The Hot Wheels Snake and Mongoose Dodge D700 Transporters. The matching, fully restored pair is featured in the new Traditional Rod and Kustom magazine....given the iconic appeal of the subject, such kits could have multi-generational sales appeal, and could support and entire reissue program of past Revell and Monogram "Hot Wheels" drag racing kits. Of course, the corporate guys at Mattel would have to moderate their Hot Wheels licensing fees to make such a deal viable (some licensing revenue is a whole lot better than no licensing revenue, guys!) A few years ago I would have totally dismissed such an idea, but with the success of Revell's '49 Merc, '57 Black Widow, Chopped '48 Ford, and Kurtis Midget kits, such a specialized and admittedly eccentric kit topic might actually be worthy of consideration. They would need to keep the detail of the kit somewhat simplified (but please, not a curbside!!!) to make the tool affordable. (That means leaving the tool boxes on the transporter bed without any interior detail, and molding the leaf springs with the chassis rails, for example.)
To further recoup the investment to produce such a kit, according to TR&K the Mongoose transporter was originally sold by Chrysler to Sox and Martin, making the potential for a S&M transporter as a third licensed property off the tool. Of course, to make use of that, our friends at Revell would need to either A) go ahead and tool up that all-new 1970 'cuda kit we've been begging for all these years....(turns out that the '70 S&M 'cuda Pro Stock was stunningly close to a factory stock 'cuda that year and would be an easy second derivative of a stock '70 'cuda kit...)...or B) do a new '68 Cuda body on the '68 Dart Hemi GTS kit tool (but the wheelbase would have to be shortened for the 'cuda body)....or C) find the old JoHan '71 S&M tool, buy it, and refurbish it (the tool must be around somewhere, and it still has the best bi-scale E body 'cuda body casting - tied with the MPC '70 'cuda kit - ever put to styrene). Of course, my vote would be for the new '70 'cuda as that would open up many kit spinoffs over subsequent years, just as Revell has done with their '32 Ford Street Rod series...but I digress.
Oh well, just some random Good Friday dreamin' out at the Boyd model ranch....
Happy Easter everyone. TIM
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1010780.aspx
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