After showing the DVD of "Fast as Hell", last night I watched the first movie content in it, "The Junkman": I had seen it so many years ago from a low-quality file downloaded from the Internet and view it in the high quality restored version has been a real surprise, almost a rediscovery! As in "Gone in 60 Seconds", there are several chase scenes, two of which are very engaging with an orange 1974 Bricklin SV-1 and a yellow 1981 Corvette C3, always driven by the main character, played by H.B. Halicki. Watching these cars made me do a reflection on the 1:18 scale modeling world and gave me the idea to create a new column that I will submit you regularly on these pages. What is it? Watching this film, I wondered why ERTL when it bought the license of "The Junkman" managed to produce only a model inspired by this film, an orange 1951 Mercury Coupe that has never convinced me and I never bought. In fact, rewatching the movie, I saw that this car in the film has never been used, or rather, you will see a red 1949 Mercury Coupe for a second during a custom car rally, but we are talking about a car completely different from the one produced in 1:18 scale and not even plays a fundamental role within the film: on the contrary, it would be much more logical to use the license of "the Junkman" producing the orange 1974 Bricklin SV-1 or the yellow 1981 Corvette C3, but of course the cost of production (and therefore the related revenues) would be different.

   Searching on the internet, I found that ERTL in those years produced a customized 1951 Mercury (Chopped) by George Barris (who even appeared in the credits of the film for providing some cars): well, they simply changed the color to obtain a car that more or less could resemble to the car seen for an instant within the film. In short, little cost, maximum gain! My advice? Before buying a model used in a movie or TV series, read up and try to find information on sites like IMCDB.org. Ok, nothing to say, this is a cute orange Mercury model, but nothing to do with the movie "The Junkman". As for me, I will think to realize the yellow Corvette C3, template widely available on the market and easily replicable.

Posted by: Fabiano on Tue 2/9/2016 at 10:31

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