Any T-jet enthusiast or collector knows the rarity of the early cars moulded in “slate blue.” Though most of the early bodies were produced in this color, all are held to be quite rare, with many versions fetching many hundreds of dollars when seen in this hue. To date, I have yet to acquire a single example for my own collection. But as rare as some of the slate blue cars are, I’ve found one that just may take the cake…that is, if it’s real! According to every collector’s guide I’ve seen, this car doesn’t even exist!
Now first, a disclaimer: I don’t own this car. This belongs to Doug @ Performance Slots & Hobbies, but he and I have been talking about it and he agreed to let me do a post about it to see if anyone out there in slot-land has any input to offer, as we’re trying to figure out exactly what he has here.
As Doug acquired it, it was mounted on a Thunderjet chassis, but of course that’s easy to do…I’ve done so myself. You can see there is a shim of sorts on the rear screw post to provide clearance for the T-Jet chassis, which is exactly what I did with mine. The ’62 Galaxie was believed to have originally been made only as a Vibrator. I’m not sure that a few late production ‘62’s-convertibles or hardtops-didn’t escape the factory with early Thunderjet chassis under them before the body was replaced by the ’63 model, but “officially,” there were no such animals. But then again, “officially” this car was never pressed in this color, and neither, incidentally, was the ’63 model! So then, what is this? Is it a replica? Is it a reproduction? If so, who made it?
There are no markings of any kind on the body other than the presence of a capital letter “B.” This is a production stamp I am not familiar with, but since I have an original Aurora ’62 ‘vert (in common white) and it does NOT have this marking, I suspect this may be someone’s post-production handiwork. However, if it is a reproduction, it is beautifully made; it is certainly not a resin copy, so who would have made a factory pressing of this body after the fact, if not Aurora themselves? And more to the point: why would someone make a reproduction in such an odd color?
Another thing of note is that it appears that someone, at some point, painted the interior of this car, either with a brush or possibly a paint pen. That’s certainly how it looks to my eye, anyway. Whether this was someone’s preference in coloring the interior or whether it is another indication of how it was made is unknown to me. And additionally, if I’m right that this was done by hand by a previous owner, we can’t determine what the original color of the floor and/or the seats might have been.
So what, then, do you make of this, dear readers? If this is a real Aurora piece, it must be fabulously rare-so much so that it has not been cataloged by any collector whose lists I’ve seen! That is why-for the time being, at least-Doug is hanging on to it and does not want to sell it. It certainly is odd! If any of y’all are familiar with this piece and can speak to its history or authenticity, please get in touch!