‘56 Pontiac four door 870 sedan

They are great-looking cars and Brooklin did a fine job with this white metal model. My grandparents had a two-tone blue 1955 4-door Pontiac and for over 10 years it was a reliable car. As a kid, I loved the chrome jet hood ornament.

They are all outstanding models. I have both the colors of the sedans offered plus a special two-tone version redone by John White. They are among my favorite Brooklin models. 

And yes, they do look great in a black & white tone. 

Posted by: @jcarnutz

They are all outstanding models. I have both the colors of the sedans offered plus a special two-tone version redone by John White. They are among my favorite Brooklin models. 

And yes, they do look great in a black & white tone. 

I'm bidding on a blue one currently on eBay. I'll know tomorrow if I win the auction!

I notice the label on the box of the blue one calls it a Chieftain 860 while the label on the red one says Chieftain 870. John, can you see any trim differences between the two colors?

As it turns out I ended up buying a red one rather than the blue one. Looking forward to its arrival!

The red one is labeled as a Chieftain 870 by Brooklin while the blue one is labeled as a Chieftain 860. Anyone know why? Is there any difference other than the paint color?

The only differences I could find are the wheels. All three of my models are stamped Chieftain 860 on the baseplate. My reference book indicates minor differences from the 860 and the Deluxe 870. What I found indicates that the 860 had small wheel caps no upper beltline molding and the no visors on the taillights. The 870 has beltline molding, full wheel covers and a visor over the taillights. I searched for photos and found examples of these differences, but the cars were labeled both ways. So, inconclusive there.

Now for the models, they appear to be 860/870 hybrids. The biggest distinction I found is that the Brooklin models have no visor on the taillights, 860? The beltline trim is harder to tell, but it does look like an extra strip or molding does seem visible, 870? On the John White version however, he did not detail the beltline molding, so 860? 

The wheels are different and feature the full wheel covers, but that could be easily changed after a cars release. So?

Now for the biggest difference in the models, the blue model has a full-chrome wheel cover, and no visible wheel is seen. The JW version is the same. Now the red model has a full chrome wheel cover but has a visible red wheel. Not sure why the difference, but there it is.

The gray station wagon isn't stamped 860 or 870, no designation either way, again?

My conclusion here is that these are great models and since the biggest difference is the visor on the taillights, these are 860s because they don't have one. The simplest thing would be just not to label either way and you can't go wrong. 

I didn't look for my boxes, but it's just a label. The model tells the story better than the box and it could be labeled wrong as well. I'm still going with the 860 designations on all of them.

@jcarnutz I was just curious why Brooklin would label them differently.

@moe-parr 

Good question. I didn't think about it that long. I have found some mistakes on Brooklin labels before (actually many other manufacturers mis-label too) Maybe the change in wheels was supposed to indicate something. ??