Testors Vantastic

Kit No. 5309
Scale: 1/24

By Don Atherton

From the kit box: "A good hot rod designer must have a vivid imagination and his ability to visualize a finished machine will encompass automobiles of most any kind and shape. What's a Vantastic? How about a Ford sedan delivery, circa 1935, mounted on stylized 1937 Ford fenders. Its beautiful flowing grille pays homage to the venerable '40 Ford, while its chopped, shortened and messaged body represents an interpretation of a 'phantom' sedan delivery street rod. Vantastic is a thoroughly modern runner with a classic theme. Power is supplied by a Corvette LT1 350 cu. in. V8 with automatic tranny. Thanks also to Chevrolet for the suspension. You'll find 16" and 17" custom alloy wheels with BF Goodrich rubber keeping Vantastic earthbound. This is delivery at it's finest."

This kit is a modified tooling of the Smoothster kit. In fact, most of the Smoothster kit is still in the box of this kit. The sedel body is new and fits to the fender unit quite well. There is a seam between the body and the fender unit in the grille area that will need to be filled. Both of theses units are clean with no flash and very little mold parting seams.

The chrome tree still has the Smoothster grille and hood trim parts on it. The plating is good. There is a nice set of chromed mag wheels as well as the exhaust system, steering wheel, and hood latches.

The clear parts are pretty simple. You have the windshield and some very nice teardrop headlight lenses. The clear parts are in their own plastic bag. Something I like to see. The tires are what they are supposed to be in name. They are molded in a very shiny black vinyl that just doesn't look like rubber. You may want to leave them this way to replicate that tire bright foam treatment I see used at car shows to make the tires nice and shiny. The tires are also molded on a very heavy spider like sprue that will be tricky to remove and clean up.

The decals are simply of the highest quality I have seen. They are Invsa Clear Scale Master decals printed by Microscale. You literally cannot see the edge of any of the decals. There are some decals on this sheet as well. You get one Arizona, California, and Illinois plate. Vantastic logo's. And a two part decal with a white base that fits in the side body panel where a window would be. Then you apply the "Ernie's Modeling" decals to this. You may want to hang on to the Testors and Microscale logo decals for a phantom Nascar project.

The engine is very nice. The block is one piece with cylinder and lifter detail. The heads have separate inserts for the valve train detail. The underside of the heads even has the valves themselves molded in. I'm impressed. The oil pan is a separate one piece unit but the tranny is molded in halves. There is a separate tranny fluid pan as well. The valve covers are nice as is the intake manifold. There is a separate timing cover and water pump and starter.

Also on this tree is a set of separate pedals and some nice disc brakes for all four corners. The frame is a very complicated one piece affair. Box steel side rails with round tubing struts. A very nice piece. The dash and windshield frame are also on this tree as are the springs and a nice steering column with turn signal and tilt levers mold on.These two trees are a little confusing. One must have parts from the Smoothster kit and the other must have Vantastic parts.

The hood and new grille is obvious. The firewall and floor boards work in both kits There is another dash that must be for the Vantastic as the one mentioned above now appears to be from the Smoothster. There is also a padded bulkhead panel to go just behind the seats in the Vantastic to close of the rest of the delivery interior.You will notice that the Smoothster rag top is still present on this tree. There is a nice interior floor pan with nice carpet detail and center console. the side door panels are separate pieces and have a nice engraved pattern for a multi colored interior scheme. The separate seats have the same pattern.

The rest of this tree has a nice radiator with electric cooling fan, some very complex and well done drive train and suspension components, and the drive pulleys and the fuel injection cover. This kit is a very nice one. It has endless possibilities and lot's af spare parts for you parts box.

Testors has done a nice job with this and it definitely says contemporary street rod. The only limit to this kit is ones imagination.