Thunder Bug - Restored

[TooOld]

This is one I bought waaay back in the early 70's ! When I unboxed it a few months ago it was missing a few pieces and was pretty dirty . This is the only one I've seen with parts molded in white instead of the usual gray so I wanted to keep it all original .
I spent several evenings cleaning it being careful to leave all of the stickers in place . One headlight and one taillight were replaced from my parts box , and the spike is from an old Red Baron kit . The support for the base was made from clear plastic .
One of my favorites . . . I hope you like it too !

[donculley]

Thats still on my grail list ; I had a red one as well many years ag! I've never seen one with a white parts tree, and that includes the other cars in this series . The car looks great, and those stickers sure bring back some memories !

[TooOld]

Jun 4, 2013 12:00:58 GMT -5 donculley said:

I've never seen one with a white parts tree, and that includes the other cars in this series .

Same here ! I wonder if any others were molded in white and if anyone has pics of them .

[barten]

I agree. . . a Grail! This is beautiful! ! ! ! Great job! ! ! !

GB
barten

[TooOld]

Thanks GB !

[Starryeyes]

man! that is SUPER clean ! ;D

[TooOld]

Jun 12, 2013 19:42:44 GMT -5 Starryeyes said:

man! that is SUPER clean ! ;D

Thanks Chuck ! I'm amazed at how some of these have survived 40years bouncing around in little boxes !

[barten]

I keep coming back and looking at this one! It is like a moth to the flames. . . great job on a really cool kit!

GB
barten

[stevehammann]

In my opinion, this is probably THE rarest one of all TD snappers. Bob and I have discussed this and between us, we have seen his, mine, and two others over time on eBay. I spoke with AJ Cicerelli, and he said he had one. Bob, AJ, and myself have been searching these kits out for years, and to my knowledge, the 5 I speak of here are all that we have seen. Obviously there were more made, but unless someone has a warehouse stash, not many have survived.



To my knowledge, no other kits were released with White parts. Just the Orange body with White parts. I don't know, but I suspect these were the last run ever of any TD snap from that time frame, and it coincided with the plastic shortage in the 70's when they were literally sweeping scraps off the floor to put back into the plastic injection molding machine.

[TooOld]

I didn't bid on either of those two 'cause I thought they would go too high for me . . . of course I was wrong !

I have managed to get these two over the past few months .
No glass or spike on the red one but the blue one is complete !