Jada ’67 Impala

[Snake45]

Stumbled across this one on the net, having never seen one. I’m not a big fan of Jada, but the pictures didn’t look too bad and I thought I’d take a chance on the size (nominally 1/24). It’s available in “Showroom” (stock-ish) version in black and metallic blue, and in a couple colors as a lowrider with goofy wheels. Ordered it from diecastmodelswholesale. Sale price, including shipping (split with two other diecasts), was well under $20.

I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw in the box. It looked like a ’67 Impala, and not oversized, either! It turned out to be almost exactly the same in width as an original AMT promo on my workbench (1/25), and just a bit shorter in both length and wheelbase. The body might be a bit taller than the promo, too. In other words, it has a bit of the typical Jada “caricature” look, although much, much less than most of their stuff. It looks pretty good standing alone (i.e., not comparing it to an accurate model or pictures), and even having seen the distortion, it doesn’t bother me TOO much, although I wouldn’t argue with anyone who called it unacceptably inaccurate. Overall, I like it.

 

Paint is a reasonable match for ’67 Chevy Marina Blue and is smooth and shiny. Oddly, there are no panel lines for the trunk. Tires are of a nice diameter but a very skinny width. Oh well.

It took me less than two hours of 1st degree Snake-Fu to get it shelfworthy—black wash for the grille and taillight surrounds, wheel detailing with black and Model Master Steel. Only needed my Silver Sharpie to touch up one tiny spot in the tampo silver on the right side drip rail, and for the wheel opening moldings.

As I said, I like this one a lot and consider its modest price to be money well spent.

 

And here it is compared directly with the aforementioned original AMT '67 promo (now finished). Not perfect, but not horrible at all. Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome!

Edited February 25, 2020 by Snake45

[cobraman]

Not bad at all. To my eye it does look a bit stubby and short but that could be the pics ?

[Gramps46]

Nicely done and surprising really that JADA let this one slip through in a stock form.

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, cobraman said:

Not bad at all. To my eye it does look a bit stubby and short but that could be the pics ?

Yes it is, as addressed in the text. 

[randyc]

Oh wow.  Never seen this one either but may have to have one.  The wheel covers almost sell it for me.  The first car I remember my mom having was one of these with those wheel covers.  Her's was Mountain green poly with a darker green vinyl roof.  I could make this one into that car.   After that was a 72 base Torino (351W).  I built the Revell 74 in the paint colors of hers.   Then a 78 Granada (302), which was car I learned to drive in.   Then a string of utterly forgettable cars.

Yes the doors and rockers make this one weird, but if you look at it out of the corner of your eye...not too bad.  Or I could use the wheels on the AMT version... For the quick fix, the diecast would work though.

Thanks for sharing

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, randyc said:

Oh wow.  Never seen this one either but may have to have one.  The wheel covers almost sell it for me.  The first car I remember my mom having was one of these with those wheel covers.  Her's was Mountain green poly with a darker green vinyl roof.  I could make this one into that car.   After that was a 72 base Torino (351W).  I built the Revell 74 in the paint colors of hers.   Then a 78 Granada (302), which was car I learned to drive in.   Then a string of utterly forgettable cars.

Yes the doors and rockers make this one weird, but if you look at it out of the corner of your eye...not too bad.  Or I could use the wheels on the AMT version... For the quick fix, the diecast would work though.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the kind words. My folks had a '68 Impala 4DHT in Sequoia Green that was my favorite car of theirs. It was killed in a feak flooding accident involving a fire hydrant, replaced with a white '69 with dark green vinyl top that I never thought looked half as good. As soon as the AMT Supernatural '67 Impala comes out, I'm planning to paint it in dark green as a tribute to that car (since we'll probably never see a '68 kitted again.) 

[spencer1984]

Nicely done! I long ago gave up on Jada producing 100% accurate replicas, but have since come to appreciate them as art pieces - love it or hate it, there's definitely a style to them. And it's nice to know the guys behind them are actually enthusiasts, so there's a little extra personality there. When the circles overlap and they do one that actually *is* correctly scaled, all the better.