Warning: AMT Fast and Furious Yenko Camaro

[Hawk312]

Just thought I would warn anyone before going out and spending $10 on this kit, because I figure it is going to be a popular kit.
I just brought home and opened up AMT`s Fast and Furious Yenko Camaro kit, and at first though it was some kind of joke. It is *that* bad. It`s hard to know where to start. The body is probably the worst part. It resembles a Maverick more than a Camaro, and the front and rear ends are especially unconvincing. It is almost hilarious. I imagine anyone who has seen this kit and is familiar with the proportions of the real car probably has had a good laugh.
There is flash everywhere. There are "nibs" and pock marks on various pieces, like many of the other AMT kits I`ve seen. The driveshaft, rear suspension, and exhaust are all one piece , which makes sense for kids just starting building, but most kids wont know what to do with all the flash. The rear axle is also much to narrow. It comes with an optional dual carb cross-ram setup you see on some stock 302`s which is cool, but as far as I know this setup has never been on a big block chevy (can someone back me up here?), and the carbs come *molded to the intake manifold*.
A couple bright spots are thedecals and the wheels. The decals look mostly accurate, except the hood stripes appear to be to wide. The wheels actually look much better than they do on the box and have nice Chrome.
I remember reading several years back in SAE that AMT laid of workers and sent jobs south of the border to save money. I will not buy AMT kits, unless out of abolute necessity. AMT, if you would up your quality, I, and I think many others, would be willing to pay an additional 20%. Hope you saved alot!
I suggest waiting for the accurate and much higher quality Revell kit, which should be out before the end of the year.
....done ranting.

[flyonthewall]

Someone posted a quick review of this a short while back and were of the same opinion. Definately sounds like one to avoid. Shame on AMT.

[gasman03]

actually, don't blame AMT, Blame MPC, MPC did that kit back in the 70's, for then, it was pretty good, but pretty crude to todays standered, I wish AMT released THERE 69 Camaro, its ALOT better then MPC's, If you REALLY want a fantastic 69 Camaro, wait about 2 months, and get Revells Yenko, alot better, I got the AMT kit for the wheels and the year one decals, one day I may build a costom out of it, but I doubt it,

its a shame the F&F cars exept the Supra have been pretty bad, but they did'nt start with good kits to begin with, AMT as some really good kits in there aresonal, in which some are being released later this year (like the 69 Corvair, 69 Galaxie (100+ bucks on Ebay), and the 71-73 Mustang),

you can blame Racing Champions for the big lay offs at AMT, at the point in which they where layed off, AMT was really bringing up there reputation, some great kits like the 58 Plymouth, 57 Chrysler, a ton of mid 90's stuff, like the 96 Explororer, 94-98 Mustangs, 93-97 Camaro's/Firebirds, which are all great kits

[primera man]

Thanks for sharing dude.....know to keep away from this one

[CamaroSSBoy346]

Yes. Its a shame that AMT's quality has decresed. I built the 58 Fury "Christine" and the 57 Chrysler 500C. They were very good kits. But all the good kits you will find in their grey boxes. On the side panel they give stats on the 1:1 car. If you see that; its probably a good kit. Unfortunatley they did away with this box design in what? Mid-late 90's?

[Honoturtle]

I have the AMT Converible kit.. everything that you mentioned is the same, except the body in a convertible model, decals and rims. For some reason, it looks like the interior bay was made for a coupe, you just have an extra "boot" to place there. Also the glass, molded to one for a coupe as well.

Can you get pictures of the rims and decals?

[Purpura Delujo]

Just buy the AMT version but use the Revell SS Camaros body? I dunno if that would work but it would solve the shit quality of the body wouldn't it?
You could always build your own Yenko aswell, but use the decals from the AMT kit if they are good.
I found one of the best AMT kits I made when I was younger was the AMT 1958 Impala, that had opening doors, which impressed me at the time because I had only been getting POS Tamiya kits before that.
Is the new AMT 58 Impala just reboxed or have they played with the parts in it? I need to buy a coupld dozen of those, I want to make some ragtops out of some coupes, aswell as a few just as the coupe.

[Midnight Racer]

It's too late for me I bought the kit a couple of weeks back.With work it can be a good kit but still nothing compared to Revell's.

[Bloodhound]

Sounds like Revell's kit is a balltearer, can't wait for it to be released! perhaps you could use your unfortunate cammy as a parts donor?

[Luc Janssens]

cuz their Camaro kit, is the best there is.
My advice for everyone looking to buy Amt brand kits by RC2 is, first look inside the box then lay down you hard earned cash.
Luc "still recovering from their so-called '58 Plymouth" Janssens