Saturday morning cartoons again meet the modeling bench in Round2’s resurrection of classic kits featuring Warner Brothers’ beloved Road Runner and his nemesis, Wile E. Coyote. Of the three newly re-released kits, this review focuses on Road Runner and The Rail Rider – a looney dragster embodying a steam engine theme.

The MPC-branded kit consists of 5 sprues of colored parts, including 1 chrome-plated, a set of peel-and-stick decals, and a pre-painted vinyl Road Runner figure. Construction is snap-together, but is well served by a few well-placed applications of liquid cement and superglue – especially if the finished product is to be subjected to the playful hands of a little one.

The 17-step assembly sequence is clearly outlined in the instructions, and took roughly an hour or so to complete. Most parts snap together fairly easily, but adult hands were needed to help with a couple of the tougher ones. The trickiest part of assembly was combining the drive rods, exhaust pipes, and steam cylinders on each side of the car – tricky even for a seasoned modeler.

Although some of the parts were molded in colors other than those shown on the box, the kit builds up into fun little model any youngster could be proud of.

We really enjoyed this father-son project, and I highly recommend the kit for any parent or adult looking for a fun modeling project to do with a little one in their sphere of influence. We liked it so much, we can’t wait to get started on the Wile E. Coyote Willys in a few days!

Many thanks to the crew at Round2 for the sample kit and the opportunity for another fun build with my son!