Rebuilt Gluebombs Only by Car Builders?

Sprue-ce Goose

aaronw:

I see what you mean re: re-issues. I was not aware the kits were modified for re-issue.

Back when annual kits based off promos for car dealers were common, the tooling was frequently modified year to year unless there was a major redesign of the car, so usually the only version of the kit that can still be issued is the last year of that body style. Over the years many of these kits were also modified into better selling race cars, hot rods and customs, making the original kits hard to find.

Licensing also plays a part with cars, AMT and Johan started out doing promo models for the car manufacturers. Which ever company won the bid got an exclusive contract for that year to model that manufacturers cars. Johan did a lot of Cadillacs and AMC cars, also many of the early 70s Ford economy cars like the Pinto and Maverick. When Johan went out of buisness many of the molds vanished, so all the cars  they did are hard to come by and unlikely to be kitted again. There is some hope for the more popular cars like Cadillacs or the performance AMC cars (Javelin, AMX), but the odds of a manufacturer kitting a new Pinto, Gremlin or Pacer are pretty slim. If you don't want to pay the high ebay prices for an unbuilt, glue bombs offer an cheaper alternative.

I have dontit a few times on some of my older armor models. I think armor lends it self better to this than most aircraft. I currently ahve about three tank kits under verying stages of rebuild, but it a glacialy slow process with me. It is often easier and less frustrating to buy a new tooled kit of the same subject aircraft than rebuild an aircraft. I have a few old Sci Fi kits I hope to rebuild someday as well.

[quote user="philo426"]

One other factor may be the relative ease of disassembly of a car model vs an aircraft or armor model.Imagine trying to separate a fuselage seam without damaging the fuselage halves.Whereas most of the time the body is one piece so removing it from the chassis with minimal damage is easier.

[/quote user=" aaronw"]-

There are lots of old promo models of cars otherwise unrepresented in a kit, one off custom cars that haven't been re-issued in a very long time and the trend at one time to modify the tooling of a kit making a re-issue of the original version impossible without a whole new tool.

philo426.

Your comment made me think of my attempt at prying old wing halves apart some years ago.

The kit ended up in the scrap heap anyway  as parts of the wing tore off during separation.

aaronw:

I see what you mean re: re-issues. I was not aware the kits were modified for re-issue.

bondoman: Yes, the manufacturers go back for more kits because we have more money to spend on kits.

Somehow, though, I always feel 12 years old when I open the box for the first time.

Aaron's got a good point. Back when, say forty or fifty years ago, new car kits came out as fast as new cars did. But they didn't stay in production, and no ones going to go back and repop them now.

Aircraft, the opposite. The older we get the further back we seem to look for subjects, and the manufacturers production follows. I've never bought an old glue bomb, but the idea intrigues me.

One other factor may be the relative ease of disassembly of a car model vs an aircraft or armor model.Imagine trying to separate a fuselage seam without damaging the fuselage halves.Whereas most of the time the body is one piece so removing it from the chassis with minimal damage is easier.

I think other modelers also do this but it does seem to be far more common with car builders.

I think one big reason may be due to there being more OOP kits in that particular segment. There are lots of old promo models of cars otherwise unrepresented in a kit, one off custom cars that haven't been re-issued in a very long time and the trend at one time to modify the tooling of a kit making a re-issue of the original version impossible without a whole new tool. At least with aircraft and armor except for some really unusual subjects there is usually a current kit available, maybe not the exact version you want to build but at least something to use for the base.

Also, not limited to car modelers, but large parts boxes seem to be more common among car modelers. Probably due to the more free ranging build it how you like nature of cars. Glue bombs and junk yard boxes are popular buys for all the parts, and sometimes they provide a salvageable model. The general nature of custom cars is combining bits from different cars, dropping a modern engine, custom bucket seats and wheels onto an antique car for example.