[bradblohm]

Thanks for the reply Philippe. This was 20-25 years ago as my father was there, and the Toledo Toy Show was the second best place on the planet to consistently find good vintage large scale slot car stuff! At the time I was really more interested in 1/32, and, was finding so much stuff I thought I could always find more! As you say, most likely someone got a case of Porsche Super Spyders and had a couple new ISO bodies and pulled a switcheroo. Second most likely the factory or a distributor in the last days pulled the switcheroo during the clear-out. Third most likely that the factory actually did it in the final days and now we wait for the worlds only remaining Russkit Super Spyder Iso Griffo box to be found!

 

[TSRF]

Brad, yes indeed. Now to figure out who did what.... ???

P - I think you mean the Iso in the standard "Black Widow" series...

Have never seen a Russkit 24 in one of these - does the museum have one? How about the Russkit 28 - any of those in the 1/24 cars? Maybe the Italian Honda issues...

Don

Don, yes of course, the Iso was sold as a car from the "Black Widow" series, not the "Super Spyder' series. My error.

As far as the "24" in one of these cars, yes, I have seen a pair over the years, and they APPEARED to be genuine, from their wiring and the quality of the assembly VS what a customer or retailer would have accomplished. Again, possibly a matter of product liquidation.

I have never seen a "28" in a Russkit 1/24 scale cars. But all the 1/32 scale Russkit cars I have ever seen, in kit or RTR form, had/have one. We have a dozen or so of the Russkit 1/32 scale models at the LASCM and all have the "28".
Let's not also forget that the same cars (but in different body colors) were marketed by Parma in the early 1970s until stocks were exhausted.

 

[dgersh]

You mean the 1/32 Russkit cars were marketed by Parma? or the 1/24 cars? In any case, a new one for me!

I thought it was REH that had recovered some of the 1/32 cars and sold them under their brand... I have a Ferrari 350 that seems to have been from REH, not Russkit, but don't remember why I had that impression...

Don

 

[TSRF]

Don,
Parma and REH both sold the the 1/32 scale with the Rattler chassis and the Russkit "28". See, Parma's Ken McDowell and Bob Haines each purchased all the remaining inventories of these from Russell when he closed shop and went to work for Aurora in 1970. Not sure of what the split was.

REH merely sold the cars as they got them from Russkit, in a clear acetate 2-piece box, in kit and RTR version. Russell had purchased 1/32 scale bodies from Lancer, the Ferrari 350P and the 1/2 scale version of the Cro-Sal Special (Russkit made their own 1/24 scale version of that car). Russkit also had modeled a smaller version of their 2-man dune buggy, but I am not sure that Russell ever sold that car as a RTR.

The "Parma" versions were sold in a small cardboard blue and white window box, and there were three models, the former Russkit Corvette (there were two different bodies), the "Group 7 Special (Cro-Sal Special) Can-Am car and the 2-man Dune Buggy (of which vac forming mold was sold by Russell to Riggen, so you also see Riggen RTR models of that car).

Ken also purchased the tooling for the chassis, and when the brass chassis stocks were exhausted, had some made in zinc-plated steel. I think they were still selling these cars by 1972.
I looked for pics in my files but could not find any, but the LASCM has one of these Corvettes, new in its box.

 

[stuckinthe60s]

I got the Corvette "kit" a few years ago. In a box looking like it was sourced from a greeting card manufacturer. Has a Parma sticker on the clear top with a menacing looking spider cartoon; harkening back to the glory days? ID is simply "1/32 car". Body is a purple roadster and frame is the zinc plated "rattler" job mentioned. Does the 28 motor have 3 cooling slots, black endbell and metallic silver can? That's what is provided here. As to the slightly earlier release(s), a couple years ago I saw a loose Ferrari 350 with the brass chassis go for silly amount on the bay.

 

[TSRF]

Stuck,
yes, you effectively got a genuine Russkit "Rattler" Vette. This must have been before Parma used their own packaging (the acetate little boxes must have run out...)
The "spider" was the Parma "Tiger" logo they used on all their products until well in the late 1970s.
Picture of a "28" below:

If your car came with one of these (see below), that is a "27", used on earlier models, and it was likely a mix of whatever was available either from Russkit or Parma.

 

[TSRF]

We still don't know for sure if Russkit did these with other than the Porsche body... a guy here has a McLaren as well, out of a hobby shop as NOS, but still no smoking gun, ie, a MIB example.

Don,
of course Russkit did more than one model, in fact there are 3. Here is the McLaren-Elva:

You already know the Porsche (which came with two different styles of body mounting, the first being the same as the McLaren-Elva with soldered tubing, the second, a gold anodized aluminum bracket to accept the standard Russkit formed wire)

Last is the most difficult to find new in box, the Cooper-Climax:

Equally, there were three "Black Widow" series cars, the Lotus-Ford Type 38, the Lola T70 and of course, the Iso.

 

[dgersh]

Yummy, thanks for photos Philippe.

I wasn't clear: I know that Russkit did these three as Super Spyder cars, I was talking about a McLaren with the aluminum bracket instead of the soldered tubing. I think we all had a long discussion about these a few years back on one of the French forums, since one of the guys here found a McLaren like this as NOS in a hobby shop.

This was one of the car types from a major manufacturer that most surprised me when I started collecting. I thought I knew the market pretty well, but had absolutely no idea about the Super Spyder cars... I don't think they were ever advertised in any of the magazines (or general catalogs?); they're in a couple of the Russkit catalogs, but not sure I had these at the time, and I just didn't know they existed. I picked up a McLaren with tube body mounts at some point, thinking it was a customer modified Spyder chassis, and slowly began to realize it was factory as the evidence mounted.

Don

PS: good find Steve! There was an unlabeled one on ebay last year, and thought I could get it uncontested, but it went pretty high.

 

[TSRF]

I was talking about a McLaren with the aluminum bracket instead of the soldered tubing.

Never seen one, but since the McLaren-Elva body never had the pre-drilled mounting holes like all the Carrera series bodies, I truly believe that it was the product of someone switching the body from a Porsche. It would have been almost impossible for the ladies assembling these cars to figure out where to drill the holes for the formed wire, while they had a fixture for the standard mount with the pins.
Also by the time that bracket came out, both the Cooper and the McLaren were out of production, and the sole survivor of the series (the Porsche) got updated packaging (see and compare the box's colors).

So, I guess it is left to personal beliefs.

 

[SAMPSON]

Here is a Lola T 70.