Sometimes, it’s fun to go a little wild and crazy. Real car owners have been doing it for ages, and model kit companies were generally not too far behind when it came to customizing trends. When something became cool on the street, it was typical for the model companies to start producing kits in the same vein, whether that meant modifying existing kits or just issuing new ones that were already customized or could be.

A perfect example of this was the mini-truck customization phase that was big in the mid-‘70s and lasted until the early ‘80s. The vannin’ craze and the show rod world spilled over and merged on the light trucks of the era, resulting in the Street Truck, a customized micro-van more for cruisin’ than bruisin’.

Well, now that everything retro is cool, Revell as dug deep into the Monogram side of things and brought one such road warrior back to life. This thing is wild and better than ever, thanks to new decals!
Check out the new repop of the Monogram Chevy LUV Street Pickup at the link below.

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/monogram-1-24-chevy-luv-street-pickup-oob/

Well written as usual review. I really like the style.
I'm glad you touched the re-release subject from both AMT (Round2) and Revell-Monogram (or Revell of America, whatever you call it now). Sad news for us it's that both companies are living into the past AND they have crocked marketing ways. Revell was my first injection kit I ever put together and I really loved it. I was very bitter when I decided to buy from them no more, after a last shipment a couple years ago when 3 out of 4 items were lemons. AMT (Round2) were incapable to produce anything exciting in the last 12 months. I still buy AMTs, but after rigorous documentation. More than ever nowadays, my money are taking the Silk Road...
Back to LUV, I've had a blast when I see it first at my supplier, but my joy lasted 3 seconds, then I've seen it built on YT, and now your honest review have my appetite destroyed. Good Luck, Revell of America, I'm out of here!

Gabriel

What a gem! There aren't many options out there for a retro custom LUV. The lack of detail I could deal with, that can always be beefed up a bit, but it's good to hear that the bit of test fitting you did looked good, and those decals are cool.

Great review as always, love your style. Looking forward to a build story down the road some time.

Cheers, D

Gabriel:

I don't mind if Revell and Round 2 live in the past. I have missed out on a lot of cool (to me!) kits because I was born in the late '70s, and wasn't modelling until about 1990. By then, the stuff I love now was long gone. So, I'm glad to get the chance to get some of them in reruns, as it were.

I've been disappointed mostly by the '70s AMT kits, but then again, I knew they'd be garbage when I bought them. I really prefer rougher kits by and large - most people eschew them, but I like to see what I can do with them!

I am bummed with Round 2's recent offerings. I wanted to buy an old kit in the winter, so I picked up the Dodge D-100. Pretty Meh. I haven't seen anything from R2 that's "exciting" (to me) this year at all so far.

I'm with you there Adam. I enjoy the build process much more than the painting. The problem solving and modification processes required to bring the trashy kits up to standard gives a great deal of gratification.

Cheers, D

This is a fun post to see. My first vehicle was a 1975 Chevy LUV, that I got around 1981 - it was built by Isuzu, with a 1.4L four banger. I added a webber carb, put add-a-leafs in the rear, cranked the torsion bars up in the front, which equaled about 2" of lift, and used KYB shocks (I eventually figured out gas shocks are not the best for off-road - too stiff!). I was an off-raod nut then too. As a whole it was a good truck for me to start with - it was cheap, easy to fix and got good gas mileage. Thanks for posting

Cheers
Nick

Oh, see, for me, it's the painting, Damian, that keeps me coming back. I like trying to fix the problems with the kit too, but I love finding proper and obscure (where possible) colour schemes or trims.

Some things, though, you just can't fix, I don't think. That's when I just say "Okay... that's good enough" and carry on!

Adam, I meant technologically not subject related. I am a classic addict as well



You know what you buy because most of the time there's no alternative and you have to buy what doesn't worth. Look what is happening on the 35th market. Good detailed kits from Trumpeter and Dragon sent the other manufacturers pricing spinning down the drain, and now anybody try to imitate them. Which kind of Panzer III do you want? How many teeth per sprocket? You have them all! Only now you can say you know what you buy. Of course, if you want to struggle, nobody holds you back from buying an '80s Italeri or Tamiya for peanuts.
Example from auto models market: Tamiya and RoG launched nearly simultaneously Ford GT LeMans. Because Tamiya offering it's so much better, one can buy Revell's under 20 USD. Would have been RoG alone with the model on the market, you would have paid 27.95 or more, like for the other models from their range without concurrence. Eduard vs Airfix it's another example. New Airfix it's so much better than it used to be and still cannot sell for much, because Eduard topped them with pre-painted PE and masks, and 5 markings choice and so on... Then, again, you know what you buy. My hope it was on Moebius and Salvino Jr., but first one apparently doesn't have enough R&D resources, and the second one have reached already prices of nearly USD 40 / kit. I'm not gonna pay that money for what I can buy for 20 USD from old AMT or Monogram stocks. For that money I buy the excellent Tamiya releases from the last few years.



I just seen today their last update. Finally, they released 9 kits auto in plastic, of which one it's partially new molds - a 4-door Impala SS. All the other are re-releases. I found interesting a couple, like Ford Galaxie and the car hauler trailer.

Gabriel