If you saw my post about my return to “Aladdin’s Cave,” you probably knew it would just be a matter of time before I showed you what I got there! This was a small haul because, with the holidays coming and some expensive maintenance around the corner, money is tight, as it is for everyone these days, but I couldn’t possibly go to that awesome place and leave empty handed! And I didn’t!
This little group of gems features some very unusual pieces, one of which is entirely hand-fabicated and another highly customized, and there was a MEV special order that I could not resist! A “throw in” was another early Auto World body that I certainly didn’t need, but couldn’t pass up for the price. So, feast your eyes on the latest additions to the vintage (and “vintage-adjacent”) Road Crew!
Although I haven’t uttered a peep about it on these pages (until now, because I had hoped for it to be a surprise), one of my planned projects for this winter was going to be an attempt to fabricate a ’56 Chevy slottie from a Hot Wheels body. See, your humble blogger is a complete nut for “Tri-5” Chevys; they are my favorite cars evar, and you probably also know that I have a real one. Well, in the world of HO scale slots, there are some excellent ’55 Chevys and a bucket-full of ‘57’s, but where is the ’56? Why does my favorite one of all always get “dissed” in scale???
Apparently I’m not the only one who thought like this, because someone else beat me to it! This ’56 Sedan Delivery is completely hand fabricated, cast in resin from a mold made by hand. Getting some back story from Doug @ PSH, I believe this car was made by the same hand that made my mysterious Sunbeam Alpine that I blogged about nearly 2 years ago, and the quality of it is nearly that good, looking almost factory made. The details are excellent for a home made car, right down to the correct eagle hood ornament, and the front and rear bumpers were cast as separate pieces and adhered to the car with pins just like a factory made piece: awesome!
I am told these cars were crafted by a fellow Colorado “slottist” named Joe Feruli…that being my best crack at spelling it, since I’ve never seen the name, only heard it, from our veteran slot car vendor @ PSH! I am hoping to get in touch with him somehow, even though I’m also told he is no longer making cars. If I am ever successful at doing so, I’ll apologize for misspelling his name!
Not to be outdone, here we have a very customized Aurora original that might as well be a custom fabrication, but there I misspelled “custom,” because in the case of this awesome chopped ’32 Ford Vicky, it’s definitely “kustom!” Finished in what else but dark gray flat primer with a hand painted engine and riding on one of the highly prized Aurora “slimline” chassis, this is the very first of this type of chassis I’ve ever owned! I’ve already had it apart, partly because the motor is running hot but also because I was anxious to see how it fit together, and lemmetellya, it is a different animal altogether, with nearly every part differing from a standard T-jet 500; even the motor is smaller! I cleaned it up and made sure the brushes were tip top, but it wasn’t easy to get it back together! I did, though, and its running better now, even though it still seems to get pretty hot.
Riding on truck wheels and tires like the original Aurora ’32 Ford pick-up it was based on, she skates around a lot and could probably benefit from new rubber, but heck, that just means it does better burn outs, eh? This is an extremely cool addition to my collection and I feel very fortunate to have laid my hands on it, even though its a case where I have to admit my rat rod was bought rather than built! 🙁
Lastly, PSH had an enticing selection of MEV bodies which I had to violently tear myself away from, else I’d have bought the lot, but when I saw this one, I couldn’t stand it anymore and broke down: definitely a custom order in 3 colors (MEV doesn’t even make these anymore) of which the base was my favorite color, there was no way I could walk away from this 1970 Dodge Super Bee with a matte black hood and a white “Scat Pack” tail stripe! It was mounted on a Tuff Ones chassis with stock Tuff Ones wheels, so I did replace those with standard T-Jet 500 wheels to run with the rest of the crew, but of course I was bummed over not having anymore of those cool 5-lug wheels that I used to buy from MEV. Ah, but wait, dear readers: this happy story has an extra happy ending!
The Elusive 5-lug Wheels:
A bonus gift from Doug @ PSH: Knowledge!
Not long after doing the post about the trip there, I contacted Doug and Cindy @ PSH via email, and he had a link for me: “Is this what you’re looking for?” That link lead to Slots N’ Stuff in NY, a vendor bookmarked in my rolodex that I order from all the time, but somehow I had missed these! I discovered that these wheels are made by none other than VINCENT, the German firm who’s wheels I’ve been using from the beginning! All this time I’ve been buying these from MEV I had no idea who originally came up with them, Slots N’ Stuff filled an order for me post-haste! Thank you, Doug! You’ve made this slot-head very happy!
Armed with a new set of these wheels, I quickly changed them out on the ’70 Super Bee, and I also added a set to my recently added “Cheater Challenger,” both which now look RIGHT! I have a few other cars I’ll be putting these on as well, and I’ll probably be ordering even more, because I know I’ll need them! And how do I know that? Because…c’mon, dear readers, you know this one…
MORE CARS IS ALWAYS GOOD! 😀
And Lastly, you knew I couldn’t go slot car shopping and not buy another Dodge Charger! And here it is, an early Auto World issue in red/orange with a white top and stripes, totally different from the earlier Johnny Lightning release in orange with a black top and stripes, so how could I say no? Bought as a body only, I had an early JL/Playing Mantis non-trac-mag chassis just sitting around waiting for a body, so that was a match made in heaven!
I think even hold made that 56 was a MUST HAVE! I think that it’s amazing that someone made it and that they did a sedan delivery instead of one of the expected models. I just think that is way cool and the guy had some taste! I know you’ll be cruising that one at Drag City along with these other beauties! The news about the wheels is terrific and really good news!