Rebel Rod Details

Rebel Rods Detail

 First Time’s A Charm

Some cool firsts from Playing Mantis also came out of the Rebel Rod series.

• The Cheetah and 57 Vette Gasser cast were first used in series 1.

• The water-soluble decal sheet (see pic) that came with the car (arguably the best pack-in to date) featured 26 famous logos on it.

• The 2 types of tires, and the first time the Hoosier brand has been used.

• 8^* different engine types were randomly used on the cars with the exposed engines.

• The 69 Dodge Super Bee or Super Beetnik cast was first available as a main line release in series 1.

* = The 1st release only had 7 of the 8 as they used one for the Classic Gold Collection 2 release 12 grape 73 Camaro Z28 that was produced at the same time. The 2nd release (and after) has all 8 engines available in the cars that they fit into. (more…)

Rebel Rods History

History

The Ancestry

The Rebel Rods series came to be from the ashes of the Street Freaks series.

The “spoiler” type cars have always been a favorite of diecast collectors. After the Street Freaks series died out there was a gap for a while where there wasn’t any “spoiler” type cars being made.

Playing Mantis (PM) then delivered more numbered cars in the exclusive Kay Bee Toy Store 5 packs, which were afterthoughts from the Street Freak Series. Then the Rebel Rods bomb exploded in the fall of 2001.

Rebel Rods series 1 came out and flew off the shelves like hot cakes. Cool new cars with meatball numbers, a decal sheet and 2 tire combinations. So if you were a racer or had the preference of the rubber (Real Riders) series tires, you could be satisfied.

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Rebel Rods White Lightnings

Rebel Rods – White Lightnings

White Lightnings

Series 1 = white interior, hard wheels

Series 2 = white chassis, white rims and hard wheels

Series 3 = pearl white chassis, engine, tinted windows and hard wheels

Series 4 = white chassis, gold rims, gold engine, tinted windows and hard wheelsDue to a factory error with the order on series 1, those White Lightnings came in both hard plastic and Hoosier rubber tires.

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Rebel Rods Raw

Raw Castings

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