AMT Junior And Craftsman Kits

[keyser]

The Valiant eventually became the Fireball 500.

The '65 Nova became the AWB Funny Car, most recently reissued as the Rat Packer.

The '65 Chevelle became an AWB Funny Car, and the, sadly and irredeemably, a dirt tracker.

The '66 Skylark also became a dirt tracker.

The Cuda chassis was under the Fireball 500, with the Hemi. The Valiant lasted as promo from 63-66, and the 66 Promo is wrong, and rare. IIRC, it had a one piece chassis with engine molded in. 

The 65 Nova was the AWB IIRC, and the 63 Nova Wagon became the mid-engined wagon drag car. The 63 Nova detail kit and the Craftsman shared much, but Craftsman kits always had the large Promo style axles. That chassis had an engine insert too.  

The 64-65 Chevelle I think became the AWB then the Modified. 

The 66 Skylark annual tool became the Modifed, but the Annual and the Craftsman were not the same tools, I have both, and they differ. The annual has a radiator crossmember that the Craftsman does not have, and the screw posts are in different places on the chassis. It did not have an engine insert like many promos/Craftsmen based on glue kits (63 T-bird, for one). It came back as the Mexicali Mudlark once. 

The 59 Buick HT, 62 Galaxie HT, 64 Comet, 61 Ranchero, and a couple others (?60 Merc?) came out in a desert series someone here knows as well.

Several annuals were different as well. They did introduce convertibles first in the Annuals, but some differed. One of the early 60's Fords said Sunliner on fender of the HT. I have it, but cannot remember the year. 61-2. Many HT's had convertible interiors, so those were shared a lot. 

Weirdly, I have all the Imperials from 58-82. The 58 was converible only. The 59 and 61 HT's were add ons to the convertibles. The 60 Imperial HT was a completely separate HT tool. Only that year, no idea why. They did stuff like that.

I think Art, Rich and a couple others can fill in details better than I can with my chemo addled brain, but there are tools that should be left if not scrapped. 

[Luc Janssens]

I see a few here think it's possible to undo, what was changed during the course of the existence, of tooling x, y &z..

Yes it is possible, but you have to take a few matters into account.

- How much $$$$ is involved, vs projected market demand (return on investment)

- Is it still physical possible, to rework the inserts (enough material left in the cavities, for example) or does one has to reverse engineer from a vintage kit, and what percentage are we talking about (5%=minor rework --> 80% almost complete resto)

- Does it make sense to invest in a +40 year old tool, when a competitor can tool up an all new 21st century kit, if the demand for the subject matter, indicates that it will be a good performer, and if so can Round-2 take the loss (what's their work capital, what's their turnover, what's their profit?)

Maybe...if Round-2 has everything on file, what's in their tooling (bins, crates, racks), they can do some house clean up, to:

- get some funds in, from the scrap value.

- to free up some space in their warehouse and save $$$$ in rent.

 

 

To round it up, it's nice to dream, because for us it's a hobby, an escape from reality, but...for people in the biz, I'm sure it's a struggle to meet the goals set out by whoever lends them the cash, and that is, and always will remain the bottom line: ROI!

Edited October 1, 2016 by Luc Janssens

[unclescott58]

Then Luc why does Round 2 keep doing it? Fixing up old tools. There must be some money to be made there? But, for the most we are just speculating on what Round 2 may or may not have. We can always hope for the best.

[Snake45]

The 66 Skylark annual tool became the Modifed, but the Annual and the Craftsman were not the same tools, I have both, and they differ. The annual has a radiator crossmember that the Craftsman does not have, and the screw posts are in different places on the chassis. It did not have an engine insert like many promos/Craftsmen based on glue kits (63 T-bird, for one). It came back as the Mexicali Mudlark once. 

 

Now that's interesting. I too have both annual and Craftsman, and they look identical to me, right down to the wrong shape on the body line on the left side. It would be great if you were right and I were wrong, and the original Craftsman tooling could be found and reissued. I'd buy at least three of them, even though I have three or four restorable glue bombs and/or resin repros to do. Same with the '65 Chevelle, too. How I'd love to have that one back.

[Luc Janssens]

Then Luc why does Round 2 keep doing it? Fixing up old tools. There must be some money to be made there? But, for the most we are just speculating on what Round 2 may or may not have. We can always hope for the best.

 

How many of the releases,( since they bought the physical remains of Amt, Mpc and Ertl and the brand name licensing that came with it, from RC2/Tommy, and a few years later Lindberg), that hit the market were except for box-art, decals and tires, straight reissues?

And how many releases were retooled (backdated, restored) and to what kind of extent (parts percentage wise, 5, 10, 20, 30%?)

Anyway, I'm just trying to convey the message that the good people at Round-2, have to be great at tight-roping, balancing every step/decision they make and time will tell if they mastered it.

And about us hoping and craving for certain kits coming back, well Round-2 isn't a candy store you walk in and buy to hearts content, but where there's hope there's life

 

Edited October 1, 2016 by Luc Janssens

[pack rat]

The 66 Skylark annual tool became the Modifed, but the Annual and the Craftsman were not the same tools, I have both, and they differ.  

The 59 Buick HT, 62 Galaxie HT, 64 Comet, 61 Ranchero, and a couple others (?60 Merc?) came out in a desert series someone here knows as well.

 

I'm pretty certain the Skylark annual and the Craftsman shared tooling.  The rear screw posts are in the same location on mine, and my Craftsman has firewall mounting points engraved on the body.

The '60 Merc mentioned was in the so-called "Flower Power" series, along with a few other oldies such as the '60 Bonneville. Both series can be somewhat confusing as they both contained a mix of older annual (de-contented 62 Galaxie) and promo (63 T-Bird) tools.......(I wonder where those two went?...show of hands for a 62 Galaxie!) 

As most people realize, Round2 does look for old "lost" tooling, otherwise we wouldn't have kits like the Manx, Piranha, Daytona Transporter, All Star kits etc etc, but for every old tool they find they have to perform a mental balancing act; how much $$ needs to be invested to make it production-ready, and will it sell in sufficient numbers.   

         

Edited October 2, 2016 by pack rat

[Tom Geiger]

 

Okay guys-  There's a lot of talk on this thread, some from guys who have good historic knowledge, and by others who have to learn some history!

Per the conversation, and my own historic knowledge, I've created the below chart.  Please reply to provide better information, and only if you know that to be true.  I will update this chart as legitimate information is added to this thread.

Year	Kit	Status	Notes
1959	Buick ht. - bright blue, grayish blue, yellow, red, charcoal, coral	Last seen in Flower Power series, "Boondock Bomber"1969, reported destroyed
1964	Chevelle ht. - yellow	became '65 Chevelle
1965	Chevelle ht. - yellow	Became altered wheelbase, then modified stocker
1959	Chevy conv. - lt. turquoise, lt. blue		Modern kit - RM Exists
1963	Chevy II Nova wagon - tan, beige	Became Funny Car
1963	Chevy Impala ht. - bright blue, tan	Exists -Recently issued	Modern kit - RM Exists
1960	Chevy wagon - chartreuse, red, tan, bright blue, lt. turquoise, dark turquoise, medium-light green, orange, yellow	Reported Gone
1963	Comet conv. - bright blue, lt. turquoise, chartreuse	Became '64 Comet
1964	Comet ht. - red, dark red, yellow, light blue	Exists - Recent Model King
1963	Corvair conv. - lt. turquoise, bright blue, red, chartreuse	Became '64 Corvair
1964	Corvair coupe - yellow
1959	Edsel ht. - lt. blue, lt. turquoise, bright blue, red	('58 became funny car)	Modern Kit - AMT Exists
1963	Falcon conv. - red, lt. turquoise, chartreuse	Became '64 and then '65 - Exists as funny car
1964	Ford Galaxie ht. - maroon	Exists - last issued by Model King
1959	Ford ht. - cream, light yellow, turquoise, bright blue, lt. blue, chartreuse	Became 1960 Ford
1960	Ford Starliner - lt. blue
1959	Lincoln Continental ht. - charcoal, black
1959	Mercury conv. - yellow, red	Became '60 Mercury - Last seen in Flower Power Series, "Magnolia Mauler"
1965	Nova ht. - lt. blue	Became Rat Packer - Exists
1960	Pontiac ht. - charcoal, black, red	Last seen in Flower Power Series, "Buttercup Bomb"	Modern Kit - Trumpeter Exists
1961	Ranchero	Exists
1966	Skylark ht. - dark green	Became modified stocker - Exists
1957	T-Bird - red, grayish blue, pale blue, turquoise, white
1966	T-Bird ht. - charcoal, black	Exists
1963	Valiant ht. - lt. turquoise, chartreuse, bright blue, red	Became '64 Valiant
1964	Valiant ht. - yellow, light blue	Became '65 Valiant
1965	Valiant ht. - red	Became '66 Valiant promo, then Fireball 500 -Exists

 

 

Edited October 1, 2016 by Tom Geiger

[Mark]

Not to say your wrong. But, why is it some Craftsman kits survived and others didn't? Plus there is enough differences in some cases, I suspect a second tool. As noted by others, compare the two '66 Thunderbirds for example. Or for that matter the two '57 Thunderbirds that AMT put out back in the day. Also go to the Model Car Instructions and Box Art website, and looking at the instructions for both '66 Skylarks make me suspect two tools were used.

Now I know little to nothing about how model cars tools are designed and sometimes used. So I may be full of beans in my observations Snake. Even though you are probably right, I kind of hope you are not in this case.

 

There's only one Skylark.  The recent issues of the Modified Stocker have extra parts not in the original one.  These include the stock wheels from the snap-together issues, as well as some custom and optional parts from the annual kit. 

As for the '57 Thunderbird, there were actually several tools used for the promotional and friction models alone.  There are numerous variations among those: interiors with and without driveline tunnel, bodies with and without vent doors on the front fenders, different scripts, things like that.  I've read that AMT produced over a million of those for Ford,  Parts of one or more of those tools may have been used for the Craftsman kits.

The Nova wagon is another one that has been disputed.  There's only one.  Promotional model first, then annual kit, then Craftsman kit (pretty much the promo model with the red taillight lenses eliminated), then a reissue on the customizing kit (with the one-piece taillights carried over from the Craftsman kit), then the Boss Nova butcher job.

In all but a handful of cases, with annual kits back then the tool was created to produce promotional models first.  AMT (and MPC, and Jo-Han) were then allowed to use the tooling to produce kits.  Some kits differ in level of detail from the promo models (different chassis and interiors on occasion).  But the body tooling is way more complicated and costly to create than anything else, so bodies got reused whenever possible.  That's why we got things like '68-'70 Dodge Coronet and '70-'71 Mercury Cyclone funny cars, which never existed in the 1:1 world.  That's also why we got most of the funny car and Pro Stock bodies with full exterior trim and windshield wipers when the 1:1 cars didn't have any of that.

[pack rat]

 

Okay guys-  There's a lot of talk on this thread, some from guys who have good historic knowledge, and by others who have to learn some history!

Per the conversation, and my own historic knowledge, I've created the below chart.  Please reply to provide better information, and only if you know that to be true.  I will update this chart as legitimate information is added to this thread.

Thanks for compiling the list, Tom

Some notes;

The '59 Edsel body wasn't used for the funny car; the FC used the '58 promo body (likewise, the new tool is a '58)

The '64 Corvair shares nothing with the 2nd-gen '65-up annuals (note-I don't have a 2nd gen promo to compare, only the oft-reissued glue kits; there's a possibiilty the chassis carried over to the 2nd-gen promos; the 2nd-gen annuals have an un-promo-like chassis  ). 

Not sure about the 1st-gen '63 Falcon being modified into the 2nd-gen '64.  The '62 Falcon (curbside) annual doesn't match the '64 at all.

I don't believe anything carried over from the '59 Ford to the '60 (I don't have a '60 Craftsman, but my '59 Craftsman and '60 annuals have different chassis etc)

The '61 Ranchero was never issued as a Craftsman, although it was originally a curbside kit.

Not sure where I heard it, but I believe the '59 Lincoln was confirmed as destroyed.

NOTE...I don't claim to be the ultimate authority on this stuff.  Hopefully others will update if needed (Mark??) 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2016 by pack rat

[regular guy]

Builders

The frontrunner for reissue of a Craftsman/Junior kit is the Model King 1964 Ford Galaxie.

If AMT wants to pass off future Craftsman/Junior kit reissues to Model King, fine!

Please, do us a favor and mold it in color.Make that a dopey color like pale yellow or pale blue.

You're not going for the cutting edge audience anyhow.

As far as money, they have what they call loss leaders.

Ford lost money on every '56 Lincoln Continental they sold.

Cars were hand assembled and engines run on a test stand.

They were built to make a point.

So AMT can come out with one a year of something that really hits the mark.

Regular Guy

[Snake45]

 

Okay guys-  There's a lot of talk on this thread, some from guys who have good historic knowledge, and by others who have to learn some history!

Per the conversation, and my own historic knowledge, I've created the below chart.  Please reply to provide better information, and only if you know that to be true.  I will update this chart as legitimate information is added to this thread.

Year	Kit	Status	Notes
1959	Buick ht. - bright blue, grayish blue, yellow, red, charcoal, coral	Last seen in Flower Power series, "Boondock Bomber"1969, reported destroyed
1964	Chevelle ht. - yellow	became '65 Chevelle
1965	Chevelle ht. - yellow	Became altered wheelbase, then modified stocker
1959	Chevy conv. - lt. turquoise, lt. blue		Modern kit - RM Exists
1963	Chevy II Nova wagon - tan, beige	Became Funny Car
1963	Chevy Impala ht. - bright blue, tan	Exists -Recently issued	Modern kit - RM Exists
1960	Chevy wagon - chartreuse, red, tan, bright blue, lt. turquoise, dark turquoise, medium-light green, orange, yellow	Reported Gone
1963	Comet conv. - bright blue, lt. turquoise, chartreuse	Became '64 Comet
1964	Comet ht. - red, dark red, yellow, light blue	Exists - Recent Model King
1963	Corvair conv. - lt. turquoise, bright blue, red, chartreuse	Became '64 Corvair
1964	Corvair coupe - yellow	Current 1968 era kit - Exists
1959	Edsel ht. - lt. blue, lt. turquoise, bright blue, red	Became a funny car-	Modern Kit - AMT Exists
1963	Falcon conv. - red, lt. turquoise, chartreuse	Became '64 and then '65
1964	Ford Galaxie ht. - maroon
1959	Ford ht. - cream, light yellow, turquoise, bright blue, lt. blue, chartreuse	Became 1960 Ford
1960	Ford Starliner - lt. blue
1959	Lincoln Continental ht. - charcoal, black
1959	Mercury conv. - yellow, red	Became '60 Mercury - Last seen in Flower Power Series, "Magnolia Mauler"
1965	Nova ht. - lt. blue	Became Rat Packer - Exists
1960	Pontiac ht. - charcoal, black, red	Last seen in Flower Power Series, "Buttercup Bomb"	Modern Kit - Trumpeter Exists
1961	Ranchero	Exists
1966	Skylark ht. - dark green	Became modified stocker - Exists
1957	T-Bird - red, grayish blue, pale blue, turquoise, white
1966	T-Bird ht. - charcoal, black	Exists
1963	Valiant ht. - lt. turquoise, chartreuse, bright blue, red	Became '64 Valiant
1964	Valiant ht. - yellow, light blue	Became '65 Valiant
1965	Valiant ht. - red	Became '66 Valiant promo, then Fireball 500 -Exists

 

 

Great chart, Tom! There are only two I'd "dispute," and one thing I'd add.

The '64 Corvair was the last of the original body, thus I doubt it became the second-gen car (introduced in 1965) and thus the current issue '69.

Likewise, the '63 Falcon was the last of the first-gens. The '64 Falcon was all new (body-wise, anyway). As you say, the '64 Falcon became the '65, and I'd add that the body still exists as AWB funny car, reissued a couple times in the last decade.

[Tom Geiger]

Ok, I made a few changes on the chart.  Keep it coming.  There are a few on there that we don't know the whereabouts of today.

For those who don't know this,  Round 2 the current owners of AMT  wanted to retain their brand integrity so they declined to produce any more kits with Dave Burket, aka Model King.  So we have  not seen an AMT / MPC  Model King kit in several years now.  Round 2 still has the tooling for any kits done under Model King, has since reissued several and are free to do more if they desire.

Dave was a pioneer in bringing old tools back to the hobby. Back in the days when AMT was owned by toymaker Tomy, no one in that company understood this market and that the old tools had significant value.  Dave made contact within the company and worked with them to bring back many classic kits we hadn't seen in years.  Consider most of these kits  the "low hanging fruit", that being kits that were essentially complete and easy to rerun.  

As Dave dug deeper, there were kits that needed investment such as that 1959 Imperial that needed a whole new chrome shot retooled. That same kit needed new wheels since the original tire mold was missing, and it needed to be able to accept currently available tires.   On early efforts, the most common parts missing from kits were the tire molds and clear shot molds as those would be stored separate from the main tool.

Now Round 2 is owned by savvy model car buffs, and they are aggressively hitting the old tooling hoard.  As they dig, the kits they are finding need a more significant investment and they have been improving tooling as well.  For instance, the 1961 Ranchero got a new 1960 grill on the last release.  Kudos to them!

For those who aren't familiar,  model car tools are huge pieces of metal best handled by fork lifts.  So it's difficult to investigate exactly what they have.  There are tools that had parts that were shared by other kits, sometimes in the wrong tool and other times just missing or welded off so it no longer works. By reopening passages, they find parts that have been long missing. There are also tools that were in bad shape, such as the slide and pin mechanisms not working due to age or improper storage. I was told that some tooling was stored outdoors for a period of time. That all results in costly repairs. 

 It's also difficult to decipher what a tool is since it's all in reverse.  There has been a significant investment in loading up those tools into manufacturing equipment and doing test runs to identify them. There is a hanger system in the warehouse with a lot of these test runs on them.

It is a miracle that this stuff exists at all after all these years, and with the companies being sold and relocated.  In the 1960s, an annual was run in it's year and then often redone into the next year's car.  There was no thought that this all may be valuable someday.  Bob Paith, former Revell employee said that back in the day they were toy manufacturers. They were focused on making kits that kids would buy. So any old annual mold that could be modified into something new was a bonus. He personally took responsibility for the destruction of the original Revell VW bus tool into a custom van. He said they sincerely didn't think anyone would ever want that bus again!  They couldn't predict what would happen 50 years in the future, nor is any company in the business of projecting out that far!

There were several tooling purges at AMT over the years.  In the late sixties or early seventies, they reissued some of the kits in those goofy series "Flower Power", the desert series and Cuban theme series.  It was thought that this tooling was destroyed after this such as the 1959 Buick.  Model King had asked about this one and the '60 Chevy wagon and was told the tooling no longer existed.  That was the story then, but maybe with a deeper dive into the tooling they will find them. 

Today every tool would be bar coded and individually listed as an asset.  So they would be efficiently scrapped after not being used for a period of time to get them off the books.  

It's all interesting history.

[regular guy]

Tom

No more Model King AMT/MPC/LIndberg kits? Oh no, Mr. Bill!

Then a tip for Round2, the Lindberg Made in the USA kits are preferred by this kit buyer.

Point being if AMT is going to reissue rare kits they ought to be made in the USA.

Seems like the Model Kings kits were because it was a small operation.

Back to Junior/Craftsman kits.

The 1961 Ford Ranchero looks like it was a Craftsman kit.

The '59 Lincoln would be nice to see, it's the largest production car ever made.

Might as well work on the Mercury too while doing Lincoln, same styling.

Regular Guy

 

 

Edited October 1, 2016 by regular guy

[keyser]

I typed a reply earlier, but punted. 

I was wrong about Skylark. Sorry, I thought they were. 

Weird that 59 Continental was able to be reissued, but it should have turned into the 60. 

Agree about the 63 Falcon, and the 63 Comet was closer to the 62 than the 64, so who knows if it got flipped. 

The Craftsman 57 Bird top was discussed at length in a thread here. The HT was much better than the regular kit, and that HT has meen unchanged since original issue. John Goschke was the knowledge source, the pic is his. I bought a couple Craftsmans after that thread. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/91580-vintage-kit-review-amts-other-125th-57-thunderbird/#comment-1222237

Much better detail in the Craftsman than the glue kit on top, hubcaps, bumpers, taillights. Odd. Craftsman Tbird top on left. Glue on right, with the sloping window.  

[pack rat]

Weird that 59 Continental was able to be reissued, but it should have turned into the 60. 

Agree about the 63 Falcon, and the 63 Comet was closer to the 62 than the 64, so who knows if it got flipped. 

The Craftsman 57 Bird top was discussed at length in a thread here. The HT was much better than the regular kit, and that HT has meen unchanged since original issue. John Goschke was the knowledge source, the pic is his. I bought a couple Craftsmans after that thread. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/91580-vintage-kit-review-amts-other-125th-57-thunderbird/#comment-1222237

Much better detail in the Craftsman than the glue kit on top, hubcaps, bumpers, taillights. Odd. Craftsman Tbird top on left. Glue on right, with the sloping window.  

 

Yes, that '59 Lincoln that survived after the '60 was produced is a bit of a head-scratcher.

The '63 and '64 Comets share the same chassis and nothing else.  The interior buckets look close at first glance until you inspect them side-by-side....they don't match. The weird part; the '64 has a convertible-style interior as often found in AMT hardtops back then...ever seen a '64 Comet convertible promo?  If such a thing exists, I stand corrected.

I agree, John's thread on the Craftsman Bird was very informative.  At the time I had a friend selling a Craftsman '57 at a pretty decent price; I didn't really need another one but John's comments prompted me to go for it. 

[Bob Ellis]

I'm pretty certain the Skylark annual and the Craftsman shared tooling.  The rear screw posts are in the same location on mine, and my Craftsman has firewall mounting points engraved on the body.

The '60 Merc mentioned was in the so-called "Flower Power" series, along with a few other oldies such as the '60 Bonneville. Both series can be somewhat confusing as they both contained a mix of older annual (de-contented 62 Galaxie) and promo (63 T-Bird) tools.......(I wonder where those two went?...show of hands for a 62 Galaxie!) 

As most people realize, Round2 does look for old "lost" tooling, otherwise we wouldn't have kits like the Manx, Piranha, Daytona Transporter, All Star kits etc etc, but for every old tool they find they have to perform a mental balancing act; how much $$ needs to be invested to make it production-ready, and will it sell in sufficient numbers.   

         

I also believe some of these cars had more than one tool. The 1964 Galaxie, the 1966 Mustang conv/coupe to name two more. One was destroyed in modification and the other lived on as original.

[regular guy]

Builders

If AMT is going to make these Junior/Craftsman kits again they ought to

make them like the Revell SSP kits.

Clearly mark them as being brought back from early kit.

Here's a checklist:

Junior type kit, metal axles, molded in hood, screw together pieces and no engine,

Oldest packaging,

Molded in color,

Made in USA, The Man in Space Set has tag on it made in USA, so AMT can do it,

Thanks!

[keyser]

Funny thing too is Revell making modern day Craftsman kits of new Mustang, Ford GT, Raptor, C7R, etc. and guys complain. They complain about Fujimi and Accurate Miniatures too. Complain about not made in USA. They can't afford to do it here. Nobody including the complainers would work that cheaply, and everyone insists on 40% off to buy one. Sorry, but If you won't take 40% off paychecks, the USA chants ring very hollow. It's a BUSINESS. Not aimed at you Bob, just observation over years here. Never have seen so many unhappy people on a board in my life. Sad. 

Edited October 2, 2016 by keyser
Grammar. Really, grammar. Grampar is asleep.

[regular guy]

Keyser

It's just a request to have the kits have a "Made in USA" sticker on them.

Considering none of this is going to happen,it's no big deal.

It's pretty clear AMT spreads a wide net when they bring out these kits,

Put all the parts they can round up in it to sell to the most buyers,

Building a single use kit would go against current policy,

That's why the Mod Rod has half the Ala Kart parts, they don't have any more than that,

Anyhow it's no big deal to me what they do,

Regular Guy

 

[Mark]

Round 2 is doing some stuff here.  I bought the Lindberg Dodge Fever A-100 kit the other day...made in USA except for the decals.  I didn't buy one, but I think the MPC 1/20 scale Ford van was made here too.  It probably boils down to where the tool is, and if any work is needed to rehab it.  If it's "over there" already or needs significant rework, it gets produced "over there".

That said, I have encountered a bunch of cheapskates lately.  Some of us car guys are tough..."I'd buy a case of those" and "I've been waiting for this one for XX years" often translates to "I'll buy one when I see them at the closeout store"...

[pack rat]

I also believe some of these cars had more than one tool. The 1964 Galaxie, the 1966 Mustang conv/coupe to name two more. One was destroyed in modification and the other lived on as original.

The AMT '66 Mustangs followed a somewhat convoluted path.  

The original hardtop/convertible kit eventually became the Sonny & Cher kit, then seemingly disappeared. 

Portions of the fastback kit were used for two subsequent kits; the Mach 1/Super Stang/Iron Horse (chassis, engine etc) and the funny car (body).

AMT later came up with the Countdown hardtop by combining the Mach 1/Iron Horse mechanical bits with the promo '66 hardtop body pieces that had never been previously used in kit form.  

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it all means that maybe, just maybe the Sonny & Cher kit is still out there (if anyone cares).    

[regular guy]

Mark

Gee, I thought I was the only one who watched kits until the price drops the lowest,

Then I don't buy them and they go to what I call a reseller,

Anyhow about the '66 Skylark, a kid in high school had a Buick GSX and

everybody wondered what he was up to,It wasn't your standard 440 6 pack Mopar, then everybody knew what you were up to,;)

Thanks!

Edited October 2, 2016 by regular guy

[mredjr]

No way a 63 Comet, 63 Falcon and a 59 Ford would have changed to the next year they and totally different body styles. It would have cost more to modify the tools than to make new ones. I agree that the 64 Falcon became a 65 and others but they were minor changes.

[unclescott58]

Funny thing too is Revell making modern day Craftsman kits of new Mustang, Ford GT, Raptor, C7R, etc. and guys complain. They complain about Fujimi and Accurate Miniatures too. Complain about not made in USA. They can't afford to do it here. Nobody including the complainers would work that cheaply, and everyone insists on 40% off to buy one. Sorry, but If you won't take 40% off paychecks, the USA chants ring very hollow. It's a BUSINESS. Not aimed at you Bob, just observation over years here. Never have seen so many unhappy people on a board in my life. Sad. 

Your right. No matter what the model companies put out people will complain. This or that detail isn't right. It's doesn't have enough chassis detail. It's too expensive. It's not made here. It will never get kids into the hobby. I can keep on going. In price I consider with inflation and the extra stuff they're giving me to be pretty fair. I like the old kits for nostalgic reasons. I'm glad they keep bringing back old kits that I couldn't afford as a kid, but can now. And I love the new kits. If the kit looks close enough that the adverage person won't notice the mistakes unless they're point out, I'm pretty happy.

To the others I don't know what really is out their as far as old tooling goes. There maybe nothing we haven't seen already. The dies maybe gone. But, I can dream. And I can ask. Maybe the die is there, and AMT or some other company will bring it back. I have seen kits that I was told we would never see again, because of this or that happened die. Rommel's Rod comes to mind. Maybe they made a new tool for that one? Who really cares? It's back. They've restored another old favorite of mine. Monogram's/Daniel's Street Fighter '60 Chevy panel. I'm sure there were people who told me I would never see that come back in it's original form. Who would have thought that Round 2 would retool new/old parts for the '28 Mod Rod Model A roadster? I never thought I'd see such nerdy cars as AMT's Pacer station wagon (in a stock version no less) or MPC's '80 Volare. I was told there is not enough people out there who'd be interested in buy those. Guess what? They're back! All those Negative Nellys were wrong! And I'm glad.

The Craftsman Kits I'd really like to see come back are the following:

'57 Thunderbird

'59 Ford Fairlane 500 hardtop

'59 Edsel hardtop.

Any '59 Mercury. Hardtop or convertible

'59 Lincoln

'60 Chevy station wagon

'63 Falcon convertible

'63 Comet, again convertible or hardtop. I don't care which.

'64 Corvair

and the '66 Skylark.

Again, I don't really care if it's not realistic to look for these kits to come back or not. I'm hoping all of you naysayers are wrong. You have been in the past.

If you look for the negative, your likely to find it. I look for positive, and generally find. I think I stay with my positive way of thinking. I've been a lot happier since I started living that way.

 

Edited October 3, 2016 by unclescott58

[unclescott58]

Oh! And how can I forget being a big Buick guy? I really want to see the '59 Buick brought back.

 

Edited October 3, 2016 by unclescott58