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Dragsters USA
Topic Started: Sep 4 2016, 09:07 PM (1,015 Views)
426maxwedgie
Member Avatar
Running in the 90's
Any love out there for these Playing Mantis funny cars? I had a bunch of these as a kid, and I played with them hard. I've always been a drag racing fan, and these were perfect for me then, and still are now. Here's a picture of a carded Motown Shaker next to my signed Al Bergler photo, which is the same picture used on the collector coin.

Posted ImageIMG_3586 by Nova Peerless, on Flickr
Edited by 426maxwedgie, Jul 20 2017, 04:38 PM.
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little bit. At the time they were kinda cool, but the list of repaints and seldom in accurate colors kinda burned me out on them pretty quickly. Some issues like the Hawaiian and the Trojan Horse and the Chi Town Hustler were cars / drivers I was familiar with, so I picked up some of those, but I quickly burned out of being any kind of completest for the series.

I see now on the secondary market these get little, if any, love. This was early in PM history, they were still getting their legs under them, and later models were improved so much, that these kinda fell by the wayside.

I can go you one better as far as earlier...I have an autographed Little Red Wagon. My copy came to me before they were done in the mainline, it was a promo edition, signed by Bill "Maverick" Golden. It is one of my longest held treasures, I got it not long after I got back into the hobby in the late 90s.

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If memory serves, I believe I got this just before or right at the time the first Dragsters series were hitting retail. I was set up in a flea market about an hour north of Don Garlits Drag Racing Museum, and I had seen the Little Red Wagon set up there on display. I presume the photo was taken the day it was delivered. Last time I was there around a year ago, it was no longer there. I got the photo (and another showing the LRW posed in a wheelstand position) at the same time with the autographed diecast. I would show the other pic but it is too dark and wouldn't show up.
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Hosspower98
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Forever Blue Oval
First I collected all variations of the Mustang floppers. then came the others.

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Edited by Hosspower98, Sep 5 2016, 08:18 AM.
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Stangfreak
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Convertible
I hate too say I lost all interest in these when I seen all the variations in colors and out of proportion bodies. They were a great idea but many sat way too high and had wabbaly wheels. I sold and traded mine off when I discovered the Hot Wheels Strip Demon series. Much more accurate and better quality and they had the right stance...

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juantoo3
Member Avatar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That particular Hot Wheels series is exceptionally well done...but we're talking more than 15 years between the two series. If we look at the Funny Cars Hot Wheels had in the line at the time, they were really not any better in the mainline. There were a few high dollar Legends series (at $100 a pop for a 1/18 plus 1/64, Snake or Mongoose), but when you start comparing apples to apples picked at the same time, JL at that time had an OK deal going for the money, and they did get better. The Pabst Blue Ribbon Charger was a quantum leap forward for JL, and it came along a year or two after these finished up, and that led to another Dragster series that had some pretty nice looking Top Fuel Dragsters (two of which were Garlits' Swamp Rat), besides good looking Funny Cars that can sit comfortably beside the Hot Wheels Drag Strip Demons.

It was this first go 'round of "Dragsters" that were a bit clumsy, but at the time they were the best thing going for the money.
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426maxwedgie
Member Avatar
Running in the 90's
juantoo3
Sep 5 2016, 07:36 AM
A little bit. At the time they were kinda cool, but the list of repaints and seldom in accurate colors kinda burned me out on them pretty quickly. Some issues like the Hawaiian and the Trojan Horse and the Chi Town Hustler were cars / drivers I was familiar with, so I picked up some of those, but I quickly burned out of being any kind of completest for the series.

I see now on the secondary market these get little, if any, love. This was early in PM history, they were still getting their legs under them, and later models were improved so much, that these kinda fell by the wayside.

I can go you one better as far as earlier...I have an autographed Little Red Wagon. My copy came to me before they were done in the mainline, it was a promo edition, signed by Bill "Maverick" Golden. It is one of my longest held treasures, I got it not long after I got back into the hobby in the late 90s.

Posted Image

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If memory serves, I believe I got this just before or right at the time the first Dragsters series were hitting retail. I was set up in a flea market about an hour north of Don Garlits Drag Racing Museum, and I had seen the Little Red Wagon set up there on display. I presume the photo was taken the day it was delivered. Last time I was there around a year ago, it was no longer there. I got the photo (and another showing the LRW posed in a wheelstand position) at the same time with the autographed diecast. I would show the other pic but it is too dark and wouldn't show up.
:bowing: WOW! That's an awesome piece there! I had a bunch of the funny cars as a kid, and I still have most of them as a matter of fact. They stood up well to the wear and tear I gave them - lots of sofa drag racing. :lol: Regardless of how good or bad they are, I cannot hate these castings as they have a special place in my heart with many happy memories.

I had a bunch of the wheel standers too, just not sure where they are at the moment.
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juantoo3
Member Avatar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JL did go a LONG way in a short time, they really put a lot of effort into product improvement. They did so well later that guys dismiss and forget their early stuff, but even the stuff that gets short shrift now was still better than what HW and Mbx had out there at the time. JL really didn't have any competition at the mid-range, a lot of the companies we know now weren't even started yet, HW and Mbx had the dollar cars sewed up tight (and still do), Majorette and Tomica had pulled out of the states, and the 100% line was overpriced. As JL got better they pretty well created that mid range adult collectible niche...and as they wound down going into the RC buyout others like Muscle Machines, Greenlight and M2 stepped into the void and continued the niche.
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deuce
Subcompact
Count me in as a fan. I really like the hinged bodies and authentic liveries. They are very colorful, and nobody else seemed to be doing funny cars from that period (if they were, I wasn't seeing them in my local stores).

I like toy cars that are representations of actual race cars. Over the past few years, Hot Wheels and Greenlight have released some nice Trans-Am racers. I wish someone would regularly make Can-Am cars and other racers from the '60s and '70s. I always consider it a treat when Hot Wheels makes a car like the Ferrari 330 and 512, Ford GT40, Cunningham C4R, and Chaparral 2A and 2D.
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webestang64
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Minivan
I bought a bunch of the Mustangs, cool stuff.
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426maxwedgie
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Running in the 90's
deuce
Sep 7 2016, 05:50 AM
Count me in as a fan. I really like the hinged bodies and authentic liveries. They are very colorful, and nobody else seemed to be doing funny cars from that period (if they were, I wasn't seeing them in my local stores).

I like toy cars that are representations of actual race cars. Over the past few years, Hot Wheels and Greenlight have released some nice Trans-Am racers. I wish someone would regularly make Can-Am cars and other racers from the '60s and '70s. I always consider it a treat when Hot Wheels makes a car like the Ferrari 330 and 512, Ford GT40, Cunningham C4R, and Chaparral 2A and 2D.
I have a bunch of them carded now. I'll have post pics of them one of these days.

Have you seen the Hot Wheels Shadow Mk IIa? That casting basically introduced me to the awesomeness that is Can-Am.
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deuce
Subcompact
426maxwedgie
Sep 7 2016, 06:27 PM
I have a bunch of them carded now. I'll have post pics of them one of these days.

Have you seen the Hot Wheels Shadow Mk IIa? That casting basically introduced me to the awesomeness that is Can-Am.
Yes, that Shadow is another favorite of mine. One thing I like about that time is that the racing cars had their own unique look; many of them quite beautiful. I can't pass up a historical racing replica from that era for a just a buck.

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426maxwedgie
Member Avatar
Running in the 90's
Here are the survivors of my childhood JL funny cars and 2 pro stocks.

Posted ImageIMG_3592 by Nova Peerless, on Flickr
Edited by 426maxwedgie, Jul 20 2017, 04:36 PM.
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daniel60
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Personal Luxury Car
426maxwedgie
Sep 7 2016, 08:17 PM
Here are the survivors of my childhood JL funny cars and 2 pro stocks.

Posted Image
Wow that is a awesome collection. I'm not too picky about the stance, lengths so on. I just like a car because I like it. These are pure rock n' roll.
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LOTS of old friends there. They even covered Shirley Shahan Drag-On Lady.

The Trouble Maker El Camino is a Tom Daniel design based on an old model kit, I don't think it was ever built or raced as a real 1:1, but it is still a fun casting. I had the silver version on display for a long time, packed it for a move and haven't seen it (and a number of other pieces) since.

Sox & Martin Cuda was a Pro Stock from back in the day.
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deuce
Subcompact
426maxwedgie
Sep 7 2016, 08:17 PM
Here are the survivors of my childhood JL funny cars and 2 pro stocks.

The Gene Snow dragster is a good example of what I was talking about. I love the snowman on the side of the car. Even though the Troublemaker was never built and raced, I really like the the idea of an El Camino dragster that hinges at the front and lifts at the rear. Tom Daniel, father of the Troublemaker, designed a lot of plastic models some of which made their way into diecast. You can see his work at tomdaniel.com/85_kits/frm_85kits.html
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426maxwedgie
Member Avatar
Running in the 90's
juantoo3
Sep 7 2016, 09:15 PM
The Trouble Maker El Camino is a Tom Daniel design based on an old model kit, I don't think it was ever built or raced as a real 1:1, but it is still a fun casting. I had the silver version on display for a long time, packed it for a move and haven't seen it (and a number of other pieces) since.
I remember that. I loved it because A) it was a rear engine funny car, which were a very short-lived experiment in real life, and B ) it was based off a '72 El Camino, which I loved because we have a '72 Chevelle.
Edited by 426maxwedgie, Sep 8 2016, 05:32 PM.
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juantoo3
Member Avatar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

deuce
Sep 8 2016, 12:39 AM
Tom Daniel, father of the Troublemaker, designed a lot of plastic models some of which made their way into diecast. You can see his work at tomdaniel.com/85_kits/frm_85kits.html
Oh yeah, but I lived through that era. Paddy Wagon, Red Baron, Ice T, Sand Crab...that's just some Hot Wheels redlines taken from his model kits. JL later did a series, I think right after (before?) the first series of Dragsters that were all Tom Daniel...Beer Wagon, Tijuana Taxi, Draggin' Wagon, T'rancula, Cherry Bomb and more...all of which were model kits 30 years earlier.

One I always hoped for but never expected to see was Rommel's Rod. ;)

(Didn't need the website for these....I remember them well)
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pjedsel
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Muscle Car
:toy: Like the early efforts by Racing Champions with their NASCAR, Indy car, dragsters and funny cars - JL with this series tapped a market that was not being represented in small scale diecast. They were not perfect but they were a welcome item for those who followed that type of racing. I know that was true of those first NASCAR offerings - crude by today's standards but welcomed by NASCAR fans in those days. I really wasn't into the funny car and dragsters but had a couple samples in my collection. I think these early offerings opened the doors for the nicer and improved models that came later from a variety of manufacturers.
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juantoo3
Member Avatar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

426maxwedgie
Sep 7 2016, 06:27 PM

Have you seen the Hot Wheels Shadow Mk IIa? That casting basically introduced me to the awesomeness that is Can-Am.
Ford J Car, Ford Mk IV, Chaparral 2G, Lola GT70, McLaren M6A....those were my introduction to Can-Am. ;)

Maybe you could have some fun looking through this thread:

http://swiftysgarage.net/topic/7213576/1/
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juantoo3
Member Avatar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

juantoo3
Sep 5 2016, 02:49 PM
That particular Hot Wheels series is exceptionally well done...but we're talking more than 15 years between the two series. If we look at the Funny Cars Hot Wheels had in the line at the time, they were really not any better in the mainline. There were a few high dollar Legends series (at $100 a pop for a 1/18 plus 1/64, Snake or Mongoose), but when you start comparing apples to apples picked at the same time, JL at that time had an OK deal going for the money, and they did get better. The Pabst Blue Ribbon Charger was a quantum leap forward for JL, and it came along a year or two after these finished up, and that led to another Dragster series that had some pretty nice looking Top Fuel Dragsters (two of which were Garlits' Swamp Rat), besides good looking Funny Cars that can sit comfortably beside the Hot Wheels Drag Strip Demons.

It was this first go 'round of "Dragsters" that were a bit clumsy, but at the time they were the best thing going for the money.
Was out in the shed anyway, and dug these out:

Posted Image

You would be hard pressed to convince me these would not sit justifiably on the same shelf with the recent Hot Wheels editions. JL beat them to the punch by almost 15 years, these came along a year or two after the ones we discussed earlier. This series was so popular I had to scramble to find the ones I did, and even then I only found a couple, the others came along through aftermarket buys, and I still didn't get many. You don't see these come up for sale very often, guys tend to hold onto them...
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426maxwedgie
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Running in the 90's
juantoo3
Sep 11 2016, 06:29 PM
Was out in the shed anyway, and dug these out:

Posted Image

You would be hard pressed to convince me these would not sit justifiably on the same shelf with the recent Hot Wheels editions. JL beat them to the punch by almost 15 years, these came along a year or two after the ones we discussed earlier. This series was so popular I had to scramble to find the ones I did, and even then I only found a couple, the others came along through aftermarket buys, and I still didn't get many. You don't see these come up for sale very often, guys tend to hold onto them...
Very nice stuff! Especially the red Garlits rail!
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accobra64
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Minivan
juantoo3
Sep 11 2016, 06:29 PM
Posted Image

This series was so popular I had to scramble to find the ones I did, and even then I only found a couple, the others came along through aftermarket buys, and I still didn't get many. You don't see these come up for sale very often, guys tend to hold onto them...
Wes, thanks for the picture.

"and that led to another Dragster series that had some pretty nice looking Top Fuel Dragsters (two of which were Garlits' Swamp Rat), "

"You don't see these come up for sale very often, guys tend to hold onto them..."

Lots of memories associated with these castings especially if you followed top fuel dragsters.

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Some of the Top Fuel Dragster castings were really long:

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BYW, I watched the NHRA U.S. Nationals last weekend and watched the re-runs again all afternoon on FSRacing.
Fantastic viewing.

Another contribution to this thread:

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Thanks goes out to all who have contributed to this very interesting discussion.

Cheers. Cobra
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juantoo3
Member Avatar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

accobra64
Sep 11 2016, 07:49 PM
Another contribution to this thread:

Posted Image

Thanks goes out to all who have contributed to this very interesting discussion.

Cheers. Cobra
Thanks Gerry! Sure is good to see you back around!

Barry Setzer and Color Me Gone are some vintage racers, but you do know the Pinto Funny Car (I want to say that one was called Shut Out) was another Tom Daniel design? JL commissioned him specifically to make some fantasy drag racers, I recall there was a MoPar product as well based on the old Duster / Demon-Dart. There were at least 4 models (possibly six), might be two colors of each, I really don't remember and only ever found the two. Should be on Wyatt's site though. My long winded way of saying the Pinto was not a real racer, but T. Daniel did come up with some believable designs for that set. Somewhere I think I still have the Christmas tree starting lights that were packed with those models.
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accobra64
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Minivan
Christmas tree starting lights:

Posted Image

Tom Daniel's Fearless Funny Cars:

Pinto Funny Car below:
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1971 Mustang Funny Car below:
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1972 Dodge Charger Funny Car below:
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1971 Dodge Demon Funny Car below:
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Vega Funny Car below:
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Maverick Funny Car below:
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Remember this one:
L.A. Dart (1970 Dodge Dart) shown below:
Posted Image

All images from JLColllector.net Thanks Wyatt.

Cheers. Cobra
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juantoo3
Member Avatar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

accobra64
Sep 11 2016, 09:20 PM
Christmas tree starting lights:

Posted Image


There's the Christmas tree!

Quote:
 
Remember this one:
L.A. Dart (1970 Dodge Dart) shown below:
Posted Image

All images from JLColllector.net Thanks Wyatt.

Cheers. Cobra
Absolutely! That was a Wheelstander as I recall. I was a bigger fan of the Hemi Under Glass. (The whole Hurst series with photo cards of Linda Vaughn...some of JL's best!)

Posted Image

Thanks Wyatt!
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