Herbie Variations - anything out there?

[Jonathan]

Just finished watching all of the Herbie movies over the last few weekends with the family. And of course, now we need to add Herbie to the display cabinet. I know of the excellent Tamiya and Revell VW Bugs, and the Hasagawa one, as well. I also have a copy of the Polar Lights Herbie. So, doing Herbie from the first couple of movies seems pretty straight-forward. But, what Herbie from Fully Loaded?

Any ideas on how to get here?

or here?

Thoughts?

[oneescalante]

nothing on the market as far as I can tell. Thats a spidey bug with a stretched cobra chassis. Fun build so far.

[Jonathan]

Cool. What more can you share about your build?

[Tom Geiger]

I'd say you want to work with the Polar Lights Herbie all the way because it's the only Beetle in scale that has the cloth top, like the original car. The newer Spider Man VW doesn't come with the soft top, although there are two divots in the roof where the soft top pegs used to be.

Another tip is with the Polar Lights Herbie soft top, clip off the snaps on the end of the roof, and fill in the roof holes. Those darn clips show on the final build. You are much better off just gluing the top on after fixing that.

[oneescalante]

Cool. What more can you share about your build?

This is my 2nd widebody attempt.

Cut the fenders off as close and straight to the body.

Glue in some sheet to the body at the inner wheel wells to fill the void.

Set your fenderless body on the chassis.

Glue the back fenders on, let the glue tack up just enough to adjust without falling off.

Hope that helps.

Cheers!

Van

Edited March 26, 2015 by oneescalante

[Lunajammer]

This is my 2nd widebody attempt.

Cut the fenders off as close and straight to the body.

Glue in some sheet to the body at the inner wheel wells to fill the void.

Set your fenderless body on the chassis.

Glue the back fenders on, let the glue tack up just enough to adjust without falling off.

Hope that helps.

Cheers!

Van

I did something similar. Extending the fenders is pretty easy really. More so than establishing the stance. the compound curves are friendly to sanding.

​

Edited March 26, 2015 by Lunajammer

[oneescalante]

That is freaking Awesome!^^^^^^

[Art Anderson]

As for variations of Herbie--most of them would require all new tooling, as the original Herbie was pretty much the only stock one. An interesting side note on Herbie:

The actual Herbie from "the Love Bug" is a '63, purchased new by Walt Disney as his dailly commuter car to and from the studio.

Art

[southpier]

Herbie is doing okay for hisse'f:

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/04/21/1963-volkswagen-herbie-beetle-sells-for-126500-setting-auction-record/?refer=news

[misterNNL]

Here is a fact that the Herbie fans might find interesting.When the movie was being planned Disney Studios contacted the Airstream trailer Co.here in Jackson Center,Ohio about the possibility of making some go kart sized herbie bodys from thick wall plastic.At that time Airstream had a very large in-house vacuum drawing operation that produced end shell liners,shower enclosures,plastic drawers and a ton of other items used in the production of their trailers.

I was working at their factory at the time and those huge vacuum draw machines were just a few feet from where I worked all day.When I say huge I mean each one could hold four 4'x8' sheets of plastic material at one time.

I remember the molds for Herbie and some other bodys being made as the finished bodys were stacked everywhere outside awaiting shipping to the customers.I know there were several bodys being made then but honestly the only one I can remember is a Mustang coupe.

If I remember correctly there is a scene in the Herbie movie where someone is tied to a stake and Herbies dancing around that stake Indian style.Those dancing cars are the ones made at the Airstream factory.