Vantasy and Superwagon: Vintage AMT and MPC Model Kits Back In Production

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

I still haven’t gotten around to building my 1/25 scale Billy Carter Redneck Power Pickup kit, but that won’t stop me from adding more projects to my “get to it someday” collection… which I’m about to do, now that TTAC reader Neb has pulled my coat about the huge lineup of 1960s and 1970s plastic model kits being made from the original tooling by Round2 Models.

How about a groovy Meyers Manx in 1/25th scale?

Naturally, the van kits have great great appeal for me. The 1/32-scale Zingers, with their absurdly oversize engines, look like fun.

However, Dirty Donny’s Vantasy would be just about right for my office, especially if I install little speakers inside the van to play “Dream Weaver” on an endless loop.

If you’re going to build a classic Detroit machine from the 1960s, it’s always best to skip the Camaros and Chargers in favor of the 421 Super Duty Pontiac Catalina. This kit comes with parts and decals that let you choose between street or strip version.

Having put endless hours into an AMT kit, I must issue the caveat that these models probably aren’t quite up to the fit-and-finish level you’ll get from kits made for the super-obsessive Japanese kit-builder market. This means you’ll need to make with the sandpaper and Model Bondo— just like with real Detroit cars!

In addition to the car stuff, you can get Star Trek, KISS, Munsters, and so on. Murilee says check it out!





Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Neb Neb on Aug 25, 2012

    Custom Van dreamers take note: you now have a choice of a Ford or a Chevy van. It's not on the round2 web site as of yet, but a local hobby shop just got them in: http://www.militaryhobbies.ca/product.cfm?ProductID=9299

  • SuperACG SuperACG on Aug 25, 2012

    You know...somewhere out there. Somebody has bought that "Vantasy" model kit and installing a little speaker to play "Dream Weaver." That van will be presented to Murlilee as a bribe at a future LeMons race. Oh man I wish I were a LeMons racer!!

  • Lichtronamo Watch as the non-us based automakers shift more production to Mexico in the future.
  • 28-Cars-Later " Electrek recently dug around in Tesla’s online parts catalog and found that the windshield costs a whopping $1,900 to replace.To be fair, that’s around what a Mercedes S-Class or Rivian windshield costs, but the Tesla’s glass is unique because of its shape. It’s also worth noting that most insurance plans have glass replacement options that can make the repair a low- or zero-cost issue. "Now I understand why my insurance is so high despite no claims for years and about 7,500 annual miles between three cars.
  • AMcA My theory is that that when the Big 3 gave away the store to the UAW in the last contract, there was a side deal in which the UAW promised to go after the non-organized transplant plants. Even the UAW understands that if the wage differential gets too high it's gonna kill the golden goose.
  • MKizzy Why else does range matter? Because in the EV advocate's dream scenario of a post-ICE future, the average multi-car household will find itself with more EVs in their garages and driveways than places to plug them in or the capacity to charge then all at once without significant electrical upgrades. Unless each vehicle has enough range to allow for multiple days without plugging in, fighting over charging access in multi-EV households will be right up there with finances for causes of domestic strife.
  • 28-Cars-Later WSJ blurb in Think or Swim:Workers at Volkswagen's Tennessee factory voted to join the United Auto Workers, marking a historic win for the 89- year-old union that is seeking to expand where it has struggled before, with foreign-owned factories in the South.The vote is a breakthrough for the UAW, whose membership has shrunk by about three-quarters since the 1970s, to less than 400,000 workers last year.UAW leaders have hitched their growth ambitions to organizing nonunion auto factories, many of which are in southern states where the Detroit-based labor group has failed several times and antiunion sentiment abounds."People are ready for change," said Kelcey Smith, 48, who has worked in the VW plant's paint shop for about a year, after leaving his job at an Amazon.com warehouse in town. "We look forward to making history and bringing change throughout the entire South."   ...Start the clock on a Chattanooga shutdown.
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