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Car 54
Topic Started: Aug 7 2014, 05:43 PM (592 Views)
Douglas
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SUV
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Hi All, I don't really know the show at all, but I may have seen a rerun before, and I think it was a popular one in its day, and the name is kind of iconic it seems, so even if you, like me, weren't too familiar with the show, it seems even diecast companies appear to have used the "54" markings on a number of police car models over the years, so I just thought it'd be interesting to police car fans to see if there are a lot of the "54" marked cars out there, if anyone wants to contribute their pics here....maybe there are not as many as I think though?

Here is a HWs from the '90s
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Edited by Douglas, Aug 7 2014, 05:57 PM.
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cody6268
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Minivan
According to my research it was a 1961 Plymouth Belvedere, a 1962 Plymouth Savoy, and then a 1963 Plymouth Belvedere in the original series, then a 1986 Chevorlet Caprice in the 1994 movie remake.

So my question is, why hasn't any manufacturer chose to do it when Adam 12, the Mayberry Sheriff Car, and the car from Dragnet have all already been done.
Edited by cody6268, Aug 7 2014, 07:48 PM.
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GMack64
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Maybe because the actual Car 54 film car was a Red and White Police car? and I sure wouldn't call Matchbox's version of Adam-12 anywhere near representing the actual film cars either.
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pjedsel
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Muscle Car
Outside of the phrase "Car 54 - where are you?", it was not one of the more memorable television shows from the '60's. It's greatest fame might be that it stared Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis who became much better known as Herman Munster and Grandpa. :D The show was in black and white and no one in those days had a clue that the cars they used were red and white - in black and white they apparently passed off for the current colors of NYPD (dark green, black and white).
As die cast manufactures look at ties in with TV shows I really don't think Car 54 would ever be on any list. :) The Adam-12 car from Matchbox is a good example of a company using a police car that was "close" and calling it the TV show car. Sadly that is what many toy companies have done over the years - selected something that was close and called it the TV/movie car and usually stuck a tampo on it so we would know. That is the nice thing about the cars from Green Light - they don't have the show name tampoed all over them. As for an Adam-12 car - Racing Champions did their '68 Plymouth in LA colors - again not perfect but certainly it would have been much closer to the Adam-12 car than the Matchbox issue.

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Douglas
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Didn't know that show wasn't so popular, I don't really know either why I know the name so well. maybe because of the 1990's remake, but I didn't watch that either, so maybe they just advertised it a lot.

John didn't RC re-release that LA Police Plymouth in the Gone in 60 Seconds series after the initial Police USA release?

Some of those Matchbox Star Cars weren't too realistic I know, even outside of model choices, they went and put the name of the show on some or all the models which made them further unrealistic....but I still collected them. :D

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pjedsel
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Muscle Car
Dug-my-toys
Aug 8 2014, 05:00 PM
Didn't know that show wasn't so popular, I don't really know either why I know the name so well. maybe because of the 1990's remake, but I didn't watch that either, so maybe they just advertised it a lot.

John didn't RC re-release that LA Police Plymouth in the Gone in 60 Seconds series after the initial Police USA release?

Some of those Matchbox Star Cars weren't too realistic I know, even outside of model choices, they went and put the name of the show on some or all the models which made them further unrealistic....but I still collected them. :D

My picture shows the two versions of the LA police car Racing Champions did - one of them is from Gone in 60 seconds but not sure now which one - they have different unit numbers.
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Hosspower98
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Forever Blue Oval
Officers Gunther Toody and Francis Muldoon.
Cool pics, cool memories too.

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Edited by Hosspower98, Aug 8 2014, 05:59 PM.
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GMack64
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pjedsel
Aug 8 2014, 05:24 PM
Dug-my-toys
Aug 8 2014, 05:00 PM
Didn't know that show wasn't so popular, I don't really know either why I know the name so well. maybe because of the 1990's remake, but I didn't watch that either, so maybe they just advertised it a lot.

John didn't RC re-release that LA Police Plymouth in the Gone in 60 Seconds series after the initial Police USA release?

Some of those Matchbox Star Cars weren't too realistic I know, even outside of model choices, they went and put the name of the show on some or all the models which made them further unrealistic....but I still collected them. :D

My picture shows the two versions of the LA police car Racing Champions did - one of them is from Gone in 60 seconds but not sure now which one - they have different unit numbers.
The Gone in 60 Seconds unit number is 71768 :-)

What usually amazes me about the Police car castings is that most Film and real Police cars have 4 doors where-as the castings are often put out with only 2.
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b2young
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Sad firefighter
I loved that show--Car 54, Where Are You?, that is. (Oops.....dating myself.) (Oops.....that didn't come out right. :o )

I loved the RC model (Adam 12) mostly because it at least had dumbbell(?) lights similar to what was on the cars in the show, as opposed to Matchbox's version. I tried to make dumbbell lights for one of my Matchbox cars--can't remember which, and no longer have it--and painted it B&W to make my own "Adam-12". Since the Mbx police cars back then had some kind of lights on top, I don't think I used either a police or fire chief car as the base, instead leaving the space between the lights bare as on TV--probably found a scale-similar loudspeaker and glued it in there. But I can't for the life of me remember what car I would have used. Any guesses?
Edited by b2young, Aug 8 2014, 09:01 PM.
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GMack64
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b2young
Aug 8 2014, 08:58 PM
I loved that show--Car 54, Where Are You?, that is. (Oops.....dating myself.) (Oops.....that didn't come out right. :o )

I loved the RC model (Adam 12) mostly because it at least had dumbbell(?) lights similar to what was on the cars in the show, as opposed to Matchbox's version. I tried to make dumbbell lights for one of my Matchbox cars--can't remember which, and no longer have it--and painted it B&W to make my own "Adam-12". Since the Mbx police cars back then had some kind of lights on top, I don't think I used either a police or fire chief car as the base, instead leaving the space between the lights bare as on TV--probably found a scale-similar loudspeaker and glued it in there. But I can't for the life of me remember what car I would have used. Any guesses?
Lol! Could be a lonely business "dating yourself" :-)

I remember making the Captain's station wagon out of the white Mercury Police station wagon when I was young,I just painted the bits black to match the show. Don't remember putting the siren on though.
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Douglas
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b2young
Aug 8 2014, 08:58 PM
But I can't for the life of me remember what car I would have used. Any guesses?
I know as a kid I use to create my own versions of favorite TV vehicles using non emergency Mbx models.... the #6 Ford pick up with added red cross decals on the doors was my Squad 51 from Emergency, (still have this model), and then I have a red cross decal on the back of a #12 Safari Land Rover, but can't remember what that was for, maybe just an ambulance, and then the #31 Lincoln needed to be painted black, sloppily hand painted, but served the purpose none the less, it was Steve McGarrett's car of course. You can see it right in the middle, near front, facing you in this old pic.

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Edited by Douglas, Aug 9 2014, 08:29 AM.
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b2young
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Sad firefighter
Doug, how I wish I had photos of my early Matchbox collection in its heyday. Somewhere I have my hand-written collection "database" of the first emergency vehicles I had as a kid. In it, I included brief descriptions of any "modifications", such as repainting (crudely) by hand, applying stick-on numbers to them, and what imaginary fire or police department they were assigned to.
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Douglas
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b2young
Sep 7 2014, 02:15 PM
Doug, how I wish I had photos of my early Matchbox collection in its heyday. Somewhere I have my hand-written collection "database" of the first emergency vehicles I had as a kid. In it, I included brief descriptions of any "modifications", such as repainting (crudely) by hand, applying stick-on numbers to them, and what imaginary fire or police department they were assigned to.
Blair, I still have all those cars, I had taken that picture just before I packed them all up and stuffed them up in moms attic when I was getting ready to move out of the house, and out of state, so I couldn't really take them with me then, after I retrieved them years later I picked out a few I wanted to display, and sent the others back to my brother, who has them stored somewhere, (they were a mix of both of our childhood toys.... but mostly mine :D )

That list you have is a cool piece of childhood memorabilia to have too.....I was never so organized as to write things down.
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