This is one of my all time favourite pieces and it was not a mass production model but one of a few individually and lovingly crafted by Brian Salter (who has retired now and I think made the last one for a 2000AD forum member, after I passed his phone number on).
There are three versions somewhere out there. Firstly the yellow one, which was the primary one from the film, used by Fergie (you know, the massive bloke who was King of the Big Smelly) when he lands at his new abode. You also have a silver one and a red one available. I had the yellow one bought for me as a present, on one of my present receiving occasions by Carolyn and it cost £80. I could never really justify buying the other two at the time, mainly because all that is different is the colour and the decals, as you can see from some pictures I have of them.
There are three versions somewhere out there. Firstly the yellow one, which was the primary one from the film, used by Fergie (you know, the massive bloke who was King of the Big Smelly) when he lands at his new abode. You also have a silver one and a red one available. I had the yellow one bought for me as a present, on one of my present receiving occasions by Carolyn and it cost £80. I could never really justify buying the other two at the time, mainly because all that is different is the colour and the decals, as you can see from some pictures I have of them.
They are quite sturdy as well, with quite a bit of weight not like some equivalent Dinky sized stuff. This actually feels like a solid piece and could do some serious damage to someone if you threw it at them (I must add that I am not condoning such behaviour).
Since starting this blog I have managed to buy another one off of ebay, suffice to say all comers fell before the might that is my style and yet I bought it for a lot less than Carolyn bought the other one years earlier. It is the only time I have seen one come up on ebay and thought it too good an opportunity to miss!
The actual taxi is delivered in an extremely robust box with the makers name, address & phone number on the front (I've obscured that in the following pic). I've also placed both of the cabs in the picture so you can rest easy, safe in the knowledge that they are in a safe home.
Oh man, they're cool! Despite what people think of the movie, some of the designs were great, particularly these flying taxi cabs.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fine collectible you have there John!
Hey CF, yes I had the last one from him that was made up. His wife was VERY ill when I saw him a few years ago and I suspect he may have finally retired for good now.
ReplyDeleteI agree Pete, the design work that went into many film pieces was spot on. I have the Top Gear piece they did on this, on tape in the cellar. I should get it on the web really, it's just fitting the time in.
ReplyDeleteThe designer said he looked at downhill ski helmets for the front of the cab!
They are bloody arsom CF.
ReplyDeleteHiya John, loving the blog. The quality of the photography and your commentary is spot on. With regards to the taxis, they used to have at least one of the driveable yellow ones over at the Dunsfold Land Rover Heritage site. I remember spotting it when I did a delivery there many moons ago (before camera phones unfortunately). Pretty tatty but it was interesting to see how they'd done it. Basically a fibre-glass moulding screwed to some bits of 2x4 on an old Landy chassis. Keep up the good work fella.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kerrin, I do have a couple of pictures of me stood next to one of the yellow cabs that was on display in Tower Records in London, when the film came out. They had a small street scene set up and I look back and wish I had taken more photos!
ReplyDeleteIt's always the same, so excited looking at the stuff that you forget to use the roll of film up (it was 95).
Hi just stumbled on this site with the Judge dredd taxi.
ReplyDeleteAll these models were made for Brian by Hart models and were limited to about 300 pieces and thats a maximum I cannt remember exactly how many but in the collecting world that really is a limited production, in fact I've only come across a handfull on the internet in the last 5 years!
In fact I have just finished building the set of castings we had left over in a box that I took care of when the company went bust!!
I own one of the silver coloured ones I bought from a fair for £75..but I have no idea how much it is worth now john
ReplyDeleteI reckon that if you join one of the facebook groups, like '2000AD & Judge Dredd Tat and Chat' and post it up, you could get around £150 for it.
DeleteThe rules on that group are that you put a price up, as there is no bidding allowed.