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CHAPTER

2

THE FOUR WAVES OF MODEL CAR KIT EVOLUTION AND THE ENVY FACTOR

You don’t have to be a kit expert to make sense of what is to come here, but it will definitely help if I at least define a few basics. There are a number of terms that have developed during the roughly six decades of the modern kit era that I’ll use throughout this book, so I’ll tackle that subject first.

Then I need to cover the basics of why some of your favorite muscle car kits of the 1960s were never reissued, while others seem to reappear at regular intervals. Next I’ll define the four generations (or waves) of model car kit development. Then there’s the subject of collectability. Which kits are most desirable and why?

Shall we get started?

Key Model Car Kit Terms Defined

To help your understanding of the kits discussed, it will be helpful to define some of the terms you’ll see throughout this book.

1/1-Scale

This is the term that model car builders and collectors use to refer to the real car that is being duplicated by the model. Most model cars are 1/25th the size of the real car, while the real car is 1/1 the size of the real car!

1/24th Scale, 1/25th Scale, or the Popular Scales

The vast majority of muscle car model kits have been produced in 1/25th scale (that is, 1/25th the size of the real car). Most remaining kits have been produced in 1/24th scale. Together, these are called the popular scales, or bi-scale.

While a built 1/25th-scale model will be slightly smaller in size than the same topic rendered in 1/24th scale, most kit collectors view them as the same in terms of desirability, and they display them together. (A few muscle car model kits have been produced in other scales, including 1/8th, 1/12th, 1/16th, 1/20th, 1/32nd, 1/43, and 1/48th the size of the real cars; for the sake of brevity, these kits are not discussed in this book.)

Annual Kit

This refers to the yearly production run of model car kits that duplicated the current model year offerings in the dealer showrooms of America. By the mid-fall of each year, 1 to 2 months after the debut of real cars, convertible kits of the current crop of 1/1-scale cars became available at the local hobby store, drug store, hardware store, or department store. A month or two after that, the hardtop kits appeared on the store shelves.

Promotionals

These are the preassembled and pre-painted (or molded in color) “toys” that were typically given away by auto dealers back in the day. Promotionals were the first new scale cars to hit the market each year, often coinciding with the dealer’s annual new car showing week. In some years, friction models were also available at the local toy store; these were promotionals with an added flywheel mechanism that allowed the kits to be rolled across a floor.

Unlike model kits, promotionals did not offer multiple building versions and omitted opening hoods with engines. The same tools (or modifications to these tools) later produced the unassembled annual kit versions that are the primary subject of this book. Promotionals were typically produced in a sturdier Cycolac plastic versus the styrene used in assembly kits.

3-in-1

Most annual model car kits contained parts to construct the kit in one of three versions. These versions were usually showroom stock, custom (mild and/or wild “advanced custom”), and competition (drag, rally, or oval track racing). When these kits were new, most builders constructed them in the custom or racing versions, not the showroom stock configuration.

Reissue

A new release of a previously issued model car kit. A reissue will usually include fresh box art, and often will include a few details that differ from the original release or the most recent previous reissue.

Tool

A large, liquid-cooled metal mold that produces vacuum-formed styrene model car kits. Tooling is a major investment for a model car company. Once engineered and produced, it can be used over and over again (more than a few of the hobby kits at your local store today are produced on tooling originally created 5 to 6 decades ago!), or it can be modified to create a different kit product.

Master

Up until the last two decades, model kits were developed by first fabricating the parts, including the body itself, as 1/10th-scale wood masters. These masters were then used via the pantograph method to engrave the 1/25th-scale parts into the tool base used to produce the final kits. (Today, 1/10th-scale masters are no longer used in kit development, replaced by computer-aided design (CAD) and epoxy-based castings.)

These are two examples of 1964½ Mustangs. The promotional on the left is a factory-assembled toy that came in a ready-to-use form, and was generally available through new car dealers. The AMT annual kit on the right came in unassembled form (shown here in a mocked-up, partially assembled status), thereby allowing the builder to paint and customize the final product to his or her desire.

A good example of a 3-in-1 kit is AMT’s vintage 1966 Cyclone GT annual kit. The box top displays the then-popular A/FX match racer-inspired drag version. The box ends (far left and far right) illustrate the custom version, in this case a design credited to customizer/show-car builder Gene Winfield. On one side panel is the factory stock Cyclone GT, while the other side panel illustrates some of the optional parts and features of the custom and drag versions.

The Mechanics of Kit Reissues

Many of the most valued and desirable models are the annual kits from the 1960s and early 1970s. Some of these kits have seen many subsequent reissues, while others never returned to the market after their initial few months of being on sale. “Why is that?” I am often asked.

As is often the response in the world of model car kits, the answer is not a simple one. First, it helps to understand that the model car kit world is primarily a business, as such the kit manufacturers were looking to maximize the financial return on their kit tooling investment. This basic premise often guided the evolution and ultimate fate of a given annual kit.

The heyday of the 1/25th-scale annual kit was in the mid-1960s. Here you see a nearly complete set of AMT’s 1966 annual kits. (Missing is the Corvair, Impala SS convertible, Mustang hardtop/convertible, and Barracuda). Note the consistent merchandising/package design approach of the box art. While following the same graphic theme, varied colors and illustration themes allowed each kit to stand on its own while still being part of the AMT 1966 annual kit family.

Reasons Why a Given Annual Kit Was Never Reissued

With many original annual kit tools, the configuration of the tooling was modified to replicate the changes in the next year’s offering from the car makers. Thus, during the summer of 1964, AMT’s 1964 GTO kit tool was permanently altered to replicate the upcoming 1965 GTO. Likewise, AMT’s 1967 Mustang GT annual kit tool was updated to produce the 1968 Mustang GT, and still later, the 1968 Shelby GT500. What does this mean? The chances of seeing reissues of the AMT 1964 GTO or the AMT 1967 and 1968 Mustang GT annual kits are just about zero. This is particularly the case when Round 2 is still able to successfully sell reissues of its existing 1965 GTO and 1968 Shelby GT500 kits, which remain the last and still current evolutions of the original tooling for these kits.

Another frequent reason that your favorite original annual kit has never been reissued is that the tooling was irretrievably modified into some other subject. As an example, AMT’s 1966 Mustang GT 2+2 fastback annual kit has never been reissued. The reason is that the body tooling was heavily modified to produce an altered-wheelbase, A/FX-style kit. The interior and chassis tooling migrated to yet another kit, a replica of the Mach 1 Mustang show car/concept from the 1966–1968 Auto Show circuit.

In fact, many annual kit toolings were subsequently changed to bring competition/race-themed kits to the market. In most cases, the new kits were either oval track or drag racing topics. To produce accurate replicas, the annual kit bodies were heavily modified (particularly around the wheel openings), and most of the original body trims and badging were removed. As an example, AMT recycled a number of its old annual kit tools for a series of oval track–style Modified kits in 1970–1972. In most cases, given the amount and degree of changes to the body tooling, it was either impossible or unaffordable to return the tooling to showroom stock condition. In those few cases where this was attempted (such as the AMT 1965 GTO and MPC 1970 GTO kits), the resulting product was noticeably compromised versus the original annual kits.

Finally, in some cases, the original annual kit tooling was scrapped (destroyed) when doing so would provide an advantageous tax write-off benefit to the owner of the tooling. Thus, your chances of seeing the AMT 1963 Meteor kit reissued went out the door when this tooling was scrapped, most probably during the late 1960s and very early 1970s when AMT was facing financial difficulties.

Reasons Why a Given Annual Kit Has Seen Multiple Reissues

Why then wasn’t AMT’s 1965 GTO tool changed for the 1966 GTO? That would be the case because the promotionals contract for the 1966 GTO transferred from kitmaker AMT to crosstown rival MPC. This means that AMT didn’t get to see blueprints of Pontiac’s updates for the 1966 GTO. In addition, MPC planned an assembly kit derived from its new GTO promotionals tooling. Thus, it would be unlikely that both AMT and MPC would have offered kits of the same 1966 topic, especially when an AMT kit would have hit the market months after the MPC kit. Therefore, AMT (again looking to maximize its tooling investment) simply re-boxed its existing 1965 GTO tool as a Trophy Series kit, and then continued to reissue that kit for the rest of the decade.

As a corollary to the above, an annual kit tooling of the final evolution of a real car generation just prior to a major new platform change makes it much more likely to remain available as a reissue. Thus, when Chevrolet introduced its Impala for 1965 with its all-new body and chassis, AMT had to produce all-new tooling for its 1965 Chevy kits. This allowed the company to retain and reissue its previous 1964 Impala kit tooling for decades to come.

Many individual cases exist that are more involved than the basics discussed above, but if you are wondering why your favorite muscle car kit has never been reissued, it’s probably at least partially because of these considerations.

The following depicts the life cycle of AMT’s original 1964 Pontiac A-Body tool. It began as a Le Mans convertible (top left) and then underwent minor changes to become the 1964 GTO annual kit (bottom left). The tool was then revised to become the 1965 GTO annual kit (top center). When AMT lost the 1966 GTO contract to MPC, AMT reissued their 1965 GTO with new Trophy Series box art (bottom center). The tool was later modified into a Modified Production racer (not shown), and then underwent a flawed attempt to return the kit to a factory stock form (top right). Further refinements followed (bottom right), but the latest version still falls short of the original annual kit.

Beginning in the late 1960s, AMT began reissuing some of its outdated annual kit tooling with new box art. Some were straight reissues (such as the 1967 Vette, center left); but more often they were packaged as part of a themed catalog grouping. Shown are reissues from the Elegance Series (center and bottom left), Wild Flower Series (top right), and a couple with a south-of-the-border theme (center and lower right) kit series.

Some of the most desirable annual kits underwent irrevocable changes to their tooling after the current year production run was completed. For instance, AMT’s 1966 Mustang GT 2+2 body tooling was altered to a shortened wheelbase configuration and joined with new interior and chassis tooling to create an AWB/early-style funny car kit. Meanwhile, the 1966 Mustang GT 2+2 kit’s interior/chassis/engine tooling was repurposed to create a new kit of the Ford Mach 1 Concept Vehicle.

More changes to highly desirable original annual kit toolings are shown here. AMT’s 1968 Mustang GT was converted to a Shelby GT500. MPC’s 1966 Mustang GT body tooling was modified to become the body of MPC’s Ohio George Gasser kit. AMT’s 1966 Skylark GS, Revell’s 1962 Dodge Dart, MPC’s 1969 Camaro, AMT’s 1970 Mustang, and AMT’s 1971 Torino GT toolings were all modified to create the competition-themed kits shown here. It’s unlikely you’ll ever see the original factory stock kits reissued.

The Four Waves of Model Car Kit Development

For each model car kit pictured in Chapters 3 to 13, I’ll include a note as to the “wave” of the kit. Quite simply, this refers to when the kit was first designed and produced, and gives you some idea of the level of detail and accuracy of the resulting kit. Here is the definition for each wave.

Wave 1

These are kits that were engineered in the first wave of the modern model kit, which is also the primary period in which annual kits were introduced each year. For purposes of this book, Wave 1 kits were first introduced in 1958 through 1976. Most of these kits replicated the newest Detroit offerings, and were developed from factory blueprints of the real cars. A significant number of these Wave 1 kits are still in production today, and the majority of kits shown in this book are Wave 1 kits.

Wave 2

Wave 2 kits were mostly introduced from 1977 to 1986 or so. This means that these Wave 2 kits were developed anywhere from 5 to 20 years or more after the real cars were first introduced. In addition, unlike the 3-in-1 configuration of most Wave 1 and Wave 2 kits generally could be built in one, or at most, two versions. Factory blueprints of muscle cars were generally no longer available to kit developers, and the expertise need to accurately capture the delicate contours of body shells varied across the kit production base, which means that some Wave 2 kits have bodies that are poorly proportioned.

These Wave 2 kits were sometimes simplified versus Wave 1 kits (containing fewer parts and thereby allowing expedited assembly). On the other hand, some Wave 2 kits produced more accurate, specific muscle car models. For example, Monogram’s Wave 2 1970 Boss 429 kit precisely duplicated the real car, whereas the original Wave 1 kits often did not replicate a specific factory muscle car version in terms of engines, wheels, exterior graphics, and trim.

Wave 3

Wave 3 kits originated during the period of 1987 to 1999. This was the period when the adult model car builder became a primary target of the hobby kit manufacturers, and the kits produced during this period were highly detailed and exceedingly accurate in order to meet the expectations of the serious adult builder. While these kits were generally manufactured outside the United States, the kit design still took place in the United States and the tooling was usually created at one of two highly experienced Canadian tooling houses.

Wave 4

These kits were first introduced in the years 2000 and beyond. By this point, kit engineering and production was moving overseas, mostly to East Asia and China. Wave 4 kits generally show incredible detail and engraving and superb fit and finish. Surprisingly, though, these kits often contain minor body inaccuracies resulting both from the inability of the tooling sources to actually see the real car they are replicating and from the adoption of computer-aided design to replace the previous practice of developing 1/10th-scale wood masters. The possible use of digital scans of the real car being modeled could largely solve this issue, but the model companies generally state that they cannot afford this added expense given the relatively low sales volume of today’s kits versus those produced in earlier decades.

Also, keep in mind that in referring to the Wave of each kit, I am referencing the first production date of the original tool the kit was based upon. Thus, Revell’s 1969 Shelby GT500 convertible, first introduced in 2013, is a Wave 2 kit (rather than Wave 4) because it is derived from the original Monogram 1970 Boss 429 kit introduced in 1982.

The Envy Factor

The envy factor is a different way to define the collectibility of muscle car model kits. When my editor and I first talked about producing this book, we agreed right away that it was not a good idea to list a dollar value for the old, out of production kits shown in this book. There is no single source of irrefutably accurate pricing data, and the prices paid for collectible kits can widely vary depending on how badly the buyer wants the kit and how anxious the seller is to move the kit along and be paid for it. Values change over time, too.

These are mid- to late 1960s Mopar B-Body kits from each of the four waves of kit development. JoHan’s 1964 Polara/Fury, AMT’s 1965 Coronet, MPC’s 1968 Coronet R/T, and JoHan’s 1969 Road Runner kits were annual kits introduced when the cars were new, making them Wave 1 kits. Monogram’s 1969 Super Bee kit hit the market in 1983, soon followed by a 1970 GTX, making them Wave 2 kits. Revell’s 1967 GTX and Coronet R/T, Lindberg’s 1964 Belvedere, and AMT/Ertl’s 1968 Road Runner were introduced in the late 1980s to mid-1990s, representing Wave 3 of kit development. The Polar Lights 1965 Coronet, and Moebius’s superb 1965 Satellite kits came with the last decade and a half, marking Wave 4 of kit design and development.

Instead of providing a price range, I have devised an asterisk rating of one (*) up to five (*****) to reflect the overall desirability of the kits I’ll show in Chapters 3 to 13. Think of this as an indication of the “whoa!” or envy factor. That is, a reflection of the reaction that a knowledgeable model car kit enthusiast or collector would have if they saw this kit sitting on a shelf in your garage, basement, attic, or hobby room. Stated simply, the more envious the sigh of the observer when they see your kit, the higher the asterisk rating it deserves.

The following are factors in determining the asterisk count for each kit.

• How desirable is the kit topic? In a simple example, a 1964 GTO kit is more desirable to most collectors than a 1963 Tempest kit.

• How hard is it to find an original, mint condition version of the kit available for sale?

• If you could find a mint original, what is the price you’d have to pay to acquire it, relative to other model car kits?

• How accurate a replica can be constructed from the kit?

• Have kits of the same muscle car topic been produced by other kitmakers? If so, are they easy to locate, and do they produce a more accurate replica when built? (If the answers are yes, this will make the kit on your shelf less have less of an envy factor.)

• For reissued kits, is the box art of the kit on your shelf preferred to other releases of the kit, and/or is the box art a rare version?

The majority of the kits pictured in this book are assigned an asterisk rating of one (*). This is because many kits have seen numerous reissues through the years, and/or that a given 1/1-scale muscle car topic has often seen multiple kits produced by different manufacturers. Bottom line, these kits are generally easy to locate and do not command a premium price.

Very few kits are assigned ratings of ***, ****, or *****. Particularly for these last two ratings, be prepared to pay into the three-digit dollar range for a pristine, mint original. The good news is that, even today a ***** kit will rarely, if ever, approach a four-digit selling price. (It is probably worth noting here that while model kit prices haven’t traversed the $1,000 barrier, in a few cases promotionals derived from the same kit body tooling have sold for as much as $1,500 or more).

In the end, the asterisk rating assigned to each kit is a simple judgment call. Take it as a relative indication (but far from a scientific or ironclad statement) of a given kit’s envy factor. The most definitive guide of current dollar value of a given kit is best found in the latest edition of the Directory of Model Car Kits book described in Chapter 14.

Now, on to the Fascinating World of Muscle Car Model Kits

With these basics now out of the way, it’s time to delve deeply into the subject of this book. Grab a cool one and sit back as I take you on a journey through the world of muscle car model kits.

As you would expect, under the above definition, kits with an envy factor of four to five asterisks (**** to *****) are rare bears indeed. Pictured here are **** and ***** kits representing a cross section of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler intermediate supercars. Add any of these to your personal collection and you’ll draw the attention of any knowledgeable model car kit collector!