SteveG

The AMT 1322 '64 Olds Streker F/C kits are still on the water, but due in port by the end of the week. It will take two to four weeks for them to get into regular distribution. They are available for pre-order now at the Auto World Store and several other online retailers. -Steve

With the exception of Sci-Fi, TV and Movie subjects, there's only one team working on the car and truck kits. Content depends on a lot both what's in the tooling and the packaging concept chosen. In the case of Hell Drivers Mustang, the tooling was in relatively good condition and had a lot of optional parts that worked well with the packaging so giving you a true 3n1 kit was easy. The Weekend Warrior Dart is supposed to represent either a stock looking daily driver or summer cruiser that also gets raced on the Weekends for fun, not a serious race car with a lot of fancy graphics. I think the new decal sheet fits that concept well and adding the 5 spoke mags to the existing content made good sense for this version. As for the MPC SSlasher Chevelle, there was a good reason it disappeared for 40 years. A portion of the tooling containing the engine parts was removed for use in something else, making it totally unusable. To top that off any the inserts that might be useful were on the other side of the world. I was lucky to get the budget approval to retool up the missing parts. I did my best to try and find a set of stock looking wheels that we could easily add make it a true 2n1 kit, but it wasn't in the cards. Honestly, I didn't think of adding the adding the same 5 spokes that are in the Dart, but I guess I could of. Still, if it sells well enough as the SSlasher kit there a good chance I'll get to spend some more money on it for a future release, maybe something close to the '71 annual but without the Spoof parts. -Steve

Part of the issue is in the print quality but checking the 3D files I can see where there is not a clearly defined separation between the tail lamp housings and the rear body panel. The original kit body was no better. I have already sent notes on this. Thanks for the comments. -Steve

I don't recall giving any indication what the next version of the '68 Coronet might be. Whatever it is next will require additional tooling. To see what I'm actually working on for 2025 and beyond stop by our table at the DAAM show near Detroit on Sunday. -Steve

The stock styled wheels are missing from the tooling, beside the Minilites there is a set of 5 spoke mags that might be Keystones that are suggested for the Drag version. Sorry, I don't have an actual test shot here at home to review at this time, just a parts photo. I didn't spot any extra Python or GT roads race version parts but honestly, I'm not that familiar with all the AMT Mustang II variations so I could be wrong. -Steve

While the team at RC2/Ertl showed the MPC '72 Chevelle on multiple box versions, it was always the AMT '72 Chevelle inside the box, which is the same tooling as the current '70 Chevelle - John Wick kit. Those RC2 boxes had me fooled for a minute, only until I started checking the actual contents. To the best of my knowledge, the last time the MPC '72 Chevelle was actually released was the SS-454 issue in 1983. After that the insert that included the big block Chevy engine parts was either moved to another kit or lost. Since the rest of the tool was in relatively good shape, we decided to retool the missing parts, which we copied straight from SS-454 issue. At this point we have fully approved MPC1014 '72 Chevelle SSlasher kit for production, and they should ship by mid-November if all goes well. Meanwhile the AMT John Wick version is doing very well for us, and I expect it will be around for a while. -Steve

All the current tooling is based around the 2 Door body platform, although we have do have some of the 3D files to do the 4-door version if we so choose. The original kit design work started before well the first real new Bronco was on the showroom floor, not knowing that some of the later models would be exclusive to the 4-door platform. The 2 Door was chosen because it best resembled the Classic '60's Bronco, and that the harder core off-road enthusiasts would pick it for its better agility. -Steve

Yes, they are on-road A/T tires with a different tread design and 18" Machined style wheels. Other changes are the molded front bumper with fog lamps, lower front tow hooks, front lower shield, body color style fender flares, wide slot grille and optional running boards. -Steve

Apologies for the decal problems Bob. It's not our bean counters or the artist that's causing the decal problems. It's the factory subcontractors who print the decals altering the files and removing the white underlayment. I have no idea why it keeps happening. The print proofs will pass testing and then we find failures in mass production. The ones we've caught we have replacement copies in stock with the proper underlayment you can get through customer service. -Steve

We're already filling the fourth order for the MPC975 Dodge Coronet hardtop kits, with more re-orders expected. Add that on top of the MPC978 Convertible sales and I would say it's doing great for us. -Steve

I had initially wanted to do an MSP Charger Pursuit, but those parts are so unique to MSP that I didn't want to tool them without a licensing agreement. Still a future possibility along with Monaco to Fury conversion. We currently don't have the old Lindberg Ford P72 molds, they were apparently moved before we acquired the Lindberg tooling. Both of the F100 kits had red beacons in the original annual kits, so I didn't change that, but I did change the beacon lamp cover for the '63 F100. I could run the clear red parts in either amber or clear too so you would have both in a later version. I'll keep it in mind for later. -Steve

Chuck, Nice work on your MSP Charger. Glad to see you made use of the beacon from the 63 F100. It should have been made clear on the instruction that there is a blind hole on the back of the dash to locate the shifter. It's just to the left of the start button. When I built my Lindberg based MSP Charger pursuit, I used the Hailer off of a Greenlight MSP Crown Vicky, although I'm betting those are getting hard to find these days. -Steve

Exactly right Rob, there is a ton of unique parts to this version including the complete drivetrain, frame, floor pan, firewall, exhaust, tires, wheels and more. Almost enough to make it a standalone tooling, so there really is no practical way to make it a 2n1. The Etrl era box art did very little to call out all the cool parts it has. I hope this latest release changes that. -Steve

Good news is we recently signed a new agreement with Goodyear so the Polyglas tires will be back in future kits along with some others you might not have seen before. -Steve

Luc, you'll have to clue me in to what specific Sci-Fi movie or TV show your referring too. I'm guessing Repo Man. If we could get the rights maybe. We're not afraid to do four door cars for Sci-Fi. The Supernatural '67 Impala and the Green Hornet's Black Beauty are two recent examples. -Steve