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In my opinion, Studebaker’s styling in the 1950’s was underrated. The cars were long, low, and sleek—with styling far in advance of their contemporaries. The 1953 Starliner was no exception, with a powerful V-8 under the sloping hood to match its slippery profile.
Maisto’s 1:18 Special Edition of the Starliner is, in my humble opinion, a mixed bag of features—some good, some so-so. In the plus column, the image has a full suspension at all the corners. The gauges on the dash are in 3-D and the steering wheel is nicely done to scale. The doors open, car-style, utilizing special clips. The wheels, with their full-moon hubcaps, look great—though I’m not sure about those narrow whitewalls being period correct. The image is mounted on a good-looking base as well. On the so-so side, although the engine bay has a reasonable amount of detailing, it’s mostly molded-in and looks simplistic. The same goes for the undercarriage. Also, the exhaust pipes and muffler are all chrome (just so there’s a chrome tip?), which looks silly. The interior is a disappointment, in that everything is simplistically cheap looking. A big minus is the appearance of big “lugs” in the places the window “glass” is mounted. This is a big detraction from the overall look of the image. This is a shame, since the overall appearance of the image is pretty sharp. But it just doesn’t stand up under closer scrutiny. All of the above may be relative, however, if this image is intended to sell for a low price point. Nevertheless, the era we’re living in—with companies like GMP, Highway 61, Ertl, et al, producing high quality, 1:18 scale images with features galore, at various price points—is fast moving from the Kay-bee toy store 1:18ths. Frankly, I’ve seen nicer detail on a $35.00 1:24 scale image. Maisto might want to reconsider its approach.
Studebaker has always been viewed as the “poor cousin” of automakers, which is a shame. They produced good-looking, forward-thinking vehicles at reasonable cost. I feel the automotive scene’s all the poorer by their absence.
(08/23/2004)
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