Rare Items Collected. I hope I never have to estimate or account for the number of hours I’ve spent scouring Ebay and other sources, or writing letters or placing calls, to find Predicta-related magazines and artifacts, or talking to anyone with a “history” with the car. In that time-consuming process that has spanned decades, I’ve picked up a genuinely surprising number of rare items in addition to an incredible array of photos that probably represents the single largest collection of images on this car to be found anywhere. Here’s a small sampling of these rare items:
An advertisement that the Kelly Springfield Tire Company prepared as part of a sales promotion. Interested buyers could acquire an obviously reboxed Predicta by paying the tire dealer $1 or sending $1.25 to Kelly Springfield corporate headquarters for the kit. instructions:
The Kelly Springfield Tire Company did a sale promotion in which they sold, for a mere dollar, a reboxed kit of the Predicta along with their own proprietary, if crude, decals. Monogram’s Roger Harney told me he knew nothing about this promotion nor was he aware of any bulk purchase of Predicta kits by the tire company (which purchase was probably made from a regional hobby distributor and sold to the public at a loss when you take into account the cost of reboxing, shipping charges and the labor overhead to administer the promotional campaign). Kelly Tire didn’t identify the car or the builder. Starbird has also said he didn’t know about this.Here are the historically significant, but inept, decals that accompanied the Kelly Springfield Tire Company Predicta kit. Presumably, mislead builders were to place these on the white walls tires found in the Monogram kit!This promotional/kit description, at the bottom right hand corner, is fascinating. The kit could be purchased at the Kelly Springfield dealer at a cost much less than the Monogram kit (meaning that the tire company either bought in bulk, or just “ate” the loss). Also, no credit is given to Starbird, and the car isn’t even identified by name!The final outrage is this glib notation, located at the upper left hand corner of the poster, which says that the car was “ . . . envisioned by a leading automotive illustrator . . .” What chutzpah on the part of the tire company! Shame on them.
This Monogram factory-built model, that came with the Monogram shipping cartoon, was purchased from the son of a hobby shop owner who closed his store after 50 years of operation. With Dean Milano’s generous help, I’ve acquired a high-resolution scan of the original display stand that we’ll be cloning to support the “enhanced” phantom kit we’ll be creating.
The Monogram factory sent out factory-built models for placement atop the factory-produced four-color display stand in hobby stores around the United States. These models were built straight from the box, and weren’t painted except for the body of the Philco television.
The original factory box will be modified to reflect the details of the phantom 1964 highly-detailed kit that we’ll be creating.
Starbird Book and Sites!
The Predicta Project strongly encourages you to check out these Starbird sites. The first link will permit you to buy the handsome book on Starbird’s career, and you can also purchase items from the Starbird gift shop. You should also check out the Hall of Fame link that will let you check out the great Starbird Museum.
Historic Predicta Project Note:
An early outline of The Predicta Project was announced in the 2004 issue of the official publication of the International Model Car Builders’ Museum, The Builder. You may want to read about it.
