Palmer '70 Vette - what to do?

[Faust]

You know when you’re going through a hobby shop, and you find something so weird, you have to buy it? It’s a bit like wanting to rescue the runt of the litter, I guess, and it happens to me all the time. Well, this time I’ve come across something that seems to be fairly uncommon. In fact, I can find almost nothing about it on the internet!

It’s a Palmer 1970 Corvette, and I think it’s 1/32. It doesn’t actually say. Anyway, I’d like to know anything you can tell me about this kit, as well as your opinions as to what I should do with it!

Check it out at the link below, and let me know what you think, both about the kit and what it’s fate should be, with the poll at the end of the article!

Thanks, all!

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/palm-er-or-pop-er-give-a-man-a-hand/

 

[unclescott58]

Come on! Open it up and build it. Being its a Palmer kit its probably a turd. But, if the price was right, have some fun. It's a piece of history. (A bad piece. True. But still.) Build it. And post the results. 

I had a few Palmer kits back in the day. They were all turds ?. But, I kind of miss them. Especially my '73 Thunderbird. It was bad. But, it was a '73 Thunderbird. And I love Thunderbirds. So, build yours.

[Snake45]

I recently acquired a near-complete Palmer '66 Vette (missing the windshield frame, but everything else necessary seems to be there). It seems to be 1/25 but almost a cartoonish caricature of the real car. I'm going to slim the body a bit top-to-bottom (easy enough, because the body's in five pieces) and then build it as if it's fiberglass kit car knock-off lookalike. It'll be fun and look a hoot on the shelf with my "real" AMT, MPC and Revell Vettes.

[bobthehobbyguy]

I say open it and give us an open box review and then build it.

[Snake45]

I say open it and give us an open box review and then build it.

Yup!

[pack rat]

I hope you build it. 

[cobraman]

I never saw a Palmer kit that looked much like the car it was meant to represent. I have two Cobras made by them and they are weird to say the least. How about making it into a Zinger with big motor and tires ? Just an idea.

[64Comet404]

Years ago, I built a Palmer '64 'Vette convertible, and thought it looked like the fiberglass cars you used to see on the carnival kiddie rides. If you could find the right size rider, it may be a possibility...

[Snake45]

Years ago, I built a Palmer '64 'Vette convertible, and thought it looked like the fiberglass cars you used to see on the carnival kiddie rides. If you could find the right size rider, it may be a possibility...

Yeah, kinda. That's why I'm gonna do mine as a fake kit car.

[Ace-Garageguy]

In a buncha other stuff a while back, I got a bizarroworld no-name battery-powered E-type in about 1/25 that's every bit as horrible as anything Palmer ever made (oddly proportioned multi-piece body, tiny wheels, ill fitting everything)...BUT...it's just close enough to slightly massage into a "one piece fiberglass body" for an M/SP drag car. It was either that or put a cherry bomb in it, but the little car looked so sad, I just didn't have the heart to kill it.  

[Ron Hamilton]

I saw one of those at our club meeting yesterday. I wouldn't touch it, as I was already not feeling well.

[iBorg]

If you admit to liking it, visit your health provider.

If its sealed keep it that way. Its only sealed once (well.......we know that isn't ALWAYS true), and keeping it sealed keeps it contained. The best part of that kit has to be the box art.

[gtx6970]

If you admit to liking it, visit your health provider.

If its sealed keep it that way. Its only sealed once (well.......we know that isn't ALWAYS true), and keeping it sealed keeps it contained. The best part of that kit has to be the box art.

Agreed 

[alan barton]

Tom Geiger, I was expecting you to post an opinion on this puppy, knowing what's in YOUR basement........

[Faust]

Well, I am very surprised to see how many people are for me opening it and letting this plague out upon the world!

I have to say I'm really thinking this could become the basis for Chia-Vette after all. Man, I didn't know these were this bad. I mean, the box art is cool, as Mike said, but I didn't think it would be worse than, say, a bad old Revell or something. Man, now I'm almost ITCHING to open it. Of course, the itching could mean there's a leak in the containment plastic, as it seems to be suggested! 

Of course, if I open it, I'll have to slaughter it in a review. I guess that's okay, eh? 

[unclescott58]

Well, I am very surprised to see how many people are for me opening it and letting this plague out upon the world!

I have to say I'm really thinking this could become the basis for Chia-Vette after all. Man, I didn't know these were this bad. I mean, the box art is cool, as Mike said, but I didn't think it would be worse than, say, a bad old Revell or something. Man, now I'm almost ITCHING to open it. Of course, the itching could mean there's a leak in the containment plastic, as it seems to be suggested! 

Of course, if I open it, I'll have to slaughter it in a review. I guess that's okay, eh? 

Oh, its worst than an old Revell kit. Still, it was meant to be built. Everybody should have built at least one Palmer kit in their life time. It's a right passage. You most do it.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Here are some shots of the contents of your box. It doesn't look too terrible...for Palmer.

 

[iBorg]

Actually looks sorta like a VW kit car trying to look like a Corvette. Maybe that's the solution. Mount it on a dune buggy chassis.

[ChrisBcritter]

Same old slop-on-a-generic-chassis Palmer always put out - the side-panel "accessories" artwork goes back nearly ten years before that. As I've said before, the ONLY thing I've found useful on their kits is that the '64 Plymouth has the correct Sport Fury emblems that Jo-Han missed.

[Mike999]

LMAO at "Pre-release Custom Version" on the boxtop.  Translation: "Since we don't have access to factory blueprints like AMT or MPC, as usual we will just guess (badly) at what the real car might look like. Whatever we imagine, we will then squish down to fit the standard 1/29 scale chassis found in all our fine automotive miniatures."
 

 

[Bob Ellis]

Everybody knows the shortcomings of Palmer kits, however, they are collectible now.

I have 2 Impalas which I remember seeing at the stores back in 1964/65.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Actually looks sorta like a VW kit car trying to look like a Corvette. Maybe that's the solution. Mount it on a dune buggy chassis.

Sheer genius. Perfect solution. There were some real cars built along those lines.

                                                                        

[Ace-Garageguy]

Or maybe use it a a body for something a little more serious...

[Snake45]

Sheer genius. Perfect solution. There were some real cars built along those lines.

 

                                                                        

 

I wish I'd thought of that. Oh, wait--I did.

I saw the Revell '68 VW back on the shelf at Hobby Lobby last weekend, but there was something I happened to want more. I'll try to pick one up this Saturday, for my long-contemplated, occasionally-discussed "kit car" based on the inaccurate AMT '68 Corvette body.

[Ron Hamilton]

Here are some shots of the contents of your box. It doesn't look too terrible...for Palmer.

 

Oh No!!!! My stomach hurts!!!!