Scale Car Garage - Scale Car treasure 2

[Kitmen]

Here is another treasure from the Scale Car Garage:

Any and all comments are more than welcomed!

Thanks
😀
John

[ourwayband]

Very interesting and well done.!!

[williamg]

Never saw or heard of one. Thank you for sharing.
Must admit, I thought for sure you would open one if it didn't mean breaking it. Curious as to what is inside the "mystery box."

[Kitmen]

Rusty, I'm so pleased that you found the video interesting!

I really appreciate your post, thanks so much for watching!

William, the Revell Control (yes that's how its described on the package) was certainly an 'oddity' even in it's time!

I have not had the courage to take one apart yet. Except for the ones in the original packaging, the Revell Controls that I have all work! Which says something for an item manufactured over fifty years ago!

Thanks again,
😀
John

[dinglebery]

...the Revell Controls that I have all work! Which says something for an item manufactured over fifty years ago!

Good 'ol Made in the USA!

Thanks for sharing John - it was really cool to see! I wonder how many other gems from the past you have laying around...

[Kitmen]

dinglebery, I'm so pleased that you enjoyed the video!

I agree, these items have the feel of something that was designed and built to last!

I think there may be few other items in the 'Garage' that may be of interest!

Thanks so much for watching and for your wonderful post, I really appreciate the support!

More to come!
😀
John

[TuscoTodd]

Great video and cool vintage controller!
I had never seen on of those, so to not only see it - but see you put it through its paces made for a fun / educational video to watch!
Thanks for making and sharing it with us!

[Kitmen]

TuscoTodd, I'm so pleased that you enjoyed seeing the Revell Control(er) in action!

Thanks so much for watching and for your very wonderful post!

More to come!
😀
John

[RichD]

That certainly is an interesting controller. I raced a lot in '65, '66, '67 and '68, I never saw one of those. The only trigger controller that I recall from that period was the Russkit (later Parma Economy). I have every issue of Model Car and Track on CD-ROMS, I looked over the issues from December '64 to March '66 and only found one mention of that Revell controller.



I think it might use a FET to control the cars.

[Kitmen]

RichD, thanks so much for finding that wonderful image of the Revell Controller!

Interesting that you hadn't seen one when you were racing, do you think that these controllers were more for the home set market?

Thanks again for watching and for posting!
😀
John

[mattb]

I took one of these to the local track and the guys used it on the dragstrip. Strombecker did the same kind of controller with the carbon discs in it and Aurora did a carbon thumb controller also.

[RichD]

The Aurora carbon disc controller was terrible, we tossed those and used Atlas controllers, which may have been the best controllers that were included in sets. I still have a couple of the 85 ohm HO controllers.
I can see why the Revell controller would work on a dragstrip, it has a short throw. Revell did a poor job publicizing that controller, it was never mentioned in any of their advertisements. I also checked the ads by outfits like American Hobby Center and never saw it there. Nobody is going to buy something that they don't know exists.
If I am feeling ambitious I will look through the rest of the MC&T issues for 1966.

[Kitmen]

Matt and Rich, I've never seen the Strombecker or the Aurora equivalents, do you have any images of them?

Thanks
😀
John

[RichD]

I dug through the rest of the MC&T issues for 1966 and found more references to this obscure Revell controller. The April and May issues both had large ads that included this:



Revell only did one other ad in 1966 and that did not include the controller.
Western Hobbies included the Revell controller in all of its ads. There was an article in the August issue called Revell Revisited that included a picture of the controller. In December Discount Hobbies listed the controller for $6.36. There was never any test report on the controller during the '65-'66 period.

Here is the best picture that I could find quickly of the Aurora carbon disc controllers.



Really it was a dumb idea, you had to squeeze the small diameter button quite hard, so you were likely to end up with a dent in your thumb. There was no travel with the button so the controller was not a lot better than an on-off switch. I could not find a picture of the Strombecker carbon controller, but I did stumble across another odd controller that was from Strombecker.



Notice that there are multiple wipers that are all one piece. As you press the plunger further progressively shorter resistive elements are switched in, so the resistance keeps going down.

[REL13]

Here are a few of my controller I used back in the day.