DaveM

The "Revell is gone" attitude is being played very well by people who have some Revell models they want to sell! They sure are going up in price quickly. I am actually clearing out most of my collection , stash ... hoard of models right now, and I was caught by surprise by some of the fast bids on selected kits. I think some of the buyers are turning right around and listing them on the bay at high buy it now prices.

Time to list all of my Revellogram kits on Ebay as "Rare Collectibles" for $100 each!

I think some of the Jaguar kits came with a straight 6. A Tamiya Jaguar Mk II Saloon would be a fine way to cross the country. Monogram's old '85 Mustang SVO, or their '87 Turbo T-Bird Coupe would be sweet rides. MG and Triumph made a lot of neat sixes over the years. A '41 Plymouth would be killer, as would one of the Galaxie '48 Chevies. For the truck guys, the Ford engine in the Moebius '69 pickup could power a lot of rides. What about a Deora? a '64 Belvedere with the slant would be slick too. Replicas and Miniatures made a Buick Straight Eight at one time. Put that in a hot rod of some type and it should hunt. I am wondering if any kits had that little AMC six. A pacer or better yet, a Gremlin with that thing would make a different type of ride. Take a Jimmy Flintstone Dodge Van body, a Little Red Wagon kit and the Slant from a Belvedere or Deora kit and make a neat little van that would have fit in either category. Last, but not least, think about the Hudson Twin H design. Those were good enough for NASCAR, so they should be good enough for a trip to the corner store... Even if the store is in the opposite corner of the Country! I'm better at thinking up ideas than I am at building them, though! (I am really thinking about the Hornet and the T-Bird Turbo Coupe, though!) Dave

They are really nice kits. They are big! Even the little tag alongs are too tall and wide to work with just any truck. given that the kit is pretty true to the trailers from the 80s through the '90s, you can get away with an older truck. They almost need a 1/24 truck to haul them. Look for an old '91 Ford by Monogram. Those things were huge and really matched up nicely with the Galaxie trailers. The trailers were made to be displayed with 1/24 Sprint cars, NASCARs and the 1/24 Pro Stocks and Funny Cars of the time. The 1991 dually is good, the 1977 GMC might work. The Meng kit from a couple of years ago was also 1/24 IIRC and was a big truck. That would probably look just right fi you are doing a newer model. Any of the big 1/24 diecast models would be cool too. Swap out the tires and wheels as mentioned above. Prepare to spend a few hours filling that trailer! They need benches, tools, spare parts, fuel cans, helmets, driver's suits, and all kinds of other stuff to bring out the bet in them. There are a lot of scratchbuilding opportunities with a project like that. You will have lots of fun!

I remember when this one came out too. Most of the kits before this one had tub style interiors, leaf springs molded into the rear axle and a lot less detail under the hood than this one. AMT really did stand the modeling world on its ear with this kit. Being the first mainstream U.S. kit with that much detail, it was also a bit fiddly. Later kits ( '71 Duster, '70 Monte Carlo, '70 Camaro, '67 Mustang and many Revell kits.) have managed to pack in the same detail and features, but they have improved the fit and made the kits easier to build. (Except the '66 Fairlane which takes a sledgehammer and plunger to make all of the parts fit fully under the body!) I love this kit too. I have built a couple of stock '66 Novas and I hope to build a couple more before I shuffle off. I have also used the Pro Street kit under a couple of other kits. At the time, that engine was considered one of the best little gems ever built in 1/25 scale!

When I was a kid I liked Mopars because they were loud, fast and came in wild colors. Forty years later, I have matured a bit. I now appreciate old Mopars because they were well styled, loud, fast and came in bright colors! The fact that my family all drove Chrysler products didn't hurt either. My Grandfather worked as an electrician in the old Jefferson Avenue Plant during the late 1920s, so Chrysler was pretty much the only thing we owned when I was growing up. I went through Grade School riding in a 1968 Fury, Middle School riding in a 1976 Volare Wagon and High School riding in a really rusted out Volare Wagon. (Other things were a bit more important than a new car at that time.) '80s and later Mopars were terrible. Front wheel drive cars always have more mechanical problems than their RWD brethren, and Mopars seemed to make unreliability a standard feature. Once Mopar had to get bailed out in the '70s, they kind of lost it for me. My first new car was a K car, and I regretted it. I was ready to trade it in on a Mustang, but my girlfriend decided we wanted a Neon. Big Mistake! I think that car was what caused me to ditch her, but I never could get rid of that stupid Neon. It was the most unreliable thing I have ever owned. I finally sold it for scrap 20 years later with less than 30k on the clock. When the Government went to bail them out again, I was screaming , "Let them die!" at the top of my lungs. Now, I am a Ford guy, but I would consider a G.M., Toyota or any other non Chrysler product for a new car. As for the old stuff, I still like my Hemis, 440s, Six Packs, wild colors, and pretty much anything pre malaise era. As we speak, I have a 1967 Charger and a 1955 Chryser 300 on the model bench with a '71 Duster and Charger waiting in the wings. I still like building the little Mopars.

On a box of Top Care medicated bandages... "For external use only".

I just saw this. Harry, you are in our prayers. The heart can go a little wonky when fluids and infection get in the way. Hopefully, you will make a strong recovery from this and be able to get back on track with your therapy as soon as possible.

I am thrilled to see that they fixed those sink marks. I still have a couple of the early issues that were all but unbuildable because of them. I would have preferred a plain roof, but as long as I don't have to repair sink marks on the textured top, I can live with it. When I saw this kit being released again, my first thought was FLEE! My second thought was to make sure everybody knew about the sink marks before they bought one and realized they were only good for the parts box. Now, I am seriously thinking about getting one or two of these. I always wanted the Soap Box Derby car, and now I can get a usable "Spork" that will build up into a very nice model. (The rest of the kit was fantastic, the roof was the only thing that killed it) With the vinyl top and all of the bells and whistles, this will build up into a mighty fine looking "Cowboy Cadillac". (A bit upscale for my tastes, but a fun build nonetheless.) Awesome job R2. Nice save of a great kit!

Congrats to the Cubs! Harry, you are lucky! I am from Michigan and I am 51 years old. I have seen the Tigers win two World Series in my lifetime. I watched the Pistons win Three championships. I have watched the Red Wing win four Stanley Cups... and I have watched the Lions win.... One playoff game!

That sounds fantastic. I am planning to grab one. (I am not buying models any more, but I will make an exception for this one!) Hopefully, someday they do a version with a plain Jane roofline someday.

I am not buying models any more, but that could break me. I actually flinched when I saw that picture! Moebius... Build it and we will buy I like that longbed '67 so much that I would buy it without hesitation. A neighbor had one of those in Dark Green (Ex D.N.R. Game Warden truck) and I remember the tires humming all the way up the road. You always knew when Mr. Young was driving home! Those old '60s 4wds weren't quiet, between the transmission noise and the tire whine. That truck had a signature sound, even though the engine was quiet as a whisper. Ironically, the neighbor was a retired G.M. engineer! He knew a good deal, though. When the State auctioned off a bunch of vehicles, he picked off the one with the fewest miles and a cosmetic scrape that he could fix. The scrape kept the price down and he got a nice truck for a nice price. He was driving the truck when we moved into that neighborhood back in 1973, and he still had it in 1983 when I graduated High School. I came back from College and travelling work in 1993, and bought a house right up the road. A few days later, I heard the truck go by. The tires are a bit quieter, but the truck still had the same sound. He drove it a couple more years, then had to quit driving. His Son would come up every weekend and take him and the truck to the store. A couple of times, when his Son couldn't come up, I would take him to the store. We took my car at first, but later, he wanted to make sure his truck got driven once in a while, so I got to drive it a few times. That thing was a total pig to drive! Turning radius of a school bus (And I mean a full sized bus, not the little one I rode ) It rode like a buckboard, took a 200 pound guy standing on the brakes to stop and steered harder than a Dump truck. The clutch was stiffer than most semi trucks I have driven, with about a 1/2" range from where it started to engage and where it locked up and lurched the motor. There was no heat in the winter, but you baked in the Summer. The black vinyl seats would scorch or freeze you, depending upon the season. The seats were hard as a rock, and if you took a corner at half the posted speed, you would slide across the bench on that slick 30 year old vinyl until one of the springs caught you in the rear end and impaled you to a stop! I was in love with that truck! It was in great shape, garaged its whole life, no rust or dents, perfectly maintained and a rolling history lesson. It reminded me that pickup trucks have't always been posh cruisers. They used to work for a living. Sometime in the late '90s, I helped him hitch up his old boat (In pretty much the same condition as the truck... Old but functional) and we spent the day fishing out on Houghton Lake. His Son came up and met us at the boat launch, and we all had a great day on the water. A year or so later, he had to move to a home. He had suffered problems after cancer surgery, and he went downhill fast. He only lasted a few Weeks in the nursing home. I told his Son I would make an offer on the truck and boat if he chose to sell them, but I knew he would hang on to both of them. About five years ago, his Son dropped by to see if I wanted to go fishing with him. We walked out to the truck and to my surprise, he tossed me the keys and asked me if I wanted to drive it again for old times sake! It's only 3/4 of a mile from my house to the boat launch, but it was really cool to drive it again. The Son hadn't done anything to either the truck or boat, except to keep them garaged, covered and well maintained. He fixed what needed to be fixed, like a new clutch and fresh tires, but he hasn't touched the paint, interior or anything like that. He still has the A.M. radio tuned to the Public Radio oldies station. (The old man must have had the radio added, because the State of Michigan would not pay for a radio in any of its vehicles back then! If Moebuis releases the '67 4X4 Longbed, looking just like that one in the picture, I will buy it and build the legend! (And I might even try to scratchbuild the boat!) I might even make three figures to go in the boat, and a huge fish to remind us of... okay.... a little tiny fish to remind us of that day on the water. I would actually have to build two trucks, one for me and one for his Son... Do it Moebius! I dare you! DO IT!!!!

I'm 51. I was born in '65. Didn't we talk about building cars from our birth year a long time ago? That could make a fun community build!

The Lindberg kit is pretty decent. The main glitch is the very shallow interior. The dash goes about 2/3 of the way to the floor and is still quite compressed. If you can live with the interior, it is a very nice looking kit. If the interior bothers you, it is a pretty tricky fix, with almost every part having to be rebuilt and stretched vertically. It is not quite as well detailed under the hood as the AMT and Revell kits of the '90s were, but it's pretty well done. The body looks the part, and I have seen some really nice ones on tables over the years. I have one in the to do pile, and I will tackle it as soon as I decide on a color for it. The Impala also looks great as a mild street machine with the wheels and tires from the Revell '32 Ford 3W kit too. I built one like that right when the '32 first came on the scene. I already had my Modelhaus wheels for the '32 picked out and I had the '61 Impala in the bench with fresh non factory paint, so I needed some street machine wheels for it. I was building the two kits side by side and started holding the mags up to the Chevy. The rest was history! It was a long time ago, but I remember it being a fun kit to build, and I don't recall any issues or swearing fits while putting it together. I just built the interior the way it came from the box.

That makes me wonder a couple of things. If the tool is trashed, does that mean the '29 is gone forever too? If the kits were successful enough, since Revell has already invested in the design and measurements, would it be reasonable to reinvest enough to cut a new tool? With the main tool work all being CNC and CAM, it seems like the tool could be replaced for a lot less than the cost of designing a whole new kit. Will this prevent any other variations of the kit from ever being released? (Was still hoping for a sedan!) On a bigger picture, does Revell have any course of action on this? I would guess that Revell has no recourse in the matter.

But most importantly, "Featuring CB Radio!" (Anybody else remember those things. They were the '70s version of texting!)

It looks like the D.R.A.G. site is up for sale. I sure like the looks of that roof. If I didn't have a whole bunch of stuff piled up already, I would be on this, but I'm getting too old, too slow and too mortal to keep adding to the to do list. I need to get some things into the "Done" pile instead. Nice job, though. It looks like it will be a winner!

I think the panel truck would be fairly straightforward. (Of course I have said that about other projects that weren't) I am looking at pictures of 1960 Suburbans, wondering how hard it is going to be to graft the '66 roofline onto the '60 AMT Pickup. Hopefully, AMT sees fit to drop a reissue of that to coincide with the Revell release. It looks like the back half will work out with just a few tweaks. The front part is going to take some work. The front side windows and trim will have to be retained from the '60 pickup, while the rest of the body should be okay from the '66. Either way, it will take a bit of cutting, and I don't think the contours of the '60 and '66 roofs are going to match, looking at the two pickup models. If the 'Burban is compatible with the existing pickups, then the '64 and '65 versions will be easy.

I am wondering if the Suburban will be new from the ground up, or if it will be a new body and interior, but use most of the mechanical parts and chrome from the '66 Pickup. Either way, it should be nice. That '64/'65/'66 pickup was a pretty decent kit. The biggest gripes were the bed and the roof. The underpinnings were pretty nice. If they tool a new body for it, they should have a winner, although I really want to see 4WD too.

True! They are almost too big for the Monogram Fords. They totally dwarf a 1/25 truck, and are really too big to carry1/25 scale cars. They work well with the early '90s Fords from Monogram and a couple of Monogram sprint cars in them, or a drag car made from the 1/24 pro stocks.

Was "Diamond in the Rough" before or after the Mack "Junkyard Dog" kit? Wasn't there some licensing issue at that time? While modelers love to build rusted out, bent up versions of cars to show off our skills, the companies aren't too keen on licensing scrappy looking versions of their cars. I know Mack was pretty zipped, but I'm not sure about Ford.

Thanks for all of the responses. I have looked at hiring an auctioneer. It seems to me that that should satisfy the family's interest in doing it via an open auction format. They seem to be opposed, thinking that an auction, even down in Lansing MI, would not get the sheer interest that Ebay would. They also balked at the commission. Why pay an auctioneer and staff and rent a large room and pay for all of t he advertising when you have a Cousin and her wannabe husband who will do it for free? As if to drive home the point, for some reason, a truck arrived at the house at about 9:00 a.m. this Morning. We now have what turned out to be a little over 1,100 kits piled up in the garage and house, along with hundreds of pipes, Zippo and Ronson lighters, a whole file box of antique stethoscopes, 70 lbs of old keys (Including some old Pontiac keys with the Chief's head design) ,A hundred or so early skateboards, 90 or so vintage wooden canoe paddles, vintage wooden skis, 6 airplane propellers, brass boat props, oil paintings, pool cues, wooden tennis rackets, Wild West action figures, music boxes, wind up toys, stock certificates, early frisbees, B.C. glassware and dishes from the '70s, old padlocks, cases of License plates, Airline pilot's uniforms from the propliner era and several hundred flight attendant's uniforms! (With 8 mannequins to display them on!) There are also 18 large boxes that I haven't even opened that are marked "Decoys" I was only expecting the models! Kirk (Cathie's Son in Law) says there are another 7 to 8 truckloads that are piled up for us to deal with! (Pretty big truck too!) This is going to be a nightmare. They didn't send the NASCAR stuff, yet, and there is much more on the first truck that I haven't even gotten to yet. I have already heard from three of the five heir's lawyers this morning! (None of them were nice) A quick look at the model list confirms my suspicions. There aren't any holy grails or hidden gems. It's just bread and butter kits from the last thirty years or so. Some are a bit more bread, and some are a bit more butter! The best ones I have seen listed are the Fire Fighter Mustang II and a couple of 1972 GMC pickups. Most are kits that you can get in a store for $25. Getting the shipping cost down is the only way to make this work. I can get a 10" X 8" X 6" box that will hold most standard kits with enough room for a sheet of bubble wrap all around. The box is 6.6 ounces. I put a few kits on a shaky old scale, and they seem to be just under a pound for the average ones. Moebius pickups are higher, Bantam blast is lower... If I can get kits down to a pound, ready to ship, I can ship for a reasonable price. (7.84) If not, it jumps up to 11.51. That's an expensive ounce! I will get my hands on a more accurate scale before I launch into this. Now I see why all of the medium box Warhammer kits on ebay are removed from the box and shipped in just a shipper! It saves about $4 in postage. (Cathie thinks I should just remove all of the parts from the sprue and ship the kits that way... she is actually serious and thinks that is a great idea!!!) Thanks again for your suggestions and commiseration. I will get through this. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger... It is making me think about my five storage units full of stuff, and how much I want to put my family through when I am gone. I was starting to work on clearing out my stuff when all of this came up! Oh.. and if one more lawyer gives me any lip about how they are going to punish me for doing it wrongly before I even start, they are going to go to their office Tuesday morning after the Holiday break, to find it full to the ceiling with models, decoys, bright blue polyester. (Did EVERY airline have to use the same bright blue???) and paint by number nudes. Taped right to the first Velvet Elvis will be a sheet pf paper from a legal pad that says, "If you don't like the way I am doing it, pay me, or do it yourself! (Just had to vent, I won't really do that. )

Thanks guys. I can't convince them to sell through a third party, or to sell through a show. They want the auction so that they know they are getting top price for every model. They are somehow afraid that somebody will cut a friend a deal. . Somewhere along the way, a lawyer friend told the oldest one that everything needed to be sold via auction, and if one of them wanted to keep something, they could buy it at the auction and the others would split the profit. On some of the pipes and records, I'm pretty sure the heirs will be bidding. The sad part is that Cathie is the executor, but does not get a cut of the pie. She gets a flat payment that will never come close to covering our time. (And the kids are already trying to claim that there won't be enough to pay her if the estate doesn't "perform" ) The five kids are the most stubborn, squabbling little dillweeds I have ever dealt with. They have already all contacted lawyers! The oldest one would rather see her siblings get a penny less than she would like to get a dollar more. It's stuff like this that makes me glad I am an only child ! I have talked about holding a special auction, or including the model cars in the estate auction, but it's too late to add them in at this point. Even the professional auctioneer didn't want to stand up there hawking out that many kits at one time. The only thing good for me is that I'll get some feedback and experience for when I have to get rid of my 1200 kit collection from about the same era. (Tip: buy stock in whoever makes the boxes for U.S.P.S. this week!) Thanks again for the responses. I will try going with the priority flat rate and see how that works. I was just shocked at the $13.45 price! I might be able to go ground rate a good bit cheaper if I can get the box and model to weigh a pound or less. I don't even know what a model weighs! I'll have to get to a scale tomorrow. Maybe the lighter kits like the Bantam Blasts can be shipped this way. I will be combining shipping, of course, and I will also look at bundling some kits together in themed lots to save a bit of time and money. I will probably list 20 or 30 kits at first to see how things work and to perfect a system. Then, I will list about 50 kits a week until they are gone. We also have to deal with over 3,000 records, about 900 pipes and a few thousand odd collectibles. (Cuckoo clocks, Marx playsets. Vintage action figures, desk and office accessories, Vintage radios, 2,000 vintage tubes, Hot Wheels (All redlines), weather instruments, hand planes, airline memorabilia, sheet music, vintage flags, military uniforms, antique fishing equipment, antique medical equipment and quackery devices, reel to reel tapes, vintage telephones, fountain pens, collectible measuring tapes, folding rulers, antique electronics equipment, vintage movie posters, thousands of antique books, over a thousand antique bibles including hundreds of foreign ones in 70 different languages, antique bicycles, a couple dozen pinball machines, penny arcade equipment, vintage photographs, vintage cameras, paintings, posters, vintage Christmas decorations, stamps, postcards, a display of over 300 different ball peen hammers with plaques identifying and describing each one and a huge collection of gambling and gaming memorabilia from Las Vegas going back pre-war!) I am just wanting to start with the kits for two reasons. A: Cathie wants me to handle the kits for her while she tries to figure out the rest. B: I know a lot about models, and I can list them correctly without having to do tons of research. Everything else is going to take hours of research to even know how to title the listings!

Cathie is stuck with selling off parts of her Uncle's estate. The property is going up for a fixed listing, the clothes are going to Goodwill, the furniture and household goods are being auctioned off at an estate auction next Month. Cathie has been trusted with all of her Uncles books, pipes, records, collectibles, hobbies and models to auction off on Ebay. Proceeds will be split equally among the five heirs. (No money will be taken out for time or anything, but shipping costs will be paid out of the profit, not our pockets.) Quite a while back, when he was in the Nursing home, they had me help auction off a few of the expensive kits. I used Priority mail medium flat rate boxes with a bit of bubble wrap inside. For $40 and up per kit auction, the ten or eleven bucks shipping didn't kill the deal. They were fast, had tracking and pretty fool proof. Now the same box costs $13.45 to ship! We will be dumping a lot of cheaper kits, so I can see that being a deal killer for most of the kits. There is n buy it now, all kits will auction to the highest bidder. He has about 850 car kits, mostly from the second heyday of modeling in the '80s and '90s. He has a lot of SSP kits, and three or four hundred checkerboard boxes from Wallyworld. Most of these kits will go in the $10 to $15 dollar range or slightly cheaper. Some will be in the low twenties. The old, good stuff got sent off in the first wave. There is some value in the kits, but mostly by numbers. If we could clear five to eight bucks after shipping on most of these kits, we will be pretty happy. The NASCARS will probably sold a case at a time, shipped in some old case boxes he has. I expect these to just barely cover shipping, or not to sell. How are you all selling and getting your kits? I haven't bought kits for a while, so I can't see how everybody else is shipping them. Ebay wants packages to be tracked, so I need a method to do that. Are most of you getting your kits via U.S.P.S., Fedex or the big brown truck? If the overall number was smaller, I would just jury rig up some recycled boxes, ship parcel by weight and be done with it. With this many kits, and nobody being compensated for the work, I need to find a mass produced box, buy a few hundred, load them up and let them fly. (I can still get them weighed if that will save them money.) I looked at the different rates, but which methods seem to get the best feedback? Since Cathie will be using our Ebay store to sell these, I want things to go smoothly with very few chances for unhappy customers. I have tried to convince them that pricing the models and taking them to shows would be a better deal then auctioning them all off, but they want to auction them so that they can all see the receipts, track the listings and know nobody is selling them cheaply, or cheating on the prices. This is pretty transparent in that regard. They can inventory the kits before turning them over to us and they expect to realize the full selling price of the kit in cash when the auction ends. The buyer will set the price, and the person selling them has no chance to profit from them. (They will only deduct the actual receipts for postage and boxes.) Part of me thinks they are crazy for trying to talk us into doing this, but I want to do it as fairly to them as possible too. They are all part of the Family that I intend to marry into someday. Thanks for your replies. I am hoping to come up with a fairly simple, efficient way to do this. Dave.

Harry, I am keeping you in our prayers and thoughts. You will get through this. I have been through some pretty nasty medical things. I have not had cancer, but I have faced a life threatening situation. I have had 19 procedures and surgeries and still have several to go, if I ever get strong enough to survive them. You are about to enter a whirlwind! You will be sent from Doctor to Doctor, test after test and you will not fully understand what is going on until fairly far into the process. Don't let it overwhelm you. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You have the right to know what is happening and what the Doctor's current plan is. Don't let it get to you when the answer is, "We just don't know yet." That's the nature of the business. You will make some strong bonds with people who will work their tails off to save your life. You will meet some of the most incredible, determined people you will ever see. Most of them won't be Doctors, but they will still have your back. (Just remember that it's a good idea to be extra nice to the people who will be around your naked, unconscious body!) It will be a team effort, so don't be afraid to ask for help along the way. You will need it. When you come out of this, you will be stronger for it. The most important thing to get through this mentally intact will be a sense of humor. I am sure you will be fine there. We are all here pulling for you. If you ever need a lift, we will all be there for you.