Would anyone remember an American Bantam panel in die cast ?

[Eshaver]

Several years ago, I heard of someone doing a scale American Bantam . I can't remember if it was a Panel or a Pick Up ? I'm looking for one NOT on Evil bay .

[Matt T.]

I saw a hot rodded Bantam pickup diecast at NNL East about 5-6 years ago.

Maybe use eBay for your research, then buy elsewhere?

[Tom Geiger]

Ertl, then Johnny Lightning did both the van and the pickup in diecast. I believe both were last seen wearing Coke colors. Art Anderson was involved in that series so he may show up to elaborate. Below photos from that auction place. These aren't expensive.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Tom Geiger

[Art Anderson]

I had charge of doing the one and only 1/24 scale Johnny Lightning "Coca~Cola" collectors assortment (OK, so the Ertl Bantams were 1/22 scale--but they fit in pretty well), in late summer 2004, just after Playing Mantis, the parent company of Johnny Lightning was sold out to RC2 (owner of such as Ertl, and AMT-Ertl). I and my product development partner at JL had just started seeing test shots of the following 1/24 scale diecast models done under the Johnny Lightning brand: 1957 Ford Courier (sedan delivery), 1951 Studebaker Commander Starlight, and the 2004 Ford E-250 cargo van.

These were to have been packed in a 12-model assortment including three 1/34 scale Coca~Cola truck diecast models, but one of those disappeared while in its tooling mockup stage somewhere in the licensing approval stage (never to resurface!), so being a part of the RC2 "Empire" by then, the Automotive Subjects manager for Racing Champions Ertl gave me a list of "1/24 scale" Ertl castings to choose 3 more subjects that could be painted and decorated as Coca~Cola vehicles. From that list I selected the Ertl Collectibles 1946 Studebaker pickup, 2000 Dodge Ram Quad pickup (which became the only time that was ever sold to the general public other than as a True Value Hardware Stores promo!) and the 1/22 scale 1940 Bantam pickup. Having a couple of neat books in my library of historic Coca~Cola vehicles (Coca~Cola vehicles almost always were/are owned by franchise bottlers, not the company itself) which were painted in one or more approved Coca~Cola color schemes (Coke was one of the first companies to create standardized paint schemes/colors/logo's for delivery and service motor vehicles). Couple these castings with authentic publicity photo's of Coca~Cola vehicles and the correct standard Coke colors of red, yellow and white, and using those photographs, the assortment of 12 vehicles (2 each of 6 different subjects) we went to production, but just one production run was made.

The 1940 Bantam Pickup was one of three models of that vehicle done by Ertl Collectibles; the other two being the '40 Bantam Panel Delivery, and the very rare 1940 Bantam Roadster pickup (Bantam built just three of those for a large auto parts store in Atlanta GA for use as delivery vehicles--perhaps the last roadster pickup trucks ever produced in the US on a factory assembly line, and the only time that Ertl allowed that model to be produced outside of their promotional model business).

Art

[Eshaver]

I'm still wanting one of the American bantam pick ups , regardless of markings .