What kit has been repopped most often?

[Jantrix]

Has this ever been investigated? If I had to take a swag, I'd have to say the AMT General Lee, some drag racing icon, a Revell 1st gen Camaro, or the Lindberg/AMT '34 Ford pick-up. Thoughts?

[Tom Geiger]

General Lee is probably number one in kit volume. It's been said it was the first and only kit to sell a million copies.

As far as frequency of repop, some of the early 60s tools have been in the catalog eternally...  Revell Tri-five Chevys, AMT '53 Ford pickup, '56 and '57 Fords, '58 Chevy etc...

And we can thank our lucky stars that these tools were over engineered to survive all these years, much greater usage than was ever thought possible when they were created!

Edited May 1, 2019 by Tom Geiger

[Howard Cohen]

I thought the original ALA KART was the first kit to break the 1 million mark back in the 60s. The AMT '49 Merc has been reissued numerous times, maybe every 7 years since it came out, same at the AMT '57 Chev.  Now a basic run is about 1500 pieces while some runs are 5,000 and a few at 10,000 or 20,000. That is in North America. I wonder what the stats are for Tamiya as they make more than anyone. 

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, Jantrix said:

Has this ever been investigated? If I had to take a swag, I'd have to say the AMT General Lee, some drag racing icon, a Revell 1st gen Camaro, or the Lindberg/AMT '34 Ford pick-up. Thoughts?

No Revell 1st Gen Camaro would even be in the same league with the AMT '57 Chevy, '32 Ford, and so forth. 

[Mike999]

I'd guess the AMT '32 Ford roadster might be in there somewhere.  IIRC, first released in 1959 with fender-mounted spare tires, and re-released, sort of, immediately without the spares.

Sometime in the Sixties, the kit with the fender-mounted spares was released as a FoMoCo promotional kit in an orange-and-white striped box   The same kit was re-issued in 1968 as a Bonnie & Clyde movie tie-in, with a cardboard garage diorama. 

Issued umpteen times since, including a celebrity "Reggie Jackson" kit circa 1976.  It even popped up in the 1990s in an AMT/ERTL "Pro Shop" box. One of the later re-issues is one of the most common and one of the worst - the #6585 AMT-ERTL kit with the built yellow car on the box.  Inside, it has no stock tires, loads of flash, and is fittingly molded in Turd Brown plastic.

 

[Snake45]

4 minutes ago, Mike999 said:

I'd guess the AMT '32 Ford roadster might be in there somewhere.  IIRC, first released in 1959 with fender-mounted spare tires, and re-released, sort of, immediately without the spares.

Sometime in the Sixties, the kit with the fender-mounted spares was released as a FoMoCo promotional kit in an orange-and-white striped box   The same kit was re-issued in 1968 as a Bonnie & Clyde movie tie-in, with a cardboard garage diorama. 

Issued umpteen times since, including a celebrity "Reggie Jackson" kit circa 1976.  It even popped up in the 1990s in an AMT/ERTL "Pro Shop" box. One of the later re-issues is one of the most common and one of the worst - the #6585 AMT-ERTL kit with the built yellow car on the box.  Inside, it has no stock tires, loads of flash, and is fittingly molded in Turd Brown plastic.

 

I'm looking for the tonneau cover from an early issue of that kit, as I have the "Pro Shop" boxing that doesn't include it, and I've decided I'd like to try to build it as the retro/nostalgic Altered. 

[Mike999]

4 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

I'm looking for the tonneau cover from an early issue of that kit, as I have the "Pro Shop" boxing that doesn't include it, and I've decided I'd like to try to build it as the retro/nostalgic Altered. 

Hmm.  A mystery! This might help you.  An old thread from 2014 had this to say:

"I have about every version of this kit, and I could only find the tonneau in the candy-stripe box issues, the Ford dealer promo and the one with the red "highboy drag racing version" on the side."

 

[Draggon]

39 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

I'm looking for the tonneau cover from an early issue of that kit, as I have the "Pro Shop" boxing that doesn't include it, and I've decided I'd like to try to build it as the retro/nostalgic Altered. 

Replicas and Miniatures may have that. Take a look at Craig Stansfield's fotki album: https://public.fotki.com/crstan/replican-and-miniat/

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Mike999 said:

Hmm.  A mystery! This might help you.  An old thread from 2014 had this to say:

"I have about every version of this kit, and I could only find the tonneau in the candy-stripe box issues, the Ford dealer promo and the one with the red "highboy drag racing version" on the side."

 

 

55 minutes ago, Draggon said:

Replicas and Miniatures may have that. Take a look at Craig Stansfield's fotki album: https://public.fotki.com/crstan/replican-and-miniat/

Thanks for the leads. Looks like I might just have to make one out of wide masking tape, or something. 

[oldcarfan]

On 5/1/2019 at 8:38 AM, Jantrix said:

 

My guess for most repopped kit would be the AMT 1953 Ford F100. It seems like that kit has always been on sale! Not that I'm complaining, I love it.