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Flashback: AMT Scirocco


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  • 3 weeks later...

Picked this kit up today and as expected it's a straight reissue. Tires are disappointing, but a much better set can be found in Revell AG's Golf Cabriolet kit. Or you could just do what I'm doing and use a set of Clearly Scale wheels 

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Picked this kit up today and as expected it's a straight reissue. Tires are disappointing, but a much better set can be found in Revell AG's Golf Cabriolet kit. Or you could just do what I'm doing and use a set of Clearly Scale wheels 

Too bad no new tooling.

I think it's better off w/o bumbers, lowered with wide tires and an inline 6 with 3 side drafts.

 

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Revell should do what they did with all their tires when licensing  became an issue. Remove all Ferrari logos and the prancing horse and call it a classic Italian automobile. 

???  It's an AMT kit, not Revell....and a Volkswagen, not a Ferrari... 

Edited by Rob Hall
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Just got mine today. Opened up the box. It looks like a nice little kit. Everything in the box looks great. No major flash at a quick glance. The chrome looks good. And the tires look better than what originally came with the kit back in the 70's. Small tires. But then again, the real car came with small tires and wheels, compared to what we're use to today.

The only problem I see, is how is one suppose to duplicate the plaid upholstery that came in the real cars? The instructions tell you to paint them plaid!

One last thing, anybody know for sure what year this kit is suppose to represent? The car has to be a '76 or '77. It has only one front windshield wiper. The 75's had two. And I think the front end was sightly revised, with the wraparound turn signals for 1978. So unless I hear differently, I'm going to assume it represents the '77 with fuel injection?

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Yeah, Scott, I think it's the 76.5-77 1600 with CIS. The wraparound turn signals and bumpers were 78 on. For whatever reason, the Scirocco got CIS injection mid year 76. Almost bought one, friend beat me to it, I got a 77 Golf 1.6. 

Forgot, the 76.5 CIS cars were all metallic dark brown, tan guts, had gold Scirocco shadow stripe on lower panel

Nice kit, simple but looks nice when done. Great cars.

765_scir.thumb.jpg.d9f46a26ff94724ba944b

Edited by keyser
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Those fed bumpers need immediate ditchage.

The fed bumpers are really no different from European bumpers, other than how they were mounted. Tuck them in closer, that's basically all you need. Go back and read reviews on the car at the time. Volkswagen was proud that they were using the same bumpers on both versions.

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Yeah, Scott, I think it's the 76.5-77 1600 with CIS. The wraparound turn signals and bumpers were 78 on. For whatever reason, the Scirocco got CIS injection mid year 76. Almost bought one, friend beat me to it, I got a 77 Golf 1.6. 

Forgot, the 76.5 CIS cars were all metallic dark brown, tan guts, had gold Scirocco shadow stripe on lower panel

Nice kit, simple but looks nice when done. Great cars.

765_scir.thumb.jpg.d9f46a26ff94724ba944b

I'll try and shed a little bit of light on this:  AMT did two VW kits in the late 70's, shortly before their looming bankruptcy prompted Lesney to step in and buy the company.  The VW Rabbit kit was first, coming out in 1978, done off an actual Rabbit (not photo's & drawings) owned by their then-Art Director, David Wilder (whom I got to know pretty well then, as I was doing a lot of box art models for AMT).  Wilder followed up his Rabbit a year or so later with a Scirocco, which AMT also developed into a model kit, but IIRC, Wilder left the company before the Scirocco kit was released.

Art

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I'll try and shed a little bit of light on this:  AMT did two VW kits in the late 70's, shortly before their looming bankruptcy prompted Lesney to step in and buy the company.  The VW Rabbit kit was first, coming out in 1978, done off an actual Rabbit (not photo's & drawings) owned by their then-Art Director, David Wilder (whom I got to know pretty well then, as I was doing a lot of box art models for AMT).  Wilder followed up his Rabbit a year or so later with a Scirocco, which AMT also developed into a model kit, but IIRC, Wilder left the company before the Scirocco kit was released.

Art

1978? If the Scirocco followed a year later, why didn't they do it with the new front end facelift? The one with the wraparound turn signals and different bumpers? This kit coming out in 1979 would have put it two years behind the times update wise. Bill Coulter and Bob Shelton's "The Directory of Model Car Kits" indicate your right Art, on the AMT Rabbit kit appearing in 1978. And the Scirocco in 1979. I just don't understand why they would bring on a kit with a more than two years old design, when the facelift '78 and then new '79 Scrirocco are out. It would not have been tough to tool the '77 model into a '78-'79.

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1978? If the Scirocco followed a year later, why didn't they do it with the new front end facelift? The one with the wraparound turn signals and different bumpers? This kit coming out in 1979 would have put it two years behind the times update wise. Bill Coulter and Bob Shelton's "The Directory of Model Car Kits" indicate your right Art, on the AMT Rabbit kit appearing in 1978. And the Scirocco in 1979. I just don't understand why they would bring on a kit with a more than two years old design, when the facelift '78 and then new '79 Scrirocco are out. It would not have been tough to tool the '77 model into a '78-'79.

One of those mysteries of the model world..maybe they started the tooling in 77...or someone had a 77 they used as reference...not being that familiar w/ the 1:1, I never noticed the difference in the years until this thread..

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I'll try and shed a little bit of light on this:  AMT did two VW kits in the late 70's, shortly before their looming bankruptcy prompted Lesney to step in and buy the company.  The VW Rabbit kit was first, coming out in 1978, done off an actual Rabbit (not photo's & drawings) owned by their then-Art Director, David Wilder (whom I got to know pretty well then, as I was doing a lot of box art models for AMT).  Wilder followed up his Rabbit a year or so later with a Scirocco, which AMT also developed into a model kit, but IIRC, Wilder left the company before the Scirocco kit was released.

Art

Hiya Art.

The Rabbit kit was correct for any German built Rabbit thru late 79. in '80, Rabbit production started in Pennsylvania, except for Cabriolets and Diesels. Quality sucked, they had square headlights, vertical side markers, and chrome.

75-76 Rabbits carbureted, so the kit is a 77-79 CIS injected motor in  a German body. No external differences, 78-79 had 1500's, 77 had 1600. Consistent with art directors car.

The Scirocco had carb in 75-half of 76, kit has CIS injection and square bumpers like picture, so body is a replica of the 75-77 Scirocco, engine is a 76,5-77. Grille, bumpers changed a lot to wraparounds in 78, so it is an earlier car. 

Scirocco was issued as AMT but had Lesney on box, Baltimore address, so probably 79-80. 

Cant post pic of boxes, but it had Matchbox AMT issue PK4153, right after AMT #2002 issue with Baltimore addy.

Why do I care about this stuff Art? Because cars, I guess. Same as you old friend. 

I know these things like you know early Fords :) Hope you're well.

L

 

Edited by keyser
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1978? If the Scirocco followed a year later, why didn't they do it with the new front end facelift? The one with the wraparound turn signals and different bumpers? This kit coming out in 1979 would have put it two years behind the times update wise. Bill Coulter and Bob Shelton's "The Directory of Model Car Kits" indicate your right Art, on the AMT Rabbit kit appearing in 1978. And the Scirocco in 1979. I just don't understand why they would bring on a kit with a more than two years old design, when the facelift '78 and then new '79 Scrirocco are out. It would not have been tough to tool the '77 model into a '78-'79.

I think for one very simple reason:  AMT's designers and pattern makers were working off an actual car, owned by a private individual (Dave Wilder and his wife), probably without much assistance at all from Volkswagen.  There is a considerable lead time in mastering and tooling up a model car kit, in addition to Lesney taking over control of AMT Corporation during that gestation period.

Art

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