[unruhjonny]

I recently decided to pony up, and buy an authentic '70 dealer promo kit from a guy who I have purchased from in the past;
He has a booth at the Portland Swap meet and I knew he had a website, so I reached out to him shortly after this years swap meet was officially called off.
If anyone cares, he recently updated his site, and can be found HERE - he's a super nice guy.

The 1971 kit I previously bought just wasn't cutting it in my books, and I have been thinking of selling some of my larger die cast cars to be replaced with fewer and smaller plastic kits.

In an unusual twist of 'Murphy's Law', no sooner had I received my mint (with original box) 1970 dealer promo kit, that a damaged one showed up on eBay for pennies on the dollar;
I figured I'd put a bid in on it, and let it ride... well I won it too!

My mint one is sitting on a shelf beside the '71, and a red '73:



Well I just received the damaged '70 promo model, and have carefully popped it apart.

Upon inspection, I noticed that there is a detail that I clearly know to be from a pre-production car - and(!!) there are two other details which I also suspect are from the same pre-production car that this model was based off of;

For those of you who don't know, MPC was privy to pre-production cars by the manufacturers, and licensed to create promo kits which dealers had on hand to sell at modest price. MPC (later AMT) would also use these to make and sell retail versions of these kits.

As a point of reference here are some images of the retail version of this kit's box:




The retail versions had more detail, and were sold to be assembled with optional parts while the dealer promo kits were sold assembled in plain white boxes through to 1974(?). After 1974 the promo kits used retail sized boxes with sales literature images, and were to be assembled (in stock configuration only) by the recipient of the kit.
Promo kits were always molded in colour while the retail kits were more often cast in white.

Here is a picture of the dealer promo version of the 1975 kit:



Although this is a 1974 kit, I have the retail version of the 1975 kit and can attest to it being very similar to this 1974 kit:



Anyway;

The detail that popped out to me was the cigarette lighter beside the ashtray (under the radio);
I also noticed that there are three toggle switches on the dash under the A/C vents (the third is where the cigarette lighter ended up on the production car);
I then noticed that there is a horizontal strap for the rear passengers on the inside forward edge of the sail panel!

I thought these details were neat enough to share... even if I wasn't able to take decent pictures of them.

As I see it, since this kit was damaged fixing it up like my car won't hurt any theoretical collectible value - since it was arguably worthless to begin with. Hopefully it will prevent any temptation to buy a kit to build like my own car... even if this one has a fixed closed hood.

[Stuart]

Interesting stuff. I've always been fascinated by the models from MPC, AMT and the other manufacturers. It seems the companies were all related in one manner or another. There's a person who's posted videos on YouTube about the histories of most of them, including Revell and Lindberg. I have a small collection of mainly AMT models of full size Pontiacs from the 1960s, which were mainly Bonnevilles, but I also have one Firebird promo - it's a 1972 Formula, I think in Revere Silver. It's like one on his website (https://www.vintagevendor.net/items/...2-de65373c6e7e), although mine isn't nearly as nice. It's complete but I don't have the box, and someone in the past tried to sand the paint off it so the finish is pretty rough.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

The 70 Kit with Knafel Car artwork is unbelievable !!
Would definitely like to build one like that (model)
Engine has the RamAir V exhaust layout just like the real car had.
The car has never been re-discovered.

It's big brother 70 Judge Tin Indian has survived.
It ran a V bottom-end with special angle-plug IV Heads from AirFlowResearch.

Supposedly the Formula was RamV Engine top to bottom , at least at some point in its time. Not a whole lot known about it ,,, and only a few vintage pictures of it floating around.

Thanks for sharing this stuff Jonny

[keith k]

Interesting tidbits!

[HO Kenny]

Then there is this kit I found partially built a long time ago.

[unruhjonny]

Here are some pictures showing the pre-production interior details:




(not the door strap, the one for the back seat - I have never read this mentioned, or seen it pictured before.

Here are the other detail that the 1970 kit has a combination of exclusively:


For 1971, the "Firebird" script was replaced with non-TA fender vents;
For 1972-1973 the fender vent was removed, but the 70/71 "Formula 400" style script remained. The "Formula 400" fender script was updated for 1974, then replaced with "Firebird" for 1976.


The bumper bird is a 70-71 only detail, and was removed for the 1972 kits.


The trunk bird remained on through to 1976, but after 1976 it was removed, as the promo kits were the Trans Am model;
Monogram (later bought by Revell) made a 1970 Trans Am kit in the mid(?) 1990's. I bought a couple of those when I was still in public school, the trunk details were never on that kit - also, my decades old stalled conversion can attest to the Monogram kit being cast with the TA flares, so shaving them off is not for the novice - neither is attempting to make a Formula hood from a TA hood.

[HO Kenny]

Say Jonathan, did I give you or one your brothers a 75 or 77 kit?

[unruhjonny]

sending a text reply

[77 Canamman]

What are your plans for the rough '70?

[unruhjonny]

my plan was to build it as my car.

I am not certain on if I will make it as a promo kit (fixed/closed hood) or if I will go the extra steps to make it with an opening hood (I recently bought an 1971 NOS retail kit body).

[unruhjonny]

incidentally this is proof that deals can still occasionally be had on ePay.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/184761639236

I also just noticed that the rubber tires used on the 70 promo kit are different than the 71 & 73 cars;
The 1970 kit uses F70-15 Goodyear Speedway wide treads;
The 1971 kit uses F60-15 Goodyear Polyglas GT;
The 1973 kit uses the same as the 1971, but they look to be a recasting with lower profile.

[Green Hornet]

oboy.....toy cars........

[bird72]

MPC was hot on early 2nd Gen Birds. My 72 MPC I bought built. Someday I will build as my car. You can sometimes buy parts on ebay. Amazingly found resin flat hood (was Formula). Also found 72 high back seats (built with "custom" seats). Need to find a kit that has a separate glue on spoiler, since I added one to my car. Have mirrors to add. Need to find a close approximate dual snorkel air cleaner. Will be a pain to re-build vs fresh build.

[unruhjonny]

if those are MPC (1:25) 70 buckets, I'd be interested in them.

If some of the more finite details aren't a concern, AMT recently re-released the '77 Firebird kit (curiously boxed as MPC!?) - that kit will have any parts you might need and then some.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7KmGMNDp_w

[thefirebirdm@n]

Years ago I spent some time trying to document every Firebird model ever made. Also covered the promos with help from a gentleman named John Witzke who was (prob still is) a bit of a fanatic and had a complete collection. He snail mailed me photos he took of his collection and I scanned them all using a printer/scanner and uploaded them to the website.

http://firebirdgallery.com/modslot01.htm

An index of all the models pages is accessible via the main page as a click-able drop-down.

http://firebirdgallery.com/promolot1.htm

Same index available here as well.

I know the site is very dated now compared to current website standards. Every year I consider both a total overhaul and just taking it down. When I lost access to Microsoft Frontpage, it meant re-learning a completely new tool for editing html and I've never made time for it. Maybe someday...