1/24 '38 American Bantam panel Van

[traditional]

This was just a quickie little project......a repaint of an old Ertl Collectibles coin bank from two or three decades ago. The body paint is basecoat/clearcoat, with Humbrol and Tamiya used on the wheels/tires. The lettering is done with some old Letraset pressure sensitive lettering.  Just passing some time on a hot and sticky late summer day.

 

[Tom Geiger]

Very nice!  I have a Coke version set aside to do something neat like that someday!

[Snake45]

Very cool! I don't think I'd have been able to resist the temptation to rod it.

[peekay]

Great little model - had never heard of it before.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Beautiful paint !!

Man, that is so cool. I've got to find one of those.

[wayne swayze]

As usual you have done it again. Really enjoy your work! The decal on the side is PERFECT! 

[Mercuryman54]

Very sharp! Great build, Cliff

Dennis

[Ace-Garageguy]

I found some, but the boxes all say 1/22 scale. Is yours actually 1/24?

[Mark]

I found some, but the boxes all say 1/22 scale. Is yours actually 1/24?

Compared to the MPC and Revell Bantam roadster bodies, the panel truck is bigger than 1/24, that's for certain.

[Snake45]

I saw a real one (coupe) a couple weeks ago, and it is TINY. 1/22 would look right at home on a shelf full of "normal" 1/24 models (even though it's "too big").

[Tom Geiger]

I saw a real one (coupe) a couple weeks ago, and it is TINY. 1/22 would look right at home on a shelf full of "normal" 1/24 models (even though it's "too big").

Yes, Just like when the retro Fiat 500 came out, it was huge next to the original.  If  a manufacturer did a retro Bantam panel, it would be about this size!   

[Art Anderson]

I found some, but the boxes all say 1/22 scale. Is yours actually 1/24?

The Ertl Bantam Delivery IS  1/22 scale, folks!   Now, before anyone gets up in arms, this subject is so small in real life, and so dissimilar to anything most of us build, the scale difference (22nd to 24th) that it's not noticeable.  I was the one who brought this diecast to the ordinary retail market back in 2004. as part of a series of 1/24 scale Coca-Cola diecast miniatures.  That series of larger scale Johnny Lightning diecasts was in development when Tom Lowe (now owner of Round2) sold Playing Mantis (think Johnny Lightning and Polar Lights model kits--both were product lines done by Playing Mantis, for whom I was in product development, which short career spanned the changeover.  It was at the suggestion of my new bosses from RC2 that I hook up with their Racing Champions Ertl Division, and seek out potential subjects for the then-developing line of larger scale Coca-Cola branded vehicles.

Most may be unaware, but Ertl did a second version of this Bantam, that being the closed cab pickup.  The pickup has never been sold (to my knowledge) through regular retail channels, but was always a "Collectible" diecast model, done in special runs as advertising items, and mail order collectlbles, the JL Bantam Sedan Delivery in Coca-Cola livery having been the first (and I believe only) time that model was ever sold in retail stores.  They do crop up on eBay from time to time, and I've seen them on occasion at model car shows & swap meets.

 

Art

Edited November 16, 2017 by Art Anderson

[Eshaver]

Hey Art , I don't suppose you know who might have a bantam for sale would ya ? P-M or call me .....

[Art Anderson]

Hey Art , I don't suppose you know who might have a bantam for sale would ya ? P-M or call me .....

Ellen, I have no idea who might have one for sale or trade.  IIRC, RC2's production run of that diecast assortment (open stock of each model was NOT available) was only about 12,000 units, and virtually all of the assortments went to the likes of Walmart and/Toys R Us in the summer of 2005.  To the best of my knowledge, no more were produced after that.  I've seen them at model car swap meets in the years since, but only rarely.

Art

[Ace-Garageguy]

I snagged one on Ebay shortly after reading this thread. It was cheap, in the original Kroger promotional livery and packaging. Apparently some were given out to Kroger employees...as stated by the seller.

[Art Anderson]

On 11/21/2017 at 4:33 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

I snagged one on Ebay shortly after reading this thread. It was cheap, in the original Kroger promotional livery and packaging. Apparently some were given out to Kroger employees...as stated by the seller.

Ertl, whose casting I used in the Johnny Lightning 1/24 scale series,  produced two other Bantam commercial vehicles in the same 1/22 scale:  A closed cab pickup, and a model of one of the three custom roadster pickups done by American Bantam, for an auto parts store in Atlanta GA--Have those two in the original livery that Ertl produced them in, but buried rather deeply right now.

Art

[Bantamkid]

As noted in earlier postings, Art Anderson did a great service to those of us who collect and drive real Bantam cars and trucks when he adapted the Ertl Coca-Cola Bantam Panel Truck die-cast bank/toy for use by Coca-Cola in 2004. In his posting he said he was the one who brought the model to the retail market in 2004. However, development of the Ertl toy was a joint effort between myself and the Ertl team in 1996. Ertl wanted to create models for NAPA Auto Parts but needed to find an actual Bantam to measure. Two designers met me in Des Moines and we drove to the home of Mort Staggs, who owned a nicely restored 1938 Bantam Pickup. It was a cold and misty winter day when they took photographs and measurements. Several months later they sent photos of the prototype pickup, panel truck and roadster-pickup models to me. I had them make 11 corrections to the models, and then they went into production. The first vehicle completed was a pickup painted to exactly match Mort's truck, which they gave to him as a gift. The first model to be put on the retail market was the panel truck in 1998, followed by the pickup, and eventually the roadster-pickup. Retail versions were sold by JC Penney, Disney, Coca-Cola, NAPA, John Deere, Kroger's, and dozens of other companies. I documented the entire project from start to finish with photographs and wrote the story for the American Austin Bantam Club News.

 

Edited April 3, 2021 by Bantamkid
Added images