Vetteman and Tony, your status is updated..
Sparrow, the Mossie's fine... It's been around since the 60's, just finished that one up myself (white box, 1978 issue) a few months ago, but it was destroyed on the ground by a Tomcat... Sadly, not an F-14 in some kind of wierd re-make of The Final Countdown, but the furry kind of cat... (He's responsible for a fair number air-to-ground kills, including a B-17, 2 1/2 ton truck, air cmpressor, and an entire recovery team)
Telsono's right about the E-Bee-Doo-See (S B Deuce C, get it? That's the Marine Corps nickname for the Helldiver, according to an old friend of my Dad's who was a rear gunner/radio op on one)... The kit we want to build is the one with all the "operating features", not the PM kit. Dunno who made it, but was NOT a Monogram kit. All the Monogram Navy aircraft of that period had the retractable gear, swiveling guns, folding wings, dropping bombs/torps, etc...
The USN/USMC kits in the series were the F4F, F4U-4, F6F, SBD, SB2C, and TBF-1. The others were the Zero, Spitfire IX and Me 109E. None had any cockpits to speak of. I think that's about it for "working" models in 1/48th...
As for the data plaque in the kit, they got put about everywhere, the underside of the elevator with "MMI" being quite common... BTW Sparrow, I have a "1977 White box" issue F-80 and the data stamp is located on the bottom of the elevator (MMI), and on the inside of the lower wing. The (MMI) is also on the elevator on the 1983 (Box art) issue, as well as the inside of the lower wing,lol..
Troublemaker has got it right though.. Any date-stamp 1985 and earlier is a GO,some 1986 kits are as well, since they're likely Monogram-engineered kits, but make sure that it's not a reboxing of another manufacturer's kit (like the 1970s WW1 Aurora kits)... Some later ones are ok too, just don't get all bent about it.. If ya don't know, and can't find an answer, ask away... But it's much easier for all involved if you try to do some homework on your own first.