Stock# 19028
CB's Die Cast Review: July 27, 1998
Forty-fifth Corvette® Anniversary
Set 1 of 2
GM’s 2-seater
made its dramatic and successful debut at the 1953 Motorama due to its eye-catching
design and innovative construction. From those first 300 Polo white, hand-built
beauties of `53 ... then the shark-like body style of the `82 "Stinger" ...
The preceding passage is from the information included with the first half of the
Forty-fifth Corvette Anniversary set. This spiffy-looking item contains models
representing the 1953 and 1982 issues of the Cheverolet sports muscle car. The
overall craftsmanship of the cars is very good, and Mattel has the engineering nicely
simplified to the point where the design is similar to the original Spectraflame
cars. On both models, the die-cast body is riveted to a black die-cast chassis,
and the display-mounting screw holes are tapped through the rivets, leaving the chassis
unblemished.
The 1953 Roadster (stock# 19029) is painted in a gloss white enamel. The body
trim and headlights are tampoed in silver, and the nose emblem is printed in red,
black and silver. The grill, bumpers and body below the bumpers are a chromed
plastic piece, and those body sections are beautifully masked off in white enamel.
The grill is especially well detailed. The parking lights and taillights are
hand painted in orange and red respectively. The interior is molded in maroon
plastic, and highlighted with white and silver accents. The detailed open
steering wheel is a separate piece. The clear windshield is trimmed in silver.
The 1982 shark-bodied Sting Ray (stock# 19031) is finished in gloss red enamel.
Body accents are finished in black and silver, and the dual heralds are finished in
red, white and black. The front parking lights are perfectly printed in orange,
and the four taillights are tampoed in a red slightly darker than the body paint.
The interior is molded in black plastic, and sports full inside-door and dashboard
detail. The dashboard gauges and console radio dials are accented in silver.
As with the Roadster, the well-detailed steering wheel is a separate piece. The
rear window is trimmed in black.
Both of these models feature opening front-hinged hoods revealing well-detailed engine
compartments, including motors with some addition plastic detail parts. One
interesting item of note is that the cars ride on Pro Circuit wheels, but each car has
a unique set of wheel inserts specific to the prototype. The Sting Ray’s wheels
are chrome, while the Roadster sports chrome hubcapped wheels with white trim.
Both cars also have the model year printed in the location of the rear license plate.
The set is manufactured in China.
Overall, I like this set. The paint coverage is consistent and doesn’t obscure
the body detail, and the detail work is excellent. There were a couple of minor
blemishes, but nothing to detract from the set. The cars are packaged in what is
now the ubiquitous two-car hard plastic display box, sitting on a printed cardstock
insert. The second half of this set, featuring the 1967 and 1998 cars, should
be just as nice. It would be nice someday if we saw these cars in the basic line,
or in another limited set with Spectraflame paint and 1970-style redlines.
