You can also tell they rushed the job, since the vertical bars in the grille of the SS nose aren't even spaced evenly on the passenger side (you can see this in the pic of the 2002 box art). They really butchered the front end of the body, and it takes a fair amount of work to get the nose to fit properly. When AMT/Ertl converted this kit to the SS, it was a mixed bag. The GMC Caballero version has the 1980 model year grille, with the Buick-style vertical bars. Nice history Kataranga! Couple clarifications: the grille in the Night Moves and Branding Iron issues is actually the stock 1981 model year grille, not a custom tube unit. Just looking at the box art model from the 69 reissue tells you you're in for some serious front wheel offset issues. In fairness, the real CCC ElCo SS's nosepiece didn't blend well either, but was craftily disguised by a thick piece of molding: Too bad the part of the nose which wraps around the lower edges of the front fenders doesn't blend well at all. It was a fairly common/popular conversion from what I remember, so perhaps AMT decided to inject a bit of life into an old kit by slightly updating it. The El Camino with the Monte SS nose is not a factory offering, but rather an aftermarket conversion by Choo-Choo Customs (you can see the name on the LF of the nose in one of the box art pics), so there never would've been a promo issued with that nose cap. If anyone has any thoughts, please share! Otherwise, I have no idea why AMT would modify the kit at all and not just re-issue the last version of the kit. If there was an SS promo issued between 19, that would explain the body change. In doing my research for this article, I can't find any issues of the SS kit under the MPC brand before 2009. This issue was molded in the usual AMT grey plastic and carried the stock number 6964. The wheels were updated to the SS-style rallye rims. This issue retained the tonneau cover, however all other customization options were lost. The kit was returned to the street version, although now the tooling was updated to the SS model. Now under the stewardship of AMT/Ertl, this kit was again issued in 1991 under their brand instead of MPC. Molded in yellow under the stock number 1-0453. This issue includes many extra parts to turn the regular street-going El Camino into a car-crushing monster truck: roll bar with off-road lights, grille guard with winch and off-road lights, monster truck suspension, axles and wheels, hood-exit exhaust headers, and high-rise intake manifold. The next issue of this kit was not until 1984 and was part of the company-wide monster truck craze. ![]() Molded in red, this kit has the stock number 1-0857. The tonneau cover and spoiler are back, retaining the lake-style exhaust, swapping out the Centerlines for turbine-style rims, and adding a hood scoop and new front bumper. As this issue was marketed as a "street racer", the customization options were changed once again. The first glue kit released was in late 1981 and carried the name Red Light Bandit. Sometime in 1981, the tooling of the El Camino body was altered to reflect the new-for-1982 body style, changing the front end to quad rectangle headlights from dual rectangle and a flush grille. Molded in red, this kit has the stock number 1-0854. This release added a camper shell top instead of the tonneau cover and spoiler, replaced the snowflake rims with Centerline style rims, and retained the tube grille and lake-style exhaust. In early 1981, the Branding Iron kit was released, adding more customization options to the Night Moves kit. Again molded in black, this kit carried the stock number 1-0760. Still depicting the 78-81 body style, this release adds custom parts to the Royal Knight issue: tonneau cover, snowflake rims, rear roof spoiler, tube grille, lake-style exhaust, and CB antenna. The next kit on the shelves was released in 1980 as the Night Moves custom truck. This kit was released with the stock number 78-0420 and molded in black. The truck depicted is the special edition Royal Knight package, 78-81 body style with rallye rims. Keeping with their themed kits, this was released under the name Royal Knight and featured a large decal sheet of graphics for decorating the finished truck. ![]() The first glue kit released by MPC was in 1978 at the start of the new El Camino body style. Having the promo contract ensured year-to-year changes in the kits, as shown below. MPC produced promotional models for Chevrolet for this vehicle in various factory colours throughout the years, far too many to capture in the scope of this article. This article is intended to cover the MPC and AMT issued glue kits of the fifth generation of Chevrolet El Camino kits from 1978-1987. I've been sitting on this one for a while, time to post it up!
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