A Model Dose... Friday 3/01/24

A properly Classic Caddy! Wonderfully photo'ed John!

When this color first came out, I wasn't too impressed with the color but later bought the model on the secondary market at a very good price. Now I'm glad I bought it and have grown to like it.

Posted by: @bob-jackman

When this color first came out, I wasn't too impressed with the color but later bought the model on the secondary market at a very good price. Now I'm glad I bought it and have grown to like it.

I did the same. Issued in Nov 1998, they called this Burgundy. It was a LE of 10,000 and was the follow-up to the two tone blue version issued in August of 1996. I also got that one in the secondary market.

I have and love the original 2-tone blue issue, can't say I readily recall this version. Great pics!  

Posted by: @sizedoesmatter

I have and love the original 2-tone blue issue, can't say I readily recall this version. Great pics!  

The blue & gray version developed early "Paint Rash" but not nearly as badly as the Burgundy LE. 

It was the talk of the board in the late nineties. I just checked mine. The blue & gray has the rash on both rear quarter panels. The burgundy model has it all over. 

I like this model.  I wanted this model.  When I worked briefly (just for fun) at the Franklin Mint retail store in the Mall of America (in Bloomington, MN) this model was in stock, but sadly, most bought were returned with cosmetic or quality issues.  We'd even open the boxes before they were sold to customers, and we'd find loose parts on the cars.  Doors that wouldn't close properly and stay closed.  And on some, the inside headliners were pealing.  Then there were the Blue versions of this models that were even worse. 

I had two different ones sent to me by FM and both were returned, one of them the motor actually fell out of the car when I took it out of the box and the other one had a door that wouldn't close properly and a headlight laying in the box.  End result, I passed on both this burgundy version and the blue one.  Then about a decade ago, I found at an antique store near my house the Green painted version, it was cheap so I bought it.  But it too, as a flaw as the left front fender sits higher over the front wheels than the right fender does.  I display it with the right side showing.  Glad I have it, but overall I'd say FM had issues with this model from the get-go.  

@perrone1 I always got a chuckle out of that "Limited Edition of 10,000". I often wondered what the real sales numbers were.

Posted by: @rich-sufficool

@perrone1 I always got a chuckle out of that "Limited Edition of 10,000". I often wondered what the real sales numbers were.

Me too - 10,000 is a BIG issue, not LIMITED issue. 

@georgeschire 

I just checked my '49 two-tone blue caddy, and guess I was one of the lucky one's. No pieces have fallen off or are missing and the triumph blue paint finish on the body still has it's metal flake glimmer without any rash. I did notice however that the horizon blue roof had a very minor rash after close inspection. I purchased mine at the Mall of America - Franklin Mint Store in the late 1990's. 

Posted by: @perrone1

Posted by: @sizedoesmatter

I have and love the original 2-tone blue issue, can't say I readily recall this version. Great pics!  

The blue & gray version developed early "Paint Rash" but not nearly as badly as the Burgundy LE. 

It was the talk of the board in the late nineties. I just checked mine. The blue & gray has the rash on both rear quarter panels. The burgundy model has it all over. 

Tony, I just looked at my blue & gray version using a flashlight and without removing it from the display case and I don't see any signs of paint rash.

This is why it's always been mind boggling to me that FM (and the other mints) weren't able to continue on with alternative ways to continue in the 1:24 business after the debacle with China. 

I'm still struggling with that rationale still today.  And being honest, it will NEVER make sense to me that a quality 1:24 scale model can't be produced here in the good old U S of A.  When a product has a hungry and eager to purchase consumer base, that should be the incentive enough to provide the product for them.  

We don't have to have (or least I don't need to have) a 1:24 model with every imaginable moving part and a set of keys to drive it too.  Not having all the bells and whistles that the mints continued to tease us with, a "static" model that will display nicely on our shelves would be fine with me.  And since all of the models from the mints with those bells and whistles also "sit on our shelves", nothing would be different...with the exception that we'd be adding new models to our collections.  

Posted by: @sizedoesmatter

Posted by: @perrone1

Posted by: @sizedoesmatter

I have and love the original 2-tone blue issue, can't say I readily recall this version. Great pics!  

The blue & gray version developed early "Paint Rash" but not nearly as badly as the Burgundy LE. 

It was the talk of the board in the late nineties. I just checked mine. The blue & gray has the rash on both rear quarter panels. The burgundy model has it all over. 

Tony, I just looked at my blue & gray version using a flashlight and without removing it from the display case and I don't see any signs of paint rash.

GREAT John!!  On both cars of mine, the worse paint rash occurs at the front of each rear fender.