Armorcast Mystery Machine and Wrecked Car

A while ago I mentioned that I had bought the Armorcast 28mm scale Mystery Machine van, along with an extra one for my friend Joe/Zabadak. See here for his enthusiastic review of it http://zabadakszombieworld.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/bits-pieces.html
I thought it was about time that I do my own review of it. The Mystery Machine is sold as set ACAU001 Clue Contraption Hippie Van. At the same time as I ordered the two vans I also ordered set ACCS020 Wrecked Import 1. Here they are.

 I have included my figure of Vampifan in all six photos purely for scale purposes.

The Mystery Machine came in five parts, with the four wheels being separate from the body. The wrecked car came in two parts. The large I-beam girder was a separate piece that had to be glued in place. I suppose it could be left off, but I think it looks more dramatic with it on.

Armorcast are an American company (you can tell by the way they spell "armor"), which is why they have described the wrecked car as an import. I'm afraid I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to car recognition, so I can't identify the make of this model, although I'm certain it is based on a real life design. Perhaps one of you can let me know which car this is modelled on. Incidentally, in case you're wondering I do not drive and nor do I have any desire to learn how to.

Doesn't the Mystery Machine look small? And yet it is in scale. Obviously, you can paint it any colour you want but it's going to be really hard to get away from the Scooby Doo influence. For me, there was never any doubt that I'd paint it in the Mystery Machine colours. I did question my ability to paint the words "THE MYSTERY MACHINE" accurately and the same size on the sides of two vans, so I cheated! I had a 28mm scale colour paper model of the van that I'd downloaded from the Interweb, so I printed out two copies of it and then carefully cut out the logos to stick on to the sides of the resin models. Job's a good 'un as far as I'm concerned.

This photo above shows the number plates of both vehicles. I'm not sure what the actual registration number of the Mystery Machine should be, so I came up with SC 00 BY to spell out the word "Scooby." The registration of the wrecked car is VWM 562 and I decided that VWM should stand for Very Wrecked Motor!

Both vehicles are sculpted in resin and are nicely detailed. Incidentally, I painted the wrecked car in Foundry Spearpoint (i.e. silver) with a hint of Anita's Acryllic Metallic Sapphire to give it that nice silvery-blue shade. I'm very happy with the way it's turned out.
To give it its official name, the Clue Contraption Hippie Van costs $12.00, whilst Wrecked Import 1 costs just $8.00. If you own the Hasslefree not-Scooby Gang, you're going to want to get the not-Mystery Machine to go with them. Armorcast are selling the van with the Scooby Gang for $35.00 but be warned their Scooby Doo is not the Hasslefree figure but the Beaumont Miniatures Buster the Scaredy Dog, a much inferior figure. Incidentally, Kevin White, Hasslefree's sculptor, has recently made a set of armed Scooby Gang figures. They are very nice figures and ideal for those of you who want to use the Scooby Gang in a post-apocalypse setting. I'll be buying them as soon as they go on sale. Suffice to say, a review will follow.