Are these the best-ever, yet most unsung funny car kits of all time?

[tim boyd]

Just about 12 years ago in 2010, Revell shocked the modeling world when they announced two all-new 1969 Charger funny car kits.  The kits ended up being mostly unique, sharing only the basic body and some engine parts. The Chi-Town Hustler kit was especially interesting as it replicated the unique chassis design that made the 1/1 scale car so successful that year. The other kit delivered the most accurate ever kit replica of the commonly seen Logghe tubular funny car chassis back then.

In 2011, I built both kits using my own spray can paint fade approach, and "Rambunctious" decal sets from Slixx decals.

In my own view, these were both first-rate kits from Revell that were never fully appreciated by many modelers, nor by the modeling magazines IMHO.  But are they the best-ever 1/25th scale funny car kits of all time?  Maybe, maybe not, but they are surely in the top 10 of all time. 

Anyway, here are some photos of both of the kits, built box stock other than the paint schemes and ignition wiring.  Included are images of kits under construction and when completed, and detali shots of the completed engines, front and rear suspension, and interiors.  Thanks for your interest, and thanks for looking....TIM    

[drodg]

Those are great looking cars.  I do like your paint jobs.   

[papajohn97]

Thank you Tim for the this funny car model history lesson and for these wonderful pics of your two beautiful builds. So was the conventional early Logghe chassis that you show in your posting (the yellow one) the one that is supplied in the “Hawaiian” version of this Revell kit? I would love to locate a kit for a chassis doner to use to build one of the early Dyno Don flipper Comets - would this kit be a good candidate or is there another early funny car kit that would be more accurate to use (and an affordable re-pop such as this Revell or a Polar Lights kit)?

Edited April 1, 2022 by papajohn97
Content

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Tim!

A pair of very convincing cars, for certain. 

Let me guess that their lack of glory in the model field might be related to the Logghe chassis design. Granted, Logghe almost singlehandedly started the growth of countless regional Funny-Car teams, but compared to the more advanced "digger-style" chassis that came with the maturing of the discipline, it might have them to look a bit "dated" when they came out, even if their technical execution was above any complaint. 

Just my two cents...

CT 

[iBorg]

1 hour ago, papajohn97 said:

Thank you Tim for the this funny car model history lesson and for these wonderful pics of your two beautiful builds. So was the conventional early Logghe chassis that you show in your posting (the yellow one) the one that is supplied in the “Hawaiian” version of this Revell kit? I would love to locate a kit for a chassis doner to use to build one of the early Dyno Don flipper Comets - would this kit be a good candidate or is there another early funny car kit that would be more accurate to use (and an affordable re-pop such as this Revell or a Polar Lights kit)?

The Hawaiian has a Logghe chassis design. There were three Logghe chassis designs.  These appear to be Stage 3 chassis. For the Dyno car, you want a Stage 1 such as what is in the  MPC Dyno Don car or one of the PL kits. 

[cobraman]

I don't know if these are the best ever kits but yours sure look great .

[Hmann68]

Yours look fantastic! Love the fade paint! As far as the kits are concerned, I built both several years ago and they are for sure the best in terms of fit and ease of assembly that I’ve dealt with. Just my opinion. ?

[bondo bill]

The kits are great as was your builds of them

[slusher]

Both are outstanding!

[ozmodeler]

Great builds Tim. I built the Hawaiian quite a few years ago and I still enjoy looking at it in the display cabinet . I still have the Chi-town Hustler to build .

[PappyD340]

Fantastic looking pair, well done!

[TooOld]

Excellent builds Tim , thanks for sharing !  I had the Hawaiian years ago but never even opened it before I sold it . I need to take another look at both kits , they do look very nice .

[Muncie]

These look great.

I think Revell kind of shot themselves in the foot on the Hawaiin. It could have been a good generic kit usable for other funny cars with an extra rear window and firewall without the pineapple details.

[12bridge]

Defiantly fantastic kits.   I really wish we could get some more NEW drag kits one day.  The Revell kits of the 90's were fantastic, but are very long in the tooth, and really share nothing in common with modern day cars.  

[tim boyd]

11 hours ago, 12bridge said:

I really wish we could get some more NEW drag kits one day.  The Revell kits of the 90's were fantastic, but are very long in the tooth, and really share nothing in common with modern day cars.  

P....fully share your thoughts on this. 

I explored this topic with several of the kitmakers as I was finishing the "Collecting Drag Racing Model Kits Book"  in December, 2019.   As I wrote in the book, I was told that 1960's  era drag racing kits are among the hottest selling kit topics these days, surpassed only by 1960's/70's pickup kits.  Apparently, the 1990's drag racing kits just didn't sell well enough to convince the kitmakers to invest tooling money in newer/current drag racing topics.  It does blow me away that some of drag racing's biggest starts - can you say "John Force"? - have never had any of their cars over the last 15 years or so translated into a model car kit.   One of my Revell contacts did say that they have done a little investigation into what it would take to update their 1990's rail dragster tooling into a replica of some of the newest 1/1 scale rail dragsters.   But that conversation was a little over two years ago, and there has been no discernable activity to date, at least that I am aware of.  

Thanks for your comments....TIM 

[tim boyd]

Glad you guys like my buildouts of these kits.  They are definitely a blast to build.   Thanks for all the comments....TIM 

 

[tim boyd]

On 4/1/2022 at 11:11 AM, papajohn97 said:

Thank you Tim for the this funny car model history lesson and for these wonderful pics of your two beautiful builds. So was the conventional early Logghe chassis that you show in your posting (the yellow one) the one that is supplied in the “Hawaiian” version of this Revell kit? I would love to locate a kit for a chassis doner to use to build one of the early Dyno Don flipper Comets - would this kit be a good candidate or is there another early funny car kit that would be more accurate to use (and an affordable re-pop such as this Revell or a Polar Lights kit)?

Hi John.  Yes, the yellow chassis was from the Hawaiian kit.  As Mike says above, there were several refinements of the basic Logghe chassis design.  This kit represented the third generation design, one that MPC eventually also offered in several of their funny car kits such as the 1970 Mercury Cyclone "Cyclops" kit.  The Dyno Don car used the first gen Logghe design, and that was most accurately portrayed in MPC's two first -ever funny car kits - their 1967 "Color Me Gone" Charger and in an incorrect to the 1/1 usage in their 1967 Dick Jesse "Mr. Unswitchable" GTO funny car kit.  The second generation Logghe chassis was in most of MPC's 1968/69 kits, most of the Jo-Han funny car and annual kits starting in 1968, and AMT's funny car kits starting in 1969.  They were also duplicated in the many Polar Lights (later Round 2) funny car kits. 

The Revell Hawaiian kit is the best example of the third gen Logghe chassis, while in my view the Jo-Han kits are still the best of the second gen Logghe chassis.  And those two 1967 MPC kits are the only ones of the first gen chassis.  However,  any of the second gen Logghe chassis could be easily converted back to the Dyno Don configuration. 

If anyone cares, there is a much more detailed conversation on all of this in my CarTech Publishing book "Collecting Drag Racing Model Car Kits", available from all the usual book sources. 

Best...TIM   

UPDATE: the name/driver of the MPC 1967 GTO funny car has been corrected....

Edited April 4, 2022 by tim boyd

[James2]

Tim, thanks for sharing these models. I remember the article you wrote up about them and your spray can paint technique which I have occasionally used  over the years. Your building style and subject matter has inspired so many and right now I need to go find a Funny Car kit!

[12bridge]

4 hours ago, tim boyd said:

P....fully share your thoughts on this. 

I explored this topic with several of the kitmakers as I was finishing the "Collecting Drag Racing Model Kits Book"  in December, 2019.   As I wrote in the book, I was told that 1960's  era drag racing kits are among the hottest selling kit topics these days, surpassed only by 1960's/70's pickup kits.  Apparently, the 1990's drag racing kits just didn't sell well enough to convince the kitmakers to invest tooling money in newer/current drag racing topics.  It does blow me away that some of drag racing's biggest starts - can you say "John Force"? - have never had any of their cars over the last 15 years or so translated into a model car kit.   One of my Revell contacts did say that they have done a little investigation into what it would take to update their 1990's rail dragster tooling into a replica of some of the newest 1/1 scale rail dragsters.   But that conversation was a little over two years ago, and there has been no discernable activity to date, at least that I am aware of.  

Thanks for your comments....TIM 

Its not even just the Funny Car and Dragsters.  I am dumbfounded we have not gotten a Pro Mod kit.  While it has died out a bit, this forum and every magazine was littered with Pro Mod builds for years, most being based off the 1990s era Charles Carpenter/Christine/Vandergriff/Jukebox kit - the only Pro Mod model ever done.  

If the 60s era stuff does so well, a modern tooled kit of practically anything of the era would be a welcome addition too.  Moebius has been helping with that for sure.  

 

 

[papajohn97]

Thanks Tim for the detailed clarification on kit options for an early Logghe chassis. Your suggestion of modifying a gen 2 chassis from one of the affordable Polar Light FC kits for a Dyno Don FC is a great idea and probably wouldn’t be all that difficult.

Look’s like this subject was well hashed out in a thread here from 2019 that I missed:

 

[tim boyd]

3 hours ago, papajohn97 said:

Thanks Tim for the detailed clarification on kit options for an early Logghe chassis. Your suggestion of modifying a gen 2 chassis from one of the affordable Polar Light FC kits for a Dyno Don FC is a great idea and probably wouldn’t be all that difficult.

Look’s like this subject was well hashed out in a thread here from 2019 that I missed:

 

Good info here, however, the very first Logghe funny car chassis in the aforementioned 1967 MPC GTO and Charger kits had a flat floor configuration, while the (to my thinking) second gen MPC Logghe Chassis kits starting in all the 1968 MPC kits had a recessed floor pan with a pronounced raised transmission tunnel.  This marked (at least to my mind) the key difference between the first and second gen Logghe chassis.  Note that the very first (1966) Dyno Don Comet funny car had the flat floor configuration.   

Also, FWIW, at the time I thought the AMT Logghe chassis (as first seen in the 1969 Gas Ronda Longnose Mustang kit) was actually a bit better than MPC's, but not quite to the level of the Jo-Han execution.  Viva la differences of opinion , heh?  

TIM 

PS - IIRC, the one other MPC kit that had the flat floor configuration (that I am aware of) was the MPC "Ramchargers Dune Buggy" kit introduced in early 1968.  In that version, the Logghe chassis had a significantly shorter wheelbase.     

[afx]

Deleted.

Edited April 4, 2022 by afx

[R. Thorne]

 I am planning on building this car.  Which donor kit do you recommend?  

[Daddyfink]

2 hours ago, R. Thorne said:

 I am planning on building this car.  Which donor kit do you recommend?  

This should fit the bill

Edited April 4, 2022 by Daddyfink

[Daddyfink]

Why Revell never made different bodies for this chassis is beyond me. A new Camaro or Cuda would have made way more building options that what we got.