Back in 1966 that year's "Thunderbirds" annual was packed with the usual mix of comics, details on the characters and machines and stories of real disasters and accidents where International Rescue could have been of use... had they been around.
One of the comics, by famed TV21 artist Ron Turner featured a new pod vehicle. It was never given a name, and was simply referred to as the excavating equipment. Why he never used the machine as used in "The Martian Invasion" is a mystery... maybe he was never given reference photos? Whatever the reason it's typical of his design work: outlandish, exotic and pure '60s futurism. Quite why Imai then chose to model this is also a mystery... had an exec somehow seen a copy of the annual and thought, yeah... that would make a cool model.
To my knowledge Imai made this vehicle in three sizes: a large battery-operated model around 200mm long with rubber tracks, a smaller model with wheels, and a tiny one as part of their pod series of kits. It's also probably the only time that anything created by Ron Turner has been made available in plastic model kit form.
Here are some images of the vehicle from my edition of the 1966 annual...
As you can see, it's a weird beastie... rather than using toothed rollers to eat away at the rock, Turner's machine uses bizarre hand-like devices to feed the rocks into the maw, where presumably rollers and grinders reduce them to fine rubble, ejecting them from the large exhausts at the rear.
Imai's version of the Excavator, dubbed the X-Car, is very close to the artwork, which is so weird. It was originally issued in 1967, motorised and with the gears visible through the open maw. At some point it had the motor removed and the maw covered by a new panel which looks like it's meant to represent some kind of fringed curtain screen. The switch lever slot is still on the top, the battery compartment remains, and the rear is somewhat ugly and unfinished-looking.
Photos of the model...
Typically the box art is exciting and beautifully done... I love Japanese box art.
You can see the curtain moulded to the front of the vehicle in place of the open maw of its earlier release. I don't know when mine came out, but my Imai book says it was re-issued with this box art in 1971 and 1974, but the 1500Yen code on the end seems awfully high for early '70s. All I can think is that sometime in the '80s or '90s the de-motorised version was brought out in old style boxes.
The cockpit consists of a shelf with an upper torso and arms... a separate head completes the figure. Needless to say I will be scratchbuilding a new one. Scale wise, I'd say it works out to be around 1/48, or as close as makes no odds. The ribbed section behind the pilot matches Ron Turner's artwork.
In this shot you can see the slot where the on/off lever used to poke through... I'll fill that and leave a nice flat front end. The light cowls and 'curtain' make it look like it's smiling... weird.
The rear end... yuck! Turner never had that line of vents, so I will fill them, and add the three engine exhausts as shown in the drawings. There are other holes all over this thing... really was an unassembled toy, so there are access holes and slots everywhere. Never mind... half the fun is in turning a pig's ear into a silk purse.
Rubber tracks... these have Sherman tank style treads, so I might replace them with decent modern Sherman tracks in 1/48 scale... no reason why I should stick with lousy rubber.
The claws, front flap and some other details.
Cockpit canopy. The original release had this in tinted green plastic, as you can see this is clear thankfully.
Claw arms. Interestingly even though this kit was still bagged there is a part missing: one of the two hinges for the front flap, but as it's a flat piece with a hole in it I can replace this fairly easily.
Wheels, grinder exhausts and the arch which fits over the canopy.
Stickers... I won't use these. The drawings don't show any markings on the vehicle, so I will just use generic International Rescue markings as featured on some of the other pod vehicles.
Imai show the vehicle with yellow (earlier orange) accent parts, but the drawings show it to be all blue. I think I'll go the Imai route... the colourists in these annuals tended to be rather, er, creative.
I will cut away the 'curtain' and detail the interior with rollers from an old... something with big chunky cogs and stuff. Turner only showed rocks in the maw.
I wish Imai had delved deeper into the annuals and TV Century 21 comics... we could have had some seriously cool models.
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