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AMT, MPC Cars & Trucks: The Devil Is In The Details
Thursday, February 11, 2016
OK, all you car and truck modelers: I’ve been taking some heat, both internally and also from emails coming in. No, not about suicide chicken wings, but regarding our blog and Facebook pages; being “limited” to sci-fi subject matter. I cannot contest this. So, I’m going to try and improve on the situation once and for all, with some posts for those of you who like things that run on gasoline as opposed to dilithium crystals. I commend Jamie to no end for the time and effort he finds and puts into his sci-fi and figural posts. He’s done an incredible job.
My plan is to keep you informed on notable things we’re doing in the car and truck realm, and give you a glimpse of the details you may not even be aware of. The Retro Deluxe™ idea was developed to inject real excitement and delight into the AMT & MPC kits we produce. It’s very rarely “just another reissue.” Take the Surf Woody for example: did you know we’ve retooled all-new, narrow “pie crust” cheater slicks which very accurately represent the dual rear tires on the 1:1 car? Check out the images – these babies even have the double pinstripe on them! They’re absolutely beautiful. (Side note: the front tires in the Surf Woody kit come with matching double stripes.) You’re going to find the new slicks, with different pad printing and lettering, in other kits as well… a certain “Mod Rod” that’s coming soon will have ’em!
In addition to late breaking news, I’ll do my best every so often, to select a question or two to reply on. However, please understand that I cannot answer questions about whether a tool exists or not, or what condition it’s in; or will we ever tool such and such, etc. We’re not at liberty to divulge information on tooling, primarily from a business perspective: Why freely tell our competition what we do or do not have? Secondly, isn’t it much more exciting for everyone when a forty year old kit unexpectedly gets announced? I think so! Just when you thought you’d never see it again…
Until next time, grab the glue… it’s all you!
I’ve been building 1:25th scale models of all kinds CONTINUOSLY since the summer of 1964. I’ve seen it ALL !
Yes, I realize you don’t want or need questions regarding “old molds”. And for a senior citizen like me, I remember well from my youth your ’66 Buick Skylark, ’67 Mercury Cougar, and the greatest: your 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado. They were MASTERPIECES of Styrene ART !! Thank you for all your releases. You can count on my continuing purchases. BTW, since oil has dropped significantly in price, how come retail kit prices are STILL skyrocketing? Just wonderin’.
Prices for everything overseas, but most especially labor, are rising – quickly. We are constantly battling to get it reduced. Every time a new quote comes in, I wince. I will pose the question to our production facility regarding oil and see what they say.
EXCELLENT WORK again my friend! More reasons to clear some more room in the storage area!
While I’m primarily an SF modeler, I do enjoy the occasional car or truck kit (and tank, and plane, and ship, and sub…) as well, and I have to say, I’ve been taking great glee at the classic kits you guys have been rolling out (Studebaker Avanti, Man from UNCLE Piranha and a great many more). By all means, keep up the good work there as well.
Something I’d personally love to see again are the 1/43 scale heavy truck kits. They were nicely detailed for the scale, and didn’t eat up a lot of shelf space.
There’s an old MPC model I never knew existed until a few years ago and would like to see it be reissued, the Christies 1911 fire truck.
Thanks for the release of some of the AMT and MPC vintage car kits. I’ve especially enjoyed the return of some of the classic drag racing kits. The Garlits and Young American dragsters along with the Kalitta and Beswick funny cars are welcome returns. Hope to see some more of those Drag racing kits. Some of the old MPC pro stocks would be nice if the tooling still exists. THe updates like the improved decals for the Garlits dragster or new parts for the Cosmic Charger are greatly appreciated. The new tires for the Surf Woody are proof that Round 2 really does care about these old kits.
I would love to see these narrow cheater slicks available in a parts pack. I build early to mid 1960’s hotrodded street cars / NHRA stock class cars and I am always in need of cheater slicks. These look amazing.
Parts Pack – please make them a reality !!!
Would buy a bunch of them ..
for tires make U ROYS TIRES .
How about re-tooling the 1970 1/2 Camaro. It is a nice kit, but I’m tired of it and won’t be buying any more. With minimal changes such as high back bucket seats and trunk lid script, it could be a 1972 or 1973. Change the seats and rear window and you could have a 1974. Make any of them (including the 1970) a non-RS version with a full front bumper, or a vinyl top and you have so many possibilities. I know I’d order a bunch!
I’ve been building modelcar and truck kits since 1963. Only AMT kits as I grew up on the 3-in-1 annuals during the 1960’s… I never cared for the “other” brands and rarely bought anything but AMT. I know a lot of the annual kits molds got modified to the next year to save money on mold production (ex: 64 T-bird to 65 and 66 T-bird) but would surely love to see some of the original 1960’s 3-in-1 kits resurrected. I’ve loved customizing over the years and those 3-in-1 kits were the bomb for me. Would love to see any of them again.
How about pad printing some “Vogue” whitewall tires with the white/gold stripe sidewalls. They look great on Lincolns and Cadillacs and how about the old gold stripe tires from the mid-60’s to match the red stripe tires that you recently released in the partspacks. Also, How about some pad-printed B.F. Goodrich Radial T/A’s with raised white letters. They would be cool too, especially on late 60’s/early 70’s musclecars… I know you have M&H slicks now available but something other than just Goodyear and Firestone street tires would be nice, even something Generic like Pro-Trac’s or something totally made-up like AMT POLY RADIAL or MPC RADIAL 500’S for example. I think the raised white lettering adds a lot to the realism of the model cars.
Look forward to getting a few sets of these in the form of an AMT Parts Pack.
I hope to see ALL your terrific new tire releases in Parts Packs (including the Gold Line tires like the ones in your latest AMT ’58 Impala kit (AMT946)).
Thank you for the Muscle Car “Red Line” Tires AMT Parts Pack (AMTPP013), by the way. I appreciate all your new tire releases and kit restorations.
Folks,
Thanks for all of your efforts to establish a new “GOLDEN AGE of MODEL CARS” in the21st Century !