Mother, Jugs and Speed

[Ben]

Hey guys, I finally scored a couple of the Little Monogram 1/32 Snap Tite Emergency Van kits and I'm going to modify them a little and have decals made to replicate the Chevy van that Bill Cosby (Mother) drove in Mother, Jugs and Speed. If I can find enough good pics to get the decals made, I'm going to have them done in 1/32 and 1/25 so the same ambulance can be built using a Revell 1/25 van kit. So far, I can only find a front shot on Google. I was hoping someone on here might know where there's some good side and rear shots?

[Jairus]

The original was a 71 Chevrolet. I would checkIMDB for pictures and then simply hit google.

Since it was released in the 70's it's not classified as a classic yet and was filmed too soon for DVD digital. Hard to find info... but, maybe you can find a copy of the movie? Good luck.

Loved this one in the theater tho....

Edited May 18, 2011 by Jairus

[Jon Cole]

Photos? Not good photos. Screen shots.

[Ben]

Thanks Jon, they're better than nothing!!!!! It appears that there may have been more than one "custom" looking Chevy van in the movie as I was looking at a clip on YouTube and "Mother" was walking away from a van just like the one in your pics but it had windows on the passenger side, rear panels.

[Aaronw]

There were other F+B ambulances with the same paint scheme, and some of them had side windows.

You might try looking for the Revell 70's custom van, it has the ground effects kit, custom wheels / tires and a custom grill similar to the one in the movie. It will still take a lot of work to duplicate the movie ambulance, but it will get you a lot closer than the more stock Chevy van kit.

[ra7c7er]

You can buy the movie for about 10 bucks. Other than buying the movie I couldn't find very many pics/screen shots.

http://www.amazon.com/Mother-Jugs-Speed-Bill-Cosby/dp/B00018D3YG

[Agent G]

There was a van in the movie? I only remember Raquel.................

G

[Evil Appetite]

That's a fantastic movie..Coz was great in that one. I bought the movie from eBay a few years back along with Eat My Dust( trying to relive my youth?haha), intending to build that rig as well. Never got around to it..

[kylexgore]

here is a picture i found. its decent.

[Joe Handley]

The "Massage Parlor" and golf course scenes will probably be the best bet for anything remotely detail related.

[Draggon]

There are also a bunch of youtube vids of it.

[chrismooney]

Sorry for the late reply. I have Photos of this Van ill get them up ASAP and I do believe this van was modified for the film By Barris. The basic van was built by Superior or maby Wayn corp as a real ambulamnce the "tricked" out by Barris for the film.

[Jantrix]

According to Internet Movie Car Database, it's a 75 Chevy Sport van.

http://www.imcdb.org/movie_74923-Mother,-Jugs-and-Speed.html

More info here.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074923/board/nest/103292245

Buy the movie, you won't regret it.

[VW Dave]

I do believe this van was modified for the film By Barris.

Even if it wasn't his work, I'm sure he'd take credit for it.

[Ben]

Sorry for the late reply. I have Photos of this Van ill get them up ASAP and I do believe this van was modified for the film By Barris. The basic van was built by Superior or maby Wayn corp as a real ambulamnce the "tricked" out by Barris for the film.

Hey Chris, any pics you may have would be great to see!!!!!!

[chrismooney]

Hey Chris, any pics you may have would be great to see!!!!!!

Ok ill work on it asap.. sorry for the late reply

[JMChladek]

I know "Holy Resurrected Thread Batman"! But I've been eyeballing the Revell Car Craft van kit in my stash and pondering a build of Mother's rig myself (which is why I acquired the kit in the first place, at least for a Mother "inspired" Ambulance rig). Did those better pictures of the van ever surface?

In some ways the conversion looks reasonably straight forward. But I see the passenger side has windows (have to add those), the light box on top will need to be added (maybe alter one from a Vanbulance, or an AMT Ford Matilda), turn the four headlight grill into an eight headlight one and I haven't even gotten to the interior modifications yet.

[Casey]

I never realized how close to the 1/32 scale kit's ambulance top is to the 1:1 van's. I wonder if Tom Daniel was influenced by the movie when he designed the model or vice-versa...

[Ben]

I don't think I ever saw the pictures he mentioned. Without good pics, I'm not able to get decals made so I put that project on hold for now.

[JMChladek]

I never realized how close to the 1/32 scale kit's ambulance top is to the 1:1 van's. I wonder if Tom Daniel was influenced by the movie when he designed the model or vice-versa...

There was certainly an influence from what I can see. Monogram's Snap Tite line as I recall came out circa 1977-78 and they did two vans in the 1/32 line. The ambulance was essentially their custom van kit with the ambulance top bolted to the roof (and I think a one piece ambulance interior as well). I built two of those when I was a kid (I think I acquired one at Dibbles Hobbies in San Antonio in fact). I hadn't seen the film until I was a teenager in the 1980s, but since I had a couple cousins working in a volunteer fire department and with Emergency! on at the time, my mind was a bit warped that way. The Vanbulance as I recall came out about the same year (did the Vandal come first or was it the Vanbulance, THEN the Vandal?). You know, with all this talk about vans with the Vantasy van from AMT and other stuff, a van specific group build might be kind of cool. One could do anything from the old beater paint truck to a custom ambulance as I see it.

Edited February 12, 2012 by JMChladek

[lordairgtar]

Sorry for the late reply. I have Photos of this Van ill get them up ASAP and I do believe this van was modified for the film By Barris. The basic van was built by Superior or maby Wayn corp as a real ambulamnce the "tricked" out by Barris for the film.

Barris had nothing to do with it. It's a Stoner Ambulance that was modified at the 20th Century studio shops.

[Ben]

There was certainly an influence from what I can see. Monogram's Snap Tite line as I recall came out circa 1977-78 and they did two vans in the 1/32 line. The ambulance was essentially their custom van kit with the ambulance top bolted to the roof (and I think a one piece ambulance interior as well). I built two of those when I was a kid (I think I acquired one at Dibbles Hobbies in San Antonio in fact). I hadn't seen the film until I was a teenager in the 1980s, but since I had a couple cousins working in a volunteer fire department and with Emergency! on at the time, my mind was a bit warped that way. The Vanbulance as I recall came out about the same year (did the Vandal come first or was it the Vanbulance, THEN the Vandal?). You know, with all this talk about vans with the Vantasy van from AMT and other stuff, a van specific group build might be kind of cool. One could do anything from the old beater paint truck to a custom ambulance as I see it.

Hi Jay, I'm not sure if Dibbles is still open or not? I only went there a few times. They catered more to the railroad guys. The kits they had were all older kits nobody seemed to want. If they are open, they are one of only a couple hobby shops still alive here. There's HobbyTown but I don't consider that a hobby "shop", more of a big chain store.

[Casey]

There was certainly an influence from what I can see. Monogram's Snap Tite line as I recall came out circa 1977-78 and they did two vans in the 1/32 line. The ambulance was essentially their custom van kit with the ambulance top bolted to the roof (and I think a one piece ambulance interior as well). I built two of those when I was a kid (I think I acquired one at Dibbles Hobbies in San Antonio in fact). I hadn't seen the film until I was a teenager in the 1980s, but since I had a couple cousins working in a volunteer fire department and with Emergency! on at the time, my mind was a bit warped that way. The Vanbulance as I recall came out about the same year (did the Vandal come first or was it the Vanbulance, THEN the Vandal?). You know, with all this talk about vans with the Vantasy van from AMT and other stuff, a van specific group build might be kind of cool. One could do anything from the old beater paint truck to a custom ambulance as I see it.

Yeah, the roof piece is what caught my eye on the 1:1 van, and even the front sirens look to be the same as on the 1/32 scale Monogram kit:

The Vandal came first, then the Vanbulance, just like the 1/32 Chevy and Dodge custom then emergency versions.

[JMChladek]

Hi Jay, I'm not sure if Dibbles is still open or not? I only went there a few times. They catered more to the railroad guys. The kits they had were all older kits nobody seemed to want. If they are open, they are one of only a couple hobby shops still alive here. There's HobbyTown but I don't consider that a hobby "shop", more of a big chain store.

Believe me, Dibbles is still around as my brother and sister manage the place (they didn't back when I was a kid as the ownership has changed a couple times since the 70s). Granted the pickings for car models are a bit light there since they remain mostly train centric. But they have some stuff, as well as a good selection of paint and tools.

Concerning that little Monogram kit, it certainly has a Mother's rig "influence" to it. The light and siren placements look right. It just needs an air horn on the passenger side roof and some flashers on the sides of the hood. The hood of course needs to be smoothed over and the bubble side windows need to go as well, but it could make a decent replica. These 1/32 vans seem to be scarce today. I've only seen built ones pop up on eBay with any frequency and have never seen one at a kit swap meet. I guess they all got built.

[Ben]

Believe me, Dibbles is still around as my brother and sister manage the place (they didn't back when I was a kid as the ownership has changed a couple times since the 70s). Granted the pickings for car models are a bit light there since they remain mostly train centric. But they have some stuff, as well as a good selection of paint and tools.

Concerning that little Monogram kit, it certainly has a Mother's rig "influence" to it. The light and siren placements look right. It just needs an air horn on the passenger side roof and some flashers on the sides of the hood. The hood of course needs to be smoothed over and the bubble side windows need to go as well, but it could make a decent replica. These 1/32 vans seem to be scarce today. I've only seen built ones pop up on eBay with any frequency and have never seen one at a kit swap meet. I guess they all got built.

The Monogram Snap Tite vans are on Ebay all the time. The Streeto Vandito Chevy and the Vanana Split Dodge are seldom seen though. I got on a kick to collect all the vans in this series back when this thread started. I now have about four of the Emergency van, three Streeto Vandito's, two Dodge Police and one Vanana Split. Didn't pay more than 20.00 for each if I remember correctly. You just have to save the search to where Ebay sends them to your email and then pounce on em when they're at a good price. What's funny is when I first started to try and buy them, someone listed all four kits at once. I thought "hey, what luck!" They went for over 400.00!!!!!!! They were sealed but I have a sealed one of each in the one's I bought!

In my opinion, the best kit for a 1/25 rig would be one of the Revell vans that comes with the raised roof. Like the Mean Mudder, Quick Sand, Etc.