Like Christmas morning (Vintage Toy)
 

I went out Antiquing today and found this on the top floor of an Antique Mall in Pomona. Still in the original shrink wrap with a Kay-Bee toy store sticker. :D

I built a couple of the Visible V-8's back in my youth but not the 4 banger.
Revell still makes the V-8 afaik, but not this one.

I felt a twinge of guilt opening this 30+ year old box but I had to see what condition it was in, oh joy, it was unmolested and untouched by human hands in 30+ years, the manual was dated 1979!

I got it for $30, looks like I got a deal compared to what they want on eBay but I have no plans to sell this one, I'm going to build it! then it'll be worth $5.00. :banana:

On a related note, this guy on YouTube builds his Visible V-8 to run at 5000 RPM! Pressure oiling and all.

It's driven by an electric motor but it makes some realistic V-8 sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JPplxM0hGk

Man, I love YouTube! Great stuff! I always eyed those engines in the "wish book" but never had one. I was always a terrible model builder, anyhow. I never realized just how accurate they were.

Man! I remember those well. Used to stare and stare at them in the store. Great find. Heck yes, build it!!!

We had the 4 cylinder kit as well-the fit and finish on the pieces was terrible. The kit came with a dc motor that was supposed to drive the whole thing, but none of the gears meshed. The distributor was also supposed to turn and light up the led "spark plugs" in time.

I saw my science teacher at the time had the same kit, neatly assembled and working. He told me he bought it as Kay-Bee as a closeout, with the caveat that the wiring instructions were wrong, and that it would take some work to get it going. He said it was a real bear to make it work, but it did in the end.

Even though I was disappointed in mine not working, I learned a LOT about how an engine works thanks to that kit, so ultimately it was worth it.

On the V-8 kits I built they weren't too bad except for the Distributor, the gears were poorly made and it was difficult to get them to mesh for long so the "Plugs" didn't fire right, if at all.
No big deal, when I was a kid I pretty much thrashed my toys, over-revving them much like the guy on YouTube does but without the oiling system.

The Main Bearings melt to the Crankshaft pretty quickly when you're running it off a Drill without any lubrication! :D

Great find!

My folks got me the V8 when I was pretty young. I remember it being very frustrating putting that thing together. My dad was helping me put the cylinder heads on when I somehow managed to get glue down between the cylinder walls and pistons. If I recall I put the glue on one step too early. Then we ended up running the engine in an attempt to keep the glue from seizing the pistons, but it always ran rough after that accident. I think my sister later claimed that poor thing and probably still has it. I do have fond memories of dad coming to the rescue. As a youngster I had a bad habit of wanting to put my models together way to fast, then bad things tended to happen, sometimes things would even go flying into the basement block wall. :yes: I must have learned to be patient, now I tend to take too long on my projects.

My Dad had been a pretty good model builder at one time, and at one point he gave me some cars he built in the early 60s. I know one of them was a "Squarebird". Being just a kid, I played with them and they got destroyed. One memory that always sticks with me was when he walked me through building my first kit; I think it was just a snap-fit. It was a VW Rabbit and it was designed so you could either build it stock or custom. He asked which I wanted and I told him stock, and to this day, maybe 30 years later, I wish I said custom! I think he would have liked it better that way!

The few that I completed were pretty sloppy. As an adult I set out to build a couple but didn't get far.

Wow thats awesome!!!!!


Thank you for sharing Eric......

Do you remember how long it took you to put yours together buddy?

The only model kit I have ever messed with was one of a car based off of the movie Christen. I need to finish it. I'm building the model with my grandad and if I get the model done I will post a picture of model car Christen.