AMT '75 AMC Gremlin X

[Dave Van]

Thanks for the info Casey......wonder if it really will have a roof rack or someone used a Fresh Cherrys die cast for a stand in......

[gray07]

Gremlins are cool cars, i had a 76 levi gremlin, straight 6 with a stick, i drove that car for along time, i love those cars.

Edited November 7, 2012 by gray07

[GeeBee]

I hope we get these this side of the pond, as I like to build models that are just a little bit different

[GeeBee]

I passed my driving test in one of those, same colour as well, Orange Red ....

[Casey]

[Tye Brown]

Is this the kit I need to build the AMC drag car man? The Wally Booth car man or will the '76 kit do?? I'm confused, but that's not hard to do man lol

Peace

[Don Sikora II]

I bought the '75 Gremlin at Model Empire earlier this week.

[Mark]

I have the F/C Gremlin kit. The front grille and bumper is a separate casting that was not on the chrome tree.....so if it was still in the kit it would be nice for R2 to throw it in. It would work well on a Pro Stock build!

The early Gremlin funny car (first released in '71) had two grille/bumper units. One is on the plated tree and is 100% stock (even has engraved headlamp detail). The unplated one has no engraved detail, it's supposed to make the body more closely resemble a one-piece fiberglass unit. I'm not sure which early Gremlin I want; Wally Booth's '72, or H.L. Shahan's '71 match race car (Gremlin wheelbase was too short to run legal Pro Stock prior to '72).

[Casey]

Hmmm, I wonder if Round2 is adding the other hockey stick Gremlin X decals to this kit?

Guess so:

[spkgibson]

Looks like another cool kit to buy.....The 74 and the 75's are basically the same cars.....So I'll probably buy 2 of them and another '76 ...Thanks for sharing the kit with us.

[Casey]

I picked up one of these the other day, and these appear to be the parts which differ from the earlier '76 release:

Round2 did included a 2"x6" Gremlin mini bumper sticker, the mini box, and the different decal sheet shown earlier in this topic, but yeah, it's 98% the same as the '76 version.

[Robberbaron]

My LHS finally got one of these little buggers in, so I picked one up (got a '76 last year). Did a quick comparo between my kits, and both my '75 and '76 have the 2-barrel and 4-barrel intakes, in addition to the tunnel ram. So the only differences in hard parts that I'm seeing between mine are the header panel and grille.

Aside from the obvious box differences, the decal sheets, and the 1:1 style bumper sticker, the only other differences I'm seeing are in the actual plastic they used for each issue. My '76 was molded in conventional white styrene, while this '75 is molded in kind of a cream-colored off-white. I want to call it pre-aged, since it reminds me of the way a vintage built-up kit starts to yellow over time. Not sure if that's Round 2's intention for using that shade of styrene, but I kind of dig it for some reason. It seems like a lot of their kits that I've been buying recently have been molded in this off-white shade.

While the tinted windows in the '76 kit were a dark smoke color (think '80s MPC), the tinted windows in the '75 are kind of a pale, bluish-lavender tint (really pretty weird, actually - maybe call it periwinkle?). Since both kits come with conventional clear windows too, the tinted ones are more of a novelty to me.

A couple things I haven't seen mentioned yet: the side marker lights that should be on the '75 header panel are non-existent, so you will have to cut these in if you want your build to be accurate. Everyone who built the '76 seemed to comment about how the header panel was too wide for the body. It seems like the '75 header panel is the same width as the '76, so I'm expecting the same problem on this one.

I also don't think I've seen anyone mention the fact that the vents that should be in the C-pillar (behind the quarter window) are missing. I didn't notice that at first when I bought the '76, but both bodies are the same, and the C-pillars are totally smooth. Kind of a disappointment, since it would be tough to carve in 4 perfectly parallel grooves behind each quarter window to correct this. Using the stripe decals in each kit would mostly disguise this problem, but it would have been nice if this detail was there.

Not sure if the original issues had this or not, or if it's something they decided to skip when they restored the tool back to stock. Right now the body shell is kind of generic - I wonder if they plan to tool up additional bumpers/grilles to do earlier model years? Might just plan on including decals to disguise the C-pillars for each release ('70 thru '73 had horizontal vents, '74+ had the diagonal vents that followed the angle of the quarter windows)

[unclescott58]

I have the original 1975 Gremlin. And from I can see, repop is exactly the same as original.

Scott

[AC Norton]

My LHS finally got one of these little buggers in, so I picked one up (got a '76 last year). Did a quick comparo between my kits, and both my '75 and '76 have the 2-barrel and 4-barrel intakes, in addition to the tunnel ram. So the only differences in hard parts that I'm seeing between mine are the header panel and grille.

 

Aside from the obvious box differences, the decal sheets, and the 1:1 style bumper sticker, the only other differences I'm seeing are in the actual plastic they used for each issue. My '76 was molded in conventional white styrene, while this '75 is molded in kind of a cream-colored off-white. I want to call it pre-aged, since it reminds me of the way a vintage built-up kit starts to yellow over time. Not sure if that's Round 2's intention for using that shade of styrene, but I kind of dig it for some reason. It seems like a lot of their kits that I've been buying recently have been molded in this off-white shade.

 

While the tinted windows in the '76 kit were a dark smoke color (think '80s MPC), the tinted windows in the '75 are kind of a pale, bluish-lavender tint (really pretty weird, actually - maybe call it periwinkle?). Since both kits come with conventional clear windows too, the tinted ones are more of a novelty to me.

 

A couple things I haven't seen mentioned yet: the side marker lights that should be on the '75 header panel are non-existent, so you will have to cut these in if you want your build to be accurate. Everyone who built the '76 seemed to comment about how the header panel was too wide for the body. It seems like the '75 header panel is the same width as the '76, so I'm expecting the same problem on this one.

 

I also don't think I've seen anyone mention the fact that the vents that should be in the C-pillar (behind the quarter window) are missing. I didn't notice that at first when I bought the '76, but both bodies are the same, and the C-pillars are totally smooth. Kind of a disappointment, since it would be tough to carve in 4 perfectly parallel grooves behind each quarter window to correct this. Using the stripe decals in each kit would mostly disguise this problem, but it would have been nice if this detail was there.

 

Not sure if the original issues had this or not, or if it's something they decided to skip when they restored the tool back to stock. Right now the body shell is kind of generic - I wonder if they plan to tool up additional bumpers/grilles to do earlier model years? Might just plan on including decals to disguise the C-pillars for each release ('70 thru '73 had horizontal vents, '74+ had the diagonal vents that followed the angle of the quarter windows)

.....interesting post, as I just now cracked open my 1975 gremlin, and, unlike the 76 gremlin I am presently working on, this 1975 is molded in that nice cream, off white plastic, as you mention yours is, and I  dig that as well...personally, I would buy one more of the 75 car, but not the 76, I just like the grille and the decal sheet, as the decals in the 76s have a flat, dull finish for some reason.... maybe these are a short run in that cream color,,,very cool, I think...........the ace........

Edited August 6, 2015 by AC Norton
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[Robberbaron]

...unlike the 76 gremlin I am presently working on, this 1975 is molded in that nice cream, off white plastic, as you mention yours is, and I  dig that as well...personally, I would buy one more of the 75 car, but not the 76, I just like the grille and the decal sheet, as the decals in the 76s have a flat, dull finish for some reason.... maybe these are a short run in that cream color,,,very cool, I think...........the ace........

The reissues that I bought within the last year of the AMT '63 Corvette and '36 Ford, as well as the MPC Pacer were all molded in that off-white plastic.  Think my Ohio George Ranchero might have been, too.  They've been using it a lot recently.

PS:  Gotta get used to this new quote system!  Not sure what I did, but turned out pretty funky.  Gotta read the owner's manual...

Edited August 7, 2015 by Robberbaron

[AC Norton]

....DECAL ALERT on the 1975 gremlin sheet.....be aware that your nice red  hockey stick striping is really only useful on a white paint job...these stripes have solid white print thru the lines, so used on another color, the white backing will show where your body color should be visible...just thought I would mention this, boys.......the ace........

Edited August 10, 2015 by AC Norton
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[1972coronet]

....DECAL ALERT on the 1975 gremlin sheet.....be aware that your nice red  hockey stick striping is really only useful on a white paint job...these stripes have solid white print thru the lines, so used on another color, the white backing will show where your body color should be visible...just thought I would mention this, boys.......the ace........

Is the white pretty solid or is it at all opaque ? Reason I ask is that , what would "prevent" a Gremlin owner from adding pinstriping to the factory decals ? I've seen exactly that on some 70's customs (original cars) ; the one which comes to mind is Zack Reynolds' 1971 Hemi'Cuda hardtop . When it was new , he had some-one outline the Billboard stripes in white . For the life of me , I cannot find any images of the car in its as-found condition ...

[AC Norton]

..............no, the white is quite solid,,,so your decal will show that on any body color except white, unfortunately....the ace....

[Robberbaron]

A.C., thanks for the heads up on those stripes.  Whenever I would eventually get around to building this one,  I had been planning on either black or silver to go with those red stripes.

At least now I know that won't work, as opposed to when I'd be placing the first stripe!

[AC Norton]

....most happy to throw that out there, because if, as you mention, Robert,,,one was planning a build to use these on another color, all that planning and work may end up a big disappointment once those stripes were laid onto your chosen paint job. the 76 gremlin kit, as you certainly know, has the 3 colors to choose from, and they do not suffer from the same problem. not sure if an aftermarket decal maker offers other Gremlin striping, but maybe we should lobby for it.....the sad part is that those AMT decals are such nice quality, however a white car is really the only answer if those red guys are slapped on....the ace......

[spencer1984]

Huh, they did the same thing on the stripes for their Jack Reacher Chevelle.  I thought it was just a one-kit problem, but it sounds like their decal designer(s) forgot to do the knockout on multiple sheets...

[AC Norton]

Huh, they did the same thing on the stripes for their Jack Reacher Chevelle.  I thought it was just a one-kit problem, but it sounds like their decal designer(s) forgot to do the knockout on multiple sheets...

.......good point , Bill. for the Gremlin guys it means you end up buying an aftermarket sheet, if white is not the color of choice for your build. ..the ace...

[DaveM]

I have a dumb question... I don't have my '76 Gremlin kits handy, but isn't the '76 stripe the same as the '75 stripe with the horizontal part extended to the rear of the car?  If I carefully trimmed the extra part off of the '76 decal, wouldn't I basically have a '75 hockey stick stripe?  I ask this because the '76 came with two or three colors of stripes IIRC.  Since I ave a '76 and two '75s, I could probably end up striping them all.  

The more disturbing question is, "Why do I have 3 Gremlin kits?"...

Edited August 17, 2015 by DaveM
I am apparently getting too old to make complete sentences!

[AC Norton]

well, Dave,,,,you could trim the 76 stripes, however you may loose your outer pinstripe by doing this, unless you play around piecing one together.... how do you solve this...well, buy an aftermarket decal from gooche, as they make the 74-75 hockey sticks in red and black,,,,or, build a 76 instead, using one of the 3 on that sheet, or lastly, build your 75 in white, thus the red hockey sticks will be perfect.....by the way, we have a gremlin build off starting up using the 75 or 76 amt kits...interested in jumping in with the other 6 or 7 guys committed now....the ace..........oh, no questions are dumb , by the way,,all of us have concerns about kits and subject we are not sure of.....

Edited August 17, 2015 by AC Norton
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