BJ and the Bear kit

[every second counts]

I heard yesterday that the bj and the bear kit was going to be released again, is there any truth to this or just a rumour.  I have a sealed kit so i might as well build it then or what and get the decals from  the new kit as mine are probubly toast.

[cowboy rich]

I haven't heard anything but would love to see it re-released, I'll have to look around a little more. 

[DrKerry]

I'd love to see it come back out!!!!! One of a few rigs I'd love to build...... convoy rig and Movin On are my other two!!!!! 

[Ben]

I'd love to see it come back out!!!!! One of a few rigs I'd love to build...... convoy rig and Movin On are my other two!!!!! 

The AMT Mack R685ST and the AMT Movin On Kenworth ARE being rereleased very soon!!!! Check Round 2's website for details.

[Force]

Well the BJ And The Bear truck is a logical follower to the Tyrone Malone Transporters as they share the same base tooling.
But if you want to do the BJ truck right now the decals can be found at Modeltruckin'. 

[Daddyfink]

Sign me up! Always wanted one of those kits! Too expensive for me when I was a kid. 

[DrKerry]

Good info. Still be nice to see the BJ Bear kit brought out again......

[Edsel-Dan]

I have the 1/32 that I need to restore

Wish the 1/25 kit included the Bear figure like the 1/32 kit did

[Daddyfink]

Chimp sold separately! 

 

[KWT]

When I was young, I had several of the ERTL truck and trailers. I'd love to have the model.

[CharlieBravo]

On 03/02/2017 at 7:09 AM, Edsel-Dan said:

I have the 1/32 that I need to restore

Wish the 1/25 kit included the Bear figure like the 1/32 kit did

I have the 1/32 'Bear' figure from the kit but it is actually the perfect scale for the 1/25 kit.

Just FYI haha

[Oldcarfan27]

I built one of those when I was younger, still have it. It was one of my favorite TV shows.

The only issues I had was that the kit had a long frame, whereas on the show the frame was shorter (easily fixable) and the front bumper is skinny and was wide on the show, so I had to modify mine to match. There are probably other details, but I wasn't THAT picky back then.

To me, it looked like the truck from the show. I added it to my models of famous cars collection - Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am and Snowmans rig, Magnum P.I. Ferrari, Cannonball run van, Fall Guy pickup, etc. I still have most of them, but sadly they're in the "box of broken dreams" right now.

Hmmm, Maybe I should rebuild these?

[Yahshu]

On 09/02/2019 at 10:24 AM, CharlieBravo said:

I have the 1/32 'Bear' figure from the kit but it is actually the perfect scale for the 1/25 kit.

Just FYI haha

X2 

[CharlieBravo]

.....

Edited February 12, 2019 by CharlieBravo

[CharlieBravo]

6 hours ago, Yahshu said:

X2 

I rephrase, Yahshu now has that figure haha, but the trade was worth it...

[Sledsel]

The real truck ended up in a junkyard... Luckily it was rescued and restored

[Force]

One of them did, the production company had at least one backup for each season, it's not uncommon to do that, if one breaks down the other is still working and the production can go on uninterupted.

[1320wayne]

There are some replicas floating around. Not sure how many. I saw this one at a truck stop in Mississippi about 4 years ago. Talked to the owner and I forget where he said he was from but he told me that he uses the truck sometimes to haul goods but mainly shows it around the country. 

 

[DrKerry]

4 hours ago, 1320wayne said:

There are some replicas floating around. Not sure how many. I saw this one at a truck stop in Mississippi about 4 years ago. Talked to the owner and I forget where he said he was from but he told me that he uses the truck sometimes to haul goods but mainly shows it around the country. 

 

Ummmm that’s not a replica!! That’s one of the actual BJ show trucks! Look at the side and you’ll see Paul Sagehorn! That’s the number 3 rig from the show. Paul is from Sparta Wisconsin! 

The trailer is the one he had before he found and acquired the Brown branded trailer. This trailer in the pic was totaled out from what I remember hearing?!

Pauls dad Craig spends quite a bit of time behind the glass in this rig! 

Edited February 22, 2019 by DrKerry

[Oldcarfan27]

On 2/19/2019 at 11:35 PM, Sledsel said:

The real truck ended up in a junkyard... Luckily it was rescued and restored

I saw that on YouTube, the truck wasn't in a junkyard, but a guy had it sittng next to his barn, overrun with weeds and junk.

The buyer, who is a collector, bought it and towed it out with his REAL "Movin On" Kenworth rig!

There are pics of both of them online being restored, along with the proof that they are both from their prospective shows. The guy is a true fan.

Now all he needs is the Smokey and the Bandit, Convoy and Duel trucks for a complete set! 

Edited February 24, 2019 by Oldcarfan27

[Force]

As far as I know it was Paul Sagehorn, Sparta, WI, who owned the only surviving Movin' On truck found so far and he found the original the BJ and the Bear No 3 truck and restored it, one of the other BJ trucks used in the series is supposed to be in Australia.
Paul have since then sold the Movin' On truck to a guy named Mark and it's now in Collierville, Tennesee.

Here is the picture of the recovery and I had more pics of the restoration downloaded from Pauls TVTruckin website but they disappeared in an external hard drive crash the other week (I managed to save most of my reference pictures tho' but the BJ folder is gone), and the website is now gone so I can't get them back. 

The surviving Duel truck is owned by Brad Wilke and the Convoy "Rubber Duck" truck is owned by Anthony Fox if nothing has changed lately, none of the Smokey And The Bandit trucks from the movie has surfaced yet but there is a very accurate replica built by Brad Wilke.

Here they are all together at a truck show some time ago with Rob Mariani, pictures found on the web somewhere and the credits goes to the photographer.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Force

[CharlieBravo]

I find it strange that this didn't get the AMT re-issue. everything else seemed to. It is the same with a dvd release. Universal says there is no market for it to warrant a release, yet Movin' On got a dvd release. There has never been any TV or cable reruns including most of the world for many years...

Something strange seems to be going on with BJ and the Bear. Maybe it's just me but it seems to still be quite popular and has a definite niche/cult status. It had the Hot Wheels release but hardly accurate and comes up in a lot of different forums in many different genres, trucker forums, Kenworth forums, modelling forums, dvd forums, 80's TV show forums for e.g but nothing from the studios at all..

thoughts?

Edited February 25, 2019 by CharlieBravo

[Force]

I don't understand it either, TV and movie trucks seems to be quite popular and I would for sure buy if the BJ and the Bear series came out on DVD's...I got the Movin' On DVD's a while ago and watched all episodes in about a week after I got them.
But the BJ truck is quite easy to do from kits recently reissued, either the Revell Germany K100 Aerodyne or AMT Papa Truck can be used with new decals from Modeltruckin', for the AMT kit you need to change the engine and transmission and shorten the frame...with the Revell kit you only need to take off one of the two turbos and redo the aftercooler and you are close.

Round 2 could have reissued the Movin' On truck when they did the W925 recently, but it's wrong anyway so I doesn't matter much.
The Revell Germany W900/T900 kit is a much better starting point, change the hood, the engine, rear suspension and wheels, get decals from Modeltruckin' and you can get it quite close to what the TV series trucks looked like.
I read that Mark, the new owner of the Sagehorn Movin' On truck (wich is one of the two first season trucks) is changing it back to original specs as it was back in 1974 with a Cummins VT903 and torsion bar rear suspension.
The last thing I read about it was in early January and I don't know if it's done yet.

[Yahshu]

On 25/02/2019 at 4:29 AM, Force said:

Here is the picture of the recovery and I had more pics of the restoration downloaded from Pauls TVTruckin website but they disappeared in an external hard drive crash the other week (I managed to save most of my reference pictures tho' but the BJ folder is gone), and the website is now gone so I can't get them back. 

 

 

CharlieBravo & I have a mountain of pics between us including all pics from Paul's site, I'm sure one of the 2 of us can provide replacements. 

[DrKerry]

On 2/24/2019 at 12:29 PM, Force said:

As far as I know it was Paul Sagehorn, Sparta, WI, who owned the only surviving Movin' On truck found so far and he found the original the BJ and the Bear No 3 truck and restored it, one of the other BJ trucks used in the series is supposed to be in Australia.
Paul have since then sold the Movin' On truck to a guy named Mark and it's now in Collierville, Tennesee.

Here is the picture of the recovery and I had more pics of the restoration downloaded from Pauls TVTruckin website but they disappeared in an external hard drive crash the other week (I managed to save most of my reference pictures tho' but the BJ folder is gone), and the website is now gone so I can't get them back. 

The surviving Duel truck is owned by Brad Wilke and the Convoy "Rubber Duck" truck is owned by Anthony Fox if nothing has changed lately, none of the Smokey And The Bandit trucks from the movie has surfaced yet but there is a very accurate replica built by Brad Wilke.

Here they are all together at a truck show some time ago with Rob Mariani, pictures found on the web somewhere and the credits goes to the photographer.

From what I’ve heard all Bandit trucks and trailers were lost in a fire at the recording studios not long after the movies were out. 

It is Paul Sagehorn that now owns the BJ truck and trailer and has owned the Movin’ On truck. If you’ve watched the cable show where they restored the BJ truck and are doing the road shots of the Bear truck on the road. Those clips are shot through the windshield of the Movin’ On truck!!