tomy had no idea what to do with AMT etal and Revell / Monogram was up for sale. The big fear was that the owners would abandon the business and scrap the tooling. We are fortunate that Hobbico stepped in and bought R/M, while Tom Lowe purchased all the AMT tooling. If indeed he hadn't stepped in there is no telling if that tooling would exist today.

My wife and I baby sat our grand daughters.... and now we have their colds!

That is pretty! What a huge tank!

while blind folded

My father treated himself to a cool car only once. In 1966 he purchased a new Pontiac Lemans, 2 door hardtop, midnight blue with a white bucket interior, 326 4 speed car. I never got to drive it. He only had it 2 1/2 years, so I was 9 years old when he sold it.

My model cars go 75mph on the Pennsylvania Turnpike! Fortunately they are in boxes in the back of my car! ?

Here's the big misconception. Just because the tooling is old doesn't mean it's paid for. Round 2 bought it all not that long ago. No doubt there is debt service against that purchase. Thus, that tooling still has a cost associated with it. They have to work those assets so that they earn their keep.

I'll add in the perfect Caddy! It looks like something Stewart Little would drive! BTW... if anyone has the missing trim, I'd love to complete this car, just for giggles...

That is pretty cool! A local restaurant we frequent posted today that they were open for business during the Superbowl for people who weren't into the game. They offered $10 off per table, plus your first glass of wine or beer free! I wonder how they'll do.

Nice work Rich! Is that the one with the metal bumpers? I have one of those promos.

Very cool model after my own heart! I enjoyed watching you build it!

During the video Jamie mentioned that it's not always easy to add parts or build a new variation off an old pre-CADD tool. Modelers seem to equate it like a kit bash and will mention using parts from three different kits, with no regard to what tool they are on and the ability to mate them into a production tool. And when they do, it's not always perfect. Remember back when they found the 1970 Coronet body and mated it with the then current '68 Roadrunner chassis.. people screamed bloody murder because the instructions included having to cut down the glass shot to fit! And that handful saying what they'll buy... once a resin caster told me a story. He proposed a new kit on the boards. From his count people pledged to buy over 100 copies! When he actually came out with the kit... he sold 10 copies! Easy to post on the Internet "I will buy a case of that car!" but difficult to pony up the money when the time actually comes!

Adam I always love your threads! Volvo had that reputation of tough and reliable, as well as being a very safe car in a crash. That sold a lot of those wagons! I own this one, but it was built by Tom Sheehy. I bought it from him a while back. New Jersey state police tested them, but never put them in service.

If you pull up a list of the same product on eBay and do so in the order of "lowest to highest", eBay adds in the shipping cost. Pretty easy to see the total cost of acquisition.