An SPV by any other name

So previously, we have seen the SPV in various forms and styles that we would immediately recognise from the Captain Scarlet TV series. But besides the museum grade replicas and specially adapted radio control models, there are a number of other appearances by the signature vehicle. The japanese market, always a hotbed of adaptation and modification, took the basic shape of the SPV and bent it to their inscrutable collective will in a number of odd forms. 

Possibly some of the strangest are the Tiger Captain series of kits by Aoshima. A hybrid of SPV and main battle tank, the Tiger Captain borrows heavily from the standard SPV, even down to Captains Scarlet and Blue at the controls!

Rob Craig over at JapanSuperFantasticModel was lucky enough to find one of these outlandish kits back in the 1970's. Most of the kits appear to be remote controlled too.

Besides grafting the SPV onto a tank, the japanese kit designers also made a number of 'super-deformed' or 'cute' versions of the SPV such as this black version by Aleph-Zero (below) or the simple red kit version.

Toy kit versions of all the major Captain Scarlet vehicles also abounded like this unofficial blue and red version of the SPV which may have been sold at retail outlets such as supermarkets and sweetshops.

 

Marui, another kit maker and plagiariser of designs, made a number of uses of the standard SPV, adding their own little design features such as external cannons and a front windshield!

The Mechanic Machine is a transparent plastic version!

Lark and WAVE also produced resin 'garage kit' versions of the vehicle for the more experienced modeller.

Roll on till part 5!  Previous entries: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3