Pocher car kits

My wife bought one as xmas present back in the late nineties.  It was the Merecedes 540k.  I started to build the engine.  It was massive and actually poorly detailed.  Some parts didn't fit very well and most of it was nuts and bolts.   The body was mostly plastic with the color molded in, so it didn't need painting, although engine and drive train screamed for accent painting.

For some reason I put it away, and survived two moves, one from Long Island to Sarasota.

I cracked it open again when Covid struck and spent the next six months painstakingly and frustratingly putting it together.  I had to jury-rig several pieces, and had to seldom use any glue at all.  When I was done, I had a two foot tan and brown humongous display item for my library.

I think if a guardian angel were to givve me another one, I'd jump on it, since the parts nicely fitted my rather large fingers.

Greg W.

I am working on an Alfa 8c2300 that I got 40 years ago at K-Mart. The red one with cycle fenders. I built two of the full fendered Alfas years ago, still have one in my display case. They're not shake the box kits, but with patience, build up into beautiful replicas .I have a Pocher Mercedes that was a simplified kit, but still looks great. I also have the Ferrari Testarossa that has a horrible factory paint finish but otherwise is acceptable. Just be patient and careful. 

 

By the looks of it, Kmart must have bought a pretty large amount of those kits.  It is interesting to me how many of us bought them.  Kmart probably made out well with their buy.

I am working on an Alfa 8c2300 that I got 40 years ago at K-Mart. The red one with cycle fenders. I built two of the full fendered Alfas years ago, still have one in my display case. They're not shake the box kits, but with patience, build up into beautiful replicas .I have a Pocher Mercedes that was a simplified kit, but still looks great. I also have the Ferrari Testarossa that has a horrible factory paint finish but otherwise is acceptable. Just be patient and careful. 

During slow times at work, I would amuse myself by putting the spokes in the wheels, a very tedious job.  After I got the hang of it, they went together nicely and I was able to build all the wheels correctly.  They looked great!  Some 25 years later, I built the last of my 3 models, and found that the spokes were no longer easy for me to do!

wpwar11

Greg-Sadly you are right. The two young ladies don't come with it. Don't we all wish it was that easy. Actually, if the one on the right was 30 years older, gained 20 pounds, had some grey hair, and some wrinkles she would look exactly like my wife.

And you probably could handle one of the newer kits just fine. I certainly didn't mean to insinuate otherwise. Even though I pretty much did that unintentionally.

Hi;

      I do have to pipe in here. As I mentioned in another post I had been gifted a Pocher kit sometime back in the Seventies! Although I have seen them with plastic parts, mine didn't have any of those. The Ubiquitus " MONOCLE" windshied this particular Rolls was equipped with was real thin, almost Microscope slide glass thickness. With a three part polished brass Frame!

      Yes, it was like building the real thing. Took me something ;ike fourteen months to finish it. Thank God it had the Wooden Spoke wheels and not the wires. Now I bought one later,A Ferrari and there were 104 spokes per wheel. Unless you have built a Kit like this you don't really know hpow complicated they are.

     There used to be in Heavy cardstock, a Mercedes, in which you built the wheels out of cardboard rims with Heavy card tires then you had to string all the wires yourself. They did give you a jig to do it though! It was put out by Wrebbit-The 3-D puzzlemakers. I got it at a Flea Market.

From this description I'm inclined to think the modern cars are easier.  I mentioned this last night in this post.  I could be wrong in a big way and throw $1000 down the drain.  
Easier being a relative term.  Even if it's not as complex as the kits you guys mentioned it could still be really hard.  I also watched videos of this Lambo build and it didn't look that hard.  But then again ALL modeling videos look easy.  Getting started in this hobby I was convinced I was another Plasmo.  Obviously that was a humbling lesson

I do have a place to put it.  Still its tough to pull the trigger.

Greg-Sadly you are right.  The two young ladies don't come with it.  Don't we all wish it was that easy.  Actually, if the one on the right was 30 years older, gained 20 pounds, had some grey hair, and some wrinkles she would look exactly like my wife.

Wow, based on the the comments maybe I'll stop beating myself up for never finishing mine.

nearsightedjohn

I was there in the '70's when K Mart had their give away sale. I worked at Mattel Toys in West LA (design engineer - first job out of college) and one of the model makers who I worked there told me to head over to K Mart after work before they were all sold out. I picked up three, the Alfa Monza, Alfa Spyder and the Fiat race car, $15 for each ($40 was my weekly grocery bill back then).  I tried building one of the wire wheel assemblies (with mating spoke ferrules if I recall). I gave up in frustration, ended up re-gifting the Fiat to my brother and selling the two Alfa's to a co-worker.

Forty years and more modeling skills and free time later, I'd love to take another crack on one of these classic kits. Look's like one can pick up one of these Alfa's on eBay for $400-$600 which is not unreasonable for a large scale multimedia kit. The engineering/ molding/ fit are probably pretty crude by today's standards but based on finished builds I see on the web, they look pretty good (at least from 3 feet away!). Problem as always with big kits is where the heck do I put it!

Go for it and consider it a learning experience. Worse case you can put it back in the box and re-gift it or sell it! 

 

I found them on close-out at a K-Mart in Nashville while on a vacation trip back in the '70s and bought one of the Alfas. Man! What a disappointment. None of the tiny screws would fit anywhere they were supposed to go; the holes were threaded wrong. Accordingly, I couldn't figure out how it could be assembled and gave up on it in disgust and sold it.

I built the Alfa back in the mid 70s.  It was okay, but certainly not worth list price- I think Tamiya kits were/are superior.  I happened to get it from my local Kmart who got them from a liquidator. Paid sixteen bucks- fine for that price, Tamiya 1:12 CARS were going for about thirty bucks at the time. Mostly plastic (body/frame, etc.) only  metal parts were wheel spokes, fasteners and a few small parts.

I was there in the '70's when K Mart had their give away sale. I worked at Mattel Toys in West LA (design engineer - first job out of college) and one of the model makers who I worked there told me to head over to K Mart after work before they were all sold out. I picked up three, the Alfa Monza, Alfa Spyder and the Fiat race car, $15 for each ($40 was my weekly grocery bill back then).  I tried building one of the wire wheel assemblies (with mating spoke ferrules if I recall). I gave up in frustration, ended up re-gifting the Fiat to my brother and selling the two Alfa's to a co-worker.

Forty years and more modeling skills and free time later, I'd love to take another crack on one of these classic kits. Look's like one can pick up one of these Alfa's on eBay for $400-$600 which is not unreasonable for a large scale multimedia kit. The engineering/ molding/ fit are probably pretty crude by today's standards but based on finished builds I see on the web, they look pretty good (at least from 3 feet away!). Problem as always with big kits is where the heck do I put it!

Go for it and consider it a learning experience. Worse case you can put it back in the box and re-gift it or sell it! 

I think the kits Timmy and Chuck are referring to are the vintage Pocher kits from the 70's. Too many wheel spokes, working pistons, fabric, all the stuff Tim mentioned.

There are no longer available except for the rare vintage kit. Unopened boxes of same are becoming unheard of, and they fetch prices in the thousands of dollars when they do pop up.

I'm one of the guys Chuck refers to. I started the Alpha Romeo Monza as a spoiled kid in the 70's. I recall finishing the engine but I got frustrated and bored with those damnable wheel spokes and don't remember anything more about it.

I would like to try one of the new kits, but, they are too expensive and perhaps more importantly, I have nowhere to put one. I'd urge you to do some math and see how big a 1/8" scale car really is. (or see the photo below)

As Tim said, I suspect the new releases aren't as complex as the originals. But still, I agree with the others. I think even one of the new ones would be a lot to handle with less than several years experience.

If you do take the plunge, please, please do a WIP!!!

I strongly suspect that unlike Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will not come.

Oh, man- littletimmy is exactly correct.  I built 3 of them of the 1970 vintage.  Two Alphas and a Fiat. I only bought them because I ran into a sale at a KMart where they  were selling them for less than $30 each.  ( I think somebody made a gross mistake when they put that price on them.)  They were selling in hobby stores for $300 - $400 each at that time,  which was a lot of money in 1970.  They sold out almost immediately, and I'll bet most of the folks who bought them had no idea what they were getting into.  

The ones I built (yes, I did successfully finish them over a 15 year time span) still look great today and remain one of the biggest challenges I have taken on in the hobby.  They are big, heavy, and impressive to display.  But you need infinite patience and ability to work with really tiny screws and hardware, as that is how they go together.  It is a multimedia kit, using just about every kind of material known to man.  

Should you decide to accept this assignment, I wish you well!

wpwar11

Hmmm probably more than I'm willing to take on.  After I posted this I was able to download one of their instruction sheets.  The modern cars don't look like they are as involved as the example you gave.  Ive only been modeling for 15 months or so and I would hate to screw up one of these expensive builds.  Maybe I should wait until I gain more skills.

Thnaks for the response

 

It's really not so much about messing it up, as just feeling totally overwhelmed when you open the box, and immediately say to yourself - "what have I done to myself and my family," if you have such.

There are a lot of unfinished or even unstarted kits out there.

Hmmm probably more than I'm willing to take on.  After I posted this I was able to download one of their instruction sheets.  The modern cars don't look like they are as involved as the example you gave.  Ive only been modeling for 15 months or so and I would hate to screw up one of these expensive builds.  Maybe I should wait until I gain more skills.

Thnaks for the response

Ok... you are about to attempt to build an actual car ... only in 1/8 scale.

Depending on what kit you get, the wire wheels are INDIVIDUAL spokes you have to assemble ( I forget the actual number, but it's something like 100 spokes per wheel.)

The kits come with actual fabric for the seats. You will have to use some upholstery skills.

In the more complicated kits, the engine actually has pistons, the crankshaft actually turns the engine, and pulleys. (So the driveshaft will actually turn when the engine turns.... so will the fanbelt... and fan.)

The windows roll up and down .

The suspension will work just like the real car.

Some kits ( most) will have working headlights and taillights.

Be prepared, they have around 2000 parts.  Clear your schedule for at least Two years .......

The kits also come with their own set of mini tools.