First Time’s A Charm
Some cool firsts from Playing Mantis also came out of the Rebel Rod series.
• The Cheetah and 57 Vette Gasser cast were first used in series 1.
• The water-soluble decal sheet (see pic below) that came with the car (arguably the best pack-in to date) featured 26 famous logos on it.
• The 2 types of tires, and the first time the Hoosier brand was been used.
• 8* different engine types were randomly used on the cars with the exposed engines.
• The 69 Dodge Super Bee or Super Beetnik cast was first available as a main line release in series 1.
* = The 1st release only had 7 of the 8 as they used one for the Classic Gold Collection 2 release 12 grape 73 Camaro Z28 that was produced at the same time. The 2nd release (and after) has all 8 engines available in the cars that they fit into.
Above is the promotional picture used to promote the engine castings for the Rebel Rods line. (Source – Anonymous)
There were eight core engine castings used in the original series sets. The eight are identified as follows:
1. Injected Blower
2. Oval air cleaner
3. Honeycomb w/Ridges
4. 3-hole or butterflies
5. Dual Quad or Dominator
6. High rise dual quad w/cleaners
7. Stacks or Injectors
8. Bug Catcher, open hole
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