The thing you need to keep in mind when discussing anything retro is this: There was a time when it wasn’t. Like that 1970 Mustang Mach 1 you’ve been eying on auction websites (don’t kid us, you have, haven’t you?), there was a time when that was the newest and hottest thing to be had. I know. I street-raced one (and a bunch of other now-classic iron back then), and yes, it was fun.
In the early days of the AR-15, you could have anything you wanted as long as it was what Colt was making. So … not a lot of variety. But it’s a wide-open field today, because you can make not just a box-stock Colt SP1 1970, but also a limited-production—or even a prototype—if you want. Well, a clone of one, that is.
When you speak of “retro,” you have to select a time period. In the AR-15 verse, that breaks down to two periods, each with a variety of models: They
