Kenner SSP were marketed in blighty by Denys Fisher as Revrods, but in a much more limited range. The Laker Special appeared here in lime green and named the Eliminator. Three other models completed the range, the Blazer Special (red), Sidewinder (blue) and Sand Scorcher (yellow). All of these models were featured in the standard SSP range, but in slightly different colours and with name changed around. I still have my beautiful Eliminator and managed to find a battered blue Sidewinder on ebay recently. I always admired the elegant black box packaging for Revrods too. I had a Sand Scorcher briefly (aka Dune Digger) but it fell foul of too many high speed crashes and all i have left now is the gold coloured driver!
The streamlined forms of land speed record breaking cars have been copied before for various spaceships or futuristic toys, so its probable that toy designers had an eye on the ground as well as the sky for inspiration for space age toys!
So many memories here. I'm so happy you did this followup!
ReplyDeleteOn a side note: as I look at the Bonneville Bike and Blazer Bike, I'm thinking how easily these could have been remade a few years later as Luke and Leia and imperial soldiers on speeder bikes from Endor. (Hmm, is that why I liked that sequence in the film so much?) The SSP models Kenner actually released as Star Wars tie-ins were just bizarre...
I love SSP stuff, shame us brits only got four futuristic ones before they went on to tedious smash apart sedans.
ReplyDeleteI love the Blackjack too!
Those SSP racers sure do bring back memories. The Dune Digger was my personal favorite.
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