CAR LOT: 14-12-02 The Stoneleigh show pays off.

At the Stoneleigh show Dec 8th I made a few contacts of ppl who said they might have some old RC’s at home that they would be willing to sell me, so I handed out my phone number and hoped for the best, on Friday 13th Dec I got a phone call from one of the contacts saying he had dug out the kit (a MIB Sand Rover) and we agreed on the price of £80 that I had mentioned at show and I arranged to go over to Redditch the following day and collect the kit.

I decided to take my own Sand Rover kit for comparisons but I wanted to take my camera to take some pictures but in the event I left it behind, which wasn’t too much of a bother cos I could always catch up with any photo taking later, when I arrived I was ushered into the living room where the Sand Rover kit awaited, IT WAS MINT, apparently the old gentleman had been a keen RC racer back in the very early 1980’s and this kit was the prize in a race he had won, but he never built the kit and it remained intact in his attic for about 20 years until now.

I put it next to my kit I’d bought with me but there was frankly no comparison and I gladly handed over the 80 notes for his immaculate Sand Rover kit, but then I enquired “ do you have any more RC cars or parts hanging about?” to which he said that he did have some other old RC stuff in the loft, so while I waited in the living room he and his son went up into the loft to fetch down the rest of the RC jumble, and after about 10 mins stumbled in with a big pile of boxes which included a Sand Scorcher box, a Sand Scorcher and Rough Rider body set boxes, a vintage Futaba radio box and an old Holiday buggy shell.

It was obvious that there was some very rare and hard to find parts in this lot when he opened up all the boxes, the old gentleman assumed as most of the parts were dismantled that they were not worth very much but after some deliberation I offered him £60 for the rest of the stuff which he was more than happy to accept, we shook hands on the deal and he helped me load up my car.

As I drove round the corner I erupted into uncontrollable whoops and shouts as I realised what a huge haul of Vintage Tamiya stuff Id made and I couldn’t help but drive over to Modelcraft model shop in Coventry and show off my latest acquisition to Richard the guy who I had done the Stoneleigh show with who was well and truly gutted when he saw what I had bought, but it wasn’t till I got home and sorted the stuff out that the full realisation of what I had bought took hold.

I’m going to make separate posts for the Sand Scorcher and Sand Rover so this is just a quick look at what is here, in Picture 1: you see all that I bought for £140 that’s the 4 boxes and the Holiday Buggy body. Picture 2: shows the contents on the Scorcher box, which had the rear wheels, two scorcher bodies (one fairly tidy but the other is a bit rough) there was also a loose Scorcher driver, a used decal sheet and some battery connectors. Picture 3: is the Holiday Buggy Body it’s a bit tatty with a snapped roof pillar, dodgy paintwork and numerous scratches but I think its got potential somewhere?

Picture 4: is a period vintage Futaba radio here shows the box and transmitter the radio gear itself is installed in the Radio box on the Scorcher, I had to take the back off and clean the battery terminals cos they had gone a bit mouldy but it is seems to works fine after that. Picture 5: is the Rough Rider body set box and its contents and YES that is a new on the spru Scorcher Exhaust Pipe with clamps AND chrome tree with mirrors handle and badge, not to mention a used set of Racing buggy decals and the RR body itself with instructions and other plastic body parts for the RR and SS, the RR body is covered with metallic chequered decal strips and painted really badly and although the roof mounts are OK and intact the top headlamp mounts have snapped off.

And finally Picture 6: the Sand Scorcher box contained the remnants of the Scorcher chassis, most of the car is there and apart from cleaning looks to be in fairly good condition, but a quick check revealed that there are still a few major parts missing but they are ones I think I have spares of already, there was also a lot of junk and rubbish in some of the boxes that I took out like a polystyrene radio box filler, a load of humbrol paint tins and loads of empty parts trees and cut out sticker backing paper.

Anyway buying this has made the whole Stoneleigh show thing worthwhile, I’ve made a killer deal with this haul and I’m thrilled to bits with it, who knows what I will get offered from the next guy if the other 3 contacts I made at the show come through :)

UPDATE: many things have happened to some of the items from this lot, the Sand Rover is still a MIB and likely to remain so, the Sand Scorcher was fully rebuilt using parts from my other original Scorcher and is now a Runner with that vintage Futaba Radio installed and working, all the Remaining Scorcher parts either went to making the chassis that would become the SSS or when into my spares float, The Holiday buggy body has been partially restored, the large number panels were removed, it was repainted properly, I managed to get a replacement driver figure and some lamps and replaced a few decals and now I use it as a running body for my HB, as regards to the Body kits, the Black and White Scorcher body was swapped with Tamiya Ranger Man for my first Nichimo Vantage kit, he has since fully restored it and its now in his showroom :) the Yellow Scorcher body and all the body detailing parts have been put away in the spare body box for the day when I get it restored professionally, and the Rough Rider Body? Well its been promised to a friend and he will get it as soon as I find a good enough excuse to trade it with him :) I think that pretty much covers everthing.