Motormax 1:24 1941 Plymouth Pickup

While the new stuff is the rage, especially fully-loaded pickup trucks, nothing beats the timless classic of an early 20th century pickup truck.  Now Motormax has been making some iffy strides lately with new 1:24 scale castings that come up short in a lof areas, the pickup trucks seem to be doing quite fine despite lacking a few extra opening parts or details.  This 1941 Plymouth pickup, however, is one of the earlier Motormax 1:24 castings and has lots of detail.  And it is still being sold!

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By 1941 the United States has entered World War II and civilian production of automobiles for 1942 will stop in order to comply with the materials needed for war.  This 1941 Plymouth is one of the last before the big war until a major makeover that wouldn't happen until 1950.  This Plymouth pickup was actually a Dodge truck rebadge for the brand and would be the last pickup for the brand until the car-based Scamp (based on the Dodge Rampage) in the 1980's.  The classic cab, fender, bed, and frame were all common on trucks in this era, so was the I-6 and 3-speed manual, the latter on the floor.  Plymouth was a brand that offer unique cars at discounted price, but problem is it competed too much with Dodge by selling just basically rebadged Dodge vehicles.  All of this came to an end when Chrysler axed the Plymouth brand in 2001.

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There are lots of recolors for this Motormax casting, but I found the dark green and black very appropriate for this truck.  All colors have the lower black fender treatment.  The front has round headlights that sit atop of the black fenders with a large chrome grille that wraps around the hood and flows down to the chrome front bumper, even fanning out into the front fenders.  behind the chrome hood ornament is something you'd rarely see on a Motormax casting today: hinges for the side opening hoods.  Both hoods can open up at the same time, though with some resistance.   On the hood you can find the silver vent fins and Plymouth badge.  The windshield is split with wipers hanging from the top, and right next to the windshield are two chrome lamps: those are the turn signal indicators.  On the sides the classic look continues with black fenders and running boards and silver trim on the door handles and gas cap.  At the rear there is no bumper, one brake light with integrated California plate, and Plymouth stamped on the opening tailgate.

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The wheels are nice black steel wheels with chrome Plymouth badge and look good on this truck, but the modern spare tire visible from the bumperless rear is not.  The base shows off excellet details from the drivetrain to the rear axle with leaf springs and the front steerable wheels, but the company information gets in the way of the exhaust system so I had to make my own mark in this area.  The bed area is functional but could use some detailed wood trim; I detailed the silver brackets in between the planks but that would not be enough and it was a bit messy and tight to get the Sharpie in the corners of the bed.  Opening the hoods reveals a nice treat with the I-6 detailed with a chrome block and more.  The air cleaner and carburator sits up top, the radiator hose connects to the upper block, the oil filter canister, the drive belt, the fan, even the large horn that rest on top of the valve cover.  Very nicely done.

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Inside the real treat is the tan interior color that breaks off the darker colors of the outside.  In typical truck fashion you get a bench seat, door panels with release and crank window handles, a flat dashboard where you only get one speedometer gauge to the left and a radio speaker in the ribbed center.  The 3-spoke steering wheel and floor shifter finish up the otherwise work-biased interior deco.  This is one very nicely done truck from Motormax, not that it's not the first since there's a lot of great trucks from Motormax recently from the Ranchero to the Ford F-150, but as one of the earliest the Plymouth just offers more.