Thinkful Wishing about Round2 Models, future Kits.

[mikos]

2 hours ago, Can-Con said:

I'm still thoroughly convinced Racing Champions only bought Ertl [AMT/MPC] for the NASCAR licensing and everything else was disposable, including everything associated with plastic models.

But, no, the MPC '69 Camaro may be bad but nothing is "Monogram '69 Camaro bad".  😄

The MPC ‘69 Camaro was the result of too many rounds of modifying the tooling for funny car/circle track race car issues.  The Monogram ‘69 Camaro was just bad from the start.   I think it was originally intended to be a simple processed plastic toy for kids and they decided to make a model kit out of it.  Actually, I feel bad for the hired builder who had to assemble and detail the model kit for the box art photo.

Edited Thursday at 02:59 AM by mikos

[Stef]

3 hours ago, oldcarfan said:

You're right about that! At the time I was prejudiced against Lindberg because I had been given a bunch of their old kits to play around with. My uncle had bought them back in the day and then lost interest when he discovered girls. Anyway, some of those kits were almost at Palmer levels of crummy to a beginner with few skills.

Heh, we've all been there, Gary! Right you are; it's all about "point of entry". In the 70s, many old 1/32 Lindberg kits were pretty rough for a 10 year old. That bias carried with me into the early 90s, until Scale Auto raved about a bunch of all-new Lindberg kits, except that THEY WERE TOO BIG! Everyone begged Lindy to go 1/25, and so they did.

And what followed was an insane onslaught of state-of-the-art kits of long sought after subjects: 61 Impala, 66 Chevelle, 64 Dodge 330s, 53 Fords, 64 Belvedere, 67 Olds 442, 97 F-150, and more.

And so, by 1999 or 2000 when Lindy announced their upcoming 48 Lincoln, I was so excited. Home run after home run, Lindberg could do no wrong.

Heh.

Got mine, opened the box, and I was shocked, horrified, apoplectic, and crestfallen by what I saw inside the box. To me, it was utter trash. Unbuildable. Unworthy. Beneath me. An insult. Waste of time. How could Lindberg betray me like this? How could they get this so wrong? I immediately threw it in the garbage, and swore off Lindberg forever.

That was 25 years ago, and I've since learned that 48 Lincoln kit was actually an old Pyro, and Lindberg merely reissued it.

So yeah, "point-of-entry". I came into the new Lindberg not realizing their extensive back catalog, and was not prepared for something older and sucky. Sometimes old kits are mega awesome, and new ones are baffling, and then there's everything inbetween.

A couple years ago, I tracked down a decent 48 Lincoln buildup, and I plan to one day take it apart, clean it up, and do as nice a job on it as I can, warts and all.

And having said all that, I don't get angry at what's in the box anymore; I just realize there are SQUILLIONS of kits of all kinds of vintages, and I just enjoy 'em for what they are. If I want to go the extra mile, I have. I do. I will. And if I don't want to go the extra mile, just as well.

And yeah, girls have a funny way of making us lose interest in models!

[Can-Con]

17 hours ago, mikos said:

The MPC ‘69 Camaro was the result of too many rounds of modifying the tooling for funny car/circle track race car issues. 

Oh yea. A lot of cowboys had their way with that tooling. 

Doesn't help that it started off as the '67/'68 kit either. They tried but the front fenders and rear 1/4s are just too different between the years to make it work on that kit.

[Robberbaron]

On 7/30/2025 at 7:38 PM, Can-Con said:

I'm still thoroughly convinced Racing Champions only bought Ertl [AMT/MPC] for the NASCAR licensing and everything else was disposable, including everything associated with plastic models.

But, no, the MPC '69 Camaro may be bad but nothing is "Monogram '69 Camaro bad".  😄

Dunno, this is the RC2 F&F issue.  Don't see a single thing that looks right on this body.  At least the taillights/backend of the Monogram looks kinda/sorta okay.

By the way, the above was built by our own late, great Snake45, who knew a few things about first gen Camaros.  According to him, each reissue of the old MPC got progressively worse/more deformed.

Let's just say the Monogram and MPC Camaros are each different flavors of hot garbage.

[av405]

On 7/29/2025 at 12:06 PM, T-Ray said:

You're right on that. I apologize for saying that as what I had written and what I meant were two different things. What I had meant to say was that there might be some interest for the accessories in the Police version, things like the light bar, cab divider, shotgun, etc. but the car in the kit itself would be inaccurate to a police spec Taurus. (Does anyone even make the parts necessary to convert the SHO into a base spec car?) 

 

On 7/29/2025 at 12:12 PM, Rob Hall said:

It would be an extensive conversion kit... engine, body, interior, etc..never seen a standard or police Taurus conversion set. 

I recently built a curbside conversion of the AMT Taurus into a police-package version of the Arizona Highway Patrol. For that, I had Wylde from canuck3D design some police wheels and L base model front and rear bumpers. For this conversion, it is important to use the 1990-1991 AMT Taurus kits (in my case, the Rescue 911 version) as they contain the accurate 1990-1991 only dash and steering wheel that coincided with the 1990-1991 police-package Taurus. Some other body work was also done to "de-SHO" the kit and I used the police vent decals only found on the CHP version to round out the look. As I mentioned before, this was strictly a curbside build and the engine bay and underside aren't meant to be seen as they are not accurate. It's not perfect, but it's close enough.