9 replies to this topic

[jbwelda]

i may have mentioned elsewhere but i have been looking for one of these for some time, ever since i built a big tub (pre-reissue ebay gluebomb) and used the hilborn fuel injection set up that came from this kit.




i have seen them at swap meets for at or around 300$ in near mint condition and for slightly less for lesser specimens. so you can imagine i was thrilled to get this on ebay the other week for 60$!!!.

I decided to photo the parts as i was sorting them and share with us what a kit with some options ought to look like! in the process i noticed i am missing a few parts but most of them are minor and shared with the normal releases as in the big t, big tub, etc (i am assuming...not an expert just some hands on experience with these models from when i was a kid to now).

here is the classic box art, box is a bit battered but not too bad at all:



and the enclosed booklet which is very instructional especially for the time at as a 12 year old boy.




ok here are some pieces, the non plated stuff including on the right side, the assembled engine block, transmission and front end piston moving display, resting on the oil pan. notice all the intake manifolds only a few of them available elsewhere i believe. includes rams horn exhaust headers as well as stock round air intake and filter housing. one can also see the clear GMC blower top half to show internal pieces. not sure if i will keep these windows but they are pretty kool.





here is the chrome, plenty of it. of note are the tubes for front mounted blower setup, and the chrome intake tubes for the fuel injection. also note some missing pieces, halves of carbs and aircleaners, but those are standard pieces elsewhere i believe. you can also note the swept back chrome headers as well as the chrome block hugger style headers.



back in a second with some official options!

[jbwelda]

alright, not to say the kit is complete as evidently there was originally a stand and a motor to move things internally (always struck me as an unnecessary risk so never really attempted to make this feature work but the front of the motor is well assembled and the pistons operate smoothly so maybe what the hey). all that junk wont be missed because i am going to use this in an 1/8 scale rod one of these days (yeah sure right bill, but i digress, continually).

here are the options for the motor right out of the box: stock, street, road and track, racing, dragstrip, and full on competition versions. see if you can spot all the variations!



















this kit is really a jewel and it would be great if Monogram/Revell reissued it with even some more improvements! along with the Big Drag of course!

Edited by jbwelda, 27 September 2012 - 07:57 PM.

[1972coronet]

WHOA ! This thing is bad!!
I've ne'er even heard of this kit , until now . It's especially nice for its time-of-release .

If the tooling still exists , then a modified (i.e. , cleaned up) reissue would be nice to see .

I'm looking forward to following your build of this hidden treasure !

**As a side note : I really , honestly believe that a kit like this should be a required project for any engineering course in Jr. High and High School (and a smaller , simpler version , in smaller scale , for elementary school kids ) . The hands-on experience would be worth its weight in gold !**

[joeym]

That is awesome. Glad you were finally able to finally grab one o these. Looks like lots of fun to build. Plus the options for the various configs make it that much more fun.

[Greg Myers]

There are others : http://robdebie.home...ble-engines.htm

[jbwelda]

those "others" are pretty much worthless in my opinion...fine i guess as a stand alone but there is nothing in scale to put them into.

[Casey]

It would be interesting to know if the tooling for this kit still exists, but if it does, I can't see a reissue being a big (no pun intended) seller. Now, packaged with the 1/8 Monogram parts packs, sales odds might be much better.

[jbwelda]

well when you have a miscarriage like a Gremlin to compare to, i have a hard time imagining it would NOT be a relatively good seller. and so far they have released, or plan on releasing, at least 2 separate Gremlin models.

monogram/revell needs to reissue the Big Drag first though...what on earth made them re-release the Big Tub instead? the only thing that had going for it were the cycle fenders, imo.

[Casey]

[Ace-Garageguy]

Wow jb, your tub is gorgeous. Looks like full-scale. Wow.

 

I'd completely forgotten the engine kits existed in 1/8. One of the things I lusted after as a kid, but always out of reach.