41 replies to this topic

[Mark Onofri]

One of me agrees with you 100%.
The other one thinks we're all wrong.
😊 😞

[Vay Jonynas]

I finally acquired a M.I.B. Revell Rat Fink in Lotus Racer for my collection:

 

 

 

My Mr. Gasser in BRM Racer has lacked an opponent for far too many years!

 

 

 

[Vay Jonynas]

Does anyone recognize this drawing rendered by Dave Deal from a magazine ad or perhaps as part of a store display/poster?

 

 

The original was found among Dave Deal's possessions after he passed away.

 

[Carter]

That is awesome looking


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[satchmo]

Does anyone know if the slick tires used on the Rat Fink were Revell's standard slick tire used on anyof there other models?

 

Were all issues of the Rat Fink/Mr. Gasser equipped with the slick tires?

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

[Gary Bluestone]

I think they, Rat Fink/Mr. Gasser all came with the Revell wide wheels and slicks. These are not the same as Revell's standard narrow ribbed tire found on most of the other kits. I have seen a Cobra kit that may have had slicks but when I built up a Ferrari, I had to find the wide wheels in a separate package.

[Vay Jonynas]

 

Were all issues of the Rat Fink/Mr. Gasser equipped with the slick tires?

 

 

 

They should. That's what's promised on the side of the box.  And mine are.

 

 

Does anyone know if the slick tires used on the Rat Fink were Revell's standard slick tire used on any of there other models?

 

 

I'm not sure there was a standard. All I can tell you is that the slicks on the Rat Fink in Lotus and Mr. Gasser in BRM seem to be the same as the slicks with which the Revell 1/24 Lotus and BRM were issued in 1964. But I have two 1/24 Lotus 23 racers issued by Revell in 1965 and neither came with slicks. But the 1/24 Corvette Stingray and Ferrari 250 GTO that Revell issued in 1965 both came with slicks. These slicks appear to be both taller and wider than the ones included with the Rat Fink in Lotus and Mr. Gasser in BRM kits.

 

So the answer is "Yes, they were the same slicks as could be found on some of Revell's other slot cars, e.g. the 1/24 Lotus and BRM" but "No, these slicks weren't any kind of standard".

 

[TSR]

Vay,
I am pretty sure that all came with those "square" drag slicks. These are of course differenr rear tires from the ones in the standard Lotus-Climax "Ford" and the BRM F1 cars.

[Vay Jonynas]

Interesting! I wonder what Revell's engineers had to say in 1964 when the marketing department told them about their great new idea for the Rat Fink in Lotus and Mr. Gasser in BRM slot cars?

 

[TSR]

Vay,
for most of them it was just a 9 to 5 boring job, so likely, not much!

[Vay Jonynas]

Interesting. Though I'm still a huge "Big Daddy" Roth fan I simply don't remember how and where I first learned about "Big Daddy" Roth. It was perhaps from an ad for one of his Revell custom car kits or fink kits in Boy's Life magazine in 1963 or so:

 

 

But I clearly remember looking at the Revell Beatnik Bandit model kit at the Tuckey Hardware store two blocks from my house sometime in early 1964:

 

 

A few months afterward I was completely knocked out when I saw the Revell Rat Fink model kit at the Coles bookstore on Dundas Street in downtown London, Ontario. I bought it almost immediately, built it nicely but left it unpainted:

 

 

A few months thereafter I bought this even wilder Revell Roth Mysterion kit that I'd been admiring for several months at Tuckey Hardware:

 

 

My desire for all things Roth was then further stoked by these ads:

 

 

 

Even though I saw such a Testor's paint display stand at the hobby shop above Cowan's Hardware in downtown London, I knew these paints were for more sophisticated cooler kids who could actually paint. And who could of course afford relatively more expensive spray paint cans!

 

I also remember gazing with wonder at this ad which also appeared on the back cover of some DC comics as well as on the back cover of issue #4 of Big Daddy Roth magazine:

 

 

Wow! Winning "Big Daddy" Roth's company as a house guest for a week! How cool would that be? A girl in her early teens from New Jersey actually won the contest with her "Scuz-Fink" submission. I imagine that her parents were less than thrilled at the prospect of having Ed "Big Daddy" Roth as a houseguest for a week but the $250 that came with Ed for his care and feeding left them much more positively disposed.

 

What's certain is that this ad which appeared in issue #16 of Drag Cartoons that I bought in May 1965 sealed the deal in turning me into a "Big Daddy" Roth fanatic for life:

 

 

 

 

That issue proved key in shaping my interests since it also prompted me to send away to Millar Publications for every back issue of Drag Cartoons and Big Daddy Roth magazine I could get and also sparked an abiding interest in hot rods that's stayed with me to the present day.

 

I then bought a Revell Brother Rat Fink T-Shirt Iron-On Transfer at the Seven Mile Hobby Shop just west of the Southfield Expressway in Detroit in the early summer of 1965 and successfully applied it to one of my T-shirts:

 

 

 

My very old-school father though took one look at it, confiscated it and used it for a rag in the garage. Very sad. The same fate befell the Rat Fink sweatshirt I ordered up and received from "Big Daddy" Roth's shop in the winter of 1965-66. 

 

I had also noticed an absolutely wild Angel Fink kit in the window of Steve's Variety & Gift Shop in Wortley Road Village just over a block from my house sometime after building the Rat Fink but I didn't buy it at the time: 

 

 

I did so in the fall of 1965 though at a hobby shop in Wells, Maine when I was attending a boarding school in Kennebunkport, Maine. It became the first non-Aurora model kit I painted and I actually did a pretty good job.

 

I also clearly remember being tempted by the Revell Surfink kit when I saw it at Coles Books later in 1966 but passed on buying it because I was in high school by then....

 

 

Whenever that first exposure of mine to "Big Daddy" Roth's designs was, I was absolutely captivated just about from the get-go. This stuff I knew was absolutely outta sight wild cool (and something my parents just couldn't understand of course)! 

 

By 1983 I was buying up whatever MIB Revell Roth kits I could find. At the time they were surprisingly cheap in comparison to the Aurora monster model kits. I now have almost all the ones I really want with the exception of Scuz-Fink and Rat Fink in Lotus Racer (to what I'm sure would have been the absolute disgust of my parents). And to this very day I still remain a wild-eyed drooling fan of "Big Daddy" Roth and his custom rods and finks! 

 

 

Don't you just love those happy endings?

 

[mike1972chev]

 

Interesting. Though I'm still a huge "Big Daddy" Roth fan I simply don't remember how and where I first learned about "Big Daddy" Roth. It was perhaps from an ad for one of his Revell custom car kits or fink kits in Boy's Life magazine in 1963 or so:

 

 

But I clearly remember looking at the Revell Beatnik Bandit model kit at the Tuckey Hardware store two blocks from my house sometime in early 1964:

 

 

A few months afterward I was completely knocked out when I saw the Revell Rat Fink model kit at the Coles bookstore on Dundas Street in downtown London, Ontario. I bought it almost immediately, built it nicely but left it unpainted:

 

 

A few months thereafter I bought this even wilder Revell Roth Mysterion kit that I'd been admiring for several months at Tuckey Hardware:

 

 

My desire for all things Roth was then further stoked by these ads:

 

 

 

Even though I saw such a Testor's paint display stand at the hobby shop above Cowan's Hardware in downtown London, I knew these paints were for more sophisticated cooler kids who could actually paint. And who could of course afford relatively more expensive spray paint cans!

 

I also remember gazing with wonder at this ad which also appeared on the back cover of some DC comics as well as on the back cover of issue #4 of Big Daddy Roth magazine:

 

 

Wow! Winning "Big Daddy" Roth's company as a house guest for a week! How cool would that be? A girl in her early teens from New Jersey actually won the contest with her "Scuz-Fink" submission. I imagine that her parents were less than thrilled at the prospect of having Ed "Big Daddy" Roth as a houseguest for a week but the $250 that came with Ed for his care and feeding left them much more positively disposed.

 

What's certain is that this ad which appeared in issue #16 of Drag Cartoons that I bought in May 1965 sealed the deal in turning me into a "Big Daddy" Roth fanatic for life:

 

 

 

 

That issue proved key in shaping my interests since it also prompted me to send away to Millar Publications for every back issue of Drag Cartoons and Big Daddy Roth magazine I could get and also sparked an abiding interest in hot rods that's stayed with me to the present day.

 

I then bought a Revell Brother Rat Fink T-Shirt Iron-On Transfer at the Seven Mile Hobby Shop just west of the Southfield Expressway in Detroit in the early summer of 1965 and successfully applied it to one of my T-shirts:

 

 

 

My very old-school father though took one look at it, confiscated it and used it for a rag in the garage. Very sad. The same fate befell the Rat Fink sweatshirt I ordered up and received from "Big Daddy" Roth's shop in the winter of 1965-66. 

 

I had also noticed an absolutely wild Angel Fink kit in the window of Steve's Variety & Gift Shop in Wortley Road Village just over a block from my house sometime after building the Rat Fink but I didn't buy it at the time: 

 

 

I did so in the fall of 1965 though at a hobby shop in Wells, Maine when I was attending a boarding school in Kennebunkport, Maine. It became the first non-Aurora model kit I painted and I actually did a pretty good job.

 

I also clearly remember being tempted by the Revell Surfink kit when I saw it at Coles Books later in 1966 but passed on buying it because I was in high school by then....

 

 

Whenever that first exposure of mine to "Big Daddy" Roth's designs was, I was absolutely captivated just about from the get-go. This stuff I knew was absolutely outta sight wild cool (and something my parents just couldn't understand of course)! 

 

By 1983 I was buying up whatever MIB Revell Roth kits I could find. At the time they were surprisingly cheap in comparison to the Aurora monster model kits. I now have almost all the ones I really want with the exception of Scuz-Fink and Rat Fink in Lotus Racer (to what I'm sure would have been the absolute disgust of my parents). And to this very day I still remain a wild-eyed drooling fan of "Big Daddy" Roth and his custom rods and finks! 

 

 

Don't you just love those happy endings?

 

 

VERY cool collection Vay !  My only cool Rat Fink stuff is two of his prints signed by Ed Roth here in Indy at the "World Of Wheels" car show decades ago. (Two different Chevrolet Impala drawings driven by Rat Fink.) I still have them framed. Rat Fink stuff is EXPENSIVE these days !!!  :/  

[Vay Jonynas]

I'm trying to decide whether the Detroit iron in this picture is an Impala:

 

 

In any event it's among my very favourite "Big Daddy" Roth designs. It would have been Ed Newton who rendered the finished line art. with colouring by Weldonmc(RIP). 

 

[Dave Crevie]

I would say 1965 Chevy Impala;

 

 

 

I met Ed Roth twice, at the Chicago World of Wheels shows. I remember him as a cool guy, excited to see everyone he met.

 

I painted a "gasserized" 64 Ford Falcon for a friend in '68. Painted it in his parent's garage. We did everything to prep the garage to prevent any type of contamanent from getting in the paint. But after the final coat of clear, some tiny piece of debris fell on the cowl panel just ahead of the windshield. There was no fixing this, so we took the car to the show with the defect, hoping no one would notice. During set-up, Ed stopped by our booth to ask about some of the ideas I had used on the car, and I told him about the flaw. ( he hadn't noticed it) A while later he returned with a Rat Fink sticker, which I used to cover the spot. It was almost perfectly in the center of the panel, and looked as though it was put there on purpose. 

[bronxcomet]

remember entering car model contest at the coliseum in NYC .Could never get the Aztec gold paint to dry.Remember Ed Roth painting t-shirts for the crowd.First time I saw Tony P.................surfs up .....Marty P

[Bill from NH]

I never met Roth in person, but in 1959 I bought my first auto magazine. It was a Rod & Custom issue with Roth's Beatnik Bandit on the cover & in the centerfold. It was then a small 8"X5" magazine in those days for 59 cents. That magazine got me interested in each of Roth's new fiberglass creations he built for the next eight years. Then I started slot racing.

[Vay Jonynas]

Here's probably my favourite Chevy themed Roth design with finished line art by Ed "Newt" Newton and colouring by Weldonmc(RIP):