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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

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