GM's Motorama was a 12-year (1949-1961) marketing extravaganza designed to showcase the current line of GM products while dazzling the target audience with some amazing prototype and dream car exercises. Ultimately curtailed due to rising costs, Motorama was nonetheless a major “hit” for The General,

29 domestic and 23 GM-Canada Motoramas took place, at venues ranging from NY, Los Angeles. San Francisco, Boston and Miami domestically and Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Calgary and London, Ontario in the North. GM used the Motorama show not only to woo customers for the latest model year in each participating division, but also to gauge consumer reaction to a wide range of concept cars incorporating mild to wild styling and design features (rain-sensing automatic convertible tops, hydraulically operated doors, jet-fighter styling cues, and an odd little fiberglass car called a Corvette, which you may have heard of).

Brief History of the Marque

The first generation Challenger bowed its head in 1969 and was a stable mate to the Plymouth Barracuda, the original Chrysler “pony car” to play in that segment as started by Ford’s Mustang. The second generation “Challenger” from 1978 to 1983 was a badge engineered Mitsubishi Galant Lambda. The current generation of Challengers was introduced in early 2008 again to do battle with the fifth generation Mustang and Camaro segments that were exploding in popularity.

Introduction

The “Back to the Future” (BTTF) movie franchise began in 1985 with the release of the first movie. The film series featured the adventures of Marty McFly as he traveled back and forth in time in a Time Machine built by wacky scientist Emmitt “Doc” Brown. That first plutonium-powered Time Machine creation had been built by Brown from a vintage DeLorean sports car. For the second movie, “Back To The Future Part II”, the DeLorean had been converted to a flying Time Machine. At the end of the second movie, just as order had been restored to the 1985 timeline (once again?), the Time Machine was struck by lightning which fried the time circuits and sent Doc Brown whirling back to 1885. A third iteration of the movie franchise was needed to rebuild the Time Machine using 1950s technology (is anyone else confused?) and to set the timeline straight one last time.

The Revell/Monogram 1/24 scale ’27 Ford Black Widow Hot Rod is a great kit with not a whole lot of flash to deal with. Everything fits together very cleanly. With only 55 parts in the entire kit and only one way to build it, there are no spare parts left over. The engine comes with a triple-carb setup and shows plenty of chrome on top. The interior is a bench seat with an elongated shifter handle.

As far as the body goes, it is a two-piece setup with the cab and the bed. There is a nice cover for the bed as well. I love the grille work, as well, with its chrome parts well represented. I proceeded to paint the roadster in Purple-Licious Metallic Lacquer by Testors. It came out extremely shiny and colorful. I painted the afore mentioned bench seat the same Purple-Licious purple with a semi-gloss white for the center ribbing of the seats to give the purple color a kick.

Background

Manufactured in Korea and marketed as a “premium sport sedan,” Hyundai’s Azera shares the marketplace with Toyota’s Avalon, Ford’s Taurus, and Lexus’ LS 350.

The Kit

Engineered to be built without paint or glue, Academy’s Azera seems targeted for the casual builder, beginning modeler, and the full-size Azera owner. Although targeted for less-experienced modelers, Academy has provided ample detail for the more serious or advanced modeler as well.