Mike999

Good points, thanks. I just got back from a big flea market. One seller had a table full of older model car kits. I got really excited when I saw the box for an original AMT '67 Shelby Cobra...the one with the 45-RPM record inside. A lot less excited when I opened that box and found a built kit and nothing else. The vintage box art was neat, but the box top had a hole punched right thru the middle. All of that seller's kits were started. He wanted $8 each, with a volume discount for buying more than one. But I already have too many "parts kits," and like you said, I'd just lose money and time putting them on eBay. I've been selling on eBay since the late 1990s, when there was no photo hosting and no PayPal. You had to find your own photo host, and payment was with Money Orders. So some things about eBay have gotten better and easier. For newbies thinking of selling many kits on eBay: along with taking photos and writing listings, you'll need to find shipping boxes for the kits. Weigh and measure them BEFORE you put the listing up on eBay. I learned pretty quickly not to guess at the weight/size. You can lose quite a bit of money in shipping doing that. A postal scale will cost about $10, you probably have a tape measure already, and the USPS will send you boxes for free. Then you'll have to deal with bidders who win more than one of your kits...so get some bigger boxes too. Hobby Lobby might give you some of those. I still score some good eBay fodder at flea markets and thrift stores occasionally. Once I found a 1/72 scale Testors SR-71 Blackbird kit, still shrink-wrapped. Bought it for $5, just because I thought it was neat. Put it on eBay for a starting bid of $9.99. It got something like 16 bids and finally sold for $75.

You recall right. For 1/32 scale, those kits had amazing detail and finesse, including engines and chassis. The 1/32 Rolls-Royce had a tiny "R-R" logo on the also tiny steering box, where it was nearly invisible after assembly. Also a nice set of wire wheels. The Citroen Legere had open grille bars, and a choice of hardtop or folded top boot. Military modelers really hoarded those Citroen kits. For many years, they were one of the few plastic kits available of a WWII civilian vehicle, and they turned up in many dioramas.

I bet! I'm so old, I saw X once at the Raymond Theater in Pasadena, a/k/a Perkins Palace. It was built around 1921. On-topic for this group, from the Cinema Treasures website: "One delightful feature of the theatre was the fire curtain which had a wonderful painting on it, donated by the Hull Motor Company, showing one of their models of a Hull car, pictured against a backdrop of Half Dome Mountain in Yosemite Park."

Also also: the quirky 1987 movie "Border Radio." With Dave Alvin of The Blasters, of course, since that's his signature song right there in the title. Also starring John Doe from X and a passel of other people from the 1980's Los Angeles Cowpunk and Roots-Rock scene. Turner Classic Movies shows it occasionally. One of my favorite Cowpunk bands was Lone Justice, who I saw live back in the day. It was a hoot to see Maria McKee, singing while hopping around on one foot and banging on her Fender Telecaster. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090766/

July Food! Because it's hot as blazes right now. A green salad, one hot dog with chili & onions, another hot dog with sauerkraut and pickle relish, and potato salad. For dessert, watermelon.

If they don't have to be metal...the Chinese model company MENG makes a bunch of nut and bolt sets. They don't sell them by scale but by size. I've used them on many 1/25 scale kits, including just yesterday on the front suspension of a Revell Porsche farm tractor. I love these things, they're easy to use and look great - just shave them off the resin backing sheet with a chisel blade and stick them to the model. They're available from the big on-line vendors like HobbyLinc. And to make it even better, they aren't very expensive. Here's a review of them by famous armor modeler Cookie Sewell: http://www.missing-lynx.com/reviews/modern/mengsps008reviewcs_1.html

Iggy Pop was a producer of the four-part series "Punk," which aired on the EPIX cable channel earlier this year. Probably available in your video streams/queues by now. It's a great history of the genre, following it chronologically from The Stooges and Sex Pistols right up to Green Day and modern artists. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9419282/

You're in luck! I went looking for reviews after I found the AMT '56 T-Bird at a flea market 2 days ago. Didn't find much, but here's one of the best threads I found. Somebody said "the kit overall looks too big, but the engine looks too small." But most posters seemed to think it's a good kit.

After the last big Ollie's clearance, I saw a flea market vendor doing that, only a little smarter. I guess those Ollie's stickers don't come off easily; he had marked thru the price with a black marker but left the big red stickers on. He was asking about double the clearance price for car kits. But he had some of everything; Lindberg ships, armor and aircraft, the Hawk Weird-Ohs, etc. Looked like he had filled up a cart or two with kits to flog at the flea market.

The eBay listing of our dreams! OK, our nightmares. A lot of FOURTEEN vintage Palmer kits! And as I write, the sale still has 5 days to go. Plenty of time to bid! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Palmer-Kit-Bonanza-of-14-Scale-Models-From-NIB-to-Junkers-No-Reserve/293147386594?hash=item4440f222e2:g:nRUAAOSwsJRdHAT9

"I...ain't got no-body..." That's actress Virginia Leith, playing the good doctor's main squeeze, "Jan Compton." Known to us true fans as "Jan in the Pan."

Another good day at the Wednesday Flea Market. The '71 Charger and '41 Lincoln have some minor assembly, but I mostly wanted them for parts anyway. The '32 Phaeton has a Ziploc bag full of extra parts inside, including a whole chassis from the old, first-generation AMT '32 Ford kits. Since I like weird cars, I've wanted a Corvette America for a long time but didn't want to pay eBay prices.

Some other neat Heller-isms: Citroen B14 Torpedo Deluxe: it's not shown or mentioned on the box, but this kit has an optional up-top or folded top. It also has an optional, separate "phaeton-style" windshield and cowl for the rear seat. Hispano-Suiza K6: this big limousine kit has some amazing detail. Lots of tiny parts like the fuel pump, mounted on the fender apron. A separate starter motor on the transmission. Brake rods and battery box on the chassis. The hood side vents are molded half-open, showing the monster 6-cylinder engine. The interior has wooden storage cabinets under the privacy glass (all molded as one clear part). The clear interior side panel has a clock molded into it. Put on your magnifiers, and you can read the numbers on the clock! Renault 4CV: separate hood (in the back) with a detailed engine, and opening front trunk. The "Voiture Pie" Paris Police version has cut-down doors, a wooden front bench seat and a police radio.

I've been trying to find a good Explorer Scout 2-door for years. Unfortunately, by now most of them seem to have been run into the ground or scrapped. As a single guy who only needs it to haul the occasional display case/junk from thrift stores, the 2-door would be more useful to me than a 4-door. A friend in Los Angeles scored one thru a family connection. IIRC it had around 100K miles but was very clean and well cared for. And he got it cheap. His Scout was dark green and I was greener with envy...

From the dregs of the Hobby Lobby clearance sale at the nearest store: a '57 Chrysler, Owens Outboard Cruiser and 1/16 Honda CB-77. I figured this might be my last crack at that sale. The '57 Chevy "Pepper Shaker," discounted the last time I visited, was back up to full price. I know the Owens boat is a tricky build, but at $6.99 I mostly wanted it for the engines anyway. Diorama material. But now I'm wondering what a weathered, beat-up cabin cruiser would look like. Add some bullet holes and you'd have a 1980's Miami cruiser. Hmmm....

I just stopped by the closest Hobby Lobby, and the Clearance sale at that store is pretty much down to seeds and stems. (Obscure 1960s reference.) It still had plenty of '58 Edsels, '65 Lincolns and Honda 1/16 CB-77 bikes. A few '57 Chryslers, '62 Pontiacs, Customizing Boat Kits and Owens Outboard Cruisers. If anybody can't live without one of those, PM me and I'll try to pick it up for you. Though I can't guarantee your kit will still be there, or still be marked down. I noticed that the '57 Chevy "Pepper Shaker," discounted just a few days ago, was back up to full price. All gone: the '65 El Caminos, '66 Fairlanes, Monte Carlos, IH Scout II and Jeep Commando, off the top of my alleged head. This store did have one new kit in stock: the Revell Porsche Junior farm tractor. Finally.

Just to drive you a little crazier...it's not quite a Renault R5 police car, either. I have one of these NEARLY done (Ha! ). ESCI just took the rally version of their R5 kit and added police gear and decals. That means it has the hotter Gordini racing engine, which I plan to hide by gluing the hood shut. Even worse, the kit has the special rally wheels, not stock wheels, with wide racing tires. Renault R5 wheels only have THREE lug nuts, not the usual 4 or 5. So finding replacements is not easy. An internet search showed the police cars also used regular skinny tires. I found an ESCI R5 parts lot cheap on eBay with plainer wheels, and tires in the parts stash. Something to watch for: the kit's hood has bracing detail on the bottom, which is good. What's bad is that the bracing creates 2 big, long sink marks on top of the hood...which has to be painted shiny gloss black and will show every little flaw. I don't know how many times I filled/sanded/primed that #$%$!! hood. It always looked perfectly smooth...until I sprayed the Gloss Black paint. Other than that (Mrs. Lincoln) it's a pretty nice little kit. It has a police radio with microphone, and is a vehicle from the Traffic Police. So it will be fun to fill up the back with traffic cones, barriers, etc. When I finally get that hood finished...

IIRC, when the licensing goat-rope started back around the 1980s, the excuse went something like this: a kid might decide to eat a scale model tire marked "Goodyear" and we, the Goodyear company, might be held liable in court. Strictly my cranky opinion, but I think it was always nothing but sheer greed, once the licensing lawyers showed up. Here's an old thread (2004) from an R/C aircraft group. A small company had to stop making models of the Lockheed P-38 and Electra. That was thanks to Lockheed-Martin's licensing watchdogs, EMI. I don't know if the situation has gotten any better, but I doubt it. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?313255-Lockheed-Martin-License-Requirement-for-Models

Dragon pulled an even sneakier trick in some of its 1/35 scale German military kits. The rubber tires were lettered "CONTINENTAU." A quick flick of the hobby knife, and they magically became the correct "Continental" tires.

I like aviation what-ifs, almosts and never-was'es. Here are a couple of faves. The Hughes XF-11 and the very first Bell design, the XFM-1 Airacuda. I think the Airacuda is beautiful, in its own brutal, all-business way. The clear nacelles in front of the pusher props held gunners, armed with 37-mm cannon:

There were quite a few 1/16 scale bikes, but none have been re-issued for many years until now. I have some old glue-bomb bikes in that scale missing wheels, and picked up the Hobby Lobby CB77 as a parts kit. I may pick up a couple more myself, and do one as a beater bike. This Honda is an old Lindberg kit. In 1/16 Lindberg also did a BMW R75, Triumph Tiger 100, Harley 1200 V-Twin and maybe more. These were issued in different versions over the years. I hope Round 2 has more of these bike kits in the warehouse, since they're adding upgraded decals with instruments, badges, etc. PYRO did some good 1/16 bike kits: a full-dress Harley Electra-Glide, BSA Lightning Rocket and Yamaha 250 Catalina, and probably some others I forgot. The BSA and Yamaha were issued as stock street bikes, and as racers with a fairing/windshield . PYRO also converted these into Weird-Oh type kits with chopper parts and goofy figures. The PYRO kit I'd really like to see again is their Harley three-wheeler, as a New York Police trike. With goofy figure...

Adam, thanks for the warning on this one. As a fellow fan of Loser Cars, I thought about getting this kit. But as you noted, this is a real lackluster reissue so I'll pass. Especially with the current prices. Maybe it's cosmically fitting, or something, that a turkey of a car got a turkey of a model kit re-issue.

Yep, a bad copy. Lee was notorious for that. They also copied (badly) several Tamiya 1/35 scale military kits and 1/24 car kits. If anyone sees a Lee kit of anything at a swap meet or yard sale, don't waste your money. I think they're out of business and if so, good. According to various internet posters, the Lee and Heller '58 Cads were also motorized, which lost some of the rear suspension detail. I've never seen one, but those posters say the rear axle of the Lee/Heller kit is molded in place, with the electric motor and battery box in the trunk area. Somebody also posted that the Heller kit had both the top boot and the raised convertible top in the box, but the up-top was soft on detail. If I saw one of those cheap, I might pick it up just for parts.

Not a yard sale, but a huge local flea market held every Wednesday. At the same sale, I found the stack o' kits shown below for reasonable prices. I can go to that flea market for weeks and find nothing, then several different sellers will show up with old kits. All these are unbuilt except the "Daisy" Road Runner, which has some minor assembly of the engine/interior. The seller with the DeSoto and Plymouth also had a bunch of old promos: some Banthrico Pontiacs, a very rare Cruver '49 Olds 4-door, bullet-nose Studebaker and a '53 Stude 2-door coupe with the window post. All of those were warped pretty badly, missing parts, etc. That white spot on the roof of the '60 Plymouth is a crack, but not a very bad one and it should be fixable. But you're right, yard sales can also be a great source of old models. When I'm driving by those, it's amazing how much a stack of board games can look like a stack of kits. G-r-r-r...