History of Revell's Buttera Street Rod Series

[Fabrux]

Sometimes the inspiration for my articles comes from acquiring a kit that I knew nothing about and the subsequent research. Such was the case with the Revell Buttera Street Rod series.

https://www.sprue.xyz/articles/revell-buttera

Edited March 5, 2022 by Fabrux

['70 Grande]

Thanks for sharing this article. I had no idea that so many kits appeared in this series! Great look back; might inspire me to pull one of my kits from the series and bring it to active-status on my work bench!

[keyser]

Can’t believe it’s 20y since blue touring came out. Great chassis, slides under 23 T Van, just fiddle cowl and stock 23 hood. Fits under Model A’s well too. Tim Boyd has used it in some builds. Moving fuel tanks inboard iirc gets clearance for one or other, forget which. Hali’s look great on them. Ahead of its time. Stripping chrome off suspension helps assembly a ton. 
Nice article. Remember when it was on cover of R&C. 

[Phildaupho]

Thanks for the great article. I have always wanted to build at 27 Coupe Hot Rod and plan to use the most recent reissue as a starting point.

[bisc63]

+1 on the thanks for that! Very informative site; much good reading!

[stavanzer]

Great History on these kits. Thanks for sharing the link.

[Daddyfink]

The Ford 289 in those kits could be used as a V6! That thing is tiny! 

[89AKurt]

Last century I built the Delivery T.  It was the first time I tried Testors putty, to smooth in the rear window blank, which was not done well.  It sits on my junkyard shelf.  I never liked the wire wheels with generic tires.

[tim boyd]

If you look closely at the box art of the first '34 Ford Coupe kit (in red) in Chris' feature article, you'll note that it is actually a comped-up Monogram '34 Ford Coupe, rather than a buildup of the Buttera kit (which is featured on the Blue '33 Ford box art).  I noted this in my old Street Rodder Modeler's Corner column not long after the kit came out.  Not sure I made any friends there at the time, but this was a case of misrepresentation of the box contents.  It was no doubt a function of needing to photograph the box art before the actual kit tooling was completed.  

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Really nice job with your Buttera series kit compilation, Chris, it's the most complete I ever recall seeing.  TIM 

[Fabrux]

Thank you, Tim! I'll add that little nugget to the article, too.

[RickyD]

On 3/13/2022 at 9:30 PM, tim boyd said:

If you look closely at the box art of the first '34 Ford Coupe kit (in red) in Chris' feature article, you'll note that it is actually a comped-up Monogram '34 Ford Coupe, rather than a buildup of the Buttera kit (which is featured on the Blue '33 Ford box art).  I noted this in my old Street Rodder Modeler's Corner column not long after the kit came out.  Not sure I made any friends there at the time, but this was a case of misrepresentation of the box contents.  It was no doubt a function of needing to photograph the box art before the actual kit tooling was completed.  

***************

Really nice job with your Buttera series kit compilation, Chris, it's the most complete I ever recall seeing.  TIM 

Revell pulled aimilar box art shenanigans with this kit. The body they used on the box art model is mostly likely an MPC one. It looks nothing like the distorted mess that's actually in the box. Very deceptive. 

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by RickyD

[stavanzer]

I seem to remember somebody (Art Anderson) using the Buttera kit and the AMT '27 T to build a stock '26 Sedan.

Am I mistaken?

And, How difficult might it be to kitbash the two to produce a stock Sedan?

[Daddyfink]

19 hours ago, RickyD said:

Revell pulled aimilar box art shenanigans with this kit. The body they used on the box art model is mostly likely an MPC one. It looks nothing like the distorted mess that's actually in the box. Very deceptive. 

 

No, it's the same body. Just a different shot angle that makes the difference. 

[RickyD]

1 hour ago, Daddyfink said:

No, it's the same body. Just a different shot angle that makes the difference. 

Are you sure about that? Compare the side window openings in the two; that's what makes me think they're different. I will say, that was some mighty skilled photography if they managed to disguise the flaws in that turd!

[Daddyfink]

10 hours ago, RickyD said:

Are you sure about that? Compare the side window openings in the two; that's what makes me think they're different. I will say, that was some mighty skilled photography if they managed to disguise the flaws in that turd!

Don't  you have the kit to compare it? 

[tim boyd]

11 hours ago, RickyD said:

Are you sure about that? Compare the side window openings in the two; that's what makes me think they're different. I

Also compare the A-pillars.   The Revell kit (blue) has very curved A-pillars (from a side/profile view), while the faux box art version (ree) has a vary straight A-pillar, closer to the real 1/1 car...FWIW...TB 

[stavanzer]

Trying to drag this back on trak...

Does any body remember using the Buttera kit to build a stock Model T Sedan?

[keyser]

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Trying to drag this back on trak...

Does any body remember using the Buttera kit to build a stock Model T Sedan?

 

[stavanzer]

Thanks!

[RickyD]

13 hours ago, Daddyfink said:

Don't  you have the kit to compare it? 

I do not. That isn't a kit I would waste my money on. 

[Daddyfink]

2 hours ago, RickyD said:

I do not. That isn't a kit I would waste my money on. 

So without any knowledge of having one on hand, and just going by a picture, you assume it is an MPC kit body? Come on! 

[RickyD]

25 minutes ago, Daddyfink said:

So without any knowledge of having one on hand, and just going by a picture, you assume it is an MPC kit body? Come on! 

I may not have the kit in my stash, but what I do have is functioning eyes. I've seen that Revell body numerous times and I am quite familiar with what it looks like _ a distorted mess. And you did notice Tim Boyd backed me up, right? And Tim was 100 percent correct;  the A-pillar angles make it rather obvious that the two bodies are not the same. 

Wasn't really looking for an argument here; just thought I'd post what I considered an interesting nugget. I won't make that mistake again!

Edited March 22, 2022 by RickyD

[Daddyfink]

18 minutes ago, RickyD said:

I may not have the kit in my stash, but what I do have is functioning eyes. I've seen that Revell body numerous times and I am quite familiar with what it looks like _ a distorted mess. And you did notice Tim Boyd backed me up, right? And Tim was 100 percent correct;  the A-pillar angles make it rather obvious that the two bodies are not the same. 

Wasn't really looking for an argument here; just thought I'd post what I considered an interesting nugget. I won't make that mistake again!

It's not an argument, or at least I didn't think it was. I am just pointing out that it was the same kit. But, if Tim Boyd agrees with you, then it must be true. Case settled! 

 

 

[keyser]

Off topic, as people always point out. Nothing to do with Buttera T, save box art misrepresentation. The rest of the drama is ego, topic police hypocrites.

TB writes and sells books, unlike other “experts” who’ll be remembered thru lunchtime. ??

Edited March 22, 2022 by keyser
Op Funny car was on topic

[RickyD]

19 minutes ago, keyser said:

Off topic, as people always point out. Nothing to do with Buttera T, a lot with ego. TB writes and sells books, unlike other “experts” who’ll be remembered thru lunchtime. ??

It was on topic to the extent that Revell used deceptive box art on the initial release of the Buttera-based '34 Ford coupe and did so again with the Camaro F/C from the same era. But, yeah, like I said, I won't make that mistake again.