This is the 1980 Penske PC9 #12 of Bill Alsup produced by Ertl. I bought this off ebay. The box is pretty shabby, but the model is fine.
It is one of an original 4 cars released of 1980 Penske Indy cars (Bobby Unser, Rick Mears, Mario Andretti and Bill Alsup – there’s also a #7 version of Alsup’s).
The models are rather crude compared to today’s but reflect an item that’s a bit better than a toy of the time, but not a true scale replica. The body colour on all 4 cars is too dark when compared to pictures of the real vehicles.
Construction is a diecast top body attached to black plastic base plate (which features ground effect venturi tunnels), 2 x solid axles and thick self-adhesive stickers for decoration – that dont include all the markings. Tyres have raised Goodyear lettering.
wixy500 rating
- Collectability – 2 (I’d personally rate this higher, but it seems nobody else in Australia is interested in Indycars)
- Finish – 1.5 (wrong colour, poor markings)
- Accuracy – 1.8 (the basic shape looks very good, but overall it’s just lacking detail)
- Value – 4 (got this one cheap, but a certain Melbourne retailer has it for sale at a silly price…)
- Overall – 2.3