AVUNCULAR PIRANHA

Here’s a little die cast model of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. car by Husky.

And at three quid, another little bargain from the Bolton Toy Fair .

The original was called the Piranha, and was customised by Gene Winfield working  for American Model Toys Corporation's "Speed & Custom Division" shop in Phoenix, Arizona.  

Winfield had previously designed cars featured in other shows.

Apart from creating Star Trek’s, Shuttlecraft , he customised a car named The Reactor which turned up in a Star Trek episode as ‘Jupiter 8’, the Batman TV series as Catwoman’s car as well as episodes of  Bewitched and Mission Impossible.

He also designed vehicles for Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’, including The Spinner.

The Piranha had many dummy features which could be used during filming, including the usual flame throwers, machine guns and rocket launchers which were set in the gull wing doors.

The car however wasn’t popular with the actors using it. Robert Vaughn and David McCallum complained that at just under 42” high it was far too low and there was very little headroom. The car was altered with bubble type windows added to the top of gull wing door glazing which might have helped the actors, but didn’t do a lot for the car’s looks.

Because of these problems, and haphazard aspects of the car’s gadgets it appeared in very few episodes of both The Man from Uncle, and its spin off series, The Girl from Uncle.

A still from The Giant Moggy Affair perhaps!