Oddities by Esdo

Oddities by Esdo

A few days ago, while sorting out and dusting a couple of badly neglected model shelves, I rediscovered three models made by Esdo some years ago.

“Oddities” may be unfair. Let’s say “unusual subjects”. Dominique Esparcieux was (and possibly still is) a Frenchman who produced resin kits - I think some if not all of them were also available fully built. Most were French sports and racing cars and one-off or limited-production vehicles, but he also did some American cars including a couple of 1980 GM “X-body” cars, the Buick Skylark and the Oldsmobile Omega, and also a Pontiac Fiero.

I somehow doubt that French collectors were hammering on his door asking for models of GM “X” cars, and I haven't heard anyone on the Forum lamenting the lack of 1:43 versions of these exciting vehicles, so he must have done them out of personal interest.

Mine came as kits, and it has to be said I seem to have painted them up and assembled them in a pretty rough and ready way. They could have been detailed a bit better. And I seem to have lost the wipers for one of them (they are probably still somewhere in the pile of the living room carpet). But never mind. They are as they are.

The Olds and Buick are quite crisp little models and seem to capture the shape pretty well. Although the two are obviously based on the same core body they do show the different bonnet/hood and rear lamp detailing, and the wheel openings are round on the Buick and squared off on the Olds.

They are both perched too high on their wheels, due to the way the axles are located under the base instead of being set in grooves on the top of the floor.

Re-working the base to make the wheels sit better didn’t seem worth the trouble at the time, although it could be done easily enough. The built version of the Olds shown on the HobbyDB website looks better in that respect although the wheels and tyres look way too big. They make the car look like a 12 foot long European sedan.

The Pontiac is quite pretty although overall it somehow looks just a little “soft” and lacks some crisp detail, although once again a better paint job and some more black detailing on my part might have sharpened it up. These were all quite simple kits. One-piece body, vacu-form glazing, a base with the seats and dash incorporated, separate bright (well, bright-ish) grille inserts, wheels and axles and, in some cases, separate wing mirrors and wipers.

Other items shown on the HobbyDB website are a 4DR version of the Olds (as exciting a beast as you could ever wish for)

and a Chevrolet Camaro Z28, which was available in plain white or in full racing livery.

Incidentally, I seemed to remember someone else had done a Fiero in 1:43 but couldn’t remember who, so I looked online and discovered that the latest release in the DeAgostini American Series is . . . a Fiero (Issue No 74). And it looks pretty nice, but so far only seems to be available from the usual eBayers trying their luck with the prices, so I’ll wait until my supplier in Spain gets them in stock.

As for the GM X-bodies, I don't imagine Sergio (or anyone else) has them on their to-do list, but you never know.