The year was 1968: Apollo 8 orbits the moon, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood airs its first episode, Boeing unveils the 747 to the public, and Mattel introduces a new line of toy cars called Hot Wheels. Not only did car lovers get blessed with Mattel’s finest in 1968, they also got some big screen gifts in the form of Bullitt, The Love Bug, and a British flick featuring a wacky car called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Buy an original Husky Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (CCBB from hereon out) tells the tale of a vintage race car sent out to pasture and then resurrected by inventor Caractacus Potts (played by Dick Van Dyke) who then modified it to not only drive again, but to also fly and float.
After looking at that chart you might think the car has waaaay to many features to stuff into a 1/64th scale car….but in 1968 Husky made the impossible happen. Enter the Husky Chitty Chitty Bang Bang diecast replica.
Husky was founded in 1964 and set out to be a competitor to then market-leader Matchbox. The British diecast brand lasted until about 1970 when it merged with Corgi. At Husky’s peak they had about 75 different models and featured several notable star cars – namely the 1966 Batmobile, the CCBB car, and James Bond’s Aston Martin.
While the Batmobile and Aston are both excellent takes on both cars, the CCBB replica really blows the rest of the 1968 diecast line-up out of the water. The car has details top to bottom, and some hidden features that rival some of today’s RLC releases. First let’s take a look at the car in “stock” form .
The regular, and I use regular loosely here, car looks very unique. The front of the car is probably the only stock-looking part of the car as it has a pretty standard equipment, early 1900s front end with large headlights and vertical grille.
As we move down the car we see the long nose/hood area is chromed and has good detailing. The hood casting has faux louvers in it and vents that would probably be for heat or exhaust. The wheels are brass era style 10-spokes that are surrounded by a thin plastic tire.
The driver’s side of the car also has faux hood louvers but trades exhaust ports for hood latches. As we move towards the passenger compartment we can see the car has an additional plastic piece that serves as the controls for the car’s special features. The lever itself is simple molded plastic, but for a 50 year old part it’s quite detailed. You’ll notice both sides of the car has a yellow portion below the floor, but we’ll touch on that a little later.
The passenger portion of the car has a brown outer diecast shell with a red, plastic interior. As you can see this part is designed to resemble a boat’s hull and Husky did a good job designing it to resemble rows of wood planks. A large steering wheel pokes out from the floor area and meets a set of painted figures. Most of Husky’s star cars came with detailed interiors and figures — which I think is a fabulous feature. The CCBB car has not one set but two sets of figures at that.
The figures are molded plastic that are, in my opinion, painted with incredible detail. The driver has a blue mechanic’s suit, yellow undershirt, gray gloves, peach face, red lips, black eyes, and silver goggles – seven colors for that figure alone. The other figures received similar detailing but with slightly less colors.
This model is already pretty impressive, but we haven’t even got to the best part yet! Remember those yellow parts under the floor? Drum-roll please……………..
Ta-da!! Retractable wings!
Yes! The car comes equipped with a retractable wing on each side that pulls out with a touch of the finger.
This is seriously one of the coolest features on a 1/64th scale car I’ve seen. The Hot Wheels Legends #44 car I posted about last year had some great features that are hard to beat, but the CCBB’s pull-out wings are up there as coolest stand-alone feature. Other 1/64th scale cars have pull-out wings, like Jet Threat 4.0 and Airuption, but none of them have the wing detail or hidden factor that the CCBB car does.
I really, really dig the wings. I love how they retract into the body and stay hidden, and that they have similar vein detail as the 1/1 scale car. The designers really took the extra steps to make this model special and it shows…..but details aren’t done yet. Husky also included front and rear fins to complete the flying mode look.
How cool is that?!?! The extra fins just blow me away. Not that they are some crazy new feature like working suspension or steering, but it’s just the fact that Husky went to such great lengths to make this 1/64 replica as close as possible to the actual movie car — and that’s something we can all appreciate.
The front and rear wings attach via notches on the chassis and are held in place using tabs on the wings. There are a lot of pieces that can get broken or lost on this model, so having one complete and intact is a small miracle in itself.
If you’d like to see how the wings fold out and clip on, check out this review video I did:
While Husky themselves merged with Corgi in the early 70’s, their legacy of fine diecast remains to this day. The Husky Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car is full of wonderful details that match even the most impressive of diecast juggernauts today — and that’s something to be proud of 🏁
I’ve got two of these somewhere from my dad’s childhood collection, but they are far from complete. One of them is literally just the brown diecast boat section on the base. It would be nice to get a complete sample one day.
I’m surprised any of the originals exist with all the parts. I know I was super hard on my toys as a kid, and would have broken or lost the wing parts within days of buying it lol. Same with the figures – it’s really a remarkable casting in terms of detailing.
Wonderful car from the first golden age of diecast! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the car was modeled after a 1909 Thomas Flyer. Husky was probably the first diecast company to produce Hollywood cars on a large scale. Another one to add is the Monkeemobile. I had a CCBB as a kid and now have a complete original. Unfortunately, today a car like this would only be marketed to collectors and not kids due to the small parts. I thought I saw reproduction parts available on EBay a while back.
You could be right on the Thomas Flyer, but I didn’t find much info on the base car as I was researching info for the article, so I can’t confirm or deny ha. Husky’s star cars are truly a test of time. Like you were mentioning, they were among the first to make Hollywood replica cars and they still look great in detail and overall design to this day. The moving parts on the CCBB, 007 DB5, and the Batmobile are more impressive than what most diecast companies are doing today.