Although the URL for this blog is “thunderjetheaven,” your HB may be developing a cheatin’ heart! Have I actually been looking at “other brands?” Heh….well, no harm in just looking, right?
Atlas slot cars have interested me for a while. It is an interest that was set off by the brand’s incomparable diorama pieces; their trackside buildings and scenery are first rate, in same cases exceeding even what Faller in Germany produced. I’ve oft told in these posts the sad tale of my perpetually incomplete pit row design, which may never been completed until I can find two more of the best HO scale grandstands ever made. I wondered if the company that made such superlative ephermera produced cars just as good.
Then, about 2 years ago, I bought a large junk lot of spare Aurora T-Jet parts in which was mixed a single Atlas chassis, which had no front axle or body to be found. It ran when I applied power to it, and quite well, it seemed! I thought the design of the chassis looked interesting: the inline motor design predates Tyco by a couple of years, and the rear axle and pickup shoe designs seemed clever. So for a while now, I’ve been thinking it would be cool to get ahold of one and put it through its paces.
Two things have kept me from pursuing this interest any further: the first is that Atlas slot cars appear to be highly collectible and are VERY expensive! It’s staggering to me what people are paying for these toys, and the bidding wars that occur whenever a good one shows up on ePay; they make all but the rarest Thunderjets look cheap by comparison. The second reason is that, even though the chassis looked interesting, the body designs are poor by comparison; most of them are poorly proportioned, cartoonish, and look nothing like the real cars they are models of. This is a common complaint with slot cars, and this is the #1 reason why I was drawn to the Thunderjet platform above all others: the quality and variety of the body designs for the T-Jet chassis is unrivaled. However, there are some exceptions to this: a small handful of Atlas designs are pleasing to the eye; in particular their Mustang fastback and the highly prized Allard are two that I would love to own but can never afford when I find one for sale. Another one that I’m fond of is their rendering of the Jaguar E-Type. The Series I E-Type is one of my favorite cars of all time, and while most 1:64-ish scale models of it are poor, the Atlas design is decently proportioned, and it was made in a small variety of appealing colors. So, a few weeks ago while surfing the usual site, I stumbled upon a copy of this car for sale at what seemed like a pretty reasonable price. In the previous year I’ve seen a couple of “mint” copies of this car being offered for between $200 and $400, and this one was less than half that. The seller honestly claimed it was “untested,” but included several good close up pictures of the car from every angle which showed me it appeared to be in very good, complete condition, so I thought, hey, I’ll take a chance; I made an offer and got it.
Immediately after making the purchase, I began the hyper-focused research I excel at when I’m actually interested in something, and found some pretty interesting facts. As I understand it (and I may be wrong about the way I’ve put these pieces together, so as always, if any other slot-heads reading this know otherwise, please correct me), the Atlas design was based on the Japanese Marusan chassis, who developed what may the first “inline”-style motor used in an HO scale slot car. Atlas appears to have licensed the Marusan design and made it with their blessing. It got much more interesting when I discovered there are no fewer than 5 variations on the Atlas design, as it changed significantly through the years.
Having learned this, I discovered that the one chassis I acquired with that T-Jet junk lot a couple of years ago is the “Midget” variety. This is the one that introduced the “worm gear” rear drive design that replaced the 3-piece gear set of the original “standard” chassis and the earlier version of the “slimline” style. The Jaguar that I bought came on the latest chassis design called the “Zinger,” which I believe was in production from roughly 1966 thru ’68. This chassis also features the worm gear final drive design.
Research indicates that the body I bought may have originally come on the “Standard” chassis, but of course its impossible to tell: what I know is that the car I received was very complete and very clean; the original guide pin and locator pin at the rear where both in tact and fitted into what looked just like screw posts on a Thunderjet, while the body was anchored to the chassis by a pair of grooves cast into the inner sides of the body that snapped into place on the chassis, a method identical to what Tyco used. A little cleaning up and oiling and it looked like a good bet…that is, until I tried to run it on my track…
These do look have a more “toy like” quality than some of the better proportioned than your other models though this is interesting on all the different chassis and designs.