1/25 Revell Mustang 5.0 LX Drag Racer

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Actually there are those who would say (and I might agree) that the greenhouse of the 1/24 Cobra is enough under scale that it's probably closer to 1/25. Be that as it may...

One very nice surprise in this drag kit, for those who find the unchanged body agreeable enough, is that the entire stock car is also included, down to the stock hood, all four wheels and tires, stock interior, and the stock intake. So you can determine your own mix between street and strip if you like.

Yup, no power adders as people have guessed from the bracket - got to raid your '98 Saleens for that. Roll cage, cowl hood, two slicks and four added five-spoke competition wheels, and a custom intake presenting a triangular upper surface - looks like the Edelbrock Performer if my guess is right. Deck-mounted wing, straight pipes and the tubular front suspension arms too.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Chuck Kourouklis

[martinfan5]

Actually there are those who would say (and I might agree) that the greenhouse of the 1/24 Cobra is enough under scale that it's probably closer to 1/25. Be that as it may...

One very nice surprise in this drag kit, for those who find the unchanged body agreeable enough, is that the entire stock car is also included, down to the stock hood, all four wheels and tires, stock interior, and the stock intake. So you can determine your own mix between street and strip if you like.

Yup, no power adders as people have guessed from the bracket - got to raid your '98 Saleens for that. Roll cage, cowl hood, two slicks and four added five-spoke competition wheels, and a custom intake presenting a triangular upper surface - looks like the Edelbrock Performer if my guess is right. Deck-mounted wing, straight pipes and the tubular front suspension arms too.

So its a 2n1 kit

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Yup, 2-in-1 at least. Totally stock, totally drag, and many points of your choice between - you want a stock-look sleeper that's got it where it counts, i halfway wonder if you can close the stock hood over the performance intake. Looks feasible.

[martinfan5]

Yup, 2-in-1 at least. Totally stock, totally drag, and many points of your choice between - you want a stock-look sleeper that's got it where it counts, i halfway wonder if you can close the stock hood over the performance intake. Looks feasible.

That is really cool, I know that is going to be a big plus for many people, smart move on Revell's part

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Yeah, it's got more parts and far more builder-determined variety than the SSP. It's enough to make you wonder why this one wasn't the Special Edition.

It actually manages a decent amount of kool even with its funhouse-mirror body(!)

Man, what this sucker coulda BEEN...

[martinfan5]

Man, what this sucker coulda BEEN...

You got that right my friend

[bismarck]

Yep. Chuck, I have to admit, I just got the kit, and this body is.....huh...yeah... . It almost looks like it has a mild chop. While a chop job looks great on a 49 merc, not so much on a '90 LX. having bought the kit, lived and learned. I can see a lot more clearly your point. And I also agree with you X1000 on "man what might have been!!!" While some things on it are easily fixed, there comes a point when the amount of work needed just overwhelms the desire to even attempt it. I'll still attempt to make lemonade outta this one, but man, if they would correct this body, this kit would be a sales MONSTER.

Edited June 29, 2014 by bismarck

[FASTBACK340]

Here's an example of WHY I'll never buy this kit. If it was a NICE LX `Stang, I might have purchased it as they are as common as roaches and would make for a nice slump-buster quick build. But being a Mopar guy there's little interest is buying an incorrect $25+ kit. I'll buy the S&M Cuda for sure, buy no way on the Mustang after hearing the consensus.

Too bad. Maybe Mobius will do a nice one?

[Harry P.]

One very nice surprise in this drag kit, for those who find the unchanged body agreeable enough, is that the entire stock car is also included, down to the stock hood, all four wheels and tires, stock interior, and the stock intake. So you can determine your own mix between street and strip if you like.

Is the fact that the model also includes all the parts needed to be built 100% stock (a true 2-in-1 kit) mentioned anywhere on the box? If not, why not? Seems to me it's a good selling point, and would cost zero. Just a little burst/blurb on the box.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Nope, nowhere, Harry. It's just a little "Wow!" left for you to find out on perusing the contents.

Yeah, Kevin, that's exactly it - that "oh, soooo close" feeling you get taking the whole kit in. There are other little niggles - clamps on the stock tailpipes? - but with the right body, this kit would've been so bad-a$$. Such GREAT planning and design, to end up so undone by the body's execution.

Couple things - you can indeed verify an Edelbrock Performer intake complete with engraved logo once you pull it from the baggie, and there's a set of race headers too. There's also an uncovered distributor. and as many have observed, the tires you run up front are the stock ones from the SSP.

The Special Ed kit was essentially a stock car with a go at a light bar, a spot, and a radio - kinda "meh" more than compelling. THIS kit is so nicely conceived, it really makes you crave that MasterCaster body. Heck, more than anything, I wish I had the funds to cut some steel from Mike Schnur's pattern and run plastic shell replacements and windows at some ten-fifteen bucks a pop or so, since they ain't getting' off the thumb in Elk Grove Village.

Wonder if Pegasus Models would ever consider a venture like that...

[Harry P.]

Nope, nowhere, Harry. It's just a little "Wow!" left for you to find out on perusing the contents.

I guess it does come as a nice surprise to the buyer... but why no mention of it on the box art? For a cost of ZERO, it might have moved a few more units. It certainly wouldn't hurt sales. Seems like an absolute no-brainer to me to advertise that it is in fact an honest-to-goodness "2-n-1" and you're getting a bit more "bang for the buck" when you buy this kit.

[bismarck]

Its like painting the Mona Lisa, and then drawing a mustache on it!! to be fair, maybe a full beard too. No offense to any bearded builders here.

Edited June 29, 2014 by bismarck

[Dave]

Nine pages of various comments, rants, opinions, thought , ideas, HOW ABOUT SOME PICTURES?????? Please and thanks, etc.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

That was good for a laugh.

It goes even deeper than that, Mr P - this latest version is actually a more effective 2-in-1 than the Special Ed squad car, which was really more like a 1+.

I guess you're not totally bereft of clues - if you pay attention to parts count, you'll see that this one mysteriously has 12 more pieces by Revell's reckoning. But nope, nothing like the nice bold emblazoned graphic it deserves.

Something it now occurs to me you might not yet have seen a lot of, Kevin, but which sort of explains my attitude: some guys around here so lose their mud at the sight of any kit criticism that in addition to insisting you're less of a modeler for pointing it out, they'll spout such helpful platitudes as "IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T BUY IT." Has not ever been, nor will it ever be, ANYTHING but rocket fuel for well-earned snark in forums like this, but you can still catch them flinging that chimp scat around as if it somehow gets less inane with repetition.

Clearly, they'd rather some of us deny our contributions to Revell's bottom line than hear anything less than sunshine and rainbows about a kit, and as it happens, if I'd been stupid enough to take that seriously, I might not have these pictures to post.

After ruminating for a minute on all that rocket surgery, though, I've decided to put 'em up anyway. Don't thank me, I'm a giver.

New chrome:

Wheels and a dash-mounted tach, I suppose - no boost to measure after all. Does have an option of gauge faces on the decal sheet.

Here you see the gate opened for the tube crossmember/suspension on the axle tree. On the left is a new tree with Edlebrock intake parts, headers visibly wider than stock, and the exposed distributor.

This new tree has the high-back racing seats, roll cage, cowl induction hood, and the decklid wing (mounts like a spoiler, seems a bit big to be called one, though).

Might have seen these slicks before - Impala or Nova, perhaps? Need to check, might be new...

Decal sheet, which in addition to all the cool aftermarket logos also includes rear quarter rubber spatter if you elect to go with something other than the provided 2-color body graphics.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Chuck Kourouklis

[Chuck Kourouklis]

WOOOPS, forgot one!

Off-road exhaust, crossmember brackets for the new front suspension, heavy duty diff cover.

26 new parts in all - account for the cop car bits in the Special Ed and you get close to Revell's 12-piece spread between it and this one.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Chuck Kourouklis

[bismarck]

Those slicks look like the ones from the 69 nova. I just ordered a set of resin drag stars too. Will the stock hood fit over that plenum? Yeah. I was part of the "Don't like it, Don't buy it" camp till I bought my kit then lived and learned . This crow could use alittle salt!!! lol!! Man, these parts look so GOOD!!! It just makes me heartsick to think of that body shell....

Edited June 29, 2014 by bismarck

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Hey, man, no reflection on you.

It's thems what refuse to evolve in their thinking need the crow...

[bismarck]

The more I look the kit over, I can see why opinions are so strong for one side or the other, but just from my perspective, I get the "slow burn" from this kit like I haven't from any others. Its hard to explain. I look at all the stuff they got right, then to drop the ball in the home stretch....SSSOOOOO CLOSE!!!! Count me in for two or three if you start re-popping that shell!!

[martinfan5]

Hey Chuck, nice of you to post the pics , is it me ?, or the picture?, but it seems like the chrome is a little on the dull side, which that is not a complaint, as we all know , kit chrome is way to flashy in most cases

[Chuck Kourouklis]

No, photo artifact I think - chrome's pretty shiny, Jonathan.

[Robberbaron]

I guess it does come as a nice surprise to the buyer... but why no mention of it on the box art? For a cost of ZERO, it might have moved a few more units. It certainly wouldn't hurt sales. Seems like an absolute no-brainer to me to advertise that it is in fact an honest-to-goodness "2-n-1" and you're getting a bit more "bang for the buck" when you buy this kit.

There seems to be some kind of disconnect at Revell between the folks that design the packaging and the actual kit design teams. (Not sure if I'm really correctly describing the parties involved.) I agree - this should be an absolute no brainer, why would you NOT mention this?

A lot of words come to my mind on this issue, but the most appropriate one is probably ignorance. Whoever is responsible for this box art apparently doesn't know what is actually included in this kit, and/or they don't understand that having multiple build options is a major selling point that should be listed on the box. Whenever I'm in a situation where I need to choose between 2 kits that I'm considering purchasing, the tie-breaker is whether or not one of them offers optional parts or multiple build options.

In the Special Edition 68 Charger, I think one of the coolest features was the addition of the baseline steel wheels and poverty caps. Yet there was no pictures of these new parts, or even a description! Why go through the trouble of designing and tooling up new parts, and then not even let people know that they are included? Revell seems to do this the most recently, but even Round 2 seems to shoot themselves in the foot sometimes. Take the newly released Polar Lights Spiderman Volkswagen, with no mention of all the optional parts, including 5 (!) different wheel options.

Edited July 1, 2014 by Robberbaron

[niteowl7710]

It's not just Revell and/or Round 2 that has that "problem", Aoshima & Fujimi are famous for including rashes of spare parts with their kits that came from earlier/other versions of their kits without mentioning them anywhere other than the instruction sheet where those parts will be "grayed out" on the runner layout and marked with *Not for Use

I have a Evo VII that has two sets of seats, three steering wheels, two sets of wheels...pretty much every Fujimi & Aoshima Skyline/GT-R kit has at LEAST two sets, if not three or four of wheels included. Aoshima has also made a practice when reissuing kits of including EVERY optional part EVERY version of the kit ever had. Good examples would the the RAV4 and CRV kits which had not only the regular factory stock parts show on the box, but multiple sets of wheels, a second off-road set of tires, plus all the bike racks, brush guards, running boards, etc that came in a separate "Off Road Options" version of those kits.

Another example of the "silent carryover" are people who constantly knock the American SATCO versions of the early 90s 4Runner, Pathfinder & Montero into the triple digit stratosphere, but the $24 current versions of the HiLux Surf Wide, Terrano R3M, and Pajero ALL carry over the entirety of the LHD "Americanized" parts. There are no decals for the export versions, but those are easier to come up with than LHD dashboards and windshield wipers...and even if you had to pay someone to do them for you wouldn't cost the additional $75 those SATCO kits cost on eBay.

[Brett Barrow]

As someone who deals with the general public on a daily basis, I can tell you one reason not to call the new kit a 2 n 1 would be to avoid confusion with the existing 2 n 1 kit.

And had they used the Jairus Watson box art for a "2 n 1" version, then the question would be whether there are 2 drag versions, or a drag and stock... I can see where it would lead.

My experience is that the "kitchen table" crowd is somewhat confused by multiple options, and often feels they left something out or missed something in the instructions when there are pieces left over. I've even had people call me - "I followed the directions and there are pieces left over!..."

[Danno]

I can see what Brett is saying. When we've done Make-N-Take events with the Revell '69 Camaro SnapTite kit, it drives the OCD types nuts. The kit's clear sprue includes a headlight part for the standard grille version, but the kit has an RS/SS grille and does not need the clear headlight bar. Drives the soccer-moms and the uninitiated-types who don't know Camaros absolutely goofy. They can't figure out where 'that one part' goes and they can't find it on the instruction sheet.

[Luc Janssens]

Remaining parts may be discarded

Which to us the lunatic fringe read like; for parts box