Herbie the Love Bug?

[Oldcarfan27]

What's the closest kit to use for the Beetle in the original movie?

I read the original car was a 63 square window. Or an oval window with the back window cut open into a square. 

[ranma]

That would be 1. Polar Lights Herbie the Love bug model kit. which is now the Coca-Cola VW!

Edited February 4, 2021 by ranma

[stitchdup]

The polar lights bug is a snapper but its still builds up nice. It has a engine that details pretty well for what it is, much better than the gunze oval kit. There are parts to make the tamiya beetle into herbie available too. I haven't seen the last revell beetle kits so I cant say if they are as good but the polar lights and tamiya are both good. If you need a rag top insert for your build I have a resin closed top i wont be using

Edited February 4, 2021 by stitchdup

[ranma]

The Polar light's is supposed to be a snap kit, but I ended up having to glue most of the parts together (Coca Cola Veriation).  the plus side of this kit is both the hood and trunk open plus it has a spare tire  that can be removed or put in..

[stitchdup]

Yeah the only bit i didn't like of the polar lights bug was the front seats. But thats just personal preference

[ChrisR]

My take on Polar Lights Beetle. Used an aftermarket decal sheet.

[peter31a]

Revell did produce a Herbie kit way back in the day. Rare to find these days and I don't know how accurate it was.

[Oldcarfan27]

Sounds good, I'll have to find a PL Herbie sometime. 

I think it'll need wider wheels though.

[stitchdup]

if you get the harley quinn edition of the polar lights it comes with extra wheels, a set of brm and a set of empi 5 spokes. I think there are a couple of hubcap options too, smooth or stamped vw

[Oldcarfan27]

4 hours ago, stitchdup said:

if you get the harley quinn edition of the polar lights it comes with extra wheels, a set of brm and a set of empi 5 spokes. I think there are a couple of hubcap options too, smooth or stamped vw

Thanks for the heads up, but I'd still need the decals. 

[Oldcarfan27]

Does anyone sell the wide five wheels?

[keyser]

Decals on ePay regularly.

[Tom Geiger]

Just a few comments..

The original Revell kit is incorrect. It had the 1967 plus front fenders. I noticed that when I was 11!

The Polar Lights kits go together wonderfully. Back then they were working on a kit strategy of snap plus.. a kit that a novice could assemble quickly and get nice results, and a good model builder could detail up and get a fully detailed model.

The Polar Lights Herbie does not have VW emblems on it because the movie car did not. In the movie they called it “the little car”, never using the trade name! I believe the later releases had the emblems.

The Herbie was the first kit that ever had the full soft top in our scale! One tip- the top snaps in place. The snap prongs are too far towards the edge and are visible on the finished model! Sand them off and glue the top in place. 

And does anyone have the later releases.. Spider man, Harley Quinn and Coke?  Do any or all of them come with the soft top?

Edited February 4, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[Erik Smith]

1 hour ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Does anyone sell the wide five wheels?

https://www.3dscaleparts.com/product-page/1-25-15-dub-wide-five-setup-with-drums

Not sure if these fit the exact needs - they are two widths front and rear. 

Or maybe the wide fives from one of Fujimi's Porsche kits would work?

[espo]

25 minutes ago, Erik Smith said:

https://www.3dscaleparts.com/product-page/1-25-15-dub-wide-five-setup-with-drums

Not sure if these fit the exact needs - they are two widths front and rear. 

Or maybe the wide fives from one of Fujimi's Porsche kits would work?

If you are unable to find actual VW wheels see if you can find some of the old wide 5 wheels from the AMT '36 Ford kit. I used these for a dune buggy build once and they looked perfect as a stand in.. 

[Classicgas]

11 hours ago, ChrisR said:

My take on Polar Lights Beetle. Used an aftermarket decal sheet.

From whom? 

[Daddyfink]

4 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Does anyone sell the wide five wheels?

I don't know, but, I do know that the wheels in the Fujimi 356 Porsche kit are really nice. But, those are not cheap kits for just the wheels

Not my model, image from interwebs to show wheels

[CapSat 6]

I’ll get home tonight and look over what I have. I know I have a PL Herbie, a Tamiya ‘66 a PL Spider Man kit, and a PL Harley Quinn kit. 

Yes, I’m a Mopar guy, but when I was 5 I wanted to build a Beetle from junkyard parts. I was so upset with my parents when they didn’t go along with that plan! 

None of the Revell kits will work- the new one is a ‘68 sort of Euro spec car (different in many aspects). The original Revell Herbie licensed kits are very different, too- as they’re sort of ‘68’s with earlier style bumpers. 

I think Herbie was a ‘63 (most of them, anyway). The PL kit in any form would be the best start. I’m pretty sure the Spider Man kit did NOT come with the convertible roof insert, but I think the Harley Quinn kit did, and I’m fairly sure that the Coca Cola kit does as well. The Coca Cola kit is currently available, I saw one at a Michael’s store within the past few weeks. 

The Tamiya kit is supposed to be a ‘66. There were differences between ‘63’s and ‘66’s, but to me, the ‘66 looks close enough. The Tamiya kit might be considered better than the PL kit, but it won’t come with the convertible roof piece, so you would either have to get that piece from a PL kit, or scratch build the convertible roof. One advantage of the Tamiya kit is that it comes with separate hubs and wide 5 wheel detail (and meatier tires), so if you want to build the “race” Herbie, the Tamiya kit might be the way to go. 

To build the race version, I think you’re looking at bashing both the Tamiya (at least for the wheels) and PL (at least for the convertible piece) kits. If you are ok with hubcaps, then you could probably just go for a PL kit, it really is nicely detailed.

I’ll post some pics soon. 
 

 

[CapSat 6]

One last note: all of the Polar Lights kits (Herbie, Spider Man, Harley Quinn and Coca Cola) are more or less the same.

The Herbie kit only had the option to build it as a stock “street” Herbie. Like Tom notes above, there were no VW markings on the hood or hubcaps, because the movie cars did not have those markings, either. I think the original PL (late 1990’s) Herbie kit only had stick on graphics, no water slide decals. 

The Spider Man kit had all of the Herbie stuff (except for the roof insert), but also had two additional sets of wheels- an EMPI mag set and another custom option, plus optional custom seats and nerf bar bumpers along with the stock ones. 

The Harley Quinn kit is the same as the Spider Man kit except for the stick on graphics (I gave the stickers for one of my Daughters to use on another car). I think the HQ kit also did come with the convertible roof insert (I will verify that tonight). 

I do not own a Coca Cola kit, but I think it’s the same contents as the Harley Quinn kit and I think the box art for that one does show the convertible roof piece. 

 

 

[Oldcarfan27]

All great information from everybody. Thanks Guys!

[Erik Smith]

For the wheels:

It appears the Herbie wheels do not have the slots like the stock steel wheels. They appear to have smooth inner rim. Tamiya and Fujimi rims have slots. 
It also appears they have different wheel depths.
Quibbles? Maybe. 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Erik Smith

[CapSat 6]

1 hour ago, Erik Smith said:

For the wheels:

It appears the Herbie wheels do not have the slots like the stock steel wheels. They appear to have smooth inner rim. Tamiya and Fujimi rims have slots. 
It also appears they have different wheel depths.
Quibbles? Maybe. 

I never noticed that before. Looks like 3D Scale Parts resin wheels for the win!!!

[CapSat 6]

Ok, I checked my stuff out. 

First off- I WAS WRONG about the wheels in the Tamiya kit. They do have wide 5 detail under the hubcaps, but they DO NOT have separate hubs. 
 
Here is a shot of the Tamiya wheels. They can certainly be paint detailed to look right, although to Erik’s point, Herbie’s wheels did not have cooling slots. The wheel with no hub is the spare. 

 

[CapSat 6]

Here is the Tamiya kit I have. Yes, I started building this as a Herbie many years ago, well before the Polar Lights kit came out. I have never finished it. I really should. 
 

Pictured here are the very wheels and hubs that Daddyfink mentioned above, from a Fujimi Porsche 356. I think I got an opened and incomplete Testors version of that kit on heavy discount about 25 years ago or more, so that’s where the wheels came from. 

[CapSat 6]

I took a look at my PL Spider Man and Harley Quinn kits. Just as I remembered, the Spider Man kit did not come with the convertible roof piece, but the Harley Quinn kit did. It does appear that all the needed pieces for a box stock Polar Lights Herbie build is in the Harley Quinn kit, except for the decals.  

Also of note are the two sets of custom wheels, custom bumpers and custom seats, along with the stock parts. These Polar Lights kits are really well done. 

I think the Coca Cola Beetle is essentially the same as the Harley Quinn kit. I think the convertible piece even shows on the built car on the box. 

Accounting for all of this, if I were to start over, I would get either the Harley Quinn or Coca Cola kit, and combine it with 3D Scale Parts’ wheel set if I wanted to build a “race” Herbie. 

Below are pics of the contents of a Harley Quinn kit.