Zingers !

[TooOld]

We've all probably seen these old pics a thousand times but maybe some of the younger guys never have !
They're fun to look at once in a while !







































And a Deals Wheels Chevy Too !

[hobbybobby]

The Zingers were taken from an original concept developed in the early 1970s by Denny Johnson, also a Member here, a master model builder during those years.

His idea of putting oversized engines and wheels in a smaller scale body was received very well at model contests and custom car shows.

MPC's engineering team turned the idea into the Zingers series which grew to a total of eight great kits.


But that’s not the end of the Zinger story.


For, having started out as kits, six of the eight were built to ‘full-size’ 1:1, or better said in 1:2 body scale.

In the days when wild show cars reigned, legendary promoter Bob Larivee Sr. drew crowds by commissioning full-scale versions of top-selling toys.

Perhaps the most well-known is the Red Baron, built in 1:1 scale in 1969 by Chuck Miller of Styline Customs based on the Tom Daniel-designed Monogram model.

When Larivee wanted fullsize Zingers!, he called on Styline to build the VW, the Van, and the Vettes.

The Dune Buggy was built by show-car builder and drag-racer Steve Tansy.

The life-size Zingers used real engines with half-scale bodies, and others on the show circuit (and in the model-car line) included a '57 Chevy and a Super Drag Dragster.

In fact Chuck and Steve worked backwards with their scale creations, by giving them real engines, mounted on reduced-size bodies.


The model kits haven’t been available for 30 years or so, but now they have all been reissued by Round 2 models, the Indiana-based collectibles company that includes MPC among its group of brands.

[sakke]

Chuck is really cool guy !!! His wife Candace is a cool girl !!! We had some email awhile ago and chanced some food recipes. His Zingers are still awesome !

[treswright]

Great collection of photos Bob! But just FYI, the yellow 57 Chevy in your last pic is not Zinger-related. It is a Deal's Wheels show car that was built by Jim Allen. He built 4 Deal's Wheels show cars that were used by Revell on the show circuit to promote the Deal's Wheels models. Dave Deal built driver heads to be displayed with them, here's a pic:



I was contacted years ago by a friend of Jim Allen's who told me that one of the other show cars (the Swine Hunt) was still in Jim's possession and was hanging from the rafters of his shop! The 57 in your picture was listed on eBay some time back and I exchanged some messages with the owner, I -almost- bought it but couldn't figure out what I would do with it. It runs and drives, but not very well from what I've heard, and the cockpit is very cramped. It sold, and then sold again to Mark Moriarty who I think still owns it? Mark also owned the Super Drag Zinger pictured just above the 57 Chevy. And he built a replica of the VW Zinger, I believe the picture 5th from the bottom is his replica.

Also the green 57 Chevy is not an original Zinger, it was clearly inspired by Zingers but it's a ride-on that is a fairly recent build. The rest of the pics other than those I mentioned above are all original Zinger show cars. Some of them are owned by a promoter and went on a show car tour just a few years ago, so they're still around.

[falconwagon]

The Top three photo's were taken at MIS in the early years

[Deleted]

Thanks for the great photo of the Caricature Heads from the cars. I'm Jim Allen's ex and can't even tell you how many hours I laid under the cars painting the undercarriages.
We traveled a east coast show circuit for Ray Fahrner. The other car we built was the ZZZzzzz 28.

[moriarity]

here are some scans of the deals wheels cars from Tres site

Attachments:

[moriarity]

here is a pic of the deal 57.

Attachments:

[moriarity]

does anyone know where the zzzz28 showcar is?