Second article for my You Pick It! series. If you want to have a say in what I feature here, follow my Doomus_RLC Instagram page to see when I post the polls in my stories. Just have to vote, whoever wins after 24 hours gets the article feature!
Today, we take a look at the TNT Bird from the 2006 HWC NEO Classics line that you voted on (which won pretty handily over the 2006 HWC NEO Classics Series Rodger Dodger). The TNT Bird, a custom late-60s Ford Thunderbird, is my favorite of the original Redline-era Spoilers, and this was essentially a retool of that casting, with some tweaks.
With the retool, it was designed with the engine bay and body being separate pieces. This was done to follow a similar trend that the “Fat Elvis” spoilers and the Custom Mustang/Boss Hoss retool before it, where they had two engine bays designed for them, either a hoodless Spoilers engine bay or a normal engine and hood piece. However, the Bird never did receive a non-Spoilers release. It’s been used 3 times, with the last being the purple one from a few years ago.
To me, it’s a shame the casting never did get a release with a regular engine bay and hood. It’s just different enough from the Custom Thunderbird that it would have been a cool difference, similar to how the Custom Mustang from the Boss Hoss tool was released (granted that one is more akin to the Mustang Stocker from Flying Colors and one 1980s release), or the Custom Firebird Hardtop that came in HWC NEO Classics Series 6 in 2007. I’m curious to know what kind of hood they would have done, considering the original Custom Thunderbird had an intake bulge.
With the Heavy Chevy and Boss Hoss having full retools created a few years ago, I’m hoping that others of the Spoilers line get that treatment as well. The Nitty Gritty Kitty, King Kuda and Light My Firebird definitely need a pick me up retool to be more true to original, the TNT Bird could do with the body and engine bay cast as one piece again. It’s not likely to happen, but one can hope!