I’m not gonna lie, I’ve passed up on buying this kit for well over a year now even though it comes by nice and affordable every day almost. Amazon’s got it for under 20 bucks, hell it costed me even less than a new one on eBay with shipping included, it’s been under the 20 for well over a year on eBay too coming to think of it.
And now I’ve finished it finally, after skipping on it for so long, and I really couldn’t even tell you why the hell its so cheap. It’s such a good kit! It’s quite customizable too coming to think of it, there’s resins a plenty as well as even higher quality decals(thanks to Firebird Designs) than already available to turn it into a regular old Satellite(albeit with a 440 cu in engine, the largest stock available on a Satellite in ’71 was a 426) or a Roadrunner.
Though that’s more thanks to Plymouth for having three cars based on the same car with small changes. The Roadrunner with it’s more subtle hood and segmented stripes, the GTX with the black accents and air grabber hood and of course the regular baseline Satellite, all with the same luxury options, wheels and codes in the end, minus a few engine choices.
The thing I ended up doing with the GTX is what I wanted to do with the ’71 Charger way back but ended up passing on due to not having the wheels I wanted, nor the right color paint at the time, was to body color the chrome bumpers and even the accents. The so called “A51” Mopar code; “body colored bumpers” which were available on ’70-’71 Chrysler Corp cars.
Along with some regular Magnum 500 wheels that I ended up taking from a ’70 Mustang kit, I figured it would make the GTX pop a lot more(along with some Eagle GTII decals from Fireball Models). The Charger had a lot of chrome on it, but man the entire front and rear of the GTX are chrome so it’s even more of a stark difference. But in the end, the unicolor choice and the not chroming of the accents made life a lot easier, but I still have to give Monogram(and Revell) their credit, even if I were to paint on the accents, the grille was nicely embossed so getting the chrome lines back on there after making it matte black 
would’ve been easy, along with the window trim and the bottom body trim, they are all very well molded.
So still, here I am wondering why there’s so little interest in the kit, it has superb molding, the engine quality is up there as always with Monogram and the interior is pretty damn good too. Maybe people just aren’t interested in early 70’s Plymouths? Overshadowed by better Plymouth models like the ‘Cuda, ’69 Roadrunner’s, so on? I have no idea.
Anyhow, normally I’d be saying how on almost all Monogram 1/24th scale models the engine bay is pretty bare but the engine makes it all better. This ain’t gonna be the case, I mean, it’s still bare-ish but given this kit’s no younger than the Firebird, Superbird, and other models from Monogram, they went out of their way to make it a little less bare. A single panel extra on the firewall with the wiper motor attached to it filled up the flat slab of plastic and makes it look… well, a hell of a lot more realistic than it would’ve before.
I didn’t end up wiring the giant 440-6 Barrel engine, even though the model really deserves the extra detail and effort on my part, I ran out of wire materials for the sparkplugs and battery, so gotta make due with it for now and perhaps come back to it later to still wire it up.
Decal wise it has all the GTX bases covered, it has the single giant black fill on the Air Grabber hood, along with the grabber top, Air Grabber name decals as well as those nifty little comical ones for on the side. What’s oddly unique though is for the tail lights, a 
common thing on old Monogram kits is that the tail lights are just chrome sections, this is no different, but there’s actual tail light decals for a change! All four sections and the single reverse light, plus the red GTX logo and exclusive black stripes that can go around ’em if you find it prettier that way. Along with the 440-6 Barrel, GTX and side light decals on the side, the whole exterior package’s there. No dial decals though, but well, the mold is good enough that with a steady hand you could get most of the detail. Would’ve been nice though!
It’s an absolutely fantastic kit, it’s super cheap and there’s no need to go with older alternatives cause the most recent 2012 release is still plenty available, which are definitely still possible as Revell made one in 1998 and another in 2007 and Monogram made it’s original debut in 1987(with a Satellite model, no less).
’71 Plymouth GTX specifications:
Kit: #85-4016
Skill Level: 2
Parts: 70
Molded in: White
Scale: 1/24