Christ, we’ve all been awaiting this one since it’s nephew kit, a kit I’ve had half-finished since late 2016, appeared on the market. Which in reality was a ’69 Charger with the 1970 front end(the non-R/T and 500 version in 1970 kept the same tail lights as the 1969 Charger), based on Fast & Furious’ Dominic Toretto’s ’70 Charger – which too was a 1970 Charger in some scenes, a 1969 in others, a ’69 500 edition in some movies, a open-grilled ’70 in others – it was a shapeshifter car that was a nightmare to pin down by toy manufacturers for the simple reason that Vin Diesel’s car changed more often than the tone of the series itself. So Revell stuck with the first movie, in which the car generally had the 1970 grille with the headlight doors stuck open and the non-R/T trim the car genuinely had, therefor a ’69 tail end.
So eagerly we all awaited a true, proper updated version of the Revell Charger tooling, which debuted in 1997 under the Pro Modeler line, with to put it mildly, friggin’ epic detail. The engines(it came with a 440 Magnum and 426 HEMI) in all three versions of their kits(’68, ’69 and ’69 Daytona) were seriously, right there and still today, the highest quality Mopar engine cast out there. It’s seen use in all of the Charger re-releases as well as the spectacular 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda kit and it’s back yet again in this kit, though sadly only with the 426 HEMI. The whole kit is centered around the sole engine choice, the proper black hood stripes have white HEMI print on ’em and the tooling’s been updated to only fit the HEMI engine for the time being(you’d have to do a tiny bit of tinkering to allow the transmission to fit the slightly updated chassis).
The whole kit is a welcome upgrade on the tooling of twenty years ago, the unnecessary turnable wheels have been taken out in favor of one-piece front suspension, which was probably done to fix the common issue of the structural integrity of the whole front being horrible at best due to the wheels being attached to two little tiny arms and the weight would bend ’em in a second. The rear suspension’s been fixed up to better show the ride height and wheel depth, which was a bit too deep on the ’69 and ’68 Charger kits. The whole front end was updated to fit better, which was also a problem source on the other Charger kits, here it fits together a lot better due to… well, the front valance no longer is forced into the sway bar and now connects directly to the body. The decal sheet’s been updated a ton, giving full dashboard decals and arm rest wood decals instead of having us paint a mediocre copy of wood, the wheels come with optional red line tires(which actually weren’t available on a 1970 Charger at the time, unless you special ordered them at a dealership, go figure) but I substituted them for BF Goodrich Radial T/A’s from Fireball Modelworks.
The one thing they went backwards on? All four wheels are attached by little metal pins to the axles. Revell has this weird obsession with metal pin wheel set-ups and just like my complaint with Round 2/AMT/MPC who force the same two tire sets on every single kit they re-release: It. Doesn’t. Friggin’. Work. God. Dammit. A good example is the 2010 Camaro SS kit, which I transformed into the 2012 Camaro RS 45th Anniversary edition; the wheels on that kit are also attached by the metal pins and I physically can’t touch the model today or the wheels pop off at high speed like they’re trying to escape Hell. And here’s no different, the fuckers won’t stay on and metal and plastic don’t mix when it comes to staying connected so I’m always forced to fill ’em with epoxy in hopes of giving it enough strength to stay together for a change.
But y’know what, so be it. While I wish there was no friggin’ metal pins for the wheels but the old functional system of plastic pins, my true wish would’ve been that the kit also packed or instead packed the at the time new engine option for the Charger, one that became highly popular – the 440 Six Pack. They gave us the right air cleaner already, all they’d needed to do was update the 440 Magnum from previous years slightly and wham, done and done. But alas, suppose it would be too much to ask. Maybe in the future, who knows?
The 1970 Charger was the last of the Coke bottle shaped Chargers, before it got slightly fatter and slightly slower. I mean, I love the ’71-’74 Charger and I wish AMT would update the ancient-as-sin ’72-’74 kits from MPC using their ’71 Charger tool so I can complete this series at last, but man I am still utterly happy that Revell finally has given us the perfect, or well, near-perfect ’70 Charger. MPC has had one on the market since 1970 and it… wasn’t amazing. It was the only source of a ’70 grille, which most people just manhandled onto a Revell ’69 Charger kit to somewhat moderate success. But to get back to the point, the ’70 Charger didn’t go out without a colorful bang.
Like I said, it finally too got the 440 Six Pack engine option on top of the already powerful powerhouses available at the time(340, 383, 426, etc), another first for the Charger series was that it also got access to the high impact colors that were a lot more common on Chrysler vehicles from 1970 onwards, like the crazy lime, orange, yellow, pink and purples. At first I wanted to do it in the bright pink like the one on the box, as not only is it a unique color, it actually… suits it. There’s something amazingly alluring about a totally wild pink Charger, or hell any sporty Dodge product of the time. But I eventually went with the “sublime” hi-impact color, which is basically just a mix of the “yellow-green” RAL color and Duplicolor’s fluorescent lime green spray paint. Used it before on the 1971 Plymouth Duster 340 kit and it actually really looks good so I rolled with it once more!
It goes together so much better than it ever did before and I’m glad the now twenty year old tooling has gotten a well deserved upgrade and I genuinely hope they keep on using this tool to great effect, maybe a Charger 500 some day? Who knows! All we need now is more engine options, a 1/25th 383ci V8 or 340ci V8 from Revell would be friggin’ amazing.
’70 Dodge Charger R/T 426 HEMI specifications:
Kit: #85-4381
Skill Level: 5
Parts: 117
Molded in: White
Scale: 1/25
Great post. I have this kit sitting in a box to start sometime soon and am really pleased to hear about the front wheel assembly as on the two 68 and a 69 revell charger I’ve built the front wheel setup was a nightmare and at least one of them is only still together properly as long as no one touches it!
I could also never get the front lower valances to fit properly!