– WHALE HUNTING – Firebird Sequence Complete!

I’ve said it many times before throughout this blog, and happily I’m saying it again: sometimes you get lucky! I’ve been after the original Aurora ‘68 Firebird in RED for 3 years, if not longer. It wasn’t that I could never find it: I just could never find it at a price I was willing to pay! Every time I tracked one down, the seller wanted over $200 for it, often a lot over. Even the local collector that I connected with a couple of years ago, who sold me some incredible pieces, wouldn’t let go of his no matter how I pleaded, and another guy in Missouri that I’ve bought some things from via email took the same position: he was selling a lot of stuff, but he wouldn’t sell that one!

And so I continued to look: at conventions, at swap meets, on forums: and I found it from time to time, but only for ridiculous prices. Until one day last month….

There is a vendor on ePay who appears to be a professional or semi-professional Thunderjet dealer, who has some amazing and rare pieces for sale on a continuous, rotating basis, and all of his prices are absolutely top-shelf, some of them bordering on the ridiculous: I look at his stuff only for cataloging purposes because I’m not paying those kinds of prices for these toys; I’m an enthusiast, not an “investor.” And yet, one day, that vendor, of all dealers, listed this car for less than $100!

It seemed too good to be true: I scrutinized the pictures copiously, thinking that I was missing something: were the wheel wells carved out? Were the screw posts destroyed? There had to be something wrong with it! But after looking at it for a day I realized I couldn’t wait any longer, and I hit the button. When it arrived, and I opened it, I couldn’t believe my eyes…

It’s almost PERFECT!!!

Not mint; I won’t go that far. There is some wear on the chrome front bumper, but because of the way it’s designed, you’ll see some of that on this car even on copies that are untouched in the original packaging. But there are no broken roof pillars, no cracked posts, no cut-up wheel wells: not even a significant amount of surface scratches! It is as it was presented… Which makes me wonder how or why that dealer would’ve asked such a low price for this car! Did he make a mistake? Or did I just…get lucky?! 🍀

Now, I will admit that the chassis is disappointing: the closed-rivet base that it came on is a dog and runs very poorly, even after a complete cleaning and tuneup. The motor has red windings, so it could be original to the car, but we all know it’s never possible to tell that and therefore it’s not really important either. As a result, I will be giving it a second going-over in the near future and will probably try to punch it out with a pair of blue/white Dash Motorsports or Auto World field magnets. If that doesn’t help, then the motor is just on its last legs, and if that is the case, I have a replacement motor in the cooler I can install with the right tools.

But even so, the chassis is an easy fix, even if the fix is a swap: what’s important that I now have the full rainbow of the ‘68 Firebird: I own every color it was made in, including the most desirable and hardest to find. Honestly, I would’ve paid more for that privilege than I did! I wasn’t willing to give $250 for it, but on this car, there is no question that I got a bargain! Bargains are really hard to find in today’s “investment culture”-driven world, but every now and then… Well, you know what I say!