What Happened To The AMT NASCAR Kit Tooling?

[oldcarfan]

We know where the Monogram NASCAR tooling ended up, but do we know if AMT's tooling is still around? I prefer using their chassis under 1/25 kits as it fits better. Maybe it isn't financially worth it for them to put out those kits anymore?

[Horrorshow]

They re-released the Lennie Pond kit last year. It’s a mid 70’s Chev

[oldcarfan]

27 minutes ago, Horrorshow said:

They re-released the Lennie Pond kit last year. It’s a mid 70’s Chev

That's different from the later versions, right? I have a couple of 90s chassis that are smaller than the Monogram chassis.

[niteowl7710]

2 hours ago, oldcarfan said:

We know where the Monogram NASCAR tooling ended up, but do we know if AMT's tooling is still around? I prefer using their chassis under 1/25 kits as it fits better. Maybe it isn't financially worth it for them to put out those kits anymore?

With Salvinos JR being officially licensed by NASCAR, I can't see the financial viability of re-releasing the old 90s era AMT/Ertl kits. Aside from NASCAR probably not wanting to play ball, you'd have to get licensing from GM or Ford, the driver, the team and the sponsors, and Goodyear. Even if you skipped a lot the extraneous licensing and just did "blank" kits, none of the currently produced aftermarket decal sheets are produced in 1/25, they're all scaled to fit the Monogram kits of that era.

[iBorg]

When trying to distinguish NASCAR tooling that Round 2 has, there's several generations between AMT and MPC. MPC's earliest efforts was a Dodge Daytona which is ripe for reissue. After that kits success, came the adjustable wheelbase cars that included a Roadrunner, Charger, Torino, GTO and Chevelle all using the same chassis and engine with different bodies.  That mold was reissued with the Torino body in the past five years. The chassis mold has been used a bunch of times to create mediocre kits. With Salvinos offering a Charger and Roadrunner, I doubt we'll see those repopped in the near future. With the exception of the GTO and the Torino, I don't expect to see any of this series reissued as Salvanios/Monogram offers superior kits for that body style. The Johan Torino is better than the MPC but a bit more difficult to find. 

AMT did a series of GM based cars such as the after mentioned Lennie Pond kit. I always found them lacking.

AMT did their series of 1990's Nascar kits which are what I believe you're talking about. Sadly these excellent kits were looked down upon for being 1/25 and not 1/24. While I'm not a fan of scale snobbery, they are much smaller than Monogram's dominant 1/24 cars. These never were as popular as Monogram kits, maybe due to scale or the plastic they were molded in. Irregardless, if the same subject mater was available by both manufacturers, people would buy the Monogram kits. 

With the availability of AMT's Nascar kits for low prices at shows, I've seen as low a $3 in the past three years, I can't imagine them being reissued. 

Sad, as the kits deserve better.

[bobss396]

I snapped up a slew of NASCAR kits over the years. I still come across boxes of them in my stash. Any time I saw one for $5 or less, I got it. We had an outlet store selling them, I grabbed a lot of AMT and Monorgam kits back then for $1.97 each. They are great for chassis donors and to grab other parts from.

[TarheelRick]

The AMT NASCAR kits are usually available at shows/swapmeets. A couple of years ago you could get them as cheap as $3-5, however, the last show I attended most of the vendors had upped their price to $8-15. I guess supply and demand is starting to take over. I lucked out and bought a zip-lock bag with three chassis kits and most of the supplemental pieces for $5. There is a large flea market close to my home. I went over there one weekend just to see what might be available. One of the permanent vendors had three opened kits and was asking $30 each. When I asked him about the price he became quite huffy and "explained" how they were original kits and quite rare. I just chuckled and walked away.

[oldcarfan]

I liked building the Monogram kits back when I was building NASCAR, but i like the AMT kits as chassis donors as they fit a lot of 1/25th bodies without a lot of modifications. I think I have a few somewhere, maybe I need to start digging.

[Mark]

AMT/Ertl just dived in too late.  Monogram had already established 1/24 as the go-to scale for post-1980 NASCAR kits: aftermarket parts and decal makers based all of their offerings on the Monogram kits leaving it tough for Ertl's 1/25 scale kits to secure a foothold in the marketplace.

[bobss396]

The AMT Craftsman truck kits were quite nice. They had some generics without decals. The aftermarket did few decals for them. They were good to do phantom builds.

[iBorg]

2 hours ago, Mark said:

AMT/Ertl just dived in too late.  Monogram had already established 1/24 as the go-to scale for post-1980 NASCAR kits: aftermarket parts and decal makers based all of their offerings on the Monogram kits leaving it tough for Ertl's 1/25 scale kits to secure a foothold in the marketplace.

Mark nailed it. If AMT had done 1/24 or had entered the market first at 1/25th, there kits would had been the standard and Monograms would have been viewed s the second tier kits.

[bobss396]

It was probably around 2004 or so when model companies dumped their NASCAR kits to the discount stores. I still have a load of Terry Labonte Corn Flakes cars, Dale #3 cars, countless Quaker State trucks. I also have some plastic bagged up complete kits, some bags have multiple kits in them. I also have some partials from the slot car builders.

I have seen some great built-up ones, super detailed to the max. I wish more after market details were available. When I had lathe access, I made up front and rear spring assemblies from aluminum rod. I still have the drawings and they were exact fits for AMT and Monogram kits. Now I pick up springs from places like McMaster-Carr that I can slip dimensional aluminum rod into without a fight. Popular spring sizes are 1/8" OD and .148" OD. 

The day of the cheap kits at shows is past, now I see them for $10 and up. I was making money when I was selling them for $5. Thankfully the decal industry is still strong. I agree that AMT screwed the pooch with going 1/25 scale and not 1/24th. There are less decals and parts that fit the smaller cars. BUT.. the smaller kits fit better into small bodies like the Falcons, Camaros and Novas.

[Mike 1017]

On 1/28/2024 at 10:09 PM, iBorg said:

When trying to distinguish NASCAR tooling that Round 2 has, there's several generations between AMT and MPC. MPC's earliest efforts was a Dodge Daytona which is ripe for reissue. After that kits success, came the adjustable wheelbase cars that included a Roadrunner, Charger, Torino, GTO and Chevelle all using the same chassis and engine with different bodies.  That mold was reissued with the Torino body in the past five years. The chassis mold has been used a bunch of times to create mediocre kits. With Salvinos offering a Charger and Roadrunner, I doubt we'll see those repopped in the near future. With the exception of the GTO and the Torino, I don't expect to see any of this series reissued as Salvanios/Monogram offers superior kits for that body style. The Johan Torino is better than the MPC but a bit more difficult to find. 

AMT did a series of GM based cars such as the after mentioned Lennie Pond kit. I always found them lacking.

AMT did their series of 1990's Nascar kits which are what I believe you're talking about. Sadly these excellent kits were looked down upon for being 1/25 and not 1/24. While I'm not a fan of scale snobbery, they are much smaller than Monogram's dominant 1/24 cars. These never were as popular as Monogram kits, maybe due to scale or the plastic they were molded in. Irregardless, if the same subject mater was available by both manufacturers, people would buy the Monogram kits. 

With the availability of AMT's Nascar kits for low prices at shows, I've seen as low a $3 in the past three years, I can't imagine them being reissued. 

Sad, as the kits deserve better.

I agree. The market got flooded with NASCAR kits. Same thing happened to NASCAR diecast. MSRP $100.00 cars going for $10.00-$20.00.

Mike

[Mark]

A lot of people got caught up in the "collectable" hype, not anticipating that later on, people would only care about who won last week's race and not ones from ten years prior.

[Fat Brian]

On 1/30/2024 at 12:16 PM, Mark said:

A lot of people got caught up in the "collectable" hype, not anticipating that later on, people would only care about who won last week's race and not ones from ten years prior.

When something is sold as a collectible everyone keeps it so there's none of the rarity that drives the value of other things up.

[oldcarfan]

Maybe AMT could slap some vintage stock bodies on the NASCAR chassis and sell them as small town Hobby Stock cars with generic decals! I heard that a lot of old NASCARs ended their days like that.