Sun Star 1:24 1925 Ford Model T Runabout- Top Up

By 1927, Henry Ford’s automobile company had produced the last of 15,007,033 Model Ts—an unprecedented, and unduplicated, 19-year run of a single model. Introduced at $980 per car, the price dropped as low as $280 at one point. For approximately $300, you got a brand spanking new, shiny, black Flivver to call your own—cheaper than some other used car brands. If I remember correctly, it’s been estimated that, by 1918, three-fifths of cars in the world were Fords. The array of colors was dizzying—NOT—you got them in a vibrant, stunning palette of…black. The monochromatic color scheme aside, Henry put America, and many countries overseas, on wheels so inexpensive, nearly everyone could afford them. They were a cinch to operate, dependable, and simple to repair. In fact, you could very nearly do all the repairs while on the road, for Ford provided a tool kit to go with its car. The vehicle was truly a car of its time—a time when most roads were unpaved, deeply rutted, and often a quagmire of mud in the Spring. An old piece of film I’ve seen on TV shows a Tin Lizzie negotiating a mud-slick, rutted road that would challenge a Jeep—and with only two driving wheels. It’s thin tires, and high ground clearance, made this feat possible. Try this same obstacle course in one of today’s much-heralded SUVs and see how far you would get before you would have to get out and muddy your Guccis. That so many Model Ts exist today, over seventy years later, is a tribute to how durably they were built—and how many were made.

Sun Star has put out a 1:24 scale edition of the 1925 Ford Model T runabout that, a first glance, is a ringer for the same image put out by DM. The resemblance begins to fade, however, in the price range, since the Sun Star image retails at around $25, as opposed to DM’s $115 (okay, I’ll do the math—a $90 dollar difference). “But, the quality of the Sun Star unit has to be the pits, right?” I hear you say. My answer—not necessarily. If you plop the Sun Star image down in front of you and just look at it, you could just as easily be looking at the DM image. The gloss black paint gleams, the detailing on the wheels is sharp, and the tire tread pattern is authentic. The center-hinged, double-opening hood is operable, and the little hatch in back opens to reveal the small cargo area. The battery cover even lifts off to reveal the battery top. The front crank turns and the steering wheel turns the front wheels. Even the toolbox lid on the right running board lifts to reveal a paint-detailed set of those tools I mentioned earlier—identical to the DM image’s.

If you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, here’s where the two versions part company. The DM unit has a removable, rubberized top-up top, as well as a rubberized top-down boot. The Sun Star unit’s top is hard, textured plastic and is fixed, with no top-down option. The DM image’s seat is done on soft plastic. The Sun Star seat is hard, molded plastic. By direct comparison (and I’m using my DM 1925 Model T Pickup, which is essentially the same as the runabout, except for the bed) the overall detailing on the DM image is a bit finer and more precise. Upon closer examination, things look a bit more “molded-in” on the Sun Star image. The engine is a simple, molded, nearly featureless part. The dashboard gauges and switches are molded in as well, with little detailing to highlight things (the 1:1 car’s dash wasn’t exactly a symphony of fine detail, by the way). The undercarriage detailing isn’t as crisp either, but manages to hit all the high spots, except for two missing bracing rods. In short, everything’s about a half step off from the DM standard.

But, Sun Star put in the detailing where it counts and little surprises like the spot-on radiator cap, wheels and hubs, steering wheel, foot pedals, hand brake lever, rear-view mirrors, and windshield wiper hardware compensate nicely. There are also little touches of paint here and there, where you least expect them, to highlight the detailing. This is not some $2.98, Kay-bee Toys, lump of plastic for the kid to grind into the carpet. In spite of the large difference in price, I feel Sun Star offers a whole lot for the minuscule price tag, much like Henry Ford did with the original T. If you have the DM pickup version of the T, and are wondering if you should add their runabout version, here’s a suggestion. You might just want to pick up the Sun Star image (I did) and display it side by side with the DM pickup in your cabinet. My guess is that, once you show your friends the DM piece, they’ll assume the Sun Star image is from DM too—they look so compatible sitting next to each other. A friend of mine did just that with me and I admit he had me going for a minute.

Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile. He didn’t, as some erroneously think, invent the assembly line. But, he put the two ideas together to design a car for the common man—and put America in the seat of a horseless carriage instead of a horse-drawn buggy. For better of worse, he’ll be enshrined in our collective memories for that alone.

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