Don,
Here is a photo of what I believe to be a genuine Mabuchi "Red Bomb":
Normally I would not offer this as any sort of "proof" because I did not receive it in a sealed package. However, in a "batch" eBay purchase I made (several years ago) there was a small corrigated cardboard box that contained three of these motors, all identical, and the header card.
Granted, not sealed equals not proof, nevertheless it is a real header card, it does say "Red Bomb" and "Mini-Auto", and it is definitely a Mabuchi motor. If Robert Schleicher has some references to back his claims about the Strombecker Red Bomb, I'd love to see them; I'm more than a little bit dubious.
Nowadays I'm thinking the term "Red Bomb" is a Mini-Auto product name, not applicable to other Mabuchi 15R motors painted red and sold by other vendors such as Aristo-Craft, BuzCo, or Strombecker. Over time, some product names evolve into generic descriptions. For example, pressure-sensitive adhesive tape sold by Staples (and made in China of course) is not "Scotch Tape", that's a 3M product. Likewise Kleenex, Band-Aid, Jello and so forth.
Urban-myth department: For those of us who are old enough to remember, the name "Red Bomb" could easily be a play on words; those Californians can be pretty sneaky you know. The name may well be a reference to the (then) Soviet nuclear weapons program, and the "Tsar Bomba" in particular.
Steve
