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According to Ronn Webb at WingnutToons.com Animation Reference Site, the Mystery Machine's license plate (AC-712) only showed up once in the history of Scooby Doo, in a 1979 Scooby/Scrappy episode "The Neon Phantom of the Roller Disco" |
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From what I have heard, Polar Lights retooled some of this kit when it was reissued with the prepainted Scooby and Shaggy figures. The retooling supposedly fixed some problems with the model, which after building this is understandable. It's not that the kit was bad, per se; it just wasn't up to the quality of other recent Polar Lights kits (like the 1950 Batmobile).
There were several places where I had to open up the holes before they could accept the pegs properly, including the roof rails, doors, lights, and bumpers. I never did try out the wheel/tire/axle fit, since as soon as I saw the plastic tires included in the kit I went with a set of vinyl tires from another kit. I also did not use the stickers for the front of the van, since they simply looked terrible (they never settled smoothly on the front of the van, and had an obvious seam over each headlight where the stickers butted together).
Which is not to say that this kit was all bad. PL did a great job of capturing the Mystery Machine while still keeping it as realistic as possible. Features like the tires, seat, and dashboard show that a lot of effort went into making this a true 1/24-scale kit. No modifications were required to make the hubcaps fit a regular set of tires, almost as if the modelers who made the kit wanted this to be an option.
For the body of my Mystery Machine, I filled in the holes in the roof over the rear door hinges and repainted the whole thing with a more cartoon color accurate Krylon Teal. I used the kit's stickers for the sides and back doors, and made up the appropriate green for painting the spare tire, wheels, and front of the van. I also added the black stripe just above the green panels, as a nod toward the cartoon van's drawn-on character line. Inside, I painted the deck, walls, and ceiling dark gray. The dashboard was painted the same teal as the body, and the seat was painted with my own custom orange-brown. I debated this last point for a while, since the seat has appeared as several different colors over the years. The most common color is probably gray/black, but for some reason, "70s Orange" felt like a better choice.
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