You might remember my post on the Worlds Smallest Deuce Roadster, which was a highly detailed 1:87 scale die cast. I just picked up a Schuco "Piccolo" die cast of a lil' Model T ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
I think that this has a very strange design history...it is based on the Hubley "1932 Ford Custom Roadster" die cast kit rather than on any full scale reality...though I have never managed to find what could have been Hubley's inspiration. Like the Hubley "1932", which dates back to my childhood during the early Iron Age, it seems to be a slightly curved up 1927 T with an Offenhauser engine! From that website below it seems they took the whole chassis from their Indy car. http://www.hubleykits.com/ Even when I was 12 I was baffled by the 1932 appellation...the Piccolo folks must have done a bit of research to clarify the name, but the visual origin is still very clear. I've always assumed that someday I would bump into a picture of the real car behind the Hubley model deep in an East Coast small mag...but so far it has not happened, and the world is rapidly running out of small mags I haven't seen! Both are cool cars...and I still believe that somewhere there was a real hotrod behind the design!
Jimmy C. did this for me 10 years ago- I got at a dollar store in Tokyo and gave it to him, a year later I got this in the mail, painted up like the Earl Bruce Mercedes! It's pretty stinkin' small, I was blown away-
Wouldn't that be a "Yen" store? Always loved that Von Dutch flame job. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
To expand on what Bruce mentioned, Schuco also made a 1/43 wind up version with steering of the Offy powered 27 t bodied hot rod that was a very close if not exact to the larger Hubley Hot Rod kit. Strange combo indeed. I think the Schuco version was made before the Hubley KIt.
So...has anyone found an origin for the thing?? Very interesting body and general look... not what you'd expect to turn up from toy companies seeking inspiration for a hotrod.
I've noticed the connection between the Schuco Micro Racer (windup), the Hubley roadster, and the Hubley Indy car before, too. I assumed that, since the Offy engine made sense in the Indy car, that it was probably done first (it also has the first model #); that the Hubley "1932" was tooled to share the Indy car chassis, and that the Schuco Micro Racer was copied from the Hubley . I've never seen the Piccolo version before, but it appears to be a miniature version of the Micro Racer.