179 replies to this topic

[Martin]

All great information Phillippe, Thanks for taking the time. 

The original question is are the paper stickers on the lotus 40 RTR on the door or the rear fender? Just to be clear you say "The stickers were never installed on the rear fenders." But the you show this image.#1 on the left.Then we have Matts car with stickers on the fendesr and then this new ebay listing that looks stock. Hope you understand our confusion.

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[Martin]

http://www.jnsforum....s-model-trains/

 

Matt, Sanda-Kan is a company not a individual person.

[MattD]

I thought she was a 12 year old girl!!!

[Bill from NH]

I thought she probably was an 80 year old lady. I guess that's what I get for giving my HO train set to my brother.

[Martin]

But I think Sanda ( the little prankster she was) stuck the numbers on the fenders on a few RTR Lotus's just to give those future collectors something to talk about.

 

How hard are those numbers to remove with out damage anyway?  Personally if I did NOT want or care about the originality of a factory RTR  I would rip those cheap paper numbers off and replace with decals in the place of my choosing as on the real car.

 

P. thanks for giving us the benefit of your years of collecting experience. Sub question, could you buy new stickers back when these cars were being sold over the counter.So if yours did get damaged or soiled you could replace them, and that might be another explanation why we see variants? 

[TSR]

I visited the place many years ago, when I was still a project engineer for te Cox Hobbies company.
Sanda-Kan was really something. It was a beehive of activity, located in Kowloon. The boss was a very nice man, a Chinese gentleman named Wai Shin Ting. Everyone called him, "Mister Ting". He passed away not too long ago.
The building was like 10 or 12 stories tall, but each floor had a 7-foot ceiling, because the woman working there, all Chinese, were very... short! 
Each floor was buzzy with incredible activity, with injection molding machines, trimming and painting rooms, assembly rooms... and like a precision ballet, things were getting done, 6 days a week, 8 to 10 hours a day with a brief lunch break where the women would eat food they brought from home. And all were so kind, so proud of their work, and appreciative of the suggestions and comments the customers would make.
And they worked for so many American companies... Athearn, Atlas, K&B, Cox, just to name a few.

As far as your questions, no, the stickers were never sold separately, and the variants are few: there was a # 1 and a # 8, and maybe a # 5, and that was it!

Removing the roundels is not that easy depending on the degree of dryness of the glue. Best is to set the car in a warm place (but not in the sun or in an oven!!!) to soften the adhesive, then gently and slowly peel it off.
The Cox roundels are actually not too difficult, but the Monogram ones are really nasty.
At the end of the day, if the cars have been in a warm attic, they simply fall off, leaving a light glue residue on the bodies.

In any case, these roundels are rather easy to reproduce if they are damaged.

 

[MattD]

Philippe, the car I pictured above I took out of the bag back in the 90's and I didn't do anything with the stickers.  All I did was bead blast and polish the wheels.

[Martin]

Hey Matt, just to be clear my Cox Lotus RTR came with numbers on the doors so I wanted to know if that placement was correct. So I did a google search and ask the question here on Slotblog.

Philippe do you think it is possible the numbers came both ways,on the doors and on the fenders? because It seems unlikely to me that so many owners would take the time to carefully remove them, then re-glue an inch or so back..  

Here is the circumstantial  evidence I found.  

P.S Thanks Philippe for the benefit of your personal experiences. My opinion is only based on what I am finding. Not facts. 

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[TSR]

We can argue the point until the sun goes "red dwarf".
Next case...

[Martin]

"That was never an argument"    

[Martin]

This one is on e-bay now, count one more for the "door numbers"

 

https://www.ebay.com.../263863007744?_

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[MattD]

Those stickers look like some kid removed them from the fenders and put them on the doors.   Just kidding!!!

[Martin]

Those darn kids. One more for the Door team. Is somebody keeping count?

https://www.ebay.com...ash=item2f1faa9

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[Martin]

https://www.ebay.com...MAAOSw1ktbamqA

I am pretty sure that is 7 stuck on the rear fenders and 7 on the doors. But whose counting?

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[Martin]

The fender number placement takes the lead, this RTR just came on  https://www.ebay.com...tem3fa8c6df82:g

8 for fender

7 for door

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[MattD]

Martin, I think my count of cars with stickers on the fender is beating your count of stickers on the doors!!!

[Martin]

Hey Matt, I am pretty sure I counted one twice. I just did a recount, and I get

7 for the doors

7 for the fenders

Remember this is a small sample. But what it indicates to me is there is enough examples out there to suggest they came both ways. If anyone has an untouched example of a Cox RTR Lotus please post a pic to add to the evidence already found. 

My car has the numbers on the doors Matts on the fenders. All I ever wanted to know is are they both factory correct ?

[MattD]

I think I'm still finding more on the fenders than you are on the doors.   As I mentioned the rtr I had was removed from the original bag by me.

[MattD]

Martin, one more for me on the fender.  This is on Ebay, has ackerman.

 

 

 

[Slot_Grasshopper]

    A trade ad used from Sept/Oct 1966, it shows the  RTR Cox car display, on that particular Lotus it was fender.

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[MattD]

Martin, I think I got you beat with the above picture of the Cox RTR display showing numbers on the fender, that along with the car I took out of the factory plastic bag seem to me to show many cars came with numbers on the fenders!

[Martin]

Matt, I will concede that they came both ways (fender and door numbers) how many of each, who knows? But yes the RTRs we have seen puts the fender numbers in the lead.

I would suspect the display Rich shows was upgraded with decals to show them at there best. Notice the Lotus has the yellow stripe, so not as the RTR was sold.  

[MattD]

Agree about the stripe, but they were factory built rtr cars, so the guys in Ca probably tried to mimic the look the Japanese builders were doing!!   The added stripe just makes the car look so more detailed.

[Martin]

Please add one of each for the record. Found on e-bay.

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[ajd350]

Just looked at mine. #1 on the doors.