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Topic starter
06/05/2026 9:25 am
Every time I see the "Bandit's" '77 Pontiac Trans Am, it takes me back to communicating via CB and how weird and frustrating it could be. I used to work for a landscaper while going to undergrad and having to learn all that cool lingo to communicate with the boss while on the road. Depending on atmospheric conditions, one minute I'd be talking to home base and the next minute I'd be talking to a pig farmer in Arkansas whose handle was "Red Dog". Military communications weren't much better around 1970. If I needed to call home from Thailand, I'd go to the JUSMAG (Joint US Military Advisory Group) at 1:00 AM to the MARS Station (Military Auxiliary Radio System) where with some occasional degree of success try to bounce short wave signals to a cooperating ham operator in the States who would then place a long distant phone call to good old mom in New Jersey and I had to keep yelling at her to say "Over" when she finished talking. If I was lucky, the ham operator I would get would be Senator Barry Goldwater (remember him?) and he would pay for the long distance call. There weren't a whole lot of communication satellites back then and their bandwidths were taken up by the military with the Pentagon and White House. Occasionally we'd get a treat and got a couple of Muhammed Ali fights and of course the Moon Landing (the Thais went absolutely nuts over that!). Recently, I've been seeing commercials trying to bring back walkie-talkies to which I can't figure out "Why?".
Anyway, here's FM's venerable Burt Reynolds '77 Trans Am.
06/05/2026 9:36 am
Not my cup of tea, but nice pics.
06/05/2026 12:07 pm
Great story and pics as usual Rich. This one got too pricey for me so I picked up the JADA version. Definitely not the same quality, but a good representation of the image.😊
06/05/2026 1:12 pm
I've got the "standard issue" of this car. It didn't come with all of the Bandit packaging, and the license plates just say 1977. Other than that, I don't see any difference between the two. The standard issue has a CB radio also, and like the Bandit edition, doesn't have a microphone!
This post was modified 1 month ago by Pete Rovero
06/05/2026 1:32 pm
I had a '78 Firebird Formula in metallic dark brown; nice looking car but crappy build quality. We didn't keep it long. I liked the Trams-Am well enough but thought the Fire chicken hood and C pillar decals ought to have been much smaller.
Geno and Rich Sufficool reacted
Topic starter
06/05/2026 3:46 pm
@pete-rovero The Bandit license plates I added. If you look at the pics there are some before and after.
Geno and John Napoli reacted
06/05/2026 3:59 pm
Rich, love the story. I have this one and the red one from FM. I was happy to get them 2nd hand at some really great prices back in the day.
06/05/2026 5:04 pm
I have a blue and a white JADA TA, and the Greenlight Bandit TA.
06/05/2026 8:43 pm
love it!Depending on atmospheric conditions, one minute I'd be talking to home base and the next minute I'd be talking to a pig farmer in Arkansas whose handle was "Red Dog".
Bought the black/gold trim version back in the day too. Great model. Thanks Rich
Rich Sufficool and Geno reacted
07/05/2026 1:53 am
Oh yeah, I see the different license plates. I thought it was the special Smokey and the Bandit edition. Franklin Mint issued the black and gold T/A in 2003 and the Bandit version in 2010. There is no difference between the two cars except the packaging, and the price was $195 for the Bandit version vs $105 for the standard edition.
07/05/2026 9:22 am
Thanks Rich. This is an aspect of CB radios that I had not realized. Talking to Barry Goldwater as part of this communication is certainly a unique experience.
This post was modified 1 month ago by David Green
Tony Perrone reacted