Harry P.

I'm just a regular guy... I have no contacts in the industry, I have no influence with anyone who's anyone. All I can do is put the idea out there and hope that someone with some influence, or someone who knows someone with some influence, sees it and runs with it.

Kit makers monitor sites like this. If they didn't, they'd be fools.

Yeah, baby!!! Too much "oh, it'll never work"... not nearly enough "let's try it and see." Especially considering how little $$ investment would actually be needed to do this. The kit makers need a serious infusion of new thinking. Success is rarely achieved by timidity.

I hear you. Sad but true.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

I don't see any dust, just a beautiful model. But personally I'd have done the wheel to match the dash. Two thumbs way up...

I don't mean mail-in contests, I mean sponsoring contests across the country. Getting involved with local events... or creating new events.

Like I said in my initial post... am I missing something? This is a total no-brainer. No downside, only a potential (albeit not guaranteed) upside. Believe me, if I was a muckety-muck at any of the kit makers, this would already be a reality! I think the kit makers need to get their collective heads out of their you-know-whats and start doing a little creative thinking.

Don't think so. Chicken Man was created by Dick Orkin, who was a production director at WCFL-AM radio in Chicago. First appearance was in 1966 as a segment on WCFL's Jim Runyon show. Runyon was the narrator, Orkin was the voice of Chicken Man throughout all the 195 episodes.

I'm not talking about passive sponsorship... I'm talking about in-yer-face sponsorship along with media promotion. The Revell 2010 Model Car Championship. The AMT/MPC/Round 2/Whatever the heck they call themselves today 2010 Model Car Showdown. The Moebius 2010 Buildoff. You get the point... minimal investment, potential big return, and even if a total bust... no great loss, $$$ wise. Why not give it a shot? What do they have to lose? Nothing!!!

There's another goal of advertising (and I've worked with advertisers for 20+ years, so I kinda know what I'm talking about)… even as it relates to current customers/consumers, aka "preaching to the choir:" to create good will, or a positive image of the brand. McDonald's and Coke both advertise. Do you think there's anyone who hasn't heard of McDonald's or Coke??? Again... nothing to lose, everything to gain.

So is advertising in model car magazines. Preaching to the choir, that is. But by creating and promoting a national manufacturer sponsored contest(s)... the kitmakers could get themselves a ton of publicity and good will for very little $$$ investment. Maybe even pick up a new consumer or two along the way. Basically they would have nothing (or next to nothing) to lose and everything to gain. Seems like a no-brainer to me...

I combined a Studebaker and a Mustang! Talk about a Frankenstein's monster!!! And that's not the only weird hybrid I came up with. There's more!

I just posted this reply in the Rants 'n' Raves section where we're talking about model kit manufacturers and their advertising... or lack of it, but I think I'll put it here too, and get some feedback from you guys: One way that model kit manufacturers could "get back in the game" for very little money is to do what they used to do: sponsor model contests! Back in the day the kitmakers sponsored major contests... why not today? Getting back into contest sponsorship would cost very little... a notice on their website, an email blast in their newsletter, maybe an ad in MCM, SA, and others. Prizes could consist of either gift certificates good for the company's products, or actual kits themselves, magazine subscriptions, and even coverage in the magazine, say, a cover appearance for the Best in Show (wink, wink, Gregg...). I bet that Gregg might even consider selling ad space on this site in regards to a model kit maker-sponsored contest. The manufacturer-sponsored contests used to be big back in the day... why did they disappear? And why not get back into it? The cost to the manufacturer would be minimal, the impact could be huge! Talk about bang for the buck! Think about what great PR this would be for Moebius and their new Hudson, just to name one possible scenario at random. Why aren't they doing this??? Am I missing something? Is this too logical to work?

Looks cool. Did you say this was 1/32 scale? If so, even more amazing, since it's so much smaller than a 1/24 kit.

We've been getting lots of rain too. When it rains so hard that the gutters are overwhelmed and the water just pours out over the tops like a waterfall, you know it's raining pretty hard! Happened yesterday morning. But man, the grass sure is green!

If a new car can't out-perform its 40-year old namesake, there is something seriously wrong! If 40+ years of automotive technology can't out-do technology from 1970, the engineers should all be fired! Handling, braking, cornering, ride comfort, fuel economy... the new Charger outperforms the old one in all these areas... as it should! But as far as styling, the new Charger can't hold a candle to the '68-'69, which IMO was one of the best looking cars Chrysler ever made. But of course, styling is subjective. I'm sure there are people out there that think the new Charger is a good looking car!

My point was that a new Charger had better outperform a 40 year old car, or else the engineers have been asleep for a long time. But this thread isn't about performance, it's about styling... and the 40 year old Charger has it all over the new, ahem... "Charger"...

Which part exactly did you disagree with?

What in the world does that mean??? Ford and Toyota are out to kill you? That's absurd. All cars sold in the US have to meet the exact same safety requirements. And every carmaker has had their share of recalls... there's no one brand that's "safer" than any other. No carmaker intentionally builds unsafe cars.

I'm still waiting for that to happen...

Doesn't look like a new generation... more like a warmed-over current generation.

I'm talking about styling, not performance. A new Charger better have better performance than a '68. After all, it only has 40+ years of technological advances over the '60s model!

There's no way you can sand down the filler without "scratching" the rest of the body. In fact, you have to hit the rest of the body because you have to feather the filled area into the surrounding surface. Just do what Mark said, take your time, and use a light coat of primer every so often to check your progress. You'll get there eventually.

Good luck trying to turn a corner in that thing!