Force

Most likley when Lesney Corporation who owned Matchbox also owned AMT, 1978-82-83. It seems like Revell bought the tooling in the early 90's.

Interesting. But please fix the rear wheels, they should look like this with the tires outside the raised lip:

I just looked and they all are on the same timeline now...but also the Revell snap kit W900 Aerodyne, they are not "related" to the full detail kits. Yes the 1:25 scale snap truck kits are issued by Revell now, but they are a different tool from the Revell Germany full detail glue kits and were in fact developed by Monogram 1982 and should be afilliated with them, so they should have a red line from the Monogram timeline to be correct. The Revell Peterbilt 359 snap kit is also not related with the Revell Germany 353-359 kits as the snap kits are from Monogram tooling. Likewise with the 1:16 scale Kenworth W900 and Peterbilt 359 kits, they were developed by Monogram and first issued 1981-82, they were later issued under the Revell and Revell-Monogram name, but it's originally Monogram tooling and should share the timeline with them. History on kits can sometimes be difficult as they are often issued under different brands due to buyouts and reboxing of other manufacturers kits, but if you can keep track of the different issues and what tooling they are from it's easier.

No problem. I watched HPIguy's review on the kit and he said it was an old ERTL kit probably based on the ERTL script on some of the sprues but it's definately not, the 1100 series cab versions have been issued under the AMT-ERTL name, but none of the earlier Unilite cab versions was wich hadn't seen daylight from 1973 until Round 2 found the tooling 2013-14...wich in fact appearently was on the Peterbilt 352 tool but blocked off. You really can't give ERTL much credit for these kits as ERTL had nothing to do with it or any other of the old AMT truck kits until 1983 when they bought AMT from Lesney Corporation (Matchbox) who owned AMT from 1978-83. ERTL did some truck kits in the 70's and 80's like the Mack DM 600/DM 800 (originally developed by MPC), the International truck kits and a few more, but had nothing to do with the development of the AMT truck kits as all were done before that.

That particular style Enderle bug catcher with the ribs can be found in the old Jo-Han funny car kits. Competition Resins offers a version of this hat and have some other styles also and there are other aftermarket resin casters offering these.

The "California Hauler" 359 is the first truck kit AMT did back in 1969 and it's the "small window" Unilite cab, it has a Detroit 8V-71, older style Stabilaire rear suspension and the first kit didn't have a sleeper in the kit but you could order one, the brown version wich originally came 1973 had the slepper included in the kit, the hood is a lift off and doesn't have any hinges. These kits has not been reissued until 2014 for the sleeper less version and 2022 for the kit with the sleeper. AMT did a wrecker version of the Unilite version in 1972 and has never been reissued after that. The "Cross Country Hauler" is a later 1100 series cab and it first came 1976 also with "California Hauler" on the box like the earlier Unilite version, this was later taken away and versions after that was called Peterbilt 359 and "Midnight Express" and has been reissued several times since then. This kit has a Cummins NTC 350, a newer style Air Leaf suspension, the 1100 series cab, a different style sleeper (if it has one) and the hood is hinged and tilts, this kit does not share any parts with the older Unilite cab version...other than maybe the wheels. One thing that bothers me on the new box, Round 2 had marked the transmission as a 12-speed Fuller...as far as I know there were no 12-speed Fuller transmissions back in the day, they were 10, 13, 15 and 18-speed, so most likely it's a 13-speed. AMT did offer a wrecker version of this kit in 1977 and the "Big Stick" wrecker body is the same as in the older Unilite kit wrecker, this kit was reissued last in 2019.

The engine looks great, these Detroit Diesel engines has a habit of leaking oil, often called "Detroit leakers", if there isn't oil under it it is no oil in it. 😁

The Revell snap kits are a good starting point for your first truck build, they are not the most detailed but decent for what they are...and often cheap, and with some work they look good. The Revell Germany US trucks are also often decent kits and not that hard to put together, they sometimes has their issues but not that hard to overcome. Italeri has some decent US truck kits and are often not that hard to build, but they are 1:24th scale and they have multipiece cabs, a few of them are issued by AMT recently you can tell them appart from the AMT developed kits by the scale as all AMT developed kits are 1:25th scale, Italeri also have many European truck kits. The AMT truck kits are more challenging, first of all most of them are developed in the early to mid 70's and the first truck kit AMT did came 1969, they are not for the beginner but with some experience they are for sure buildable. The International Transtar CO-4070A in the above post is an exception, it's a remake of an old ERTL kit from 1973 and is all new tooling as the original tooling was altered to the later International Transtar II Eagle 1976, this kit goes together well. The ERTL truck kits are not that bad, the Mack DM 600/DM 800 kits are originally MPC kits and have their issues, but the other truck kits they had were developed by ERTL and are quite good, some were made with metal chassis tho'. The International Transtar CO-4070A was ERTL's first in house developed kit from 1973 and the AMT version in iamsuperdan's post above is a new and improved retool of that kit and came 2021.

I have no access to the Scalemates site. But here is one timeline I have noticed are wrong or incomplete so I did a more correct one in this thread, these kits are listed all over the place on Scalemates and in two different scales but they all are based on the same tooling and should be on the same timeline as they are basically the same kits except for some added parts and some parts deleted for the different versions. The same goes for the Revell Germany different versions of the Peterbilt 353, 359 and Marmon kits, they are all based on the same tooling and should be on the same timeline. And I'm sure there are many more examples, but these two comes to mind right now.

That kit is also a better starting point for the TV series trucks as much of the kit is correct for them, the TV series trucks were 2 1974 and 2 1975 Kenworth W900 VIT trucks for season 1 and 2 and the Revell kit is a post 1972 W900 VIT and you get many things for free with that kit like the correct cab, interior, sleeper and so on. If you want to be correct you need to change the hood to a shorter one or cut the kit hood down, change the engine to a Cummins VT903 or NTC 350, change the rear suspension to torsion bars and the wheels to tube style 22 inch split ring/lock ring 10 hole Alcoa's, otherwise you have all you need.

I have one of the T-500-500 kits, but mine don't have the green tinted windows, everything else is the same. I also have the following T-500 kit with the sleeper, and the T-522 Wrecker.

I often go there but I find it very disturbing when the facts are wrong, when you know some kit history yourself and it isn't in there it's anoying as you sometimes have to do several searches to get the complete history. I have been in this hobby since the mid 70's and have followed many of the US kits through the years so I often know the history of many kits, wich was the first one and what came after...but I definately don't know everything. Don't get me wrong, Scalemates is a good site but it could be even better with some additional work.

I found them on internet somewhere but it's mentioned in the book. Yes buy the book, it's a lot of information there. I have the books of Sox & Martin, Dick Landy and Grumpy's Toys among other interesting books of racers and teams, you can never get enough information.

Yes Revell took a kit they allready had and did the Can-Do Wrecker but it's not correct, the real Stepp's Can-Do wrecker is a 379 short hood (or maybe a 378) with a Cat 3406 engine, not a 359 with a Cummins NTC475 like the kit has, but the wrecker body is right and a nice piece. Revell used the original Peterbilt 359 tooling wich first came 1982 as the "Black Magic" truck for several kits, the not that accurate Marmon originally from 1986, the not that accurate 353's both 3 and 4 axles originally from 1985, the single drive Fire Truck originally from 1990, the Bill Signs truck originally from 1994. They also did a couple of kits based on the Kenworth K100 tooling, a flat top and a Aerodyne with both 3 and 4 axles, and also incorporated some parts from that tool in the T600 kits. They have taken som liberties with accuracy here and there. Yes please, allthough I allready have three, two Can-Do and one Will-Do, the original 359 kit has been reissued several times, last 2022. I would also like to see the "Bill Signs Trucking" 359 again. I have two of the original issues of the Revell Can-Do Wrecker, the boxes are not side opener folding boxes as stated on Scalemates, the boxes are two part boxes with top and bottom like most of the early issues of the truck kits, so just because they are Revell Germany kits they are not automatically the worthless flimsy side openers that would collapse if you stack anything on them the later Revell Germany kits have. My two original Can-Do Wrecker kits has copyright date 1992 on them, not 1993, and the Will-Do 2013. All information on Scalemates are not accurate all the time unfortunately, and some timelines are not correct and they miss some kits based on the same tooling that should be there. Revell Germany has had the habit of marking some kits with the wrong scale, kits from the same tooling can be marked as 1:25 scale and a later issue can be marked as 1:24th scale, these kits ARE made from the same tooling regardless of what the box say, but Scalemates doesn't have them in the same timeline wich they should be. Revell US designed many of the US truck kits but they were not manufactured there and they were all issued by Revell Germany. The 1:25 scale Kenworth W900 full detail kit wich originally came out 1992 is a scaled down copy of the Monogram 1:16 scale kit from 1981, so it was originally designed by Monogram well before the Revell-Monogram merge 1986, these kits are marked both as 1:25 and 1:24 scale depending on issue, but they are from the same tooling so they all are the same scale...Revell did not tool up kits of the same subject in two different scales so close to each other. Monogram also designed and originally issued the 1:25 scale Kenworth W900 Aerodyne and Peterbilt 359 Snap Kits 1982, now issued under the Revell brand.

Too bad, they have nice products. Hopefully someone will take over.