AMT 58 Impala

[unclescott58]

One of our MCCM members (our fearless leader) bought and opened the new Impala reissue at the meeting last night. The reissue looks good. No or little flash that I could see. Great box art. And very nice tampo printed tires. Wide whites on one side. Gold stripe on the other. The guy who brings the new releases for sale to the meeting, had a couple of them. Those tires almost got me to buy one. But, I have one waiting in my "to build stash" for several years now. I decided just to buy AMT's whitewalls for that one. Rather than buy a whole nother kit.

[Casey]

 very nice tampo printed tires. Wide whites on one side. Gold stripe on the other. 

Perhaps Round2 will release those in a stand alone Parts Pack, like they did with the redline tires.

[ChrisBcritter]

Is the kit molded in gold? If so how does it look (swirls, etc.)?

[ss2000]

Is the kit molded in gold? If so how does it look (swirls, etc.)?

I picked up a gold one yesterday. Same parts as all issues, I see the metal hood clip has returned. The gold isn't swirled too bad, but I think it's impossible to mold without them.

[FordRodnKustom]

One of our MCCM members (our fearless leader) bought and opened the new Impala reissue at the meeting last night. The reissue looks good. No or little flash that I could see. Great box art. And very nice tampo printed tires. Wide whites on one side. Gold stripe on the other. The guy who brings the new releases for sale to the meeting, had a couple of them. Those tires almost got me to buy one. But, I have one waiting in my "to build stash" for several years now. I decided just to buy AMT's whitewalls for that one. Rather than buy a whole nother kit.

Makes sense. I'll no doubt do the same. I have a few in the stash.

[1972coronet]

Has any-one purchased the gold-coloured version ? If so , would you please share some photos ? Thanks .

[Bob Ellis]

The gold stripe tires are typical of 1965-1967. A nice touch.

Round2 has done a nice job keeping the AMT/MPC flame burning. I am impressed that they reintroduced missing parts in the old kits. The 58 Chevy has been pretty much complete over the years though.

[rickcaps55]

Everytime I saw this kit and instructions I saw that there was the old plastic pins to hold the front wheels on and they are posable. I went to local hobby shop to see if any new kits came in saw the re issue of the Impala, saw on the box contents that now it has two metal axles. Do you think they changed the parts? 

 

I have 5 or 6 of these kits I like them it is one of 4 or 5 kits that AMT still puts out that are today as they were when they first came out I'm 64 I have had them from the first but I I do because your right on the pins being plastic they will bend or brake so I went to Ace and got a small pack of nail's that are the same size with a head and clipped them to the right length a small pack is $1.60 and I have used them in the AMT and the Rev kits.

[1972coronet]

BUMP ! Still awaiting for  some-one to post  photos of the gold version ...

[gtx6970]

I was in my local hobby shop this afternmoon. And this one was on my radar. sadely he didnt have one yet

I want to see these tires ,, a friend of mine wants me to build a replica of his car ( early Corvette with Goldlines )

[Art Anderson]

Hmmm.  It always had a metal axle for the rear wheels .Plastic pins on the front. Maybe they got some complaints about breaking the pins. I didn't know it had been reissued. When I was much younger-way back,I had the original version that had the soft actual rubber tires. I guess that didn't work because as far as I know they never did it again.

Those neoprene rubber tires were a left-over from AMT's "Authentic Model Turnpike" slot racing cars and sets--I believe those got sent the model kit assembly line for the '58, just to clear them from inventory, as by the time AMT produced the '58 Chevy, the Turnpike had been discontinued (IIRC, that racing set was a pretty dismal failure, sales-wise)

Art

[Lou Lapham]

I remember i had both the first issue 58 Impala and the first issue 59 El Camino both light blue,they both had the Darlingtons and real rubber Firestone slicks.In the seventies a friend bought a bag of leftover Darlingtons in a resale store in Downriver Detroit.He said they had lots of bags. Amt also wholesaled their leftover 1/43 scale tires in the 80's.I have a friend who bought several hundred thousand and he still has a bunch left!

Edited March 3, 2016 by Lou Lapham

[Mark]

I've never seen an El Camino kit with the soft rubber tires.  The '58 Chevy came out in late '63 or early '64, the El Camino in '65...by that time the supply of those tires would have been exhausted.

[Mark]

double post...oops

Edited January 26, 2016 by Mark
double post

[Casey]

On 12/14/2015 at 3:47 PM, pack rat said:

The original issue had the so-called "Darlington" rubber tires that were also used on the Turnpike cars.

I still have the set from my original kit.  They didn't age well over the years; they're ozone-cracked and brittle, although I recently got another original kit in a collection with like-new tires (?).    

From a vintage AMT '58 Impala currently on eBay...I think these are the Darlington tires you mentioned?

 

For that "touch of realism...":

[Casey]

AMT 1301:

[Smoke Wagon]

I like when Round2 does these vintage box art releases with the white background, black borders, and no words on the box top. I might get one, build it, then cut the box top off and put in in a picture frame.

[stavanzer]

This kit is still on the shelf at the local Hobby Lobby. At least it was last month.

Not sure there is much need for this kit right now......

But, It will have some different decals at least.

[1972coronet]

I'm glad that this classic is back again. I still have the last reissue (the c.1969 box art edition) , having purposely purchased the moulded-in-gold version, as it's on my "polish the plastic" list.

[blizzy63]

7 hours ago, Casey said:

AMT 1301:

I have a copy of this picture taped over my modeling desk; I've been planning to build it...and that day is coming soon (I recently bought a new Dremel tool and a solid front axle from the Revell '54 Chevy kit is ready to go).

P.S., if anyone has any of those old, soft Firestone Darlington tires or slicks lying around, feel free to send some my way. Thanks!

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by blizzy63

[Mark]

44 minutes ago, alexis said:

This kit is still on the shelf at the local Hobby Lobby. At least it was last month.

Not sure there is much need for this kit right now......

But, It will have some different decals at least.

HL stores around here blew the last issue out for $7.50 apiece, the last time they did that (pre-Covid).  Not that they had bunches of them; I only saw one, and bought it. 

It's still a great kit, probably about time for another issue.  Most of these Trophy Series kits were out continuously in the Sixties and Seventies, with a change of box art every couple of years.

[Tabbysdaddy]

That's my oldest surviving build. Not sure how old it is though, it's molded in baby blue.

[niteowl7710]

The most recent reissue (molded in Gold) was in 2016. So while it doesn't seem that long it has been 6 years since the kit was current. I think the molded in color thing stunted sales the last go around since those kits never seemed to sell very well, at least not locally.

[Mark]

Pretty sure the previous issue was available in both gold and white, with a sticker on the box to denote what was inside.

[niteowl7710]

2 hours ago, Mark said:

Pretty sure the previous issue was available in both gold and white, with a sticker on the box to denote what was inside.

Right, but the gold ones are the ones that are still languishing on shelves, at least at the 3 local brick and mortars locally. It's been that way with pretty much all of the dual color run releases over the past several years. It was a shot in the dark to find white B/M 70 1/2 Camaros or '67 Shelbys, but the molded in color ones hung around for months. Shops could clearly sell all the white ones they could get their hands on, I have to wonder how it impacted total sales to have a part if the run get passed on, because those are orders vendors aren't placing to wholesalers when you can't move product.