Fabrux

@Tom Geiger: The warehouse fire was real, believe you me. I went to a Marden's store during the selloff when they had a 40' shelf section full of the kits and you could definitely smell the smoke on them.

The last "new" release by Lindberg was the Dodge Charger police car which was, when, 2010? Just in time for the new body style to come out. Hm, maybe with the Charger tool in Round2 hands they'll tool up the current Charger?

This is great news! A 75-76 pickup can be made to match the Monogram kits. With some finagling one can also build any Blazer from 75-82 with fender swapping and modifying the roof from fully removable (73-75) to half-cab (76-91).

I once crawled around a CCC carry (what a mouthful!) with I think an 80t crane and I seem to remember the tires being 11x22.5 Goodyear something-or-others. It was a couple years back.

Oh how I wish there was. MPC never offered it and I have yet to see one cast in resin. I have seen someone make a 73-74 grille for the Monogram trucks with photoetch mesh; the scale difference between the two probably wouldn't be that noticeable and you'd be able to get away with using the same mesh. I'm hoping to get a hold of a Blazer kit someday, might have to wait for the reissue to come out. I want to see if the 75-76 grille from the Blazer will fit the pickups. Also, if the pickup grilles will fit the Blazer.

It would be neat to see someone build this and detail the camper portion with a bed and other camping accessories.

Ditto. But especially with the newer Revell kits that have multiple build options I tend to buy at least as many kits as there are build options. So, all three of the Novas, two 68 Chargers, two 69 Darts, etc. I actually bought two of the original issue of the Nova but I ended up giving one to my dad to build.

I'd say you nailed it, Casey. My guess would be to fill in the gap either underneath the cap or behind it.

That camper-thing is so weird. I can only imagine what it is like to paint being molded in clear.

Are you the one that paid $69.99 for that kit?

Another option that hasn't been mentioned is Fred's Model World. Not sure how many lots Fred buys these days, but worth a shot.

The flat grille and quad glass headlamps were 88-89. In 1990 they came out with the composite, one-piece headlights, same flat grille. The recessed grille with the bubbled out center bar came out in 1994 and continued to 1998. The first dash was used from 1988-1994 and then the newer style dash came out in 1995. My dad has two 1994 K1500s that have the new-style grille but old-style dash.

How popular are Can-Am Spyders down there?

Fast forward 19 years and we've actually come full circle. You'd be hard-pressed to buy a laptop with an optical drive these days.

I have multiples of several kits to build different versions. Some are new-in-box, some are built-ups. Sometimes I'll build a kit now that I built when I was younger, either to replace one that was destroyed or one that I still have on display to see how far I've progressed.

When comparing apples to apples, which one should always do, that $5 in 1970 is equivalent to about $30 today.

I see lots of 4-cylinder Deutz engines powering geotech drills.

There's an eBay auction up for the first issue of this kit that you can check out here. A very good look at the chrome tree and decals. Pretty steep starting price, mind you.

Now that you mention it, that makes sense as it is the only other one with the 81-82 grille. Thanks for correcting me, Bill!

Only the Sodbuster has Custom Deluxe and it's only the fender emblems. The interior is still Scottsdale with buckets and console, and the wrap-around trim panel under the rear window is absent.

Casey, is that kit molded in white? It is the only one in this series that I'm not sure about. I have a built-up 4x4 kit that didn't have any decals on it and is molded in white... The bed in the Revell kit is a California Stepside and nowhere near an accurate representation of the actual GM bed. The Monogram beds are nice and would be my choice to try and build an 8' stepside bed (they did exist). Yes, the Monogram kits are nice and have the advantage of a full-detail Blazer/Jimmy, but quirk for quirk I still say the MPC kits are the best bet for a good scale squarebody. Here are the Sodbuster decals:

I'm still trying to get a set of those decals to put on a white-painted truck...

The decals certainly look better on the sheet than applied directly to the red plastic, which is the only way I've ever seen them...

After cracking open the Sodbuster kit I discovered that the fender emblems are actually Custom Deluxe 20 instead of Scottsdale 10 interesting!

Thanks to Fotki user Daviddale for scanning this in... There's a kit number and everything. I wonder what happened to it?