Collecting Muscle Car Model Kits. Tim Boyd
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!
CHAPTER
3
LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR MUSCLE CARS
The Pre–Supercar Era
Put yourself in the place of a new car buyer during 1949 to 1963; that is to say, before the introduction of supercars, as they are known today.
If you were looking for a new car that prioritized rapid acceleration and a higher top speed than most cars of the era, what would you have purchased? Oh yeah, let’s add a few more qualifiers. You needed space for a family or friends, so that ruled out a sports car. Whether your wallet allowed it or not, the idea of driving a big, heavy, chrome-festooned luxury barge was also out of the question. Moreover, you wanted a car that was eye-catching, while still in good taste. If that car had a successful competition record in sanctioned automotive racing, it was also a big plus. What, then?
Most automotive historians consider the 1949 Oldsmobile 88 to be the first car that meets the broad definition of a muscle car as I’ve adopted it for this book. The power of the new Rocket V-8, developed for the larger 98-series Olds, delivered a very powerful performance envelope when placed in the lighter GM A-Body normally used in the lower 76-series Oldsmobile. The result was called the Oldsmobile 88, and it quickly developed a reputation as a hot car. This was followed by the 1951–1954 Hudson Hornet with its Twin-H-Power High-Compression 6, fast cars on the street and winners at the racetrack. Then came the legendary Chrysler 300, and on a more accessible level, the 1955 Chevy with its small-block 265 Power Pack V-8.
As the 1950s progressed, Chevys with a fuel-injected V-8, 1957 Fords with a factory-supercharged V-8, and even a 1958 Mercury with a 400-hp rating were tops for any factory-assembled car that year. Desoto, Dodge, and Plymouth followed the Chrysler 300 recipe to varying degrees on a more affordable scale with the Adventurer, D500, and Fury/Sport Fury, respectively. Some would claim that the 1957 Rambler Rebel also fit in this category.
Things quieted down with the recession of 1958 and the holdover impact in 1959, plus the return of fuel economy and practicality as prime buyer motivations, combined with the excitement surrounding the introduction of domestically produced compacts from the big three. But with the new decade, Chrysler was back in the muscle market with its ram induction V-8s: 1961 brought out the 409 Chevy, 1962 the 406 FE Ford and the hot (if questionably styled) Chrysler B-Bodies with its Max V-8s, and so on. The trend only gained further steam in 1963 and 1964.
So, which of these cars actually found themselves the subject of a 1/24th-1/25th–scale model car kit? Evenly as recent as 10 to 15 years ago, the answer would have been very different. But today, thanks in no small measure to both a longtime model kit industry stalwart (Revell) and a totally new entry in the hobby kit marketplace (Moebius), the answer is that nearly all of the cars listed above have at one point or another seen a popular scale model car kit.