Yeah, I've got all three versions; original lighted version from 1979 (unbuilt), ROTJ version from 1983 and the cutaway version I got in 1996 (started). I had aspirations of accurizing it using Jack's Falcon Models sides and guts, but never got to it.

I need to get these to someone who will build them. I do have the Revell of Germany one from about a decade ago that I like better.

Rob Gronovius

Yeah, I've got all three versions; original lighted version from 1979 (unbuilt), ROTJ version from 1983 and the cutaway version I got in 1996 (started). I had aspirations of accurizing it using Jack's Falcon Models sides and guts, but never got to it.

I need to get these to someone who will build them. I do have the Revell of Germany one from about a decade ago that I like better.

 

I found some 3D printed parts online last night via some sort of Shapeways associate. But I would have an impossible time in this or any other universe in justifying spending something like $200 US for a 3D cockpit cabin wall piece for a forty five year old model that can be found for less than half of that price for the entire kit. Ordering every interior & exterior part they had for the Falcon would be well in excess of $1000. That sort of luxury spending is strictly for the lucky lottery winner sort of folks. 

FYI, the old MPC Falcon is due to be resissued with sorta corrected sidewalls and other stuff like a new radar dish.

Yeah, spending over $200 on a 1977 vintage kit is pointless, since the Fine Molds and Bandai kits have arrived.

And those new parts MPC adds won't make much of a difference overall for the reissue. By now the molds will be so ancient that the unchanged parts will be a mess, just as occurs far too many times with other kits from the MPC/AMT product lines that get re-issued. So, just to avoid the frustration, paying extra for the basically brand new Fine Molds or Bandai versions that have none of the hassles that come from the MPC kit would be far better options today. 

I remember one other kit I'd love to time-travel for - the Monogram 1:72 HU-16 Albatross US Coast Guard version. It was the first kit my dad let me try on my own back in the early 1970's, so there's sentimental value attached. I also came with a neat little life raft with someone lost at sea in it, and the Albatross crewmen were posed reaching out to help the guy into the plane. 

Well yeah, the rest of the MPC Falcon will not be updated.  Even back in 1980, me and my friends were howling with laughter at the random, made-up "details".  I especially liked the aircraft landing gear with wheel on the engine deck.  Yes ILM used such things, but there already were reference photos that told us that it was bogus.

Nevertheless, it was the only game in town.  And back then, we knew that if a kit maker gave you rocks, you made do with rocks.  I did build one of those Falcon kits for a friend back then.  I cut a bit off the tops and bottoms of the sidewalls to lower the kit's overall height.  It looked the part and my friend was thrilled.

Looking back, it makes me feel a greater sense of appreciation for the new kits of old sci-fi subjects that are coming out today.  We never had it so good back then.

I built the MPC reissue of the Darth Vader Advanced Tie Fighter last year. It was pure comedy too, given that the interior details looked like instrument clusters from the inner parts borrowed from an ancient Revell or Aurora full-interior nuclear submarine model. And the "landing gear", if that's what they were supposed to be, upgrade MPC added was side-splitting hilarious too. Points to them for creativity I suppose, in a bare minimum effort sort of way. Otherwise though? Nah, just nah. Today's die-cast toys of the same vehicles are probably better in terms of being accurate to the subject matter. 

Hey but "Bathroom Vader/Garden Gnome" was replaced with a more suitable figure!

But to be fair, the original figure could not be seen grunting and straining on the throne once the hull halves were glued together.

I still want to go back to 1970 and get a pizza from Chico's, after visiting the hobby shops.

Okay, OKAY I've got one!!! 

The kit of the 'Cygnus' from the 1980 Disney movie 'The Black Hole'. 

I've heard the kit is pretty rare and really expensive now. But also I've heard is it sucked so I haven't looked though Ebay or anything like that for one. 

But if a time machine is available I'd hop back to 1980 to see if I could pick up a copy. 

It's one of the most beautiful ships in SF movies. I find it odd no one ever did a garage kit of the ship. Although to get the full effect you'd have to do most of the hull with a PE frame, clear parts, and lights inside...

Here you go Gam Gam

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1210315419/uss-cygnus-12-model-kit-death-ship-from

keavdog

Here you go Gam Gam

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1210315419/uss-cygnus-12-model-kit-death-ship-from

 

 

Oh that's awesome! THANKS!!! 

Maybe I could paint it with glow in the dark paint!?!?

Real G

Hey but "Bathroom Vader/Garden Gnome" was replaced with a more suitable figure!

But to be fair, the original figure could not be seen grunting and straining on the throne once the hull halves were glued together.

I still want to go back to 1970 and get a pizza from Chico's, after visiting the hobby shops.

 

Yeah, the figure of Darth was OK as far as detail went. So points to them for some improvement there. I still can't figure out why they didn't give his cockpit seat some armrests though, unless they assumed that Lord Vader is so powerful in the Force that he don't need no stinkin' armrests (or seatbelts either apparently) while he's flying.

I don't know what food I'd like if I time-traveled to 1973 or so. The best thing to do would be to track down my parents and scare them into a much better overall family diet by showing them what resulted from them letting their baby boy becoming a sugar addict. 

Gamera

Okay, OKAY I've got one!!! 

The kit of the 'Cygnus' from the 1980 Disney movie 'The Black Hole'. 

I've heard the kit is pretty rare and really expensive now. But also I've heard is it sucked so I haven't looked though Ebay or anything like that for one. 

But if a time machine is available I'd hop back to 1980 to see if I could pick up a copy. 

 

It's one of the most beautiful ships in SF movies. I find it odd no one ever did a garage kit of the ship. Although to get the full effect you'd have to do most of the hull with a PE frame, clear parts, and lights inside...

 

 

I built this kit while in college, maybe 1983 or 84. Yeah, I left it all unpainted silver plastic. I still have the instructions and the bridge(?) glass piece. Also the USS Palimino ship that sets in a small docking port.

The last time I saw that kit for sale was at a seedy liquor store in Kapahulu.  Like some other similar stores they had a small but good selection of kits.  I think I got my old AMT KlingonD-7 there.

A 1/24 or 1/25 scale Cheetah sports-racer. 

Cool Rob, I thought you'd mentioned the kit before. Funny I was around back then and picked up a few of 'The Black Hole' action figures but never any of the kits. The only SF kit I had was the starfighter from the NBC 'Buck Rogers' TV show. Most of the kits I had as a kid were all aircraft. 

G, thanks! So I need to hunt though all the seedy ABC stores in Hawaii!!! 

Gamera

Cool Rob, I thought you'd mentioned the kit before. Funny I was around back then and picked up a few of 'The Black Hole' action figures but never any of the kits. The only SF kit I had was the starfighter from the NBC 'Buck Rogers' TV show. Most of the kits I had as a kid were all aircraft. 

G, thanks! So I need to hunt though all the seedy ABC stores in Hawaii!!! 

 

MPC did three Black Hole model kits. I got the Maximillian kit, still have it, as a kid. Then I got the Cygnus while in college and probably 20 some odd years ago, I got the Vincent robot kit.

I never got the Buck Rodgers fighter, but had the Draconian raider. I remember putting an F-16 seat and pilot inside the fighter. You can see it in this old photo of jjunk that came from my childhood bedroom.

Gamera,

No, the seedy liquor stores I mentioned were not the nice, tourist-friendly ABC stores!  They were the ones with faded merchandise in the window (ie model kits), beer neon signs, sports betting sheets sold at the counter (for entertainment purposes only!), and porno mags on spinner racks right on the sales floor.

Well!

       There would be two. Hopefully stacked side by side on the shelf. The Aurora "Wheeler Cruiser" and also their release of "Sealab". Nothing else really tips my bucket

I'd head back to the Christmas of '78 and grab the Monogram B-24 Liberator kit my aunt and uncle had got me. I was 4 at the time so it was way over my head, but my older cousins were given models as gifts and they didn't want me to feel left out. I remember trying to open it on the living room floor and start building it on Christmas Eve. I was ultimately talked into trading it in for an Adventure People set, but that kit has always held a special place in my memory. 

Rob: Yeah, I think you'd posted the photo before. Really cool collection of vintage kits. I had a simular walker like yours on the left from Robotech. I think I still have a few parts of it but the main kit is gone. 

G: Ah ok. I just call everything an ABC store since I can't spell liquor. Maybe I should just say 'booze' store...  

As a kid, that MPC TIE was one of my favorite kits, and one of the first of my Star Wars models. I think R2-D2 was my first followed by Luke's X-Wing, the TIE and C3PO out of the clearance aisle. It sat there for forever before I finally grabbed it.

The Empire Strikes Back gave us the Star Destroyer, Slave 1, Snowspeeder (my favorite), and the AT-AT. I think there was the Hoth base diorama, but I didn't get that one until many years later.

They dumbed down the line for the Return of the Jedi with the majority of the new kits being snap together kits like the Y-Wing, TIE Interceptor, B-Wing, A-Wing and AT-ST. But that Speeder Bike was the bomb! They also reissued the Falcon without lights.

The way MPC went about the entire Star Wars line was fascinating. There's not a hint of any sort of attempt to have a consistent scale among the vehicles. Examples (as per Scalemates):

- Vader's TIE was in 1/36, but Luke's X-Wing was in 1/43 and 1/63 for the ROTJ version; the standard Imperial TIE was in 1/51; TIE Interceptor in 1/51 then in 1/48

- Rebel Y-Wing was in 1/95; A-Wing in 1/48; B-Wing in 1/98; Snowspeeder in 1/22

- Imperial Shuttle Tydirium in 1/89; AT-AT in 1/100; AT-ST in 1/54; Speeder Bike in 1/11

- Boba Fett's Slave-1 in 1/85

- Threepio & Artoo in 1/8; Darth Vader in unknown scale

I'll put this down as a classic case of old-school model manufacturers basically making up scales out of thin air just so the parts trees will fit inside a pre-determined box size, in a way that was sort of typical in the store retail market of the first thirty or forty years of the kit industry (see also Revell's warships, ranging in scales from 1/429, 1/500, 1/700, 1/720, etc etc etc as another example of this sort of boxing) . Either that or AMT were under some sort of pressure from 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm to have the finished kit be able to easily fit into a kids hand so they can chase each other around playing starfighter duel. They were probably correct in assuming things like "they're just kids playing with toys, they won't care in the slightest about accuracy in either scale or detail". 

ThanosForever

<snip>Speeder Bike in 1/11</snip>

OMG I seriously until the moment I saw this completely forgot that I had one of those kits!  I didn't finish it and have no idea where it went, but...dang, thanks for that memory!

ThanosForever

 

I'll put this down as a classic case of old-school model manufacturers basically making up scales out of thin air just so the parts trees will fit inside a pre-determined box size

BOX SCALE!  Yeah, I always thought it was odd that I couldn't put the SW stuff next to each other for size comparison.  I (fairly) recently acquired the MPC original issue X-Wing, Darth Vader's TIE fighter, and AT-AT.  Now I've got to see if I can find a speeder bike.  :)

Keeping with the theme of the OP, I have to say that I'd probably try to get the model that my father had on top of the wardrobe in the garage.  It was some sort of old model car, something like a Packard or Rolls - I remember it as metallic maroon with a rumble seat, and that's about it.  I'd love to get my hands on one and do it, possibly even as a gift for him, since I know he never finished it...

daniel

Back when I was a kid in the 60's, I remember seeing this big beautiful red hot rod setting on the top shelf of the five and dime. The box was huge, well at least to a boy of 10, and I would make an excuse for Mom to have to send me to the store just so I could take another look at it. It didn't come to be though but if I could find one today I definitely give it a shot.

A Revell 4662 F-4 in 1/32.  I tried to build two back in the day, but where the body meets the wing always got a gaping hole in it from to much sanding (this was back in the day before water based putty).  

I'd settle for finding a few decal sheets for the Monogram original Colonial Viper kit.  Since I'm not about to find the kit of the Chrysler Turbine car, I might as well settle for a second choice.

That four legged walker originally came from the Dougram TV series.  Many of the Robotech kits came from several Japanese cartoon shows.  Most of them were re-branded without the permission of the creaters and eventually had to be withdrawn.  However they did manage to make it to the board game version called Battletech, for a short time.  I have several of the lead figures.

ikar01

I'd settle for finding a few decal sheets for the Monogram original Colonial Viper kit.  Since I'm not about to find the kit of the Chrysler Turbine car, I might as well settle for a second choice.

JT Graphics does a set of (now) Revell Colonial Viper decals for the old Monogram kit.

There are also masks available for painting the markings for the classic kit: https://starshipmodeler.biz/catalogsearch/result/?q=viper

I remember doing some research on the old Revell Robotech model kits. What they did was akin to taking all Star Wars, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica kits and combining them into their own science fiction line called Galatic Trek Wars.

I loved those kits. They were awesome and I built most of them and still have quite a few.

I never heard of the Trek Wars line.

Thanks for the info on the Viper markings, I'll see about them as soon as my disability card recharges.

I had the Cygnus when it came out.  I even considered lighting it up, but since the hull was solid grey plastic, I figured it wouldn't be worth the effort.  If I had it now things might be different.

Rob Gronovius

If you had the ability to open a time portal, stick your hand in to it and pull out some kit from the past, or even current, what kit would you pick? Money is no object either. 

All monogram original issue 1/48 kits, especially the 4 engine bombers, but if I could only choose one bomber it would be the B-24J, and the Testors 1/48 electro plated P-51D 'moonbeam mcswine' ... and the revell huey gunship (1/32?) 

 I'd want this glorious bit of automotive madness. The John Bogosian-designed Koo Koo Kar from AMT. 

 http://www.showrods.com/showrod_pages/koo_koo.html