Terrible Box Art

[unclescott58]

25 minutes ago, Daddyfink said:

Not only is this terrible artwork, but all the cool parts where omitted! 

I've got mixed feeling about the two above. I kind of like them. I kind like the checker board pattern on the rear fenders. I've never seen those two boxes before. Despite kind of liking the looks. It's a model I would have passed even if I had seen it. There is enough there that doesn't turn me on. The fact that's it's two-door post sedan in Bel Air form. A 150 two-door post is one thing. But a Bel Air for me should be a hardtop. That and I don't like the wheels or the seats. 

Edited December 2, 2017 by unclescott58

[iBorg]

Let's pause a moment.....the ACE kit is prehistoric. It was not a plastic kit but rather a wooden kit that you carved with some added details typically molded in metal. They took a tremendous amount of skill to create good results but plastic kits were about ten years off.

[Casey]

Sparks?  Sparks. 

[Snake45]

9 hours ago, unclescott58 said:

I've got mixed feeling about the two above. I kind of like them. I kind like the checker board pattern on the rear fenders. I've never seen those two boxes before. Despite kind of liking the looks. It's a model I would have passed even if I had seen it. There is enough there that doesn't turn me on. The fact that's it's two-door post sedan in Bel Air form. A 150 two-door post is one thing. But a Bel Air for me should be a hardtop. That and I don't like the wheels or the seats. 

It's easy enough to make into a 150 post. Just sand all the Bel Air junk off. (I admit that one chrome strip that drops down below the backseat windows can be a little tricky.) 

[Mike999]

37 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

It's easy enough to make into a 150 post. Just sand all the Bel Air junk off. (I admit that one chrome strip that drops down below the backseat windows can be a little tricky.) 

Most people probably know this but maybe some don't: the AMT '55 Chevy post has the Nomad chassis, which is wrong. Gas tank etc.  The chassis from the excellent REVELL '55 Chevy looks like a drop-fit under the AMT kit.  The REVELL grille is also a drop-fit.  I found it a lot easier to grind off the back of the REVELL grille and open it up than the AMT grille.  That sounds minor, but makes the front end look a lot better than a black wash in the grille.

Oh...box art.  Not sure this TAMIYA 1/21 scale Panzer III box is terrible, but weird and fanciful.  It almost looks like box art for a B-26 Marauder, which is crashed and looming over the tank.  Note the Me-210/410 fighters zooming around. IIRC, that plane was a giant flop that, at first, was more dangerous to its own pilots than to the enemy.  The box art also has some early examples of Engrish, with the "Geramn" tank made of "completery formed plastic."   But the tank commander seems to be having a good time...

 

Edited December 2, 2017 by Mike999
omit

[Can-Con]

2 hours ago, Mike999 said:

Most people probably know this but maybe some don't: the AMT '55 Chevy post has the Nomad chassis, which is wrong. Gas tank etc. 

I have 2 copies of that kit , both the last issue in the "street custom" box and they both have the correct non-wagon chassis.

[Snake45]

3 hours ago, Mike999 said:

Oh...box art.  Not sure this TAMIYA 1/21 scale Panzer III box is terrible, but weird and fanciful.  It almost looks like box art for a B-26 Marauder, which is crashed and looming over the tank.  Note the Me-210/410 fighters zooming around. IIRC, that plane was a giant flop that, at first, was more dangerous to its own pilots than to the enemy.  The box art also has some early examples of Engrish, with the "Geramn" tank made of "completery formed plastic."   But the tank commander seems to be having a good time...

 

The B-26's markings put it in late summer 1944 or later. Were the Germans still even using Panzer IIIs at that time? I thought by then the standard tank was the Panzer IV, with most Panzer III chassis production going to Stug IIIs and other such vehicles. (I know a tiny little bit about German armor but I'm no expert.) 

[Mike999]

59 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

I have 2 copies of that kit , both the last issue in the "street custom" box and they both have the correct non-wagon chassis.

The plot thickens!  So does the "Millennium" version, issued in 2000.  I just checked one of those in my stash.  The linked thread below, from here in 2011, talks about a "Nomad chassis plate" in the Bel Air kit.  So I guess AMT corrected it sometime after 1987, when the Bel Air kit was first released.  One more thing to watch out for at shows and swap meets...

Snake45:  "The B-26's markings put it in late summer 1944 or later. Were the Germans still even using Panzer IIIs at that time? I thought by then the standard tank was the Panzer IV, with most Panzer III chassis production going to Stug IIIs and other such vehicles. (I know a tiny little bit about German armor but I'm no expert.)"

You're right, AFAIK. A quick Google says the Pz.III was removed from front-line service and used mostly for training etc. after the battle of Kursk.  That was the summer of 1943.  I'm not an Experten either.  But from reading armor-modeling boards, it seems you can never say never about anything to do with German WWII armor. 

[Deano]

13 hours ago, Casey said:

Sparks?  Sparks. 

Studded tires?

[Daddyfink]

50 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

The B-26's markings put it in late summer 1944 or later. Were the Germans still even using Panzer IIIs at that time? I thought by then the standard tank was the Panzer IV, with most Panzer III chassis production going to Stug IIIs and other such vehicles. (I know a tiny little bit about German armor but I'm no expert.) 

The Marauder still has the full invasion stripes on it, so it must be right after D-Day.

I think the stole that image from my old art pad that I had when I was a kid, because I wasted no empty space on my paper and drew in everything I could think of into it! LOL! 

[Snake45]

17 minutes ago, Daddyfink said:

The Marauder still has the full invasion stripes on it, so it must be right after D-Day.

 

I took another look and you're right--they're still on the top, just interrupted on the sides for the squadron codes. My bad. So it would be sometime between D-Day and, say,  late July 1944, when they started removing or overpainting them on the top surfaces. 

[Mike999]

Continuing with the "aircraft in trouble" theme...check out that Stuka!  The box art looks like it could be from the Sixties.  But this kit is from the early 2000's.  It's the first and ONLY kit ever released by a company called "Armor In Scale."    

The basic truck is the old 1/35 scale GAZ-AA plastic kit released by Eastern Express, Zvezda and other Russian companies.  A.I.S. added white-metal Maxim guns, resin ammo chest, rubber tubing for the coolant lines, and other multi-media details.  It's a complex little beast. If you want one of these,  nowadays Mini-Art makes a much better plastic kit of it on the GAZ-AAA chassis (dual rear axles). 

 

[Richard Bartrop]

17 hours ago, Mike999 said:

Awful box art, plus an obvious goof.  The eBay Anteek & Junque dealers often try to sell these for big bucks. "RARE! HTF! WRONG BOX! ARGLE-BARGLE!"  You'd think it was a Honus Wagner baseball card. 

But AMT must have printed thousands of these boxes before they caught the error, because I've seen a lot of them over the years.  I don't think I've ever seen the kit sell for any more than a regular '39/'40 Ford Sedan, though.

 

Anyone else wanting to move the "coupe" a little to the right?   It couldn't have been that hard to centre it.

[Casey]

Just now, Richard Bartrop said:

Anyone else wanting to move the "coupe" a little to the right?   It couldn't have been that hard to centre it.

Looks like the whole shebang was moved left to fit in the explosive bubble of information. They could've shrunk the "Ford Coupe" a bit, too, so it wasn't hidden by the model, eh?

[FordRodnKustom]

[Daddyfink]

3 minutes ago, FordRodnKustom said:

Totally real! 

[unclescott58]

2 hours ago, FordRodnKustom said:

Good old Palmer. If you think the box art is bad? Wait until you see what in the box! 

[Junkman]

Yeah, with Palmer I really wonder why they bothered.

[unclescott58]

34 minutes ago, Junkman said:

Yeah, with Palmer I really wonder why they bothered.

I got quite a few Palmer kits as gifts when I was kid. I think their box art was aimed at older non car enthusiasts adults, who would see things like Thunderbirds doing wheelies, and think those were what us car crazy kids wanted. Plus, the Palmer sold for 98 cents. Rather than $2.00 for the good AMT or MPC kits. You can get two Palmer kits for the price of one AMT or MPC. What kid wouldn't be more happy getting two kits? Rather than just one? Talk to old model guys. I don't know of anybody who ever bought Palmer after owning just one. And yet a lot of guys had a few Palmers in their collections. I had several back in the day. Always given to me by someone caring person who knew nothing about cars or models. "Oh, little Scotty will like this. It has a car doing a wheelie on the box. All the kids are in to that now days. Scotty will love it." Wrong! But, one has to be polite and thankful. After all, they think enough of you buy you a gift they thought you would. That's my belief why Palmer bothered. They sold a few. 

[Junkman]

I think Dean Milano had quite a few of them in his kit museum.

[Snake45]

17 minutes ago, unclescott58 said:

 I don't know of anybody who ever bought Palmer after owning just one. And yet a lot of guys had a few Palmers in their collections.

I bought exactly one--their '66 "Mustang GTO." Really. I think right now I have about three or four Palmers in my pile, gotten only through deals on OTHER things I wanted. I'm going to actually build the '66 Corvette, just for a hoot. The others will end up as swap fodder--surely somebody will want them just for nostalgia. 

[Mike999]

Has anyone ever seen this Palmer jewel out of the box? 

 

[cobraman]

Sorry to say I did, oh boy !

[Tom Geiger]

I never thought Palmer box art was bad,  actually the box art guy did a much better job than the kit designers!

We said that Johan kits were designed from factory blueprints... Palmers were designed from memory!

I believe Palmers were sold in a different world than the good AMT / Revell / Monogram etc kits.  I never saw them in hobby shops or in better stores. I remember seeing them in little corner candy stores,  drug stores and luncheonettes,  the kind of place that bought their toys  from a jobber.  

Back when I was a little lad, when I was staying at my grandmother's house and she wanted to play bingo I got dragged along. She'd give me $2 to go over to the luncheonette across the street from the church to buy things to entertain myself.   There were those Palmer kits... I'd get a 99 cent kit,  a tube of glue and a Yoohoo  chocolate drink.  She didn't want me buying soda, but somehow she thought Yoohoo was nutritious!

I'd bring that all back to the church basement and make a gluey mess on the church tables,  they must've loved me!

Anyhoo..   here's an assortment of Palmer box art I've saved over the years.. 

 

 

 

[Mike999]

Thanks for the Palmers.  Here's a 4-car set from Palmer's ugly sister, Premier.  Though Premier did a couple of not-bad kits: the 1/32 scale 1907 Mack stake truck and the 1/25-ish Corvair Rampside.  These 4 were supposed to be 1/32 scale.  Something tells me the kits aren't nearly as good as the box art...